I have exactly that kind of man in my house. He goes to work, takes care of us, tries to do his best for me and my daughter. But as soon as I or my daughter pick up one of his “toys”, instead of a good husband and dad, a rhino appears. I hear a lot of his screams throughout the year. Not just his tools, but mostly his old bike.
Not that I\’m a total idiot when it comes to cars and bikes, but I honestly don\’t even know what bikes he has. He can get just the right junk bike for the junkyard, strip it down to the studs, clean it, fix it up, put it back together, and still get it running. At that point I feel like an employee in some auto shop. I\’m handing them screws, screwdrivers, containers of oil and gasoline, and who knows what else.
Once I strip it down to the bolts and clean it up, it\’s my turn. I search the internet for similar “remnants” and look for colors. I will see which colors fit, which ones really don\’t, and then compose the final color variations. After looking at countless bikes, graphic designs, and hand-drawn sketches, I choose the shades I want to see on the Internet and go show my work to our handyman. He usually agrees. It\’s true that for one babbette, I wanted red and black. But brick red. Well, that was it for me. Of course, being the designer, I objected. I think such a terrible color would have thrown a pair of tiger scissors at his head at work. Eventually we went to a paint and varnish store in Olomouc and I showed him exactly what I had in mind. He admitted to himself that my color combination was much better than his. So I sprayed Babette with black and brown-red paint. In the end, I have to admit that I didn\’t think the wreck, standing still, looked as piercing as it did.
My seven-year-old daughter is already trying to get on, but I shudder to think when she will fall on the gravel or into a ditch.
Father-like, daughter-like; the two of them are about as alike as eggs and eggs.