The Birthday Challenge

Birthdays can be such a challenge. One year I caught grief when I bought my wife a Dirt Devil hand vacuum. The next year I tried to atone for my sins by buying her a Shop Vac. Now I know better. I try to get a romantic gift that says, I love you, Sweetheart. Huggy Bear. Misty Lips. This year, on her birthday, April 6, also known as Twinkies Day, I got Teri a bicycle. Not just any bicycle, mind you, but a hot pink one. It's a bicycle that brings back fond memories of tooling around the old neighborhood and screaming down the street without an adults' Big Bag O' Worries. No, it's not jewelry or dark chocolate, which are both good birthday gifts. The bike, though, is a gift that keeps on giving through the years. A person can ride bicycle into his or her 90s if he or she is lucky enough to live that long, and it can profoundly improve the quality of the years one is given. We'll ride together, forever. And it will be fine as long as we can remember where home is.