When my parents' dog, Emma the greyhound, is left on her own, she gets a bit lonely and a bit sad. She yelps and whines and you could quite easily be led to believe that no-one loves her, no-one ever strokes her and, worst of all, she's never fed (clearly, none of which is the case). Luckily for my folks, she might cut a sad figure, but that's about it. Some friends have a dog which they are able to spend nearly all their time with, but when she lived with her previous, full-time office-working people, she had to spend every weekday alone, for hours at a time, most of which she spent causing disaster and destruction in their (no doubt once beautiful) home.
Last night was the first time that the Beeblemobile had left me home alone (well, James and the cat were there, but still, the bike was a dirty stop-out). It spent the night in the office, all by itself (I was half expecting my papers to be strewn all over the place this morning, or for there to be signs of an awesome party having been held in my absence) - I had contemplated cycling home last night, in the dark, on my own, but by the time I was ready to leave, it was 11 pm, I was too tired to be confident of making it all the way home under my own steam and, it transpired (although I didn't know this until I left the building to get my taxi), it was absolutely chucking it down. So, in the City the bike stayed and I went home on my own, slightly nervous about leaving it.
It's important to note here that the bike stayed literally in my office. Although the door to the room itself wasn't locked, you'd need to get past at least one security guard, a number of security doors and a few of my colleagues who worked even later than I did to get anywhere near it, so it was about as safe as it could be, and certainly safer than leaving it locked to a bit of street furniture. In fact, given how late a couple of my colleagues worked last night and how early a couple of others arrived this morning, the bike was probably only unattended for two or three hours!
So, why did it feel so wrong? I don't have any children, but the only thing I can liken it to is when you leave a child at a sleepover for the first time. It's not the same thing, of course - for a start, I can probably trust my bike to behave itself, and it's unlikely that its feelings are going to be hurt by other people's bikes calling it names, but it does appear that I feel responsible for it and I have an emotional attachment to it. I'm not sure whether this is a good or a bad thing. Obviously, taking good care of your things and realising the impact you and your things might have on others is a good thing, but I'm not sure forming any kind of emotional attachment to a bike can be healthy.
Needless to say, I feel better today, now that we're reunited, but circumstances are likely to dictate that I won't be able to ride home tonight, either, so the bike is probably going to have to spend another night away from home, alone.
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