So, when I get to the page to write a new post (on this blog which, let's face it, I haven't posted on in about two years), I notice at the bottom of the text box the following prompt: "Labels for this post: eg. scooters, vacation, fall."
Weird.
Blogger must have been anticipating my return because these seemingly random tags are actually incredibly reflective of the three things that I wanted to post about upon the occasion of my return to the blogosphere. Yes. I'm actually serious.
Scooters (more on vacation and fall in another post...)
As I pulled into the driveway of my little mobile home (we bought a little mobile home last year -- and before you scoff, it's actually a great little house), I noticed it. We affectionately refer to it as "the Tupperwaremobile" -- the 2001 Honda Elite 80 motor scooter that we bought when we were both within a 3 mile commuting distance from work and living carelessly in the pre-child haze of newlywededness. Owning a scooter was fun while it lasted. Upon our decision to move to Prague, we tried to sell the scooter -- and even had an offer that we would pounce on now -- but made the unfortunate choice to keep it in storage in my parents' garage, with my dad's promises to run it from time to time.
In the two years since we returned from (our four years) living overseas, the scooter has come to represent a whole class of objects that I would rather pretend don't exist: the Things-That-We-Don't-Want-But-Are-Too-Valuable-To-Sell-At-A-Garage-Sale-But-We-Don't-Have-Time-to-List-On-Craigslist-Or-Have-Tried-With-No-Luck-Because-We-Can't-Sell-Them-For-Even-Close-to-What-They're-Worth-In-This-Economy.
Do you have one of these sections in your garage, too? Or perhaps in your Scary-Closet/Backroom-Where-You-Throw-Things-And-Try-To-Pretend-They-Don't-Exist?
Anyway, since moving into our own home, we've done a pretty darn good job of weeding things out, particulary as we're preparing for the addition of one or two new little people to our home any day now. (More about this, certainly, in many posts to come.) Space is limited, so I have zero tolerance for clutter and junk we don't use.
But the scooter remains.
Backing up to the "dad's garage" portion of the story... While I'm genuinely not complaining and probably would have done the same thing myself, my dad basically drove the scooter twice in four years and left it to gather an inch of dust and become a buffet for mice. Yes, literally. After trying to pretend it didn't exist for two years, Matt finally tried to start the scooter up a few weeks ago. This proved unsucessful and, a $300+ dollar trip to the scooter mechanic later, we learned that rodents had literally chewed up the electrical system (on top of the aforementioned fact that it hadn't been run in half a decade.)
We were able to get the thing running well enough to bring it home (it's actually in pretty good condition now!), but the mechanical problems were only the first hurdle. The fact that the registration lapsed two years ago (very long story) is proving to be the bigger challenge in our crazy over-busy lives these days. DMV? No thanks.
Thus, arriving at home tonight and seeing the scooter sitting in the driveway, well on its way to what could realistically be another 6 years of sitting completely unused (no! we won't let that happen this time... will we?) reminded me that sometimes in life, you just have to accept that checking that last item off the To-Do list is really, truly, never going to happen. And maybe that's okay. Or, if this one particular thing does get accomplished, another will come along to take its place at the bottom of the list.
Hmmmm....
Anybody want to buy a scooter?
Weird.
Blogger must have been anticipating my return because these seemingly random tags are actually incredibly reflective of the three things that I wanted to post about upon the occasion of my return to the blogosphere. Yes. I'm actually serious.
Scooters (more on vacation and fall in another post...)
As I pulled into the driveway of my little mobile home (we bought a little mobile home last year -- and before you scoff, it's actually a great little house), I noticed it. We affectionately refer to it as "the Tupperwaremobile" -- the 2001 Honda Elite 80 motor scooter that we bought when we were both within a 3 mile commuting distance from work and living carelessly in the pre-child haze of newlywededness. Owning a scooter was fun while it lasted. Upon our decision to move to Prague, we tried to sell the scooter -- and even had an offer that we would pounce on now -- but made the unfortunate choice to keep it in storage in my parents' garage, with my dad's promises to run it from time to time.
In the two years since we returned from (our four years) living overseas, the scooter has come to represent a whole class of objects that I would rather pretend don't exist: the Things-That-We-Don't-Want-But-Are-Too-Valuable-To-Sell-At-A-Garage-Sale-But-We-Don't-Have-Time-to-List-On-Craigslist-Or-Have-Tried-With-No-Luck-Because-We-Can't-Sell-Them-For-Even-Close-to-What-They're-Worth-In-This-Economy.
Do you have one of these sections in your garage, too? Or perhaps in your Scary-Closet/Backroom-Where-You-Throw-Things-And-Try-To-Pretend-They-Don't-Exist?
Anyway, since moving into our own home, we've done a pretty darn good job of weeding things out, particulary as we're preparing for the addition of one or two new little people to our home any day now. (More about this, certainly, in many posts to come.) Space is limited, so I have zero tolerance for clutter and junk we don't use.
But the scooter remains.
Backing up to the "dad's garage" portion of the story... While I'm genuinely not complaining and probably would have done the same thing myself, my dad basically drove the scooter twice in four years and left it to gather an inch of dust and become a buffet for mice. Yes, literally. After trying to pretend it didn't exist for two years, Matt finally tried to start the scooter up a few weeks ago. This proved unsucessful and, a $300+ dollar trip to the scooter mechanic later, we learned that rodents had literally chewed up the electrical system (on top of the aforementioned fact that it hadn't been run in half a decade.)
We were able to get the thing running well enough to bring it home (it's actually in pretty good condition now!), but the mechanical problems were only the first hurdle. The fact that the registration lapsed two years ago (very long story) is proving to be the bigger challenge in our crazy over-busy lives these days. DMV? No thanks.
Thus, arriving at home tonight and seeing the scooter sitting in the driveway, well on its way to what could realistically be another 6 years of sitting completely unused (no! we won't let that happen this time... will we?) reminded me that sometimes in life, you just have to accept that checking that last item off the To-Do list is really, truly, never going to happen. And maybe that's okay. Or, if this one particular thing does get accomplished, another will come along to take its place at the bottom of the list.
Hmmmm....
Anybody want to buy a scooter?
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