The Art of Driving
I forget how frustrating it was to learn to drive. Today my boss took me out for a learn-how-to-drive-stick lesson. His plan was to have me driving the pick up truck to sculpture maintenence jobs by tomorrow. Yeah. That's not going to happen. I COMPLETELY SUCK AT IT!! I seriously stalled the truck no fewer that 8000 times and made it jerk back and forth so badly that I swear Doug was going to fly out the windshield. Needless to say, I'm not driving tomorrow. I understand the concept. I understand what I'm supposed to be doing, but the reality of it is what's throwing me off. Wait, I can't just go? I can't just break? I know I'm going to crash into something inanimate.
It makes me think of learning to drive the first time around. This sparked some of the darker days of my relationship with my dad... before politics really mattered on a more real level than just keeping up with the news. We drove for hours around the Blue Hill parking lot. I learned to park. I learned how to back up. Stuff like that. Then I took to the road. That usually ended up with my dad screaming at me out of fear and me crying from frustration. Now, driving has become second nature and I don't even have to think about it. When I got my license, I wasn't allowed to have my brother in the car for about the first 2 years I drove because my mom wa so worried that if we got into a crash she would lose both her kids. My dad disconnected the fuse for the radio (or so he thought) so I wouldn't get distracted and kill someone.
Now I'm doing the equivalent with my annoying cheap boss. He wants me to be driving in the hilly, windy roads of Westchester and Greenwich CT and I don't see it happening anytime soon. With my luck, I'll knock over someone's sculpture rather than maintain it.
I'm not so thrilled about this switch to sculpture maintenance anyway. In the springtime it's great. It's getting nice out. You have a lot of sunny days to keep the sculpture warm (I know this sounds wierd.) and the weather will only get progressively bad. In the fall, I will be outside in the misty yuckiness with a scrub brush, a power washer and a blow torch doing my best to make these sculptures shine. It will only get colder and wetter. If the wax doesn't set properly and a strong wind blows, leaves will stick to it and I'll have to start over the next day.
Saturday night, the plan was to go to the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport to see Man Man. We got down there and found out that the show was sold out. They told us to get on line to see if they were going to release any tickets. They released 20, but we were somewhere around numbers 25 to 30. No luck. So instead we Heartland Brewery beers from their beer garden and sat outside the tent and listened. It was a really nice night and hanging out on the pier was pretty cool even if we were disappointed about the show.
There is some talk of going to see Bindelstiff there on Wednesday. Anyone up for it?
It makes me think of learning to drive the first time around. This sparked some of the darker days of my relationship with my dad... before politics really mattered on a more real level than just keeping up with the news. We drove for hours around the Blue Hill parking lot. I learned to park. I learned how to back up. Stuff like that. Then I took to the road. That usually ended up with my dad screaming at me out of fear and me crying from frustration. Now, driving has become second nature and I don't even have to think about it. When I got my license, I wasn't allowed to have my brother in the car for about the first 2 years I drove because my mom wa so worried that if we got into a crash she would lose both her kids. My dad disconnected the fuse for the radio (or so he thought) so I wouldn't get distracted and kill someone.
Now I'm doing the equivalent with my annoying cheap boss. He wants me to be driving in the hilly, windy roads of Westchester and Greenwich CT and I don't see it happening anytime soon. With my luck, I'll knock over someone's sculpture rather than maintain it.
I'm not so thrilled about this switch to sculpture maintenance anyway. In the springtime it's great. It's getting nice out. You have a lot of sunny days to keep the sculpture warm (I know this sounds wierd.) and the weather will only get progressively bad. In the fall, I will be outside in the misty yuckiness with a scrub brush, a power washer and a blow torch doing my best to make these sculptures shine. It will only get colder and wetter. If the wax doesn't set properly and a strong wind blows, leaves will stick to it and I'll have to start over the next day.
Saturday night, the plan was to go to the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport to see Man Man. We got down there and found out that the show was sold out. They told us to get on line to see if they were going to release any tickets. They released 20, but we were somewhere around numbers 25 to 30. No luck. So instead we Heartland Brewery beers from their beer garden and sat outside the tent and listened. It was a really nice night and hanging out on the pier was pretty cool even if we were disappointed about the show.
There is some talk of going to see Bindelstiff there on Wednesday. Anyone up for it?