2012.10.07 Observational Comments
1 - Looking Insane
There's that early scene in Lethal Weapon (WARNING - I've just horribly dated myself) where Riggs is accused of being crazy and proceeds to do a Stooges™ impersonation. I really like that scene. Well, not the suicidal overtones, but the witty banter and the crazed gleam that Gibson summons in his eyes. I've tried to imitate that gleam on appropriate occasions, just for the fun of it. Generally with pretty much no real success.
Today I stumbled on something much more effective for me. One of the random array of people gathered to catch their breath at the top of Sandy Ridge wondered aloud as to why I was wrapping a hair elastic around my pinkie and ring finger. I explained to them that I had dislocated my finger last weekend, and that it still was feeling a bit weak and hurt when it banged into things, so I was reinforcing it by binding it. For some reason, it looked like it struck that crowd as utterly insane, as this appraisal was written across all their faces and emphasized by the staring silence that followed.
I'm actually still at a bit of a loss to fathom why it was all that odd. You see runners with knee braces all the time. And it's not like I was using duct tape (though, admittedly, only because I didn't think to bring any). Yet they seemed to regard me as though I was lining my helmet with aluminum foil to keep out alien brain control or something. Clearly, they've never met Ulrich.
2 - DeLorean
On the drive back from Sandy Ridge, I spotted a DeLorean. They're kind of rare, and generate an oddly paradoxical appreciation. Aside from the fictional time-travelling variant, they pretty much completely suck. And yet, the urge to have one and modify it to be actually fearsome such that it befits its bizarrely exotic reputation is quite intoxicating. That's probably why some Texan fellow can start a company to produce "new" DeLoreans with electric dive systems and sell them to similarly-afflicted freaks.
I also found myself wondering if I could find the theme for Miami Vice to play in a continuous loop in the car. Which I'm pretty sure has been done in an Adam Sandler movie too shitty to remember.
3 - Spirituality
Going for a mountain bike ride in the mountains by yourself is a somewhat foolish thing to do. Especially considering one member of the usual riding crew having collapsed a lung earlier this year. And I've spent enough time in the woods to appreciate how valuable not-being-alone is in all sorts of circumstances.
Nevertheless, I had a rough week and I'm very much a loner. So going for a solitary bike ride was very appealing. And one of the beauties of Sandy Ridge is that, despite invariably meeting up with a small crowd of people at the top and the bottom, you hardly ever see anybody on the actual trails. So, other than one glimpse of some biker girls on a side trail, I got to swoosh down Hide & Seek all alone.
It was fantastic. If there were better cellular data reception, such that the phone tracking app worked more reliably and the Wife could pinpoint my location whenever she wished, I'd like to do that a lot more. There aren't many occasions to free myself from the constant press of humanity quite so well. And to have it coupled with such a beautiful setting, where I can partake of endorphines and light up my spatial awareness/properception - virtually magical. I feel more like myself because of it.
4 - Many People Have No Understanding Of Enjoying Driving
Too many times now, people have commented on our new Mercedes, asking me if it replaced The Porsche.
For the most part, I think I have succeeded at restraining myself from dropping my jaw and demanding to know What the FUCK are you smoking? And, instead, assured them that The Porsche is still clutched possessively, with a bare minimum of haughty disdain.
But, truly, these people must think I'm some sort of ridiculous fool who happens to waste resources on conveyances. Their shadowy conceptualization of me surely summarizes me along the lines of:
- married to S
- bald
- clever in annoying ways (knows/deduces "stuff")
- Simon & Violet's dad
- has a fancy car
And so, when they think it appropriate to try to engage me in conversation, and think they've exhausted the first 4 topics, grudgingly attempt to interact with "car stuff".
Admittedly, I love talking about cars. It verges on an addiction, really. But there are limits. If you can't understand how an automatic-transmission base-model commuter is in now way, shape, or form a replacement for one of the finest driving machines available to mere mortals, then I'm going to risk apoplexy trying to converse with you.