I often surprised by the number of things that I can do but I am not doing for one reason or the other. Not to mention the things I could have done but did not. All the things you say. I live in a minefield of my own creation. Obviously. I have to do something and in my world "nothing" is a valid move as long as I can avoid regretting it. In the long run all that matters is what you give away for free and what you survive.
I am almost done with the car repair. All I need now is some new tires as I travel the land of Tiidas and potholes. Hopefully the tires fix the last main nagging issue. Old car issues are inescapable. Old cars are naturally moving towards a state of chaos. All the parts want to separate like a sand castle on a beach at high tide. The best way to keep old cars together is to not drive them at all but at that point you might as well sell it.
If its raining at lunch time and I forced to leave work there is a high chance that I might go home. When it rains. Everything becomes more chaotic. Luckily on this occasion I ended up downtown assuming that I would have better luck and easier parking. The parking was not perfect but the rain did let up so I threw on my pink poncho and headed out into the unknown food court full of customer service reps.
I drive an uncommon car so whenever I see another person in a similar car I pretend that we are in a sort of exclusive club. There are no meetings or dues. People who drive recklessly or do not maintain their vehicles automatically have their membership revoked. Even the simple act of not acknowledging the horn toot? of a fellow member would be considered impolite. All we would need now are some stickers, a flag and a small island with freshly paved roads free of potholes.
I went to the country - I might have mentioned - developed an annoying creek in my dashboard. Though I should be glad to be alive, it does not bring comfort. Creeks are what we call "old car struggles". Some creeks you can learn to live with others are a sign that something is not quite doing what its suppose to.
At one point in the journey I started to question the world as a whole. I stopped the car got out and pondered life as I picked up a stone and threw it into the stream. I was at the point of no return. I went back to the car and told everyone to get out. Its about to get wild. I guess you never know who you really are until you cross a flowing stream deep in the bushes of a land with no name. It was a shortcut they said, just 15 minutes that way. 1 hour later, 3 creeks and a million potholes we reach back to civilization. Never again.
On this trip abroad I took 1230 photos on my aging point and shoot (Canon PS Elph 300HS) a small potion of which at 30 second videos. I have started sorting through them and carefully choosing the ones to post since my website is currently at 74% of its alloted storage space (2.7gb). On this trip I was not very mobile since I was staying in the suburbs with a new born and a 7 year old who got mad because I did not want to co-op minecraft with him. The suburbs are far away from all the sites and sounds of Toronto. Uber/Taxis would have ate through my budget like a hot knife through cheese and I was not going to do any driving on those crazy highways.
As soon as I touched down FLOW roaming charges were like $100 JMD a minute or something similar. I had only $34 JMD credit on my phone by the time I left the airport. I probably should have done some research on the roaming costs instead of simply guesstimating it. I did see a text about a $999 free incoming call package but I wrote that off as "trash" pretty quickly. Modile phone rates are trash all over the world especially with so many people addicted to it.
I had a great time, none the less. Kensington, Waterparks, Center island, Niagara Falls, walked around to Toronto and made a diamond sword in PS4 Minecraft despite all odds against productive playing. A vodka and coke (with tons of ice) in the club is roughly 8 CAD and parking is 20 CAD at one club. I am not sure if it was because it was close to Caribana or alcohol on a whole is expensive in Canada. Most days were overcast and it rained once - flooded Toronto - and there was a sunny day when the wind chill was not so bad.
In life sometimes you simply have to cut your loses, bring the horse out back, shoot it and then sell the farm. That point came for me when I realised that water parks are not my thing. I am 100 percent water-parked-out. The chlorine makes my eyes red, slides give me a headache. Everything looks all foggy. It may be fun for a while but at this point I have seen all there is to sea.
Its been almost a week and I can tick Toronto off my bucket list. Its hard to conceive the actual day of the week without looking at my phone. I am just chilling enjoying my time with these fine people, absorbing the chlorine in the air and the sound of footsteps echoing through the wood flooring. Kicking it Jackie Chan with chicken balls from Japan.
Big city life might not be immediately obvious to the untrained eye. Do not even try to say hi to your neighbours unless they are bleeding heavily from a wound. And whatever you do ensure that you do not get lost without a map or stranded on the highway.
I was just at the autoparts place and a man pull up asking for a water pump for a 91 swift. The parts man promptly said "no". The man then jumped back into his car, reverse, car shutoff and start and off he went. At the same time I was there buying the cheapest battery I could find for a 2008 swift. The swift is on its second transmission. This transmission sounds worse than the first but the car runs - bit ruff but the AC north pole cold and it was lady driven. The battery dolly installed the battery and I was on my way as well. I had a long ride to Kingston ahead of me and many police checkpoints to pass before I make this delivery. Lesson: Every man have them struggle.
The summer is hot, I mean really hot like 10 fire side. Every time I see a cloud in the sky I pray its a hurricane coming to wash the heat away. Certainly there will be flash flooding with the ground this dry. I realize that the meaning of summer dramatically changes as you get older but this heat is ridiculous.
One of the hardest things is the ability to let go of the things that do not matter. Eventually the things that you own start owning you. How do you know what matters? You dont, because nothing matters. It is all just stuff going around and around in circles, people covering their ass, not doing their jobs and waiting on the next pay cheque. I run, they run, everyone just having fun. Dont stop.