120 reading signs

After a couple weeks of debate, teeth grinding, excitement, a few tears, and plenty of Craigslist wonkery, yesterday I sold Deb's old truck. She was a good vehicle, and I've said many times, she rediscovered my sense that driving can be fun. (Compact, lightweight, rear drive, decent power, didn't give a shit about potholes, kind of beat up but ran like a top...a great city car.)

There's a new truck, a bit bigger and upgraded in some ways, hopefully she'll be a good worker for Deb. And maybe over time I'll fall in love. She certainly is attractive.

But the universe? The universe is pointing me back onto my bicycle. I haven't ridden in a while due to developing prostatitis last year. But I've been feeling better, and in the midst of all this turmoil about trucks, the sign in the picture at the top of this post was put up right outside our front door.

Downtown? 16 minutes by bike.

Yeah, anti-car guy here, reporting for duty.

Oh, and did I mention my financially conservative streak?

Of course, I do have a funny story to put my feelings into perspective. 

Toyota trucks are pretty popular on the west coast. Back in the early 2000s, I was doing handyman work for a SF landlord. She owned a big spread up in Sonoma, and her husband had a beat-to-shit but very low miles 4x4 Toyota he would drive around up there on the weekends, doing odd jobs and drinking beers. 

One year for his birthday, she bought him a brand new 4x4 Tacoma. She did it as a surprise. She offered me a screaming deal on the old truck, which I passed along to the friend who had originally hooked us up. And then the day came, the unveiling of the new truck.

Oh boy was he pissed.

Enough with the stress, back to the pandemic!

Oh wait, it looks like it's over! (Goodbye data, hello propaganda.)

Oh, but maybe it's not.

Hmmm...don't really know what to say.

Well, we know nobody will listen to the Center For Disease Control about a deadly pandemic that is ripping through our population...

... And our economy.

Because scientific experts might tell us something we don't want to hear.

They might even have conflicting opinions that change over time.

(Slowly.)

(Like, as slow as a cough floating on a waft of air-conditioned air.)

There is also a substantial probability many parents will understand how to calculate a substantial probability using common core math come this fall.

Still haven't seen it!