There are some investments in life that, for some unknown reason, end up costing you more than what you originally intended to allocate to them. Last week while riding my bike, which I had just purchased not a week before, the gear cable snapped. Since it was bought used there is no warranty.

A rather unfortunate series of events happened two days ago to my friend. While in class someone stole the seat off of his bike. He purchased a new seat that day and affixed it in place. The next night his bike was stolen from the parking structure. After he fumed about his bike gone missing, he assured me that my bike was still in the parking structure.

This morning when I mounted my bike it was clear that something was wrong. The front tire was completely flat. At first I thought that this was a mere “So ist das Leben” (Such is life) moment, but then I noticed that my small tool box on my bike was hanging open and all the spare tools missing. I inspected the other bikes on the rack and sure enough, their tires were also flat.

After class I purchased an air pump and rode my bike down to BikeMaxx in the Einkaufzentrum to be fixed. I sure as hell hope this is the last time I have to put any more money down on this thing.