Christmas was fast approaching and my sister grew anxious, as the jacket she bought her boyfriend had not arrived. When it did arrive, on the 24th her anxiety only grew: poorly constructed and flimsy the jacket was not what she hoped for. After browsing the internet I convinced her to buy a single speed road bike from some cat in Fontana. In person of course the bike was not as clean as it appeared on the internet. To make matters worse after buying the bike, it slipped off the bike rack, hitting the asphalt at 45 miles per hour and making the back tire and rim completely useless. In the middle of a crisis, we immediately dialed our older brother, an engineer and the so-called “genius” of the family. He offered simple, yet dumfounding advice: “solve the tequila crisis and you’ll solve the bike crisis. I have to go. Good luck.” Useless as usual I thought. What the hell does tequila have to do with a bike. After a brief scroll through my phone, I dialed our tio Raymundo. Not only does he make the best asada ever, he can build anything. He gave us a list of things to buy at home depot and told us to arrive early to Pico Rivera the next day. When we arrived to his house, he had a 12 pack of dos equis, and a set of tools out waiting for us. We took the bike apart, sanded and then painted the frame. And bought and fixed several parts. When the bike was finally complete (many days later) we toasted to the most interesting man in Pico Rivera with a 12 pack of dos equis.
I thought things played out more dratically than that actually. Much like the Odyssey we encountered challenges (the bike rack), distractions and mythical creatures we thought did not exist in real life (bridezilla) all taking place in far away lands (fontucky, pico rivers, uptown whittier).
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