Random
The thing I like least about rushing about in the morning, getting Mimi off to school, then scooting down Jackson to catch my bus out to Cascadia, is that I spend way too much time not being where I am, but instead, am constantly reaching for the next place I’m trying to get to. Even in Savasana, I don’t relax, but only count the breaths until I can tell myself that I’m done relaxing.
Most people look pretty grouchy in their cars; this morning, Mimi and I got cut off on the tandem by some sour-faced woman smoking a cigarette; I yelled “Watch out!” as, turning right, she swung wide into our lane and then, I think she cursed us, because fifty feet on, we dropped the timing chain on the bike and had to wrestle with it to get the thing back on and the cranks more or less in phase.
The “community” aspect of teaching at a community college twenty miles from my house is what I miss most. While I’m fond of my students and colleagues and am even true to my school, it’s just so far out of my usual orbit. Waiting at the bus stop this morning, I totally envied bike commuters who were riding into their offices or workplaces in Pioneer Square.
Sometimes I wonder why I ever stopped trying to be a writer; that’s the best job there is: you get to be by yourself all day long and then, in the evening, hang out with people, drinking, telling lies, and feeling good about yourself for all the good work you’ve done that day.
The cell phone and the internet have fundamentally changed the way human beings communicate, but I’m not sure it’s for the better. They’ve certainly made us all more impatient, greedy, and demanding.
If it weren’t for the world-wide web, the current economic meldown would never have happened; on the other hand, there’d be no 327words.blogspot.com, either.
Most people look pretty grouchy in their cars; this morning, Mimi and I got cut off on the tandem by some sour-faced woman smoking a cigarette; I yelled “Watch out!” as, turning right, she swung wide into our lane and then, I think she cursed us, because fifty feet on, we dropped the timing chain on the bike and had to wrestle with it to get the thing back on and the cranks more or less in phase.
The “community” aspect of teaching at a community college twenty miles from my house is what I miss most. While I’m fond of my students and colleagues and am even true to my school, it’s just so far out of my usual orbit. Waiting at the bus stop this morning, I totally envied bike commuters who were riding into their offices or workplaces in Pioneer Square.
Sometimes I wonder why I ever stopped trying to be a writer; that’s the best job there is: you get to be by yourself all day long and then, in the evening, hang out with people, drinking, telling lies, and feeling good about yourself for all the good work you’ve done that day.
The cell phone and the internet have fundamentally changed the way human beings communicate, but I’m not sure it’s for the better. They’ve certainly made us all more impatient, greedy, and demanding.
If it weren’t for the world-wide web, the current economic meldown would never have happened; on the other hand, there’d be no 327words.blogspot.com, either.
posted by Professor Dave at 9:08 PM
1 Comments:
timing chain? is that the long chain that goes between the two cranks?
I guess it has to be, since you only have one other chain and i don't think that one is called the timing chain.
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