A $75 bird's nest

Seriously, why didn't I take a picture of this?

I got a bike this spring.  And a new helmet.  (A $75 helmet, I might add.  You'll see why this is important in a bit.)  I went on a couple of bike rides with my family a few weeks ago.  (and it was a few weeks ago because it has pretty much been raining non-stop here since.)  It was the first time I rode a bike since college.  (I'd like to say that was six years ago, but in all honesty it was 17 years.)

So it had been a few weeks since I took my new beloved light blue bike out for a spin.  It looked cute, though, sitting up on its hoist in the garage with my cute new red helmet hanging from the handlebar.

And then one day I noticed a lot of bird poop in our garage.

And a day or two later I found a robin flying around our garage.  I quickly shooed her out.

And then the following day, I noticed a couple of little stringy things hanging from my bike helmet.  What?

Upon closer inspection, I saw it.  A bunch of straw in my helmet.

My husband came home from work and lowered my bike down from its hoist and, sure enough, there it was.

(This is where the picture would come in handy.)

The most perfect little bird's nest with two beautiful little robin eggs in it.  Inside of my helmet.  My $75 helmet.  Which was now covered in bird poop in addition to a cute little nest.

We (and by "we", I mean my husband) climbed a tall ladder and hung the helmet from a sheltered tree on the side of our house where we thought maybe the mama bird would return to our nest.  I wish I could say this story has a fun happy ending and the mama returned to her nest, but she didn't.  So out went the bird's nest.  Along with my poop-covered helmet.  (Sorry, but no amount of Lysol and bleach would have me put a formerly poop-covered bird's nest home back on my head.)  And for two days, we received the Crazy Neighbor award in our neighborhood for being the family with a bike helmet hanging from their tree.

My awesome husband spent an entire afternoon cleaning everything in our garage that had been "hit" by the mama bird.  And power-washing the garage floor.  And scrubbing down my bike which, needless to say, is back up on its hoist sans helmet.

Another reason not to exercise anytime soon.