Broken bicycles...

Introduction

I care what you think, but I really care what I think even more. I don't want to come off as mean or like an asshole, but I have to get this off my chest! You might be thinking “Not so niceguy.blog you have here!” And you might be right, but maybe that's what this is about... It's time I started living up to my namesake and start writing about being nice, but be honest and be grateful (inwardly and outwardly)... and today I made the decision to start sharing about these things. So, with that messy introduction over... Here goes something.

I am a father? 

I don't talk about fatherhood in my daily life. I don't know why, but it just never seems to come up. The office, friends, and family etc. It just never comes up really. For years people asked me how my kids were, but they never asked me what it was like to be a father. Can I say that it sucks sometimes? That it's hard? I never feel like I am doing it right? Or that I'm just making it up as I go? When do you get to see the man behind the curtain? Today. Right now.... keep reading. It gets better. I promise.

The man behind the curtain

I don't do much around the house. I water the plants occassionally when they aren't dying. I stopped mowing the lawn years ago. I rearrange the garage when the clutter gets knee deep. I take out the trash, I sweep the backyard and pick up after the dog, but beyond that I don't do much around the house. There! I said it!!! I am a horrible person for paying someone to mow my lawn!!! BUT WAIT!!!! There's more! I left out something that I wanted to tell you. For many years my children were driven to school and picked up by my neighbor, mother-in-law, and later by myself. Then we moved to a house a few miles away and my middle daughter was able to ride her bike to school. The oldest daughter started high school and my youngest was taken to Montessori by her mother (yes... I am married... I know.... hard to believe.) and that left me with my middle daughter to take to school two days a week and she rode her bike the other three days. Sound like a plan?

Pedal and push on

The wife and I worried about our daughter riding her bike to school at first, but we soon came to trust that she would be capable going to and from school without issue. Until one day I happened to be home early and expected her home soon. She was late and as I went to the curb to look down the street (more than once) she appeared. Pushing her bike all red-faced and out of breath, you would think she just ran a 5k! But with Southern California heat and pushing a bike with a flat tire up hill I can only imagine that it must have felt like she had run a 10k! I repaired her tire (new tube), pumped it back up and she was all set to once again join the hustle and bustle of our neighborhood grade school commuters.  

The father part

So, sounds nice right? All honest and everthing? C'mon! I don't do much around the house!!! That's honest! Fixed a bike and all! I am even grateful a little that I am still able to fix her bike tire. But when I saw her that day looking so red and tired I felt bad for her. So, I started checking her tires each morning since then and I now put her bike out front before school. Occassionally the tire is low and I pump it back up and place the bike outside. On those days I find I am overwhelmed with gratitude because I get to be the father who does those things. What a gift! To be able to tend to something I will never ride or sell or... or anything! But that it is the thing that carries my daughter to school and I have made it safe for her is cause for some “inner beaming”. She also has no clue that I do it... Makes that moment when I am taking that pump out that much sweeter. 

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a nice day! 

The pump.