i am a bike mechanic (?)

once again, i was amid folks who knew less about bikes than i did today. this is rather unusual for me, so it was rather empowering. my best deed of the day was helping this elderly woman whose chain had fallen off the thingie (ok, here my lack of techie bike knowledge becomes quite evident) whatsitcalled? a cassette? the cogs? ok, anyway, her chain was lodged between the thingie and her spoke-area of her bicycle (geez. i really should know these words. the story is sort of bogging down here… sorry.) anyway, i was participating in a biking/fundraising event (it was about a 13 mile bike ride) to fight world hunger and i was stopped at a break stop where they were providing bathrooms, apples and bottles of water. the volunteer who was handing out the apples went over to help this woman and i wasn’t really paying attention to them fiddling around with the bike until the volunteer walked away helplessly saying something about, “well, i wish i could help her, but i don’t really know how.” so i went over to see if i could help. sure enough, the chain was stuck. this same thing has happened to me before and i knew i could fix it. just couldn’t be afraid to get a little grease on my fingers (i figure that’s why they make bike shorts black…. that and some really awful mental images thanks to one of my bikey friends who found this, um, revealing photo of a team of biker guys in red shorts. let’s just say, not much is left to the imagination and no, they weren’t wearing anything other than the bike shorts. urgh.) so i got her chain back on the … thingie … and we tested the wheel to make sure the chain would stay on and it did. she was so happy! and i was so glad i’d been able to help her! i’m not really sure what she would have done otherwise.