I was expecting to take some pictures of a sunset, and in fact, that is what I did. I noticed that the sky was looking fairly pretty and thought that I would snap a couple pictures before going to the Physics building to finish my homework for the week. My favorite place to watch the sunset is on top of a parking garage. A flat concrete space is not the most scenic of places, but it gets you high up so that you have a nice view of the whole sky. Here is one of the pictures that I took:
It's pretty nice, isn't it? Anyway, I then proceeded to go to the Physics building, deciding to take a different route than I normally do. This is partially because I was coming from the parking garage, but also because I wanted to try out the cool bike lane that was on one of the streets that I passed. I'm the kind of person that likes to bike on the road, not the sidewalk, so it was an interesting change of pace to not have cars whizzing past me so close. I found out that this road was a bad one to take because it seemed like the civil engineers had designed it just right so that people riding on bikes would hit every red light. Maybe they figured that people would like to have a break from peddling every 15 seconds? It was quite annoying, but I decided to make the best of the situation and work on shifting gears down when I came to a stop and then back up once the light turned green.
It was at this point, that I learned a very valuable lesson that I already knew in the back of my head, but never really paid any attention to. The lesson is this: When shifting gears, one should only shift one gear at a time. If one tries to shift multiple gears in a switch, there is a chance that the chain will dislodge from the gears. Thankfully, I was in the bike lane when this happened and there were no other bikes behind me. I was able to dismount my bike and wait for the cars to pass before hauling my bike over to the sidewalk. Why did I have to haul my bike? Couldn't I have just walked it? Well, no. The chain managed to get lodged on the spoke side of the gear on the rear tire, and was stopping the wheel from rotating in a normal manner. I tried to jiggle it around a little bit, hoping it would come free and I could continue on my way to the Physics building. No such luck.
But there was still a chance that I could get it unstuck! If I flipped the bike over, I could maybe get better control and easier access to the chain. Alas, even from this improved angle of attack it was stuck in there really well. It was lodged securely under the gear so that if you rotated the wheel, the chain just got more and more stuck.
I'm not one that gives up so easily though. If I just tried harder it could come loose and I would be on my way. I took off my backpack and camera and set them on the ground so that they wouldn't get in my way either. After another 10 minutes of struggling with the chain, I was no closer to having it come loose.
At this point, I was really hoping that someone would just acknowledge my plight and try to help me with my bike. Wish granted. I heard someone call at me from about 15 feet away, "Do you have a flat tire?"
"No," I replied. "The chain just came loose."
"Oh, I'm real good with bikes, I can get that fixed in no time."
Something about the way that my good samaritan said those words let me know that despite his best efforts, I was probably going to have to carry my bike all the way home. Despite this initial assessment, I thought an extra pair of hands might be just the thing I needed to fix it.
Matt and Larry, two very nice people without a place to call home, tried to help me fix my bike chain. They had the reasonable idea to just spin the wheel quickly and hope for the best, this went South very quickly as Larry left his fingers too close to the gears and the chain pulled his fingers in, pinching them pretty severely. They initially thought they had fixed it because the wheel spun for a short period of time, but it turned out to just lodge the chain further down between the gear and the spokes. I thanked Matt for his attempt to help, but said it would probably be best if I just took the bike to a shop. I think he heard me, but he decided to continue doing his best to unstick the chain. I could clearly see that he wasn't going to get anywhere, but he had other ideas. Thankfully, Larry convinced him to stop trying. Before I was able to pick up my bike, backpack, and camera and get out of there. Larry made sure to let me know that any help I could provide he would really appreciate, he was hoping to be able to get something to eat tonight. They had been nice enough, I decided to give the two of them a $5 bill for their troubles.
Carrying my bike home, I realized that I could have handled the situation a lot better. Giving $5 to the two of them was a nice gesture, but a better approach would have been to take them to a restaurant and order something off the menu for each of them. This way, they would be sure to actually get food with their money, and I would also have the chance to talk to them and maybe hear their story. I don't plan on having random strangers helping me in the street in the future, but if they do, I will thank them with a meal rather than money.
Upon arriving at home, I went up to the closet and retrieved a wrench, hoping that I would be able to fix my bike on my own and be able to ride it to work the next day. I took the wrench down to the bike and in less than a minute had the chain unstuck and the bike fully functional.
From this experience, I learned that working harder won't accomplish much. Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results will produce only a lot of wasted time. I saw a little bit of myself in Matt as he tried over and over again to fix the bike and got nowhere. I spent so much time trying to fix the problem when in reality I shouldn't have spent more than a minute trying to fix my bike. Once it became clear that I wasn't getting anywhere, I should have looked for a different solution to the problem. In short, I needed to work smarter, not harder.
I feel this way in graduate school a lot. I think that I should be able to just work extra hard to solve the problem. In reality, I should look for another tool to solve the problem it's a process, but I think that I'm learning to be better about this.
Having just been through a really stressful situation and having successfully come out of it on top. I thought it best to reward myself with a Peanut Butter Creme Pie. I don't usually like to eat junk food, but it really felt right in that moment. A side note: I'm pretty sure that when God provided mana to the Israelites in the wilderness it was actually Peanut Butter Creme Pies, they just didn't know what to call them at the time. Those things are divine.
