Saturday, July 19, 2008

Mind Altering



Two epiphanic episodes this week for me.

Driving the truck up Veteran's Parkway I look down and see the left turn signal has been flashing for the last half mile. In my defense, the blinker is totally silent. You can only see that is on.

"Way to go grandpa." I say to myself.

And then I think about this. "Grandpa," hmm.

Soon I will be 40. It's not totally implausible that I could have been a father at 20. It didn't happen, obviously. But it could have.

And if I had son or daughter at 20 why couldn't they have done the same?




You look at yourself in the prime of life one moment. The next, viola! Grandpa!




Freaky.
Also, this:


When I took over the business, I got out my two best vacuums, lined them up and addressed them Patton style (i.e. I put on breeches and gestured with a riding crop)


"You two vacuums are my best two vacuums. You have served me well and you continue to run quietly and efficiently. " Here I paced back and forth swishing the crop through the air for emphasis.



I round on them, pointing,"Some day you will break down. It is inevitable." I let that soak in for a while and then continued:



"But what you must not do, must never do, is break down at the same time as your comrade. That would be bad. That would defeat our mission"



Of course that is exactly what they did. I think the bearings went out on one and I know the plastic fan snapped on the other.



I ordered a new motor. I never think of my self as being handy with stuff or adept at all with the more malleable aspects of the physical world, but a new motor was about $150 cheaper prospect so I thought I'd give it a whirl.


I disconnected and removed the old motor and installed the new one
quite successfully. With minimal parts left over (2 weird little springs that somehow, inscrutably, attach to the inside of the housing.).



It made me feel so buoyantly happy to penetrate the mysteries of my own vacuum. I woke up that morning as someone to whom the innards of the Sanitaire were a void. And now...


Two instants where the universe revolved and deposited me in totally unexpected place.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Album


I might have already sent you one.


But if you like, I will send you our new album.


Send me your address.