For Chloe’s Entertainment

Justin has always wanted to be a bike snob. Not sure what it is, but he’s long had an urge to have a fancy bike and look down on others for not. But for a while, he was just a poor college student, and after that, just cheap. So he made the used Schwinn his dad got him for a birthday last about 10 years. It was probably a decent bike, and he definitely got his money’s worth from it. It took him from Concordia just west of 23 over to GT Products on 1st St for over half a year, which is 5 miles one way. From Hoover Ave to North Hall regularly. From Madison St to the law school while we were in South Bend for 3 years.

When the old Schwinn had to be put down, he found a nice little mountain bike at the thrift store in Mountain Home for $50. Since he is again able to commute to work – about 1 mile one way this time – the mountain bike was being used daily. And it was doing well for him.

Then he sat in Iraq for a little while. No bike there, but lots of magazines that people read and then leave for others to read. In one magazine, Justin saw an article about bikes. One bike caught his eye: a Trek single-speed belt-driven bike for commuting. It looked fancy, but cost enough that Justin thought of it more in the car price range than bike price range. So he merely coveted it and put it in the back of his mind.

A few months later, he’s back in the States, back in the routine demands of fatherhood. One of which is driving children to dance practice. Dance practice has baffled scientists for years, since it displays a localized phenomenon in which time objectively slows down. Justin doesn’t trust science, so he decided just to drop the kids off one day rather than going in. He instead took a trip to a local Trek store, just to kill some time. When he went in, he thought maybe he’d just see if they had the bike he saw in the magazine in Iraq, since it was still in the back of his head. He asked if they had any single-speed belt-driven bikes. They had one. It was a 2010 model, and so it was half-off. Immediately, the bike went from being wishful thinking to being a possibility.

Unable to pull the trigger that day, Justin went back for a test ride. Which required leaving an ID. When the sales guy saw who Justin works for, he offered another 10% off*. That was too much. It took another trip or two, but Justin eventually got the bike.

He was worried he wouldn’t adjust to the road tires after riding mountain bikes his whole life, but that took only a few days. His mountain bike is still with us; he uses it when the weather is messy or to pull the bike carrier with our horde of children.

From the throne in Iraq to the store on Menaul, Justin’s dream has finally come true. He loves his new bike. And it’s better than yours**.

_____________________________________________

* He actually took 10% off the original price, not the sale price as Justin expected. So it was an incredible deal.

** Unless you are Luman or Josh.

_____________________________________________

Additional fun fact about the Trek District: if you’ve seen the H&R Block commercial in which the bike store is giving away a free bike, that’s Justin’s bike (just a different model year, with a gray frame and orange trim). The salesman talks about it being the bike with their best gears or whatever, which doesn’t make any sense, since the District doesn’t even have a chain, let alone gears. (I’d embed it here, but Youtube says it’s a private video.)

Something familiar and manic

When you’ve moved 6 times in 11 years, it’s hard to refer to “all the old familiar places”. By the end of a stay, we usually have some affinity for some places, but it’s rare that anything is that well-worn.

So it was pleasantly odd when Marina was invited to a birthday party by someone from church – and the party was at the same place as last year, which Marina also attended. On the phone with the parent doing the inviting, Justin said things like, “Last year we brought a couple siblings. . .” and, “It’s at Monkey Mania, just like last year, right?”

This might sound trivial, but it’s these little things that make a location more of a home. It’s also a long-winded (for the internet) introduction to our second trip to Monkey Mania.

Certain parts have a low-budget feel to them, but that’s just a jaded adult’s opinion; the three older kids loved it last year, and all four loved it this year.

If there’s another birthday next January, we’ll be here for it. By the third time, this will almost feel like home. Just in time to move.

Good Green Day

We’re jumping on the Groupon wagon. Balloon rides, restaurants, whatever: we’ll pay for it, if it’s 55% off and ending in 21 hours, 36 minutes, and 17 seconds. One recent purchase was to a fun center. Yes, that’s right. Fun center.

If you didn’t see that clip coming, you’re not an American.

Justin took Friday off, we had the kids cram an extra day of school in during the week, and at 1147am today, Justin and the three older ones took off for Tramway and Indian School.

The Hinkle Family Fun Center lived up to its name.

They started with laser tag. None of the kids had played laser tag before. Malachi understood the shooting rules quickly, but never did comprehend the “no running” rule.

Marina understood the shooting part, but preferred to shoot the inanimate targets for points, instead of going for people.

Elisha was the ninja. Justin would be in search of Malachi, when all of a sudden, his vest would indicate he had been hit. He’d whip around, looking for Malachi and Marina. After a second or two, he’d then look down to see Elisha, 9 inches away, a serious look on his face, continuing to blast Justin’s now inoperative vest.

After that, they did bumper cars. That was a lot of fun.

Next was “lazer [sic] frenzy”. This is a room like one of those hallways in which someone has to get from one end to the other to steal the big diamond or whatever, but there’s a bunch of lasers criss-crossing the path.

There’s a screen outside that allowed you to watch what was going on inside.

After that was a pretty high climbing wall outside. Although there’s lots that is nice about snow, being able to do a climbing wall outside in January was nice too.

While Malachi and Marina conquered the climbing wall, Justin took Elisha on the go karts.

After that, they all went on the bumper boats.

Not bad scenery.

Eventually, Cora woke up, so they all returned home to get her. They went back to the fun center. . .

. . .for about one more hour. They got in one more game of laser tag (which Cora enjoyed), one more time on the bumper cars (which Cora envied), one more time in the lazer frenzy (which Cora tried very hard to do), and a few minutes at Putt-Putt golf. Which ended up being chaos.

So overall, a lot of fun.

Natural sedation

On a recent weekend, Malachi began crying, but couldn’t tell us why. 45 minutes later, he stopped crying and slept the rest of the afternoon. When he stopped crying, Elisha started. After 45 minutes, he stopped and fell asleep. No fever, and they were ok the next day. So not sure what they picked up, but it was a very quiet afternoon after the crying stopped.

Babies all gone

Cora turned two at the end of December.

We went to the zoo, because Cora likes animals.

She got some presents.