Monday, November 19, 2012

This morning I was thinking


Some days are more difficult. There doesn’t seem to be a specific cause. They just happen. I figure it’s part of my mind’s effort to fill in the void left by not having a job. Working becomes a habit after fifty years of doing something gainful. At least the process, the ritual becomes a habit, since the actual work changes. Getting ready for work is one of those defining activities. When it goes away the void needs a replacement or alternative.

I did not anticipate being jobless when I chose to be absent from work for two months. My return was expected, the continuing need for me expressed emphatically. Circumstances and needs change and it simply reaffirms what Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say to Jane Curtain on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Updates, "Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something--if it ain't one thing, it's another."

There are things with which I can fill the hours formerly devoted to paid employment —laundry, baking cookies, vacuuming, dusting, making the bed, and other life stuff — but that only eliminates them from the usual weekend or evening list of “to dos.” So, what do I do?

A lot of time is spent wrestling with depression created by the thought that I’ve passed the point where I am able to contribute anything to anyone. It grows to include feelings that there is no hope . . . ever. Pragmatically, both of these ideas have more than a grain of truth. Age becomes a handicap whether we legislate against it or not.

It’s ironic that at a tine when you need it less you want it more, food that is. With a limited income I choose more carefully what I can and will purchase, then I lament that I can’t have things around just to satisfy my sweet-, sour-, salty-, or bitter-tooth. Well, I guess I could, but then I’d not be able to afford the things that actually keep me alive. I reflect on one of the relevant and sage lines from Firesign Theater:
“How does an old man like you stay alive?”
“I don't eat anything. But, it doesn't affect my appetite!”
Ultimately, my present and future are fully my responsibility. We are after all, the sum of the decisions we make. I could lament my current circumstances, but doing this would only diminish the immense value of my work hiatus. The truth of the assertions that we get what we give, that doing the right thing is always the right thing to do and that negative begets negative were proven to me everyday of that adventure.

As convenient and inviting as it is to take the mock-Latin aphorism “Illegitimi non carborundum” as the way to confront life’s injustice and unfairness, I hold true to the belief that if it’s going to be a good day it’s up to me to make it so.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Life at 12 mph



Life sometimes imitates life.

There are people who approve of my obsession for bicycling; “Good for your health.” You know, someone my age and all. It is good for my health and even people who are not my age. Their approval of bicycling follows a different route when it comes to bike paths.

Locally, the conflict appears regarding two separate paths. City planners have put forth the idea of maintaining a current in-town street as configured or eliminating the curbside lane and making it a bicycle lane. Opposition to creating a dedicated bike lane has taken many forms and arguments. One assertion is that drivers pay large sums of money to build and maintain roads and should therefore be given the most suitable design. Another argument says that people are too attached to their cars and having more bike paths isn’t going to get people on bikes.

The tax on gasoline in Florida ranges from $0.274 to $0.0355 per gallon. My contribution, there fore is zero. I paid nothing for the same trip. Of course, I do manage to save a gallon of gasoline at the current cost of $3 something each.

My oft faulty logic tells me that I have a net positive in the equation. Perhaps non-recreational riders could offer the fuel we save to specific drivers. <shrug> Might be a few details needing to be worked out first.

Just a silly rambling . . .

The other place where a conflict has arisen is in the planning and construction of a bike path using the existing right of way through a tony neighborhood. Resistance has come from the residents who seem to believe that a bike path will open their community to an influx of bands of bad people on Huffy and Roadmaster, fully suspended, mountain bikes and dedicated to defacing and vandalizing their tranquil Village.

It is their position that a bike path already exists and an additional or replacement path is unneeded or redundant. There is an inconsistency in this assertion. The existing bike path is clearly designated as being for the use of the community’s residents and their guests.  


I’m just sayin’ . . .