Friday, December 12, 2008

Beating the clock

Sitting in the train, which will most likely happen more often next year since they finally added more departures on my line, and it will thus be more convenient for me. Then again, it is still a bit inconvenient since they are far less frequent than the buses and so when you miss one, you need to wait much longer… as I just did… And my lungs are still burning from running (almost) all the way from the office to the train station, only to see the train leave while I was stepping out on the deck.

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My plan was to leave the office at 4:20, but I was so taken up by what I was doing that I didn’t see the time fly and only woke up at 4:32… Still… I tried… And failed… you can’t beat the clock…

This morning, I was luckier… I had another of these weird mornings… It started with the wipers of my car dying on me because I was asking them to get rid of a few inches of snow on my windshield. I know, I shouldn’t do that, but I just wanted to start the car so it warms up while I remove the snow from it, but the wipers had been left on… When they started, I tried to make them faster, just to help them and then I heard a "clunk" and they just stop in mid-air… hooo nooooo….

Still, I could get the kids to school and then, I had to come back home to wait for the cleaning lady who was sick yesterday. So I would give it a try… I’m not very good with repairing things, but I’m brave and always game to try. It often gets me in trouble but it also sometimes get me out of it. This time I succeeded, but I had to bring the car in the garage, which implied that I get the other car out of the garage (bad idea… yes, having two cars can also be a bad idea, … anyway). Once I fixed the little arm that attaches the wipers to the motor, I was in business. But I figured I would leave the frozen car in the garage while I get rid of the snow in my driveway and only put back the other car in afterward… Anyway, it sounded like a good idea, since the other car is not very good on snow (this is why it usually waits for me in the garage).

The problem is, that other car (though I love it very much) was not able to climb back in the garage… Damn… Even after I removed the snow. Last time I did remove the snow, it was raining, so there is a thin layer of ice in my driveway and it seems to be enough for my small car to not want to climb it… I even put salt there, no help, I tried with and without the anti-sliding thingy that comes with the car... no help… I realized that it must have trouble because the rear propulsion (as opposed to front wheel drive traction), so I tried backwards… BINGO… So the car is in the garage…

But the cleaning lady isn’t there yet, and it is close to the time I need to leave to catch the last train of the morning… So I decided to finish shoveling the driveway and then get inside to make myself a coffee and breakfast, I’ll simply take the bus… And then… Ding dong… She’s there… I have 10 minutes to get to the train… That would be very tight… So why not? Let's try…

Give the lady her money, say hi and bye at the same time… and run to the train… I try not to go too fast, last year, I bumped a pole and made a big dent in my bumper by trying to catch a train… Still I get there almost on time, the train is still there, but the doors are closed… weird… I get out of the car quickly and look for my keys to lock the car… D’Ho! I left them in the car… And the car is still running… Whoa… That’s a big stupid mistake… Luckily enough, I have the reflex to search my pockets for my keys to lock my car as soon as I walk away from it…

Anyway, I got in front of the train doors and they suddenly opened for me… thanks Sesame… :-)… And it took off before I had a chance to get ot my seat… Talk about split second timing… Well… tonight… It didn’t work out as well… Ho well… You win some, you lose some… But you can NOT beat the clock… It will keep on ticking, whatever you do, however you do it… Unlike you, it will never stop… Or at least, not in a foreseeable future at least… But we will… Our clock will stop… We can’t beat that… So let’s make the best out of it… Even if it means to miss a train once in a while, to run like crazy and still don’t make it… To have our lungs burning, even though we stopped running for over half an hour (I really need to start the gym again)…

Hey… I just beat one clock… I finish writing that post before the train left the station… Now I can spend the rest of the ride working on my novel… Will you read it?... No, not this post, my novel... Even if it is in French? Let me know if you want a copy of the original version, or if you prefer to get the new chapters as I rewrite them, I’m finishing the 5th of 18th chapters now, which is about 80 pages out of roughly 300… Interested? Let me know!

BYE
MAD… Still coughing… Damn…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tu as vraiment de DON de mettre sur la page ce que je pense dans ma tête, Tu raconte la vie de tout les jours avec une telle facilité... C'était très imagé et très drôle.. Je pense que je t'ai même entendu lâcher qq mots bibliques....

une fan.... Nad