Still awaiting scooter parts, the stem on the front forks of my model is two inches longer than the part carried by the supplier, and that supplier is “ScooterParts4Less”. Consider this not an endorsement. I know the ropes of the parts supply business. I ran orders for eight construction sites for four years. There is no excuse to get the same part consistently wrong time after time. This photo is not my scooter, but a little 50cc toy scooter. This type of vehicle is nicknamed a “goat”. You are supposed to imagine the posture when riding it.
I pedaled the eBike without the battery for nine miles today. Taking things easy is no help in my situation. Just when my scooter is in the shop, the electric pins on the eBike battery quit making a solid connection. There is also a problem with the ignition switch in the scooter handlebars. The machine cannot be started unless one of the brake levers is pulled. The part they sent was for the right side, not the left as specified. Where does God find such people, or do they exist because he admits the mistake but quietly lets them breed? Hello to a “For Rent” sign at Dekka. I was wondering about that, the place has been vacant a short while. Nor am I fully recovered from the stretch when I had to let all my routine maintenance lapse. My Internet is down, and all the spare parts I’ve kept over the years are outdated. Had to throw out a thousand dollars of old material today, it isn’t worth giving away. I kept only the best one of each set.
The big event today was a classic situation from my former career. Professor Howard’s phone didn’t ring, or it did not ring right. A four-hour witch hunt later, be-damned if somehow there wasn’t a ground in the wall between his DSL box and the remaining house wiring. These types of problems are notoriously difficult to troubleshoot. In this case, while he was away in the Dominican Republic, a rainstorm lifted his shingles let enough water down between the walls of his computer room to ground his answering machine system in the living room. When these things happen, engineers, mechanics, and electricians aren’t much help. Try it.
We had a lengthy discussion about the new Visa cards with the RFID chip. Folks, as with each new technology since 1970, these things are released for usage without any testing for how easy they are to steal or manipulate. The RFID chips are beaming unencrypted credit card information to anyone who has a reader. You can buy the reader on-line or I can build you one for about $100. They are near-field, meaning the range is only a couple of inches, so there is no way to tell if you are being scanned unless you are standing right next to a reading device and know what to look for.
Later we find out that the only branch of the warehouse that carries the correct scooter part is in California. So it ships out this weekend. I do not believe the store who says for the nth time in a row that they did not know the forks come in two sizes. That puts the scooter at Wednesday next week no matter what else I wrote recently (this paragraph was added at noon on Saturday).
We had a discussion about dating at the bakery. Myself, I do not think that dating is at all a very good way to get to know anyone of the opposite sex. I can’t count the people I know who were embarrassingly wrong in their choices. Judging character is like a sense of humor, in that there is a tendency for each person to overestimate their own abilities while underestimating others. Dating, in the classical sense of a dinner or movie or picnic offers, in my experienced opinion, very narrow opportunity to observe others in realistic settings.
Myself, I’ve only been on maybe five dates in my life, that is, dates that would be formally defined as such. And four of those were in my mid-teens before I learned better. Additionally, I know women who have a distinct polished dating behavior that borders on outright prevarication. Are you listening, Kim Kritz? The only date I enjoyed was Maureen Melanchuk, but the date went nowhere so neither did we. (That wasn’t so bad when I found out years later she had just gotten out of weight watchers.)
How do I connect? The majority of times it has not been through music, an easy thing to conclude the way I talk about it. Nope, the music is only to meet women and it works wonders for that. The problem is the type of women after you turn 40. There is nothing wrong with a clean, healthy, musical lifestyle but try to tell that to ladies of a certain age who have only dated drugged out guitar players. The pattern is the same, after 30 you meet lots of the wrong kind of women. After 45 you don’t meet any at all.
So let me analyze the last ten women I’ve gone out with that DID NOT work out, and what we did rather than “date”.
1. S. Met via mutual friends. Talked over coffee. Far too opinionated and set in her ways to be a serious contender. If it isn’t about marriage, she doesn’t even want to discuss it.
2. S. Met at bakery. Went to library, where she read cookbooks. Absolutely no life skills to bring into a relationship except maybe being in a relationship. A real nervous Nellie.
3. D. Met via music. Walked down Dixie for an hour. No visible means of support, lots of invisible means. Could not be trusted. Knew every man we passed on a first-name basis.
4. T. Met at computer shop. Walked over to Arties a couple of times. Okay first impression but completely psychotic and neurotic. Doesn’t grasp the concept of either making others happy or leaving them alone.
5. B. Met at evening class. Went to a bluegrass festival. Totally over-attached to her mother to an unnatural degree for someone her age. You would never be number one. Forever alone.
6. A. Met a pet shop. Drove around in my Cadillac. Utterly indecisive, no social skills, clinging, co-dependent, stifling. Also, much to Catholic to have any fun. Never mentioned she had two infant daughters.
7. S. Met at Laundromat. Went for a ferry boat ride. Nice enough but with an inner meanness that kept showing through no matter how hard she tried to cover. Didn’t like work.
8. B. Met at a church festival. Went to a tea shop. Complete fake, had a polished act to appear outgoing but was actually far too emotionally aggressive for her real looks or personality. Blames others for all her shortcomings.
9. A. Met through co-workers. Went to her friend’s birthday party. Boring, uninterested in anything new or different. Considers hobbies and outside pursuits to be “too much drama”. Already knows enough for one lifetime.
10. D. Met in grocery aisle. Walked through the mall. Gave it all away, now wants the next guy to pay for it. Charming exterior covers for a real nasty hatred for men who don’t do things her way, which appears to amount to giving her all your money and worshipping her.
I subscribe to the theory that if you want a second date, it all depends on the first. Thus, the less play-acting, the better. While other men might not even notice the same quirks I listed above, to me they are important relationship-killers. Nothing is static. You have to evolve and roll with the punches, meaning a keen learning ability and the flexibility to keep up with things.
But, what am I like to “date”? It varies, but I offer that at least the following items would early be placed on the table.
1. I am impatient with the uneducated unless other compensating factors are present.
2. Emotional stability is a must. I avoid women who spook easy. There is no right or wrong, but it must be stable enough to predict.
3. I will drop countless hints to probe for reaction. The worst reaction is wide-eyed surprise for no apparent reason—there is a solid explanation for most everything I do because I don’t waste time.
4. A clean break with the past. You can remember, but no, you can’t still associate. I offer the same in return. A photo or keepsake is okay but no contact.
5. I’m not anybody’s replacement or little buddy. I watch for what is different, not what is the same. If you want another couch potato, join a dating club.
And the things I initially like most in a woman? (Other than sexy curves, I mean.)
√ Loyalty. Not love, loyalty. It makes for good company.
√ Self-reliance. Give everyone their space, including me. I’ll reciprocate.
√ Open-minded inquisitiveness about material things. Every day.
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