Lawlessness

This weekend was the annual City of Moncton bicycle auction, during which a year's worth of "unclaimed" bicycles are sold off. I wanted to replace my terrible excuse for a bike, so we went to check it out. The bike that got me back and forth to work last summer was graciously given to me by some friends, but had been used hard by a teenage boy: it had no handle grips, was pretty rusty, only the front brakes worked, and half the gears were functional. It had served me well, but it was definitely time for an upgrade.

So we went twenty minutes before the auction started to check out the bikes and see if there was anything worth bidding on. There were a few really great bikes in good shape, a bunch of Canadian Tire bikes, and a whole bunch of really terrible bikes with bent rims and broken brake lines.

As we perused the selection, Mitch said, "Hey, Mel, that looks like your bike." Funny, I had been thinking the same thing. A little worse for wear, but yeah, it did look like my bike. A lot worse for wear, actually. Wait a minute... it was my bike! I pulled out my keys and opened up the lock, much to the surprise of the guy next to us.

In the fall, our landlord puts our bikes in his shed for the winter. A few days before all the bikes disappeared from the backyard, he had asked if we were done with them, and I said we were. So I didn't even realize that the bike had been stolen -- I thought it was in Dave's shed. Oops!

So I didn't buy a bike on Saturday, but at least I got my lock back! I'm wondering if I technically stole it, though....

By the way, if you want to sell me your shiny, functioning bike, I'm in the market!