Zoot Scoot Riot

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The adventures of America's crappiest one-member scooter gang; Andy rides "Zoot," a red Honda Helix CN250 through the expansive cornfields and gently rolling hills around Muncie in east central Indiana.

I’ll bet you’ve been wondering where the scooter rides have gone. Well, my brain says “BIG SAME.” Yeah, the cravings for...
09/14/2024

I’ll bet you’ve been wondering where the scooter rides have gone. Well, my brain says “BIG SAME.” Yeah, the cravings for such are STRONNNNNG. And while you may have seen on .dude (I’ll post it on my fb soon enough) about some big changes and such, the scoot (and importantly, the bare baseline of confidence learning to ride gave me) is kinda a core feature of all the above.

I intend to keep scooting until I physically can’t — it’s too good for my mental health and peace of mind to ever give up. Spose that means I need to get on finding a job. And s**t, I applied to be a bus driver today! That job sounds amazing. Fingers crossed!

One thing I’ve come to a conclusion on: I’m not planning to sell my creativity anymore. I’m also not intending to really sell my brain anymore either. I’ve spent too many years working (and worrying) too many hours, and too many of those hours have gone completely unpaid. And all of that time has cost me SO MUCH, and the bill for those costs is staggering. The Act III of Andy’s Life is one where I get a job that pays the bills, but I can walk away when my time is up for the day and not think about it anymore. Act III is when I enjoy the people I want to enjoy, the hobbies and creative pursuits I want….

Andy yes, lots of scooter rides.

In other words, I want my time off back. And part of the reason is to scoot more.

But. Being low on both cash and patience, this is where we’re at for a bit. Busted keys and a stopped scoot. I’m hoping this isn’t it for the season, that maybe driving a bus or something else might generate the money to make it happen.

This Saturday ride was 71.1 miles over 2:06 beginning at 8:30am on one of the most gorgeous Indiana summer mornings you'...
08/24/2024

This Saturday ride was 71.1 miles over 2:06 beginning at 8:30am on one of the most gorgeous Indiana summer mornings you're gonna ever see.

Was it probably even more beautiful because certain things are going inexplicably well? Probably!

A classic Windsor Rd morning trek to Farmland, then exploring western Randolph Co a bit. Our neighbors to the east have developed a pretty substantial green energy industry -- makes you wonder how a county that's voted Republican every year since the Civil War is more progressive on literally anything than Delaware Co. 🤷‍♂️ Then, back via 36, picking up the new towns of Huntsville, Modoc and Losantville, cutting up Buck Creek Pike from Mooreland.

Lots of tall corn, rolling fields, sunshine, and lots of trying super, super hard to sponge up every positive feeling from the past week and keep it as long as possible.

I can't say the job sitch is good, and the money sitch is worse; it's the everything else where things are (FINALLY) making more sense, and in kinda mindblowing ways 🤯.

Im beginning to come to full terms with exactly how much MMC cost me; not monetarily, although that was enough 😖 No, I've really, really, REALLY neglected some parts of my self and my identity, and rebuilding continues. But, this was a good week to that end.

But that's a little sad, so I need to just remember. Good feelings and good news and validation were what this week was full of. That's the brain space I'm trying to keep going, as long as humanly fu***ng possible.

This evening's ride flew through the relative wastelands between Selma and Albany, 57.4 miles over 2:04 starting at 5:35...
08/14/2024

This evening's ride flew through the relative wastelands between Selma and Albany, 57.4 miles over 2:04 starting at 5:35 pm.

It was another BEAUTIFUL weather day in the 765, party sunny and 80F. It's been very helpful to be able to get out in the sun and air and feel alive again.

The job situation is still s**tty. No news there. I'm not doing well with it. No news there, either. Definitely making life feel more like a "run out the clock" situation. Still completely rudderless and spending too much time avoiding the inevitable: if I want to stay in any field that actually makes sense given my skillset, I will probably need to move away from Muncie.... or I will need to take a manual labor job, give up on anything resembling a career, and get to stay here.

I have about a million messages (nothing employment related) I need to answer. I can't. Why? Because 🤷‍♂️

Meh.

I dunno why, but it makes me feel marginally better to ride Zoot around. I went on until my phone died. Which is why tracking randomly stopped where it did. I came home after that.

Today's adventure was an 86.4mi jaunt over 2:34 (avg speed 32.9mph) beginning at 12:49pm though just about the most glor...
08/10/2024

Today's adventure was an 86.4mi jaunt over 2:34 (avg speed 32.9mph) beginning at 12:49pm though just about the most glorious possible weather you can get in Indiana during August: sunny, not humid, temp 76F, a little wind (it calmed as the ride went on).

Today was another case of pointing the scoot in a direction of roads I'd never traveled, getting a couple, then going wherever seems nice. Flew through a whole lotta cornfields with music cranked high, Zoot's muffler sounding a little louder (he needs a couple gaskets - easy fixes, but $50 in parts).... and didn't really think about a lot. I just focused on the roads, the Zoot, the tunes, and enjoying the day.

The level of mind-clearing I get from riding has surprised me a great deal. I knew that there's an amount of cliche that goes with a middle aged man in a major life transition getting a two-wheeled transport of some sort and enjoying it. What I didn't expect was how much of my brain I can engage -- and mostly non-verbally, a change from TV/movies and reading -- with the necessities of making the ride itself happen.

Riding requires coordination between all limbs, always keeping an eye out for danger and planning escape routes, leaning left and right to turn, navigating, thinking about the layout and history of the roads, plus I've added music? Riding occupies enough of my brain to shut it up about other stuff.

The other thing that, I think, is helping move riding into the mindcalming meditation (and less with the [over-]thinking) is that I started therapy last week. My last therapist, I fired the s**t out of. My new one seems good so far. Non-judgmental, compassionate, kind, not a fan girl (thankfully; yes, it has happened, d-list celebrity is WEIRD) but yet familiar with what I did and its impact.... and as she's learned about my past four years or so she's been like 🤯. Not like the mediocre priest who couldn't handle Salieri's sins (40yo movie reference FTMFW), more like "Jesus Christ, how did you survive that?"

I dunno. I nearly didn't. In tons of probabalistically parallel universes, I definitely didn't. Not all of me survived either.

So it goes? 🤷‍♂️

This afternoon's ride in basically PERFECT 80F sunny weather was 82.1 miles over 2:29 beginning at 2:05pm, average speed...
08/09/2024

This afternoon's ride in basically PERFECT 80F sunny weather was 82.1 miles over 2:29 beginning at 2:05pm, average speed 33mph, high speed 63mph.

Today, my whole goal was to just grab a couple small roads up Granville, then just ride and go with the flow. That took me eventually to the doorstep of Blackford County, the edge of Dunkirk and Jay County, then Albany, the Mount Pleasant, then southern Delaware County until I headed home.

As for meditations today? I tried to keep that mostly to a minimum and live in the moment. Sometimes just focusing on a combination of the technical physical coordination required to ride the thing along with sing-along-able music blaring from my little speaker does enough to just let my mind rest and let all the things go for a minute.

I do wonder how all those country folk reacted to me yell-singing Bu****le Surfers, likely off-key. 🤷‍♂️

Of course, all the problems are still here waiting for me as I finish that ride, but it's some relief from the many difficult questions stalking me in my brain.

I applied for at least ten jobs last week. Most of them were professional positions, a couple were pay-the-bills kind of local things. Next week, I'll probably do that, or much more, again next week.

Today, it ain't gonna make any difference if I do anything else.

Bearable temperatures are finally here! Today's mercifully cooler ride was 40.5 miles over 1:17 beginning at 8:30am. It ...
08/07/2024

Bearable temperatures are finally here! Today's mercifully cooler ride was 40.5 miles over 1:17 beginning at 8:30am. It was in the mid-60s and drizzling when I started, only about 30 degrees cooler than yesterday. 🥵

With juuuuuust a little planning, I figured out last night that I could kill two birds with one stone: 1) get a bunch of roads that I haven't hit yet, while necessarily 2) picking up Amy some breakfast at in the form of their locally famous hot apple cinnamon donuts.

Jacobs, which over the past few decades has become something of a fall family fun tradition for so many, just opened for the season in the last week or so. They will almost certainly be drawing Munsonians southward into Henry County and the nearby town of Mt. Summit from now until around Thanksgiving.

My stop today, though? All business. Grabbed a dozen hot donuts, paid cash, and headed home. For once, my ride was on a time constraint -- Amy was to be at work by 11, and it was already well past 9.

As for what's going on with me? Well, the job rejections are piling up, deeper and deeper. One remote based state job I thought I had a *really* good shot at -- being that it required a ton of specialized experience and education, which I *have* and not too many other folks do -- sent me a form rejection just a matter of a day or so after the job closed. I couldn't have fit the job *that* poorly, could I? (Chances are, they had someone in mind. Yes, even with a state job, even if that's not kosher - it happens).

The job situation is ugly and does not look to be improving anytime soon. I'm either too expensive, too overqualified, or I'm "that as***le." I probably should have taken the job cleaning buses. Honestly, it just makes me want to retire. God knows I've already worked a lifetime's worth.

On the way home near Ouray, the sun suddenly came out, like someone flipped a switch. It was an abrupt enough change to inspire me to stop the scoot, pull the phone off the rack and take a picture. The sun was a welcome change from the cool mist, and the broken blue skies stayed with me until I got home.

Let's hope that's some sort of metaphor or whatever.

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