Bits and pieces

Days went by, as they always find a way to do. I filled them with Kerouac, Heat-Moon. Glanced over Pirsig, Steinbeck. They all had something to write about: America, the tires and the road beneath, the rambling journey, the stops, the people, the reflections. I didn't have that. I still don't. I will write about my life instead.

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Went to Jiffy Lube today. William Least Heat-Moon got a new engine fan and serpentine belt for $39.50. I got my oil changed, replaced 3 tail-light bulbs and an air filter for $124. Don't even get me started on gas. Kerouac talks about 35 cents getting him across town. Steinbeck and his truck probably made it across half the country in what it costs to fill up my tank once. America and all it's progress has made the road an expensive place to get lost on, to wander. So has inflation.

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Chili's continues to be, if I'm being generous, interesting. I often serve tables who don't speak English, or can't read our menu, or don't understand it. They usually don't tip well. It's an easy job, frustrating at times because your income depends on the generosity of others. These "others" aren't always generous, or even educated [refer to my second sentence of this paragraph]. As Shakespeare, and now everyone else, says, "there's the rub." But, if nothing else, it's motivation for my job search. It's tough to find anything when you don't know what you want, only what you don't want. The one thing I am absolutely certain is that I don't want to wake up one day in June and put on jeans and a black polo shirt and non-slip shoes before I head off to work.

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Snow has passed. Thankfully. Going to be in the 60's all week. Rain expected. I'll be outside most of those days, trying to get in shape for the upcoming racing season. I've got age-group titles to defend, a brother to take down, and a father to "put across my knee".

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Up next, Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller. Then, either Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell or The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I'm excited. On deck, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Music for Chameleons, Metamorphasis or Brave New World. As said before, exciting.

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Another quick note, I watched the movie "Crazy Heart" with Carinne on Sunday. Awesome movie. Good acting. Nice, simple story line with simple dialogue. Definitely recommend it. Some enjoyable country music in there too. A patient movie. The kind I like.

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Quote I'll pass along for no real reason other than I enjoy it:

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence