My sister just bought a motorcycle. Well, it's almost a motorcycle anyway, a 250cc Honda. It's barely a step above a moped, but sadly, it's still more motorcycle than I own presently, so I guess I can't give her too much grief.
Except she's my sister, so I will anyway!
She called me from her car on the way home, all excited and dying to tell me about it.
"Guess what we just bought?" she asked.
"Umm, a 33 foot motor home!"
"Nope."
"A 16 foot motor boat."
"Nope, but you're on the right track!"
"A motorcycle."
"Damn, you're good!"
I am.
I went over to see it that night, and she proudly showed it off, sitting on the porch and rolling it a few inches back and forth. While I was their, her husband taught her how to start it up and shift from neutral to first, and although getting from first back to neutral was a little tricky for her, she picked it up quickly. Part of the problem was the Hello Kitty slippers she was wearing at the time, but I promised I wouldn't say anything about that, so don't let on I told you, OK?
Anyway, she rolled back and forth on the porch for awhile, and once she got her confidence up, she decided to actually put the bike in gear and drive on the porch. I suggested she might want to move into the grass which had two advantages. First, it was softer and if she dropped the bike, there would be less damage to both her and the bike itself. Second, the porch had very large 4x4s supporting the roof that made for significant obstructions in her path. Generally, bones break before lumber, which is not a good thing when a motorcylce is involved. For reasons I'm not allowed to mention (cough the slippers cough) she decided against going out on the grass, and contented herself with pushing the bike backwards on the porch, then riding forward for a few feet. Unfortunately she didn't have a helmet yet, so she had to borrow my nephew's Sponge Bob bike helmet so she was safe and trendy!
It was a thrilling display of braking prowess as she navigated the front porch at the blistering pace of an iceberg in December.
Well, I'd had about all the excitement I could handle for one night, so I went on home while she rode up and down the porch. I talked to her yesterday and she finally did venture out in the yard, and although second gear remains uncharted territory, she's logged an amazing 4 miles around her front yard. The only way my brother in law would have been prouder is if he could have figured out a way to attach a lawn mower to the back of the bike, saving him 3 hours of work later this afternoon.
Well, she loves her new bike, and I can't say as I blame her, even if I do give her a hard time about it. She's managed to do what I've only talked about doing. And I'm sure that in time, she'll adjust nicely to her new ride, and begin to act accordingly. Why today, she went out and did what any self respecting new biker babe would do.
She went to get her nails done.
She's a wild one, my sister.
Posted by Rich at March 28, 2005 5:04 AM | TrackBack