Roadside philosophy 

You ever get that one odd phone call, you know, one that makes you question reality? 

Mine was from my son

“uhhh, hey, Dad? Ummmm, my, ah, wheel just fell off.”

Me,

“Huh?”

The Boy,

” Yeah, I was turning the corner and it just fell……off….”Yes, that is his car. A 2000 something Chevy Malibu Maxx (I know, a far cry from the Malibus of years past).

Now, this post could degenerate into the expected lecture on car maintenance and how you should listen to your dad when he tells you to do something sooner rather than later (I had heard a noise in that wheel when I had driven with him to a Guns N Roses tribute band show at House of Blues and I was thinking that maybe the wheel bearing was going bad. I told him to have my uncle, who is an ASE certified mechanic and has been one for more than 50 years, take a look at it. My son, as you guessed, didn’t call). Turns out that the lug nuts were loose and, as a result,  they just sheared off the studs, causing the wheel to…well…fall off. 

Instead of just a few easy twirls of the wrench, we needed to put a new wheel bearing on (you know, the one I had warned against, funny how that happened) the hub hit the asphalt and rolled about 100 feet, it was shot, as they say.That is a 32mm nut. Kinda specific. I rented a tool kit with one in it. And I had to do the work too, my uncle was booked up for a week and my son needed the car for school and work (did I mention that this was his first day of the new semester?). 

So, instead of playing with trees…,as is my usual habit. I was turning wrenches and busting knuckles. 

I had real work to do….look at this! It’s a euphorbia tirucalli, a milkbush or, more commonly, a pencil cactus. I’m not pretending it’s a bonsai, at least not yet, but look at the trunk?!

Here’s a tigerbatk that I could have wired. It has some serious structural problems for sure. But, alas, I had to go wait for the tow truck. To set the mood for my upcoming musings, this was what I saw on my way to my sons broken car. 
Ummmmm, wuht? 
That is, definitely, a person carrying a mattress, walking down the road.

I guess we all need a bed. If I hadn’t had to rescue my son, I might have helped that poor bastard. 

The location. Under the bridge.
I was underneath the “Beach Line”, highway 528 near the Orlando airport. They had just rebuilt the bridge and widened the highway, so all this is new. 

My van. The Big Green Bonsai Hauling Machine. Look for it in a city near you soon.

Three hours. Three(3). That’s how long I waited for roadside assistance. What did I do?

Aha!

I walked around, looking at stuff on the ground.

Trying to figure out some things.

Like the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything.

It’s 42, by the way.

I was in Deep Thought. 

What I mostly did was to walk from one end of the road to the other, because there was no cell service Under The Bridge. 

I looked down a lot. 

Here’s a toy car. Some poor kid, a boy probably, didn’t listen to his dad when he said “you’re gonna drop it out the window and I’m not stopping to get it” I think it’s an example of what the philosophers call “serendipity”.

Crushed, of course. I hid it in my sons car. A talisman of sorts. 

I think I was probably invading some street gangs territory. Either that, or a poor middle aged bastard named Ken (probably recently divorced from Barbie) decided, in a drunken episode after his lonely 46th birthday party was over, to wander the streets and commemorate his special day with a bit of graffiti. 

I was also acting as a un-litter bug, picking up trash. I just saved some poor bastard a flat tire, picking up this screw. Sometimes you’re the hero.

Sometimes the villain.

A twisted hacksaw frame.
It must’ve fallen off of some workman’s truck and, when he needed it next, it was gone.

I hope he didn’t get in trouble from his boss.

This looks like a good place to hide something. They’re walling it off. If this were New Jersey, it might be a place to look for Jimmy Hoffa.

A steering wheel cover. I have no clue on that one. Maybe the day didn’t turn out too well for that guy.

A firework. Spent and sad.

A penny for your thoughts.
Real copper too. And one year older than me.

That’s an old penny.

For some reason, I had my guitar in the van. I practiced some scales and played a few songs….

It helped pass the time when I wasn’t investigating the cast off detritus during my roadside vigil.

What’s that? To the right?

Hmmmmm. Weird.

I think it might be a part of a rumble strip.

Maybe sound proofing material?

Fascinating. Could be a torture device for all I know. But I’m not sure. Sometimes it’s best not to wonder why.

Ah, this is sad: someone lost their Big Mac. I can imagine it on the roof of a persons car and they got in and drove off, forgetting it.

They even lost their fries.

Tragedy and tears.

Fries are a happy thing.

They even come in Happy Meals.

Well. I at least have this CD that some company sent to me in the mail. It’s soothing and all that. Doesn’t remind me of bonsai though.

I’d like to take this time, while you are listening to the music, to make the first announcement on this blog about the upcoming Komorebi2019 American Bonsai show.

We are welcoming Robert Steven, from Indonesia, Rodney Clemons from Atlanta, and Ed Trout and Toby Diaz from Miami, as the presenters. Look for a full blog post soon. Click the link for details and ticketing info.

I eventually made it home, fixed the wheel for my son, and got to play with trees again.

Trees make me smile.

And with that thought, I want to end this odd post by asking you to ponder this:

What if that whole, old soul/angst ridden paradigm pushed by poets and rock stars is just wrong?

What if it’s the super-confident, unquestioning, unexamined, and thoughtless human that is the apex of evolutionary consciousness?

I mean, think about this: one of the oldest, and philosophically true songs, the origin of which has been lost to history and time, and was sung by the likes of both the Buddha and Spock, goes like this: 

Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily merrily merrily merrily

Life is but a dream