Over Before It Started

My parents raised me to be a nerd without really trying, but sometimes when I take stock and do some casual introspection it would almost seem that they might have spent serious time and energy at it, perhaps conversing in hushed tones when they were alone along the lines of, “...and when he’s old enough we’ll get him accordion lessons and eye glasses with dark frames.”

I think I wore jackets in August till I was near my teens, with caps or hats to boot.  My schoolbooks were always covered, I was never without my #2 pencils and plenty of ball point pens, and I carried a book bag in one form or another through college.  When it rained I had a trusty slicker, rubbers over my shoes, and a sturdy umbrella.  In case of snow I was bundled in a thick coat and with gloves, a hood, and boots.  Nothing was left to chance if Mom could anticipate it!

I was all set to take the scooter out just a little while ago.  With 62 degrees as the current temperature I selected a long sleeved flannel shirt and a thick fleece jacket which ten years of experience taught me I’d need even if it seemed warmer when I set foot on the deck to assess the conditions.  I even had my helmet on and the door locked behind me when, oh no!  Could it be?  Yes.  Drats!  I was feeling something like dew falling on my hands and I knew my ride was over even before it started.

Like a good nerd I can’t stand being cold and wet.  Cold I can handle within reason.  Wet I can stand if the water and ambient temperatures are both warm.  But cold and wet together?  Not  a chance in hell that I’ll risk being that!  I’d checked the weather on multiple sources before I’d even gotten out of my chair to suit up for the ride.  Okay, truth be told, what was falling out there could hardly be described as rain with how small the droplets were and few and far between they were.  Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to chance getting to the end of the block only to have the sky open up and get me good.  After all, I have a lifelong reputation of nerd to maintain and I wasn’t going to be seen riding that manly scooter along in the rain!

 

I stuck it out in those intolerable conditions until I could get a picture of me looking all disgusted, drink and scooter key in hand just to show that I’m not totally hopeless.  Now I need to decide if I’ll spend the evening as a hermit with reruns of Law & Order playing one after another or venture out in the car just for the sake of getting out somewhere.  It’s dark, like that dark before a good rain (though there’s none in the forecast in spite of what I felt out there), but the school busses are just now letting off the neighborhood kids so it’s going to be a long evening if I just stay here.  Sigh!  What's a nerd to do?

  

A Local Celebrity for about Ten Seconds

On a brighter shade of things I checked my stat counter here a little earlier and peeked at where the blog traffic was coming from in recent days only to find that “Scootin’ da Valley” was featured on a local newscast a few days ago.  There’s a blog here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, nepablogs.org that keeps track of local blogs and the gentleman who runs that blog was on the news with a featured "blog of the week” spot and this one was it!  He talked for a bit about me and my writings here and made mention of the fact that he once approached me in a parking lot, having recognized the scooter and me from “Scootin’” to strike up some friendly conversation.

I don’t know how long this link will be active, but the news clip can be seen by clicking here if it's still up.

I’ll close by lamenting that the end of Daylight Saving Time will be over in two days.  Once again my circadian rhythms will be out of whack for a month in making the adjustment back to EST, and the depressing dark at 4:00 evenings won’t be far behind.  If only I could get NBC to move Jeopardy up a few hours it wouldn’t be so bad.  Rest assured, though, that I’ll keep taking the scooter out unless and until there’s snow or ice on the ground.  Provided, of course, that it’s only cold and not cold and wet together.