who knew? not i

howdy peoples --


can y'all believe that? i wish i coulda found a bigger picture. not only for a better view, but also for a design idea for soulman to build such a contraption.

i betya wonder why in the world he/we would want to , right?
well, ya see.... once upon a time, soulkid was a bike ridin fool. she was 5 years old, had her first bike, loved to ride. the training wheels came off, and one day, her and soulman got a little risky, and decided to go a bit too fast for a new rider.
obviously you can guess what happened, right? yep--- she crashed and burned. bad.
luckily she had a helmet on, but the rest of her didn't fare too well. nothing broken, but she got the fear put into her. so much so-- she's never been back on a bike since !!!
well, not until a few weeks ago. a month or two actually. but she decided to 'try' to ride her boyfriends bike at his birthday party-- apparently, that didn't work out too well. another, crash and burn. no injury-- other than bruised pride-- and somehow a broken bike chain. needless to say-- she was mortified. vowing to simply never learn to ride a bike.
well, until her and her dad had their road trip a few weeks ago, to Austin. they cruised thru the college campus out there... one of soulkids top choices of schools to attend. she saw a bunch of 'kids' riding bikes. to and from classes, around town, etc.
(i didn't know about any of this til last night when she and i were gettin food at sonic- and were chatting). so anyhow-- she is talkin about how important it is to her 'now' to learn to ride a bike. even tho-- we have tried to get her to learn for years-- she found it easier to just avoid it-- rather than face her fear and deal with it.
i told her i have no problem at all buying you a bike, i would love for you to learn.
BUT-- she started talkin about 'training wheels!" i kid you not! i tried so hard not to laugh at the poor kid. but c'mon folks. she's almost 16 years old. that's just not a good image in my mind. i 'see' people teasing her-- or at minimum, thinking she has a 'problem'.
finally, i couldn't hold it in anymore. i had to tell her--- "they're gonna laugh at you"
ugh. not an easy thing to do 'to' your kid.
i told her , just bite the bullet and do it.
she's afraid. what can i do?


she starts drivers ed. in like two weeks, and the poor girl is afraid to get on a bike.
i was BMX qualified at 10 years old. of course- i wasn't allowed to follow my dreams when i was a kid. but i was damn good on a bike-- and so was her dad. i thought that stuff was inherited. guess not.

so. hmmmm. what to do? what to do?

what's next?

HAPPY SWEET 16 SOULKID!

yeh i thought not.
how do ya throw a kid outta the pan and into the fire?
she actually does know how to drive , and does ok... just not in traffic---yet.

this bike thing, has me concerned tho.
haelp.

surely there's someone out there who was a late bloomer.
or not.
back in 'our day' i lived on my bike.

at least she has the want to --
finally

oh hell, i don't know-- just thought i'd throw that out there- just want some ideas. or not. maybe i just didn't have anything else to say.

so, anyhow-- have great days out there folks--
me and the kid have some business to do-- so we'll just be hangin out and runnin errands and such today-- prolly freezin. :((
i have to pump gas too. the only thing i hate worse than pumpin gas?
is doin it when it's cold or windy -- or both. ugh.

and would you believe in texas ya have to be 16 to pump gas ????
WTH? my mom was slavin us to pump her gas by SIX!!!

anyhow-- again---
happy thursday -----

and thanks to all who've sent us cards--- it's so awesome !
we even got one 'special made' "to the soul-clan" haha we all thought that was pretty special. ummmm.... mary. but i didn't say nuthin.

cept i wish i could get my scanner to work so i could show it to y'all. it's cute!

alrighty then. i must wake my child and hit the road soon.