As someone who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 42 and whose life choices ever since have been dictated by the need to maintain continuous coverage that would accept a pre-existing condition,  I believe fervently that making the equivalent of Medicare to people of all ages is the only way to provide fairness and adequate competition to private insurers. Living in Massachusetts the last few years, I have watched in horror as health care costs climb relentless and yet people outside the state fail to realize that the compromises made to private insurers here have created an unsustainable system. Having lived abroad and worked with people from other countries for much of my adult life, I am painfully aware of how ludicrous we look to the rest of the developed world.

Most doctors and most voters support a public option. Who doesn’t? Only insurance companies and their lobbyists.

Please, in honor of Ted Kennedy’s memory, give us a bill with a true public option. Waiting till I’m old enough to qualify for Medicare to get the care I need is NOT an option. Thank you.

1968 Medicare poster

My previous note describes finding and beginning the cleanup on an abandoned Trek 520. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve taken a bike all the way down to a bare frame and built it back into a functional bicycle. (The last time was when my Raleigh Sports got hit at a parking meter and needed a new frame. 1980??) I gathered pieces for the Trek bit by bit over the course of 2 months, and then finally last week found the last thing I needed, and got to work.

It has been fun to recondition some parts from the original, and then look for just the right things to match the character than has evolved: weathered but gleaming city bike. I looked in several stores for a front wheel, new as well as used, but nothing jumped out at me. Then I went to Phil Altman‘s wacky store in Framingham, and found a really nice bolt-on wheel for $38. The high flange hub reminds me of the Normandy hubs that came on French bikes in the ’70s.

I told Community Bikes that I was looking for an alloy North Road handlebar, and sure enough, a couple of weeks later when I stopped in for something else, one of the owners said “hey, we got that handlebar for you” and it’s perfect.

What does this say about me?: When my ex-wife kicked me out of the house in 2001, I took some small solace in simplifying my life. The waterford? the wedgewood? who needs it. The furniture? that much less to move. But the bike stuff? not on your life. The bag of chain rings from the International, which was wrecked and discarded in 1987? From my cold dead hands. And so it was that I just happened to have the right chain ring for the Trek.

And of course, it’s a 3-speed. The new Sturmey-Archer hub was the last piece to fall into place, and I built up the rear wheel while watching “American Idol” with Lizzie earlier in the week.

And now I have to follow through on the excuse for this whole project, and give the bike to Ingrid. I think she’s pleased with it. I’m sure she’d be afraid to hurt my feelings if she wasn’t.

The Trek before and after, by Tony.