Author: brhythm

The Scooter!

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I’ve been watching the scooter market for some time. It’s been close to two years, I would bet. With gas prices going up, up, up, and with a lot of my driving being in town, I thought a scooter would be perfect. This year, though, used scooter prices are through the roof! Last year, the $800 scooter was easy to come by. This year? No way. Even Chinese scooters were selling for $1800 at the dealership 1/2 hour from here. In fact, I was bemoaning that fact just this Monday at my Kiwanis meeting.

Today, though, one of the Kiwanians I was talking to at lunch called me. She said she saw a scooter for sale (two actually) just a few miles away. I took a little ride with JP this afternoon to take a look at it.

It was a 2007 blue and white Honda Metropolitan. I called the number on the sign. The guy said that, though it was unregistered, I could take it for a test drive if I wanted. The scooter was parked at a friends house that had good visibility to the road, and that friend had the keys. I went up and knocked.

After a two mile jaunt, I knew I really needed (!) one of these scooters. It was fun, economical, and still could travel 35 mph, even with big ol’ me on it. I talked to friend who was “selling” the bike for the owner. He told me the scooter had been on his lawn since 4pm yesterday. He said he had 4-5 people look at it yesterday, and 7 people look at it today. It had nine miles on it. It seems the lady who owned the scooter crashed it on mile two. When she did, she broke her arm and wrist. Her husband, who was on the other scooter, saw the whole thing happen. After that they decided scooters were not for them. So she had a brand new scooter, just repaired, with a total of nine miles on it.

On the ride back to the office, JP and I talked. He mentioned at the price the guy was asking, if I didn’t like it, I could sell it again and get my money back. And, since it was a Honda, it would be reliable, and parts and service should be easy to come by. I called Susan, and spoke with her. She agreed that it was a good price, it was the style I liked, and since it was local, perhaps I should spring for it.

So I did!

Even though it wasn’t registered, I drove it home. I had so much fun, it was crazy! It would maintain 30mph just about everywhere, and could get up to 40mph with a slight downhill run. There was one big hill on the way home, and it slowed down predictably then, but it was quite a big hill.

Of course, now I’ve bought a scooter, and it’s almost winter, and it’ll be raining the next two days! 🙁

Another Crazy Dream

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This one is kinda disjointed. It seems it was all in one dream, but the parts don’t seem to fit together.

Part the first: Susan and I are driving on a very rutted, muddy, dirt road in the countryside. There’s a farm to our left. Behind us are a bunch of military types, complete with tanks. I come to a very rutted part of the road. I decide to go off towards the right ditch in an effort to keep my wheels out of the rut. Instead, the rut is so big, I end up gettting the entire car in the rut. The Army is a little mad we’re holding them up. I decide rather than push forward, to back out, and let the Army go around us.

Next, Susan and I are at a party. She mentions to me she’s just noticed a beetle enter my right ear. She just happens to have a pair of forceps, and she starts digging around in my ear, trying to get the beetle. As you can imagine, it’s quite painful. I can feel she’s latching onto something, but she isn’t strong enough to pull it out. I eventually (and forcefully) take the forceps away from her, and proceed to get the bug myself. I eventually latch onto about three cotton balls worth of lint, hair, and cotton. Also inside is a small, see-through, blue beetle, about the color of an original iMac.

Part 3: Now it’s winter. Again, Susan and I are in the car. We are traveling on Old County Rd, heading towards Thomaston. There is so much snow, the road crews have decided not to remove it. Instead, they push the snow from one lane over onto the other lane. The result is one lane is at its normal grade. The other side is a road made of snow, several feet higher than the other side. At one point, the snow is so deep, the south bound lane starts going up-hill. The top of the hill is the height of a telephone pole! Again, this is just a giant mound of snow, compacted down. There is no type of barier or railing on the edge, just a telephone height drop onto the other lane below. I start up the hill, and I’m almost to the top, when I turn to Susan and say “I’m not entirely comfortable up here. What if we start to skid, and go over the edge? What if the compacted snow gives way, and the road collapses? I’m going to back down the hill.” There are people behind me, and they’re a little mad they have to slow down, pull over to the edge as much as they can, and let me by.

Then I woke up.

There are  two things I notice about these dream sequences. In all three, Susan is with me. In parts one and three, I’m in a vehicle that needs to back up, and people are behind me getting angry. What’s that all about?

Crazy Christmas Carol Dream

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Last night, I had this crazy dream. Dwane (my sister’s husband) and I were leading a church service. Dwane is one of the music leaders at our church, and he was performing that function in the dream. We were singing “The First Noel.” After a few verses, Dwane asked me to come up and sing a solo. Here’s some background information…

1. While in a church service, it’s not good form to not comply with a request from the pulpit.
2. I don’t sing very well.
3. I like to sing, but I sing the bass part. I’ve sung bass so long (since high school), it’s very hard for me to sing melodies. My ear, and thus my voice, wants to sing the bass part. So, I’m not a great choice to sing lead melodies.

So, like a dutiful church go-er, I go up to the pulpit as Dwane requested. There in front of me is a book. It’s a book of “mis-heard Christmas carol lyrics.” Yup, not the real lyrics, but specifically wrong lyrics. The book is also printed in a “Ye Olde English” font. So now I have to sing the melody to words that aren’t correct, and words I can hardly even read!

Of course, the result is awful. I can’t sing the right melody, and keep drifting into the bass part. I can’t read some of the words, so I’m making some of them up. Sometimes, I’m skiping words altogehter in an effort to keep up with the music. Finally, I decide to sing all the chorus as “Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel.” (In the book, there are different words for each chorus. I figured “The congregation can’t see the words, so they won’t know if I’m singing the written chorus or not.”)

Then I woke up.

Friday Fill-Ins #90

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1. There is no need to get so testy so quickly.

2. Where in the heck did the boys drag my shotgun off to?

3. Making a gigantic mess out of the whole thing is all I managed to do.

4. Prospects for investing aren’t looking so hot right now.

5.“Feel the funk, y’all; have a good time!”  is the message.

6. Simplicity and tranquility are elusive.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to supper out with the family, tomorrow my plans include playing a gig in Brunswick,  and Sunday, I want to enjoy the company picnic!

My Life of Luxury

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On the way to work this morning, I was listening to the news on NPR as I usually do. It seems they’re running some features on living in Maine, and the costs of doing so. Yesterday, they had some admitted left wing economist (yes, the NPR reporter said his guest was left of center) say that the average Maine household earned $45k a year, and it it took, on average, $50k to live in this state. I mumbled something at the radio, and went about my day.

Now, this morning, I yelled at the radio. This morning’s economist was talking about the price of health care and day care. He mentioned something about how some people have the “luxury” of having one parent stay at home full time with their children.

Listen, buddy: It’s a choice, not a luxury.

There’s nothing luxurious about working your regular day job, and then going home and working on your home computer, designing web sites for extra scratch. There’s nothing luxurious about spending your Friday and Saturday nights miles away from home and family so you can earn money to take the kids out for a donut on Sunday morning. Sure, my ’95 Ford Taurus wagon has leather seats and air conditioning. And hey, I’m not knocking it. I wouldn’t consider it luxury.

No, instead, my wife and I made a choice. We decided we wanted to raise our kids with one parent at home. In my case, Susan felt lead to be the one to stay home, but it doesn’t have to be a “mommy only” thing. So she stays home. I go to the office. We both work hard–just at different things. Our home is modest; buying a new couch is something that requires some thrifty shopping. Our cars, though not heaps, are both over 10 years old. Our vacations don’t require plane flights to anywhere. Our last meal in a “fancy” restaurant was paid for with $50 worth of gift certificates that I bartered for with web design work.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not claiming poverty–far from it, in fact. But very often, things need to be put in perspective. My family has a full time parent at home. Though we’re not poor, we’re a mighty long way from Obama’s $250k rich, and a mighty long way from McCain’s five mil rich. And yet, we somehow figured out how to be able to keep Mom home with the kids. It’s far from a “luxury.” It’s a choice, a decision. If you really want to do it–if you really believe it’s the right thing to do–you can make it happen.