Meet the Wife

Ever see the show "Jon and Kate Plus Eight"? Let's just say I'm more like Kate than I am like Jon. I like to make the rules, I like to run the show, I like to think I know it all, although of course, I don't. My husband is much more laid back and humors me by letting me wear the pants and not making much of a fuss. He treats me like a queen and every woman on this planet should be so lucky as to have a husband like mine.

This Car-free challenge is my way of showing my undying love for my husband. It's my way of humoring him for a change. I know, I know... I have got to be kidding, right? Maybe, but only just a little. I see my darling husband as a tree hugger and me as a tree branch shaker. I'll recycle where recycling is available and I'll sort my junk mail at home to maximize our recyling, but my husband has been known to cart recyling home from road trips, from day trips, and from places I don't even want to know about. If he wins the lottery, he wants to buy a wind farm and some land so he can grow his own food. Me? Well, that's not the first thing I thought of.

I'm not addicted to our car. I don't even like to drive. I let my husband pick out our car and I don't recall even test driving it before letting him buy it. Unfortunately, I like to bike even less. I learned to ride a bike as an adult and I'm a very nervous biker. It doesn't help that the only time I've broken a bone was while biking on a bike trail and flipping over the handle bars when one of the pedals hit the road making a turn.

The last time I rode a bike is about a year ago. Instead of driving a mile to the gym every day at 6am, my husband convinced me to ride my bike. So, for a week or two, I did just that. However, I didn't have a backpack and I had problems balancing and steering my bike while either holding my gym bag or trying to adjust it on my one shoulder. Two crashes in one day and that was enough of that.

In addition to being a pathetic and nervous biker, I'm also shorter than your average bear. I stand 5'0" and I'm lucky I can reach the pedals of my second hand bike. I can barely touch the ground with my tip toes while sitting on my less than sturdy bike seat. If you've ridden bikes all your life, you may not care that you have to tip your bike 20 degrees to touch the ground, but it's a big deal for someone like me. Once I get going, I can keep going, provided I don't have to stop, but getting the bike going is a big deal for me and so are turns. It doesn't help that I'm self-conscious about my lack of riding skills and it makes me nervous to ride within eye-shot of people. (I know it's silly, but I can't help it!)

So, this Car-free challenge is going to have a bit of an impact on me. I'm either going to have to make new friends with our public transit engineers, walk more or bike more. I'm not planning on carting my kids around on the Dutch bike. I'm going to leave that for my husband.