"Why don't you get a motor on it?"

I had to answer that question again yesterday. It is a question I have had to answer many times when people look at my tricycle. 

"I need the exercise," I tell them. There is often a puzzled look and someone, almost always the male of the species, will tell me that a bicycle engine does not mean "no exercise".

"But then I could not take it on the train," I tell them. This is met with more puzzled looks. 

I think I understand what they are getting at. They see bikes and, by extension, my trike as something to be used occasionally. They ride "for pleasure". They will look on a ten or twenty or thirty kilometre ride as something done as entertainment.

I pedal because I must. I do not own a car. I do not know how to drive. I have never had a licence. If I want to go to the library, the supermarket, the post office or the surgery I need to pedal there. It is too far to walk. 

If it comes to the point where I cannot pedal then I will perhaps have to consider one of those little motorised ride on "scooters" that have become popular. The Senior Cat had one. Middle Cat has it now. They are not a substitute for the convenience of a car but they do extend the social life of many people. 

I came out of the library one day and found my little vehicle on its side. There was a man there looking earnestly at it. "Is this yours? I would have asked but I didn't know who it belonged to and..."

He was building a trike for his disabled son and wanted to know how mine was built. I let him take photographs of what was puzzling him. 

There are other people who want to know where I bought it, what it cost and how easy it is to ride. The local bicycle shop owes me commission on several sales - or should.

"I saw your bike outside. I knew you were around somewhere," is something which has been said to me more than once. That has advantages and disadvantages. There are times when I just want to be able to get things done, not indulge in conversation with someone who disagrees with something I said in a "letter to the editor".

I get wet when it rains and it is sometimes rather cold but at least it does not snow here.  I know I need to pedal on regardless and, when people ask if it is hard to ride, I tell them, "No, it runs on bananas."

It is a response which usually brings at least a smile - and that makes my day.