Of bicycles and locks on bicycles

If you've been here at the Lighthouse for a while, you might remember when I took to a bicycle for the first time in what must be twenty years.  That's a whole lifetime for someone who has just graduated high school!  (You can read some of those episodes here and here). 

I see by the dates for those posts that the bicycle adventures took place nearly 3 years ago. That means I bought the lock for the bike three years ago, and set the combination for the lock three years ago.  I bought one of those four letter word combination jobbies, in which four barrels of 10 letters each can be spun round to make words.  It was up to me to establish what the four letter word is that opens the thing. I thought that was clever of me because while I don't get on well with numbers, hardly ever remember where I put that particular key, I am a word girl. No way would I ever forget the particular word that was significant to me at the time.

Ha.

I mean, come on.  The bike has been buried deep in the shed for two and a half years and I haven't given that significant word a thought in at least as long.

My dear brother in law dropped off my bike at the new flat a few days ago.  I have been plumbing the depths of brain ever since, trying to recall just what word was foremost in my mind all that time ago.  I can picture myself hunching over my bike in the rack outside the library...I can just about picture spinning the letters...I remember sharing with one of the Peanuts just how clever I was with my word choice.

Do you know how many four letter words there are?

I might plant flowers in the basket hanging off the front of the bike.