5th September 2023
It was another stonkingly hot day, possibly the last one of the summer. Kelli had forty dollars that she got from the last sale, and she wanted to pay it into her bank.
“ Let’s take a bike ride to the ATM on thirty second”, she announced, as we have done this before, I was game.
There was one big road we had to cross, but most were side streets. The route we took led us to road construction. Throughout Holland they are laying fibre optic cables, so they decided to rip up all the roads and pavements leaving absolute carnage.
We had to push our bikes around the ruts and holes, through soft sand that would have been impossible to ride through. These bikes are not light, making the progress rather slow.
Once we cleared all the obstacles it was plain sailing to the ATM.
Well that bit was simple, when we arrived at the site there was an ominous collection of vans and cardboard boxes in the area.
As we rode round to where the machine usually is, we noticed it was now blocking our exit, and in its normal place was a brand new unit being fitted by two installers. “Can I have any cash left in the old machine” I asked jokingly “Sorry there was none left” one of them replied.
So we had cycled miles through searing heat and dug up roads with forty dollars to pay in and we couldn’t, the day couldn’t get any better.
As we were making our way back Kelli looked at me and burst out laughing. Now I expect that from strangers, but not my wife.
She pointed out that I still had my reading glasses on and not my shades, and I hadn’t noticed. I remembered that I had my sunglasses on before we left, but I had to read something, so I placed them on the countertop and put on my readers, I guess I just forgot.
I hadn’t noticed that everything was so bright, I suppose it was the excitement of the ride that made me forget to change back. That became the source for giggles for the rest of the day.
Now most drivers are very curious to bike riders, and let us cross the roads in front of them. There are others who don’t. We encountered one of those on this trip. We both had to stop in the middle of the road as this person just ignored us.
“Thank you” we both said sarcastically in unison, then continued on our journey home, thinking nothing of it.
Quite content, and back in familiar territory, a van passed us and the driver was shouting at us
“ Do you always yell at a mentally ill person, or are you just a bitch all of the time? “
This was bizarre, I didn’t know what was going on, then I recognised the van, it was the one that cut us up at the crossing. They must have backtracked and chased after us.
The van then turned around and came towards us, this time the passenger was filming us on a phone.
“Wow” I thought, “ I might be on YouTube” then it got weirder, “ Why would a mentally ill person admit they were mentally ill, if that were me driving that colour and make of vehicle, I would want to admit that?”
Once that excitement was over, we got back home, all hot and bothered we decided to jump straight into the pool. For an hour we floated around watching the birds fly between our holly bush and the fence.
We finally got energy to do a bit of work, I finished off Elaine’s project and Kelli did a bit of painting, that was it.
Another amazing event that happened was the light under the microwave oven started working, no one knows why, but after four years there is light, maybe it’s a sign?.
Another Lifetime to go 