Day 27

Today I met Anne, a local secondhand bike shop owner.  I barely found the bike shop, its tucked away in an alley and is not much more than a garage and several bike rakes (not what I was expecting).  Anne offered me a cup of tea with oil-stained hands and to tell the truth, it what much needed after wandering around the north side of the city for 45 minutes.  I could tell she led a simple life with her hair cut short tucked under a cap and nothing more than Chapstick on her lips.  She's quite admirable actually, running a small establishment, mostly supported by neighborhood kids and volunteers, in such hard times.  Blockbuster can't even stay open but this hole in the wall shop opened in April and is plugging along.  Anne is passionate about her shop.  She would love to expand but insists that it stay as local as possible.  In her words, "It would kill the spirit of it."  I couldn't have agreed more as she ran around helping customers from the age of 7 to 40 with their prized possessions.  It truly was one of those things not many people get to see, even if they could find it.