team batavus...

so, every wednesday night i have "community" time with newlywed's tim and stephanie and wedding date burt. basically this time is spent talking about a book we're reading together and then sharing our nonsense and loving each other anyway. this past wednesday they came over, we ate pizza, (well, wedding date burt, my friend who likes fishing and hunting and movies that blow lots of things up, ate sushi...hmmmm...yeah?) and discussed briefly. then all four of us headed outside to work on the BAT-mobile.

within the hour tim had screwed and unscrewed stuff, pulled 15 different random tools out of his three-tool-box set (impressive) and burt had mixed the gasoline and oil together and we were ready to give it a shot.

at this point it was about 9:00 p.m. and growing chillier by the moment. in fact stephanie sat on the lawn watching the process with her sweatshirt on and hood up looking homeless and a bit resentful of the attention the batvus was demanding.

for the next 20 minutes burt, stephanie and i stood in my drive-way while time peddled the thing up and down my street trying to get it started. (this took me back to many a summer day when i had unsuccessfully tried the same thing in the blazing heat of summer.) finally tim said to me, "why don't you try it, since you actually know how to start it when it is working..." so i got on and immediately got the motor rumbling, but couldn't keep it going.

we all decided that watching someone ride a moped when the motor is running is amusing, but watching someone ride it by just pedaling is flat out hilarious!!

after 15 more minutes of this, while tim was on it, we finally heard the sound we'd been waiting for....the engine turned, the motor started, the headlight came on and off tim flew down the street.

next it was my turn. as i got on and slowly cruised down the driveway, i thought i could see tears in tim's eyes as he celebrated like a proud father, my joyous first-ride after all the blood, sweat and tears he had put into it. i'm not gonna lie...it was a frickin' AWESOME!
next it was stephanie's turn. though she was cautious at first, she eventually tore out of there fast like the wind. when she returned HER first words were "THIS BIKE IS SWEET!!" (which immediately and thankfully erased the homeless stephanie in my mind from earlier)
then tim and stephanie got on it together to tandom ride. again, i'm not gonna lie....seeing one person riding is hilarious...seeing two people on this tiny motorcycle is like watching a grizzly bear ride a tricycle at the circus. so, so, funny!!

as the night grew colder and the hours grew later we cheered and rode for about a half an hour. i'm sure my neighbors were thinking...'she didn't ride the thing all summer and now, at 10:00 on a school night, she's out there screaming and hollering as if none of us have to get up and work for a living.'

although he was extremely encouraging and supportive, burt opted not to ride. his reasoning was a painful childhood memory of riding his friends' mini bike as a kid and crashing and breaking it so no one else could ride it. he didn't want to be the culprit of that kind of thing again because he said he would never hear the end of it. that's probably true, though we're supporting you, burton, as you heal that emotional scar of childhood.

in the end...all i can say is team batavus ROCKS!!

moer to come...