On buying a bicycle

We spent a significant part of a precious Saturday away from the children, testing and buying a unisex bicycle at Decathlon. What should have been a quick decision based on one visit to the store and some back-end research, managed to spin itself into many evenings and weekends until I am sure the folks in the bike section were heartily sick and tired of S trying out every bike on display and meandering slowly through all the aisles until he knew whether he liked it or not. That I was a disinterested observer pretending to be enthusiastic must have been evident to all :) My interest levels which had been high to begin with dwindled with every dinner-table discussion, argument and store visit until I said, let's just get this over and done with. 

As it happened, we had almost decided on what to buy when I spotted another make which, at Rs 2000 extra, offered more benefits - cushioned seat, thicker tyres, better looks (though S disagreed) and was far more comfortable for me to ride. So finally I ended up deciding what we would get. We picked up the accessories, paid over the hefty sum charged, got the bike tuned and then huffed and puffed for 20 minutes to push it into the car! We drove back with me grasping the front tires of the bike so that it wouldn't interfere with the gear operation.

Got back home and had just settled down with some chai when S informed me that the gears aren't working! Of course, this was arbitrarily blamed on me - apparently I had been too impatient to leave and he had not tested the gears properly in the store! It's pretty amazing how the blame for random things gets pinned onto me!
Dropped the kids off at mom's again, struggled for another 15 minutes squeezing the bike into the car and drove to the store with handlebars digging into my thigh - thankfully I had enough and more cushioning :) Once the gears were fixed, I drove the car back while S opted to ride back. I left him behind with some trepidation. Will he be able to manage himself on a bicycle after so many years, on potholed roads shared with with crazy drivers and stray dogs? I heaved a big sigh of relief when he got home. Worrying over kids is par for the course but having to worry about the husband is just plain annoying!
This is not the way I like to spend the treasured weekend. But the evident pleasure of the husband as he rode the bike next morning, not to mention the benefits to his knee, made up for it. Apparently father and kids are going to bike together every weekend from now on :)