racer and the breeze

once upon a time some fifteen years ago, i was wandering through my favorite thrift store. as i walked to the back of the store, there hanging on a wall was a work of art. a blue 1960's schwinn cruiser - all original. it was beautiful. the kind of bike that fires the imagination.
i carefully pulled it off the wall and set it down on its tires, now exhausted. i inspected the lines. it was low and sleek with these wonderful swept back moustache handlebars. and when i took hold of them i could feel myself at the top of an enormous hill, looking down as the wind blew my hair and grinning like a child who is free.
she was called the racer and i longed to make her go...

as fate would have it, my future wife had had a similar experience and found a ladies bike - the same color and year. hers was called the breeze...

they became our code names for each other - racer and the breeze. in our early days of marriage we drew up plans together of how we would fix these two up. i'd outfit a basket to the front of hers and buy fresh flowers to put in on our morning weekend rides to the cafe. there we could sit and drink coffees together and read at a table outdoors while our steeds racer and the breeze waited patiently to take us to unknown destinations.
sadly though we never seemed to have the funds to make our two wheeled dream go. and so racer and the breeze sat. first under a tarp outside our cottage. then they followed us from garage to garage always sitting in a corner together waiting.
years passed. we had kids. and finally we hauled them out into the daylight for a good look and just realized they were probably going to be waiting a long time. and in a burst of spring cleaning we decided it was finally time for somebody else to have a crack at them. and so with a little sadness, a craigslist post was made and a very nice gentleman and his wife came by to pick them up. and as i watched racer and the breeze roll away on the back of that bike rack i watched that little dream go too. (for now)