Exactly a year ago, I was wandering around China in a state of confusion. So here are some words on my current state of confusion...
It doesn't seem like such a long time ago. But I guess it's been long enough that I've developed the rose colored glasses about the trip. The monkey, the night of four rooms, the bathrooms; a small grin comes to me as I recall them all.
This past weekend, I was looking at some of the China photos. I was struck by how bad the air was, and how bad my pictures were. About 3,000 images later, and I'm ready for an SLR camera. This had been one of my life goals, to own and operate effectively, an SLR camera. My Uncle Ed, long time reader, occasional poster, taught me how to change my oil this past weekend. Imagine, I've had my car 10 years, and I'd never done this. Life is about gaining experiences; I thank you all for reading about mine while you were out living yours.
I'm sometimes struck by how much more meaning the world has. I read The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John LeCarre. It's a typical Cold War spy book. But part of it takes place in Berlin. Street names and sites were rattled off, and I had this feeling of meaning, in that I had navigated those very places with some success. (At least enough success to make it home.)
It's a bit like watching a travel show about Chicago. Travel is supposed to be about exploring the great unknown. The irony is that this perk can quickly become the problem. You quickly arrive at sensory overload when each input must be evaluated as good, bad, or critical to your survival. When watching a travel show about someplace you know, there's an odd appreciation finer than that of an out-of-towner. It comes from having a base of the familiar, mixed with a splash of the new.
With so many places at least vaguely familiar, I can only surmise that my wanderings will be better the next time I go...
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1 comment:
Good article.
I tried doing a Google search for "how to do an oil change" once, and it seemed doable but complex and risky.
Then last time I went to get an oil change they did something wrong that caused me to have a 0.5 qt/day leak. That after spending beaucoup extra $$ for them to use the synethetic oil that isn't really that much more expensive--and having them put the wrong kind of oil in after all was said and done anyway.
That made me think if you want something done right you should do it yourself.
So I googled it again and it struck me again as the kind of procedure that's probably not too hard once you have all the tools and the procedure down, but, if you know nothing, you're spinning yourself up for several trips to Autozone (filter, oil, multiple attempts to get the right tools) and possibly an ecological or automotive disaster. (Wrong drain plug, incorrect dump pan size, etc.)
So, there I am.
/pbz
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