I had typed, "This Is What I Waited For?" as the intended title for this post, but then realized that I was ending the sentence with a preposition and changed it to its current form. Things like that bother me. Though I'll often begin a sentence with a conjunction for effect and to punctuate the added thought, and sometimes actually leave the preposition at the end because it would be just too awkward sounding to correct it, when I catch myself I fix things like them unless writing them for an intended reason.
Even there, in offering that explanation of the change in the post title, I lead up to the point I'm about to make which is that I desperately need a vacation - from myself!
Since Christmas, I think, I was waiting for the school year to end so I could start my annual summer vacation. By late March I was practically dancing with eager anticipation of that last day of school. It came two weeks ago, and it went. Now, here I am with weeks ahead of me during which I'll be my own primary companion and I'm finding that what I really need most isn't a break from school, but a break from being me.
I drive myself crazy with indecision among other things. I can sit here at 6:30 in the morning with a whole day ahead of me on which to do anything I choose, and find myself in this very same chair getting hungry for lunch with nothing worthwhile accomplished because I couldn't decide what to do. And when it comes time for that actual lunch? It can be overwhelming a choice if I opt for something other than my big salad. The difference between a cheese steak made from a leftover hunk of London broil and a salami and cheese sandwich would seem to be of apparent earth shattering consequence when it comes to making my decision. Then, as soon as the first bit of whatever I've chosen hits my taste buds, I start regretting that I hadn't opted for the alternate.
It's like that all day when I'm here alone. Not only with indecision but with self-motivation too. I have a number of things I'd like to get done for myself this summer. Yet, with the passing of each morning I find myself on the other side of noon telling myself that it's too late to start and that I'll have a better chance of beginning all fresh and rested tomorrow morning.
To be sure, it's not only myself driving me crazy at the moment. There are things of much more significance the courses of which will be charted over the span of the next few days. I'm playing a waiting game while I'm writing this, and to be certain, I'm losing the game miserably. I want to take a dose of something that will allow me to sleep until I need to be awake to tend to things that will need tending.
My best buddy from high school is now lying in a hospital somewhere in Boston with an annoying problem that seems to have gone into a chronic form. And his spirits are higher than mine! Yep. I need a break from this - from ME for a while.
I saw this little guy in the Wal Mart parking lot a few days ago, and when I got back I looked him up online. Seemingly, he might look a lot better than he performs if this review is typical for his make and model. Unfortunately, it speaks as poorly about the scooter as it does for what "customer service" has come to mean since I was a kid and the customer was always right. In this guy's case the manufacturer and distributor got into it as they often do with each blaming the other and not really caring about the fact that the customer ended up with a defective product. It's like good old Wal Mart not caring at all these days about how long the checkout lines are. Never has "Caveat emptor!" been as poignant an admonition as it is now.
Now...
...what to do after lunch? Oh! Wait...
What IS for lunch?
7 comments:
I feel you pain of indecision. When on my own, I'm especially bad at meal times. I typically work 4 days a week and during that time I make to do list for my long weekends, sometimes it helps, other times well you know.
GAW
Joe,
Sometimes the most difficult part of the day is just getting out of the chair in the morning and doing something, ANYTHING but sit there.
I think you need to tie a bindle on the back of your scooter and take three or four day ride. Break that rubber band that's connects your butt to your chair. If nothing else, you'll get two months worth of blog material out of it.
Mind you, I'm master of living out Newton's first law of motion, so I can relate to your situation.
I liked the approach taken by Clint Eastwood's character in "In the Line of Fire": allow natural, random occurences to disctate choices. In one scene he told another character that if one of three pigeons flew away before the others, he would do something, but if another of the pigeons went first, he would not do it. You can make decisions this way very quickly without actually making deliberate decisions.
I have a question for you: do you have any windshield camera footage of Middle Road between Nanticoke and Wilkes-Barre? The trees there used to sorm a canopy in spots, and while in most areas thre trees have been cut back from one side or the other, in many cases the half-canopy still exists. I was thinking that I might go out and get pictures of this sometime, and then I remembered that at one point you had a camera mounted to the front of your scooter, so I thought maybe you might have captured this in your travels.
Nope, D.B., I don't have any "film" of that. I experimented with a camera mount and it worked well enough, but as soon as I had it up and running a sad realization dawned on me...
Remember when personal video cameras first came out, in the early 80's perhaps? At every amusement park, just about every daddy of toddlers carried one around on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Mommy put the kids on the rides and took them off while daddy did little more than tape every second of the hot ride action.
The kids on those tapes are now pushing 30 and I wonder how often anybody ever sits down and watches them go round and round on the cars, the boats, the planes, and all those other fun shapes on radial arms.
My point is, I captured one, short ride on the scooter mounted camera and only then realized that I'd never really watch the footage of that nondescript ride I'd taken. If I have the time to ride, I'll ride. And when the scooter's grounded because of the weather, or the season, or even my mood - I'll read a book!
-Joe
Here's what people always forget to read when they read bad reviews of China scooters:
UPDATE - 10/19/07
Now as a teacher you should understand that things change over time and the last three years have produced many changes in the China scoot world. There are many more places to get parts, more reputable people to buy scooters from and much more information at preparing them to prevent post sales blues. I've read that Baja has gotten better and Pep Boys has taken their role more seriously in the care and feeding of Chinese products. So now in 6/29/10 you can buy with more confidence.
Whether or not China scoots have improved, Pep Boys is going to live out the rest of its existence without my business. Twice they were given the opportunity to get tires onto my cars and both times they dropped the ball ridiculously with the amount of time it took them to do the jobs. If I'm told that a job should take about a half an hour and after two hours it's not done, and then my complaints fall on ears that really don't care - cha-ching! My money goes somewhere else after that.
- Joe
I can actually see your pain. In the photo it's obvious you're beside yourself!
Cool concept.
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