My Unintentional Workout (but am I complaining? Not really)

The rent check came in today’s mail. Wait, what? The rent was due today, and should have been in our Landlord’s mailbox, not ours. It probably would have made it there if I’d remembered to put a stamp on it. I also think the Post Office could have cut me some slack since our return label was so pretty. Oh well, they hadn’t. And here it was in our mailbox. That wouldn’t do. It needed to be mailed back out ASAP. I looked down the street, but our mail lady and her truck were already long gone.

Our mail doesn’t come until late in the afternoon, so I knew I’d have to hurry. I figured I’d have enough time to ride my bike to the nearest Dillons and put it in the mailbox out front. As the garage door closed behind my bike and I, I double checked what I brought. My phone, the rent check (now with a stamp on it), a credit card (in case I felt the urge to run into Dillons for chia seeds), my headphones, and the keys… oh shoot. Where are my keys? I ran back up to the garage door and stuck my foot under it as it closed the last few inches, hoping to trigger it to go back up. No such luck. The garage door was down, and I was outside with the before mentioned items. Locked out. Ahh, well… One can do a lot with a bike and a credit card. So off I went.

I hadn’t even made it out of the driveway when I once again exclaimed, “oh shoot!” My tires were flat. Well, not completely flat, but definitely not at a rideable level. There’s a QT not too far from us, I thought, so I headed in that direction. Riding the bike was difficult, as it was rather wobbly with the lowly inflated tires.

Thankfully there was no line for free air at QT. Just some guy sitting in his truck who said to me “Thao is goooo jdifh?” I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the air compressor, but didn’t want to be rude. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” We repeated these two lines at least 4 times (waaaay past an awkward amount) until I finally realized he was asking if I thought it was going to rain. I really didn’t know, and told him so. I really hoped it wouldn’t, as I was on my bike and locked out. I didn’t bother telling him all of this. Short conversations really are best when trying to make them over the sound of an air compressor. I managed to smile at him and get away, and off to Dillons I went.

I happily pulled up to the mailbox. I read the last pickup time on it. “2:40 pm” it said. It was by now already 4:30 pm. That just wouldn’t do. This rent check had to be mailed again today! The latest pickup near here was at 6:20 pm it said. Only 1.5 miles away my google maps said. So off I went again, on my newly aired up tires.

Once I got to the shopping area that was supposed to have a mailbox, I looked around. I couldn’t see a mailbox anywhere! It could have been due to the mini carnival set up in the middle of the parking lot, I realized. So I began riding around the giant parking lot. No mailbox to be found. Eventually my bike and I decided to visit the nice employees at Ace Hardware and ask them. The nice employees began rubbing their chins and shaking their heads when I asked where the nearest mailbox was. One quite confidently said, “A stand-alone mailbox?… Hmmm….” But the other fella, he asked if maybe I wanted the Post Office that was around on the other side of the strip mall they were in.

“Yes, yes, a Post Office would do just fine,” I told him, and he gave me directions. My bike and I managed NOT to run over the gentleman who was entering Ace Hardware as we were leaving. I could tell he was thankful.

I rode around the strip mall, and sure enough there was a mini Post Office tucked away behind the buildings. Relief! I stuck my letter in the mailbox… and realized there was no point in going home. Luke wasn’t home from work for at least another hour, and sitting on my front porch didn’t interest me too much. I decided to go visit my bigger little brother, Cade, at work. Not only did he only work a few miles away, but he also had a Culligan water cooler at work, and the best part, a key to my house.

To shorten this already insanely long tale of my day, I will let you know that all was well. I made it to the shop, was able to get a nice cool drink of water from the cooler, the keys from Cade, and made it back home. All-in-all I only rode about 6 miles, but it was about 4 miles more than I had intended today. And that was how I unintentionally worked out.