To be honest, home repairs have never been my strong suit…
Constructing a bicycle sends two men into shock when things go very wrong.
Changing a light bulb or replacing a wall socket have always been easy for me, but the more difficult chores around the house either stay undone or get shuffled over to someone who can actually do them well.
A few years ago we were having a few problems with our kitchen tap and hand sprayer, so I decided to replace them. After an hour and a half, I’d removed the tap and sprayer, but although I made several attempts to install the replacements, nothing I tried seemed to work. With great reluctance, I called a professional plumber who finished the job in only 20 minutes.
You might have thought that I’d learned my lesson, but I hadn’t.
One particular Christmas we were stretched for money. As I stood in the sports aisle at our local Canadian Tire examining bicycles, an older employee walked up to me and asked, “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a bike for my daughter.”
“You should buy one of our kits. Bicycles are easy to assemble—a piece of cake. I put one together just last week. Took only 15 minutes.”
It seemed logical to save a few dollars by purchasing a kit rather than an assembled bike. Plus, I’d ridden bicycles since I was young. How difficult could it be to put one together? “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll take one.” His pep talk, combined with my desire to save money, had convinced me.
So, on a snowy December night just before Christmas, I left the store with a box of parts for a girl’s bicycle and the misguided belief that I could put my daughter’s bike together myself.
Unless—maybe I could get my best friend to help…
Rob Harshman is a retired high school teacher. He travels widely and also enjoys gardening and photography. With his wife, he lives in Mississauga, Ontario, where he also has two married daughters and three grandchildren. Rob has been a contributor to Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He plans to continue writing short stories.
I appreciated both of the pieces you have in Christmas with Hot Apple Cider, Rob—“A Bicycle for My Daughter” because of its humour and the acknowledgment that men are not automatically born with a “qualified to assemble and repair” gene.