Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

This morning I got up and after breakfast, when we were about to leave for school, Nefarious and I discovered that my truck was missing. After thinking for a moment that in some grand conspiracy it had been stolen as well, I realized that I’d been sick the day before and had completely forgotten to move it off the street, so come Monday morning, it was ticketed and towed. It’s not all bad though. The events that followed reminded me of a koan that’s in one of the childrens’ books that I read most recently to Nefarious’s classmates when I was there for reading day… It goes something like this.

A poor farmer’s horse ran away. His neighbors all came and said “oh, what bad luck!”

“Maybe,” replied the farmer.

The next day, the horse returned, along with two wild horses. His neighbors all came and said, “oh, what good luck”

“Maybe,” he replied.

The next day, farmer’s son tried riding one of the wild horses, and was thrown from the horse and broke his leg. His neighbors all came and said, “oh, what bad luck”.

“Maybe,” he replied.

The next day, soldiers came through the village, drafting young men for the war. Because the farmer’s son was injured, he was passed by. His neighbors all came and said, “oh, what good luck”.

“Maybe,” he replied…

Nefarious has been begging me to be allowed to ride her bike to school, which is about a 2km distance. It’s quite far I think, so I’ve been putting it off with practice runs to the park. Anyway, she got her wish this morning so she was super thrilled to be among the kids that park their bikes on the school balcony, and showed off her PA system to her friends. All in all, I walked a total of about 5km to pick up the truck, exercise that I quite likely need (not that I’m in any way out of shape) and it was nice to go for a long walk anyway.

You know, I’m pretty tired and admittedly burning the candle at both ends, my car got stolen, I haven’t gotten a pay check in over six months and I got an “insufficient funds” when buying groceries today — “trouble, oh trouble move away” — but the amazing thing is that a bike ride to the park still always makes me feel much, much better!

That said, riding Caitlin’s bike is a little uncomfortable, so I’m thinking of making my own bike (alright, Caitlin will have to do most of the work because she’s the welder here)… I was looking at the various plans on Atomic Zombie and they looked pretty fun. When I can scrounge together a few bucks for pieces I think that’ll be high on my to-do list.

Nefarious and I went on her first long-distance bike ride and biked to the park and back. Yes, I have tassels too but it’s because I am riding Caitlin’s bike… After that adventure we sowed a planter full of her pick, moonflowers (a climbing vine with huge white flowers), and a second one full of sunfowers, my pick. There’s another planter with chives and other herbs that survived the winter already growing nicely…