Foundations!

A few blogs ago I posted some pix of the apartments next to us and their collapsing porches. Amazingly enough some heavy equipment arrived a couple of days ago to remedy the problem...



Whoa! Hope you look before you step out THAT sliding door!

The workman completely removed the porches on all three floors and started over.



Second Floor Porch Rebuild in Progress



Street View

The most interesting, and alarming, part is when the old beams were exposed they revealed a pretty weak core hidden underneath a plaster sheath.





Now THAT is some high-quality construction!

Kind of got me thinking of the whole thing as a metaphor for the way life can sometimes be lived. Particularly my own of late. How easy it is to plaster over a weak spiritual foundation with and acceptable but weak facade.

Shop Math!

I was enjoying the un-self conscious rhytmic slapping of the black-clad master tech as he sauntered up the long hallway of MMI returning from a cigarette break. "What did you stop for, that was a groovy groove," I said as he looked up and saw me leaning on the outside wall of the classroom next to the vending machines. He held out his hand down low, palm out in the universal invitation for a congratulitory slap which I recipricated. "Way to go," he beamed, "you really pulled it out!" I modulated my response in the "manly" way..."thanks man," I said in the coolest tone I could pull off. However, inside I was delighted like a small child. No compliment has ever meant more to me. A few days earlier I could not have felt more differently.

You see my student career at Motorcyle Mechanics Institute had gotten off to a less than auspicious start. Just a few days earlier my medication had been changed and I had spent a couple of VERY long days just trying to stay concious in class and saftety seminar and had received a very disappointing score on my first test in engine theory, followed by being called out privately by my teacher Gabe and the physically intimidating T.C. and questioned why I had looked and behaved so drugged during T.C.'s safety lecure. Fortunately they both understood about bi-polar disorder and the effect of new meds and they spared me the ignomy of being escorted down to the office for a drug test. Still I was so humiliated by my poor academic performance and subsequent bad public behavior that I voiced my strong desire to quit the program right there. Fortunately that little "God Place" in my head had prevailed and I agreed to show up for class the next day.



Gabe Visser, Harley Tech and teacher extraordinaire and all 'round great human being

The next few days were rough, no insurance means I have been suffering through some tooth and leg pain that has been relentles, but on Thursday I aced the shop math quiz and pulled out an A in the course.

Feels Good!

Some Random Notes

Life at Road Show Central has taken yet another unexpected turn. With school MMI now in full swing and the Wrench Wench and I now working, umm sort of, more on that later our time for travel adventures has been severely curtailed.

School at Motorcycle Mechanics Institute is truly brutal. Five hours in class every day with no absences or tardies tolerated, and every single minute of those hours ABSOLUTELY filled. Not that I am complaining mind you, it is just extremely intense. My part-time job at the small appliance store in the mornings is taking more than its toll on me. You would not believe the crap I have to pull out of some of those machines and it is pretty depressing.

The Next Day

Amazing how a twenty-four hour interval can alter ones perspective. Turns out my boss at Oreck was willing to work with me and let me work whatever hours I wanted, but, I got canned by corporate yesterday. My 2002 DUI conviction in California turned up on my background check and apparently vacuum cleaner techs with an old DUI on their record are a menace to society. Not that having a DUI on my record is something I am proud of, I deeply regret that action, but since 2002 I have not had as much as a single parking ticket, yet I remain a threat to society. FUN!

I took this issue up with my alleged counselor at Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and was painted a bleak picture about my future in the that industry as well. Which at least that makes sense, but what she failed to tell me was that it is possible to have these issues expunged from ones record if it was a one time thing. At least my instructor had the brains to tell me that. So I am now in the process of having my record expunged. Will keep you posted on how that goes.