Bicycles R Us

We went downtown today to Reliant Center, where the Elves and More bike-building was in full swing. My husband and I went with our next-door neighbor B and our friend S. The four of us had a two-table assembly line going, and we put together 20 bicycles. All of the bicycles built for Elves and More will be distributed on the 23rd and 24th of December, to disadvantaged children all around the Houston area. (Their goal this year is to build and distribute 17,000 bicycles.)

This is the second year in a row that we've done this for Elves and More. Last year's total for us was 7 bikes, but that was just my husband and I working at it, with not exactly the right tools. This year, we had the right tools (a whole tool box, courtesy of last year's Santa) and we recruited our two friends to build some bikes with us. As we all built bikes (about 200 people), they had Christmas music playing over the loud-speakers in the Center. Our neighbor B said that when we build the bikes next year, we should all dress up as elves. Well, I'm not too sure about that....... I don't think I would look too good in red and green stripes and pointy little shoes.

The weather today has gone nuts..... this morning we had a terrible rainstorm that seemed like a hurricane--- high winds, yellow and gray sky. When the rain quit around noon-time, the sky was bright blue and the sun was out and it was fairly warm outside. When the four of us came out of Reliant Center at 4:00 this afternoon, the wind had kicked up, the temperature had dropped at least 30 degrees and we were all freezing.

By the time we drove home, the wind was even worse and the temperature dropped even lower. What started out as an 80-degree day has turned into a 40-degree night. My husband and I went out for Chinese food for dinner (the bike-building elves were not interested in cooking). When we got home from the restaurant, I bundled up in four layers to take Gracie for a walk. A short walk it was..... just too cold for walking around too many streets, and I was too bundled up to be walking anyway. My husband said I looked like one of the cartoon-character "South Park" kids, with the scarf around my neck and the hood of my jacket pulled tightly over my head. How in the world did I live up north for all of those years, through all of those winters?


I finished reading "The Pillars of The Earth" last night. As hard as some of the chapters were to read, because of the violence of the Middle Ages, I just hated for the story to end. There was one sentence in either the last chapter or the one before that said something like How devastating it would be to find yourself at the end of your life and realize that your time on earth was wasted. That's not an exact quote, but close enough. There's usually a line or two in every great book that just seems to scream out from the page. There were plenty of extraordinary passages in "Pillars," but that one, especially at that point of the story, was worth reading not only twice, but three times. (You would think I'd remember the exact quote, but it was nearly 2:00 in the morning.)

And what did Cher say all those years ago--- Life is not a dress rehearsal... so live! Which is what we did today--- we got out there and built bikes for 20 kids who wouldn't be getting new bicycles for Christmas had we not taken the time today to build them. And last night, I spent three hours counting books (362) and pajama sets (116) donated to the Pajama Program from one of the local elementary schools. They are all sorted and separated and boxed up and ready for me to deliver to kids who wouldn't be getting new pajamas and books if the students at Ed White Elementary hadn't taken the time to collect them.

I don't think I will find myself on my last day on earth thinking that my life had been wasted.