(Day 10) On hauling garbage, garbage cars and graduations... and time!
The day began with a plan.
I was concerned. I didn't know what the warning light was for. I pulled over. Shut the thing off and pulled out the owners manual. That was no help. I looked a little closer. An exclamation mark in a circle surrounded by brackets... hmmmm.... brake.... I turned the key on. No beeping. No light. Pulled up the parking brake... and there it was...
Brakes were working fine (I stopped didn't I?). So I continued on my way up to Moncton. $20 dollars worth of gas (and an yet unkonwn repair bill for the brake switch) and a $9.86 tippage fee at Westmoreland Solid Waste Corporation and all the junk was gone!
On the return trip the beeping started again and the light came on again.... thankfully I am deaf and the beeping only lasted 30 seconds or so... only to leave the evil red light staring at you!!
I loaded the scrap iron and hauled it off to Wheatons - thinking I might get a nickel or two for a coffee... no joy! I guess I can just be glad that the old stair railings are gone and I didn't have to pay a tippage fee to get rid of them!
After dropping off the trailer I stopped into see Blair McDonald and left the Torrent with him (but not before I got a tour of his new motorhome, mobile shop and S/S Camero drag car... a sixty foot rig. He's on his way to Quebec and Vermont drag racing this weekend... not sure that the $70 I paid him will get him many miles in that rig!
As Blair was working on the Torrent I came home and puttered in the garage, cleaning and sorting and once that was done I turned to the V-Strom and checked the brakes and the air cleaner and then I removed the rear rim in preparation for replacing the tire later this week.
In the midst of this, Anna came out and asked for the password to the Apple Base Station so that she could access the photos archives. She wanted the picture of Justin getting on the school bus on his first day of school.
I could see the picture in my mind. It seems like just yesterday he began school... just yesterday that he walked... just yesterday that he learned to ride a two wheeler... just yesterday that he that he was a "worker guy" needing over-alls like grampie... just yesterday that he drove that yellow tractor up and down the hall - and down the sidewalk picking up trash in his trailer... just yesterday... where does the time go?
Time, it passes... as we seek our way in the world. Yesterday becomes the present, the gift that is today... and tomorrow lies before us full of infinite possibility... and in all the breaths between there is transition and transformation.
I remember at one of those transitional moments in our life as a couple Anna and I were introduced to the Indigo Girls by Marg Brown (formerly MacPherson). It was during the summer of my second internship in Berwick, Nova Scotia. Anna and I had been apart for most of the summer (that in itself was pretty transitional) and in the fall we would be entering the final year of our formal education. And, in little more that a year from then we would be moving again... likely across the country and hopefully starting a family... during those months we listened to Closer to Fine over and over again. I remember how this song spoke to me then - about the seeking, the journey of learning, loving and living... how nothing in life is certain... that in fact, it is only in living in the moment in all of its ambiguity that does bring us "closer to fine".
I offer the words below in tribute to my son as he enters a time of transition.
Justin, may your journey, wherever it leads take you always "closer to fine".
"Closer To Fine"
- Pick up borrowed trailer. (Thanks Ernie)
- Load construction waste.
- Drive to Moncton.
- Load scrap metal.
- Drive to metal trader.
- Return trailer. (Thanks Ernie)
- Clean garage.
- Change rear motorcycle tire.
I was concerned. I didn't know what the warning light was for. I pulled over. Shut the thing off and pulled out the owners manual. That was no help. I looked a little closer. An exclamation mark in a circle surrounded by brackets... hmmmm.... brake.... I turned the key on. No beeping. No light. Pulled up the parking brake... and there it was...
Brakes were working fine (I stopped didn't I?). So I continued on my way up to Moncton. $20 dollars worth of gas (and an yet unkonwn repair bill for the brake switch) and a $9.86 tippage fee at Westmoreland Solid Waste Corporation and all the junk was gone!
On the return trip the beeping started again and the light came on again.... thankfully I am deaf and the beeping only lasted 30 seconds or so... only to leave the evil red light staring at you!!
I loaded the scrap iron and hauled it off to Wheatons - thinking I might get a nickel or two for a coffee... no joy! I guess I can just be glad that the old stair railings are gone and I didn't have to pay a tippage fee to get rid of them!
As Blair was working on the Torrent I came home and puttered in the garage, cleaning and sorting and once that was done I turned to the V-Strom and checked the brakes and the air cleaner and then I removed the rear rim in preparation for replacing the tire later this week.
In the midst of this, Anna came out and asked for the password to the Apple Base Station so that she could access the photos archives. She wanted the picture of Justin getting on the school bus on his first day of school.
Time, it passes... as we seek our way in the world. Yesterday becomes the present, the gift that is today... and tomorrow lies before us full of infinite possibility... and in all the breaths between there is transition and transformation.
I remember at one of those transitional moments in our life as a couple Anna and I were introduced to the Indigo Girls by Marg Brown (formerly MacPherson). It was during the summer of my second internship in Berwick, Nova Scotia. Anna and I had been apart for most of the summer (that in itself was pretty transitional) and in the fall we would be entering the final year of our formal education. And, in little more that a year from then we would be moving again... likely across the country and hopefully starting a family... during those months we listened to Closer to Fine over and over again. I remember how this song spoke to me then - about the seeking, the journey of learning, loving and living... how nothing in life is certain... that in fact, it is only in living in the moment in all of its ambiguity that does bring us "closer to fine".
I offer the words below in tribute to my son as he enters a time of transition.
Justin, may your journey, wherever it leads take you always "closer to fine".
"Closer To Fine"I'm trying to tell you something about my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
The best thing you've ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously, it's only life after all
Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it, I'm crawling on your shore.
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.
I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper
And I was free.
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.
I stopped by the bar at 3 a.m.
To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend
I woke up with a headache like my head against a board
Twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before
I went in seeking clarity.
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.
We go to the bible, we go through the workout
We read up on revival and we stand up for the lookout
There's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine
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