I use my bicycle for exercise, and with this unprecedented heat wave we’re having in Florida, I have to ride either early in the morning or after dark. The red flasher on my Trek died, and I had to get a replacement. I went over to Frenchy’s bike shop to buy one.

The place was emptied out. All the bikes were gone, there are usually several hundred there for sale and today there were only a few dozen left (mostly unpopular or super-specialized models) And there was a line of people, credit cards in hand, ready to buy them up. At first I feared Frenchy was going out of business and he was conducting a discount clearance sale. But he told me he couldn’t keep enough stock in the shop. As soon as he got a delivery from the factory, people snapped them up. I asked him if the virus was responsible for his good fortune, and he replied, “Hell if I know, it’s not anything I’m doing different.”

Why should this be? I would think with everybody out of work, people wouldn’t be buying new bikes. If anything, they would be reconditioning their old ones. Maybe with the gyms too dangerous to go to, people are doing what I’m doing–getting their workouts on the road. But I don’t know. Very strange.