Yesterday was the worst day I've had in a long time. It started out like any other week day. I was up early and attended my first two classes at CSU Chico without any problem. My mind was focused on my Customer Relations test later that day and the minor errands I needed to run during my mid-day break from classes. After my second class let out I retrieved my mt. bike and proceeded to run my errands. At 2pm I had another class and locked my bike up using the same lock I always had. Unfortunately, the day took a dramatic turn for the worse when I returned to the bike racks, after my final class of the day, only to discover my beloved mt. bike was missing.
Instantly I got that terrible feeling in my gut, like when you know you've just been totally screwd and there's nothing you can do about it. Then I got angry. How! How could someone steal a locked up bike?! It was a Kryptonite cable lock for god's sake! How do you cut a quarter inch cable?! Some body would have had to been carrying around some serious bolt cutters and been looking to steal a expensive bike! Why didn't any body stop them!!!
I did my best to calm down and consider the situation. My only recourse was to notify the police and hope for the best. It was a long walk to the campus police office as I thought back to buying the bike in 2001. A Kona, Stinky. It had been with me for five years and countless journeys into various wildernesses. There's no telling how many miles I had put on that bike, but I know it took a few replacement parts to keep it going. I was kind of rough on that poor bike, but she put up with it all; high speeds, downhill, up hill, jumps, ditches, drops. You name it and the Kona ate it alive. O.K... There were a few bumps and bruises over the years, but those were my fault.
As I told the officer the information the reality set in. I wasn't going to see my bike again. So I started getting over it. My beautiful wife was at home waiting for me and my test had gone well. After all it was only a bicycle and it could be replaced. Eventually.
Later on when I was laying in bed next to my wife with the lights out I started to think about why someone would go to so much trouble to steal a bike. Like I said before, it's only a bicycle. Well, I guess you could get some money for a five year old bike, but only about four or five hundred dollars. To me that really didn't seem worth the risk of jail time. I guess you could say that five hundred dollars really isn't "that" important to me. So in reality I'm pretty well off and I should be grateful for that. Though I still want my bike returned and the scum bag locked up, I'm not going to spend any more time feeling sorry for myself. I have more important things to worry about than a bicycle. It's unfortunate that the guy who took mine, doesn't.

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