This coming Wednesday will mark my one month anniversary in previously rainy, presently sunny Boulder, Colorado. I’ve lived a lot of places in the past few years, but I’ve yet to so quickly and happily settle into a community. This town rocks.
Very fittingly in this city of cycle lanes, a lot of the excitement during my time here has revolved around bikes.
First, I played a part in solving the Great Boulder Bike Robbery of 2011. Check out this great write-up, but here’s a quick summary: Elaine Ellis, social media and marketing manager over at Trada, had her bike stolen. Luckily, a neighbor took a photo of the thief, and Elaine brilliantly posted the pic and associated info to her blog and Twitter. Fast forward 3 days, I’m jogging on the Boulder Creek Path with my dog, and I spot the dude and call 911 and ping assorted Boulder folks on Twitter. Case is shut and closed within an hour with the help of a dozen citizens.
The next day, I found my wallet at the RTD station. More than a week earlier, I had dropped it on a late night bus back from Denver. Somebody picked it up, pocketed about a hundred bucks, and returned it to the lost & found. Hey, getting it back saved me a trip to the DMV and I regained possession of my irreplaceable, accepted 50% of the time expired Tulane ID. 
I considered it a Win with a capital W. While perhaps not related to bicycles, it’s mass transportation: close enough.
That’s awesome karma. But check this out: on Tuesday, I asked the fine folks at MyHandleBar if they could roll out a 16 person bicycle a couple of weeks early for my birthday party pub crawl. Within hours, they’d offered me TWO free bikes as a promo for their inaugural ride. I really couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my quarter century anniversary of life on this planet. Some hilarious photos resulted.
Great things keep happening here. I’d like to think I’m making my own luck, meeting awesome people and taking big strides on a cool new project. But I’d be remiss to so quickly brush off the power of serendipity.
A genius I have yet to meet created @OnlyInBoulder, a Twitter handle for spotlighting those special moments that could only occur in this very unique place. I’ve been blessed these past few weeks with my own fair share of @OnlyInBoulder love. I hope there are plenty more to come.
