My father-in-law let us have his old 1980’s Cruiser – except they didn’t call them cruisers back then, just bikes. I got it out to ride with my son as he was perfecting his bike skills free of training wheels. One morning I was walking my wife to her car as she left for work and I noticed I had left the bike out all night. Relieved to see that it wasn’t stolen I said to myself “wow I need to put that back in the garage.” Two hours later I came out to load up the kids and my son asks, “Dad, what’s that bike?” I turn to behold not my dark brown, 1980s father-in-law cruiser… nope, it’s a newer, cheaper red bike that literally says “cruiser” on the side. My jaw drops as I realize that literally in two hours of broad daylight someone didn’t steal my bike they swapped my bike for theirs?! I mean I get the fact that you’re riding by, see a bike that’s better than yours, so you steal it but what are you going to do with the one you’re on? So you leave it. But here’s what baffled me: the red bike was parked nicely with the kickstand and everything. I just want to know if the person seriously thought this was kind of okay since it was more of a “trade.” Well I’ve never been swapped before but I found myself wanting to do two things: first drive around frantically and berate the person who stole my bike. Or option two think to myself “hey we haven’t ever had a red bike before!” I’ve come to find out that no matter how mad I get my old bike doesn’t show up. But if I can somehow embrace the fact that my bike is now red (and less cool) then I can laugh and think how sometimes ridiculous stories just find us and if we let them
