WELL NOW.  Nothing's ever as straightforward as it first appears, and there's always the unexpected.

This came to light due to an email I sent this morning, inquiring about the tracking number they (R+E) had said on Friday that they'd be providing.  Even allowing for their usual Sunday and Monday closing days, I was expecting to have been advised by now that the bike was in fact on its way and here's-the-tracking-number-to-prove-it.

Apparently, not so much.

No such communication has as yet been received.  Thinking it may have been a simple oversight ("oops, we forgot to send it" was what I was anticipating by way of explanation) I emailed R+E this morning to jog their memory.

They hadn't forgotten; far from it.  My bike is stuck at R+E Cycles.  It's in its shipping container.  It's addressed to me.  It's been all queued up and waiting to go out the door since last Friday afternoon.  But there it sits, held up due to a business dispute between R+E and the shipping company they've used for many years.

So now they're looking for an alternate carrier and I'm watching what is probably the last unseasonably mild late autumn weather of the year slip past and disappear, unable to get out and enjoy it on a new steed.  I've got other bikes of course, so I've still been able to ride, and they've been enjoyable outings. 

But I'm itching to find out just what it is I've bought.  I want to see it, touch and caress it, gently stroking its paint and patting the saddle.  I want to put it in the work stand and put some pedals on it, then turn the crank and watch the rear wheel go round and round.  I want to squeeze the brake levers and feel the disc brakes engage.  I want to toggle the gear shift levers through their range and watch the chain move from cog to cog, chain ring to chain ring.

Tomorrow I'm leaving town for several days, so there won't be (and wouldn't have been) any riding in any circumstance.  Perhaps a day or two after my return early next week I'll find my shiny new bike sitting on my front porch.

Time will tell, I guess.