3 May 2009

little wolf's amiable altriusm

There is a bicycle with a flat tire in front of little wolf's house. Little wolf sees the bike every time he comes and goes and he is said that the bike sits there broken. He well remembers the time when the bike was in good shape and apparently used by somebody since it used to be locked in front of the house and occasionally absent from its parking space.
Little wolf tried to inflate the bike's tire to make it happy again. But the tube didn't hold the air. So little wolf decided to change the bike's tube. He didn't know how to get the bike's hub gear control box out of the way so he asked me about it. I am already familiar with Wolf's extra-ordinary altruism, but I was still surprised. I told him, that he shouldn't start messing with other people's bikes. I don't think he would break anything, but I was concerned that the bike was already abandoned, the owner having moved away. Also, Wolf admitted himself that once the bike is repaired, since there is no lock any more, it might just be stolen! On the other hand, it often happens that bike owners are too apathetic to repair their bike after a damage or vandalism and would just continue riding it after it being magically repaired. (Incidentally, said apathy sadly also concerned my own sister and her bike...)
With all those arguments going back and forth, we had a very heated debate about it, because he insisted to repair this bike whose owner he didn't even know. It is a lady's bike and we were make jokes about the owner being either a hot blonde or a grand ma who can't ride anymore now.
Since our discussion was so entrenched, I asked around among the other friends present at our get together. After a short explanation, they voiced the opinion that Wolf should just do what makes him happy, no matter whether the bike will be stolen afterwards or be vandalized again. Was was instantly convinced, not so much by the argument, but by hearing some trusted third party's opinion. We explained little wolf how to take out the wheel with the gear box and ask him to keep us updated about the bike and its story.

3 comments:

little wolf said...

it's been a last minute rescue:
this morning I had some time left and chose to start repairing the broken bike. But when I came downstairs the bike wasn't there anymore. Since I saw it standing at its place the evening before, I thought it could not have gone far. So I walked around the neighbor houses and found it laying around with some other broken bicycle. Without asking what it was doing there I took it back to my house and installed the new tube - removing the gearhub's clickbox to dismount the back wheel was really easy after reading the instruction manual on the internet.
After taking a test ride I put the bicycle in the public cellar of my house. And now I'm waiting to see it being ridden by some hot brunette...

Robert Jack Wild said...

Good job, Mr Wolf!
I hope the shaky old Grand Ma who owns the bike will find it in the basement and ride it again!!

Roy said...

Nice blog youu have

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