I guage my luck for the day on whether I hit the stoplights mostly green. There are some days when I am clumsy and will break a dish or drop my lunch. Each day I get up I try to get a reading on what the mood of the day is. It could be the weather or what I see on the news. It could be a song I hear on the eclectic 89.3 - the Current.
Signs of Spring
Nature gave us a daylong soaking on Saturday, and just like that my lawn goes from brown to needing to be mowed (mown?). I am not big on home improvement, but somehow I've got my ducks in a row ending up with some new landscaping for my house, hhanks to my sister. She gave me the arrival date of May 15th for the bushes and flowers she is putting in around the house. It dawned on me that I needed to paint the outside of my home this summer, and it made sense to do that before the new plants were installed (transplanted?). I figured that painting would be a mess and would threaten the health of the new seedlings (underlings?). But I couldn't paint until I powerwashed the outside of the house. Saturday was to be the day to powerwash, but it was raining.
This was a sign, to go see a movie. Turns out there is mostly garbage out there in the theatres. Having seen the excellent Sin City the weekend it opened, I had enough curiosity about "Constantine" to go check it out. I read a comment that it was a kind of movie to see on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Turns it was playing only at night at a googleplex far far away. That lead my mind into music. The current track I am producing is called "By the Light". "Constantine" had a couple moments but rambled on too long for what the material is worth. The special effects were serviceable but far too brief for a $100 million feature.
Sunday I woke up from the horror of the Saturday night that was "Constantine" and found a Sunny Day without a cloud in the sky. There was very little wind and the temperature was in the sixties. There was an pleasant ethnic band playing at the church across the street. All in all the signs of a great day.
Powerwash
The next objective was to rent a powerwasher to clean the outside of my house so that I could give it a week to dry so that I could paint my house before the plants are put in on May 15th. The heavy burden of owning a home hits hard sometimes, and I was being given this chore under the most favourable conditions. Nevertheless, I was facing my own demons as I procrastinated getting out the door before too much of the day had passed me by. I skipped the shower but still had to feed the cat, and find a magazine to read, fearing a long wait at the rental shop. I couldn't find a magazine that I hadn't read already, There was a maddening two minutes of obstructionism being conducted by the procrastinator part of myself in keeping me from getting out the god-damn door. The next routine I attribute to my father, once I lock the door and am in the car, I forget something and march back inside the house. This time it was to grab some extra cash in case they wanted a cash deposit or something. I march right back out the door and pull out of my alley. I forgot the magazine. 19 times out of 20 the stoplight at the intersection near my house is green in my direction as I approach it. This isn't luck as much as I believe in the rational explanation; the lights were timed for frequent but quick changes, and also to slow down traffic on the main thoroughfare that my street crosses.
By luck, a major rental shop is but a mile from my house. By luck, there were no customers there when I walked in. The whole rental process was about as slick as using the drive-thru at McDonalds. They had walkies and headsets and computers. The friendly staff jumping around in their clean uniforms briskly fixed me up with the Powerwasher 2000. I had four hours to fulfil my duty in order to keep it to a half day and save $20. From past experience, the procrastinator side of me can bring up all sorts of things to procrastinate and waste the 4 hours. To combat that I declared No Lunch Break, No Chats with Neighbours. Things got going pretty smoothly, except my house has very little water pressure. My Powerwash was a Lamewash (Wimpywash?). I had to go full throttle and put on the nozzle they called "The Bullet". The guy at the rental shop told me it would put a hole through my hand. With poor water pressure, I figured The Bullet was needed just to get the pressure from a normal setting. Once I put the lethal nozzle on I shot it away from the house to check it. The nozzle ejected itself from the tip of the hose.
By luck, the nozzle was red in colour, and I correctly calculated it's trajectory and found it several yards away without much difficulty. Then another stop when I found myself getting drenched from the water splashing off the side of the house. I ran inside and got a cap. BUT, not just ANY hat, I COULDN'T wear my good cap since it would get dirty. So some more scrambling around to find a grungy cap. Then another pause as my niece stopped by and asked what I was doing. Then I gave in and took a break to change into shorts as the day got warmer. Then another stop as my sister comes to inspect. Clock is ticking.
I find the previous paintjob on my house is either so old or so crappy that the paint washes off like it was chalk. This complicates things. Now I have to be more thorough in getting all the crappy paint off instead of just giving it a good cleaning and painting over it. Deadline for Powerwash return is 3:15. I check the time and it is 2:30 and have one more side to finish. I put it into high gear and stepped up to the wall within inches to get maximum pressure. The neighbour jokes to me about messy work I'm doing. We end up chatting about the weak water pressure.
You Make Your Own Obstacles
There is a paradigm for my life concerning accomplishing something personal. In this case, to have a nicer looking house. All the Powers that Be shove as many obstacles in my way as possible to impede my progress in accomplishing my goal. It is a Battle. A Good Man in battle takes the impediments in stride and doesn't allow himself to waver in getting to the goal. This is such a routine matter for myself that I see it as a way to feel even greater satisfaction once I reach the goal. ("Just think how disappointed I would've been if it was too easy!" ). In this case, I want to be thorough as the clock nears 3:15. My turbo action finishes me up at 3:00. Now all I need to do is disassemble the Powerwash and bring it back. Turns out I did too good a job screwing on the hoses and can't get them off. I scramble into the house to grab a wrench and a pliers. In my haste I forget how the special pressure hose comes off. The deadline now mocks me as I fumble about trying beat the clock and save my $20. I finally figure out the pressure hose (you just pull it instead of screw it - idiot), load the gear into my car, and shoot out the alley. This time I made it a block away before squealing my tires and turning back home. I left my wallet in my other pants (that I took off to change into my shorts).
By luck, there was a road without stop signs that I discovered that leads directly to the rental shop. I got there 1 minute late. Not a big deal because the rental return employee announced on his walkie that I returned the unit back in good condition before I reached to counter. This turned out to be a good thing, because the jumpy staff manager was training a new employee in on the sophisticated computer and gave him an opportunity to show how to make an adjustment. So my habitual lateness was a good thing since it was a training opportunity.
The real luck involved in this tale is that I as I write this post, a lone thunderstorm in the entire Twin Cities is sitting right atop my neighbourhood. Minnesota in the spring has a reliable pattern of rain once a day during the week, followed by day long downpours during the weekend. Yes, Nature knows the days of the week and Minnesotans consistently seek a compromise to have Nature rain out only one of the two weekend days. In this case, it was Sunday.
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