My dad is usually pretty cheap. His favourite thing to do is look through the weekly grocery store ads to see what is on sale, and then he will go stock up on staples like hot dogs or Kraft dinner. But sometimes, he likes spending money on very odd things.
On one fateful ad-bag day in May, Dad saw these things called "e-bikes" on sale at Wal-Mart, and thought to himself "HEY! It's a bike that you don't have to pedal! You just sit there and it goes. Maybe Deb (mom) could ride one of those even with her bionic knees..."
And so for Mother's Day (technically a few weeks after), Dad bought Mom two e-bikes - bicycles/scooters powered with a quiet electric motor, that you don't need a license to drive.
(It's actually a pretty thoughtful present...Mom is still kind of scared to ride one, but I think she'll get used to it.)
At first, I was mortified. LOOK AT THESE THINGS. They are basically old people scooters. Are my parents really so old as to think that owning a geezer scooter is fun and cool?! Do I have to be near them when they ride off into the sunset on their Rascal knock-offs?
But then...
I got roped into helping my Mom use one for the first time, and in the process I rode on it very, very briefly. And...it was exhilarating. All the fun of a bike, none of the work, you can go +30km/h, and it's so quiet, you can just zip around without drawing TOO much attention (not entirely true, you still get stares)
So I gave in. This week, I've had a few days off (I'm in the middle of my mini-vacation right now!), and so my friend Julia and I went down to my parents cottage where the bikes live. And we rode them around. It was SO MUCH FUN.
I was still a little embarrassed. As fun as it is, a person with perfectly good knees such as myself can't help but feel super lazy riding one of these things, especially when you pass real bikes on the road. Still though...worth the shame.
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