Well, old Angel Jen and I are on the road again. We left the sweet
harbor of West Palm Beach, Florida, after enjoying two weeks of the
hospitality of the city, tying up at their docks for free, sponging
Internet access in their library, listening to all the music from the
waterfront events just off our bow and schlepped fifty miles south to
Fort Lauderdale. We needed to stop in Fort Lauderdale to repair an
alternator, which makes our electricity, and our raw water pump, which
keeps the engine cool.
Yesterday I negotiated the local public transportation system to get
to the place that sells the raw water pump parts. I showed the nice
man a picture of the pump, gave him the model of the engine and asked
for the parts, which he gladly sold me (for a good high price even
though I asked for the good looking guy discount).
I wended my way back through the torrential fury of a Florida
thunderstorm with my bike on the front of the bus. It was a long ride,
over twenty four miles total, sixteen on the bus and eight on the bike.
This morning I discovered that the nice man was a nincompoop. He had
sold me all the wrong parts. Despite engine numbers, pictures of the
pump, et cetera, he had messed it all up. So today I am carting myself
back along the whole route again.
It occurred to me that you, little buddies, maynever have seen grown
ups riding a bus. In Camptown only kids ride a bus, back and forth to
school. Well, in the cities there are busses that haul people around.
You pay some money and ride where you're going. Of courser, decent
people have cars and drive themselves around but for poor people,
people with no cars, people who can't see and pirates the city runs
busses. Here is a picture of the people riding on the bus while I go
see the nincompoop again and try to get the right parts. This time I'm
taking the whole pump, which I should have done in the first place.
You would think that with all my worldly experience and all the
nincompoops I've seen in this benighted world I would have anticipated
incompetence and prepared better.
Well, live and learn, eh?
So be good, kids, and learn all you can!
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