Monday, November 2, 2009

Grooming Not Cleaning

Rare are the days when I call my friends from back home. Generally I call for two reasons, the first is when I am home and want to see whose around, and the second is when I have a question for someone "in the know". Last night I was tinkering with the idea of increasing the RPMs of my car when it's at idle. The idea is that in doing so it will increase the oil pressure slightly. Right now when the car is warm the oil pressure is too low when it's sitting idle, but the moment I so much as touch the gas the pressure goes to safer levels. So I think one quick solution would be to just twitch the RPMs up. But as I know nothing of increasing the RPMs and the effects that could have on the rest of the engine I decided to call one of those "in the know" friends of mine, Peter.

The last time I spoke with Peter was when I bought the car. Like now, I had some questions for him regarding the car. So it's been a few months. Usually during these conversations it's all business because either he or I am too busy to chit-chat. But last night he just wanted to talk and talk. Which was fine, as it has been probably well over a year or two or three (time flies so I never know how long these things are) since I had any sort of real conversation with him. Currently he is the lead and only mechanic for a scooter store. It's just him and the owner. The business is selling scooters and repairing any sort of motorized bike. For awhile, with the high gas prices, the business was booming but now that things are back to normal business has slowed by 10 fold. Now that I think about it, with the economy in the state it is maybe the scooter business should be doing fairly well, but anyway apparently it's not. So he's doing that, and he is hoping that the business will get over this hump and soon he will be sitting hot as a sort of partner with the owner.

He also wanted to talk about my feelings about President Obama thus far. I didn't comment much, but said that I did think he should not have been awarded Noble Peace prize. Peter tried to argue that his being elected President was a huge moment for both the United States and the world. And I completely agree, however it is not right to give someone the Noble prize simply because they got elected. Peter conceded that point and then argued that Obama has so much potential and desire to bring about wonderful changes. To this I argued that I should have a Ph.D issued to me because I have the potential and desire to get one. He dropped the issue, and then decided to talk about stem cell research which turned our discussion to necrophilia. I do not know why I get myself into these conversations but it was nice talking with him because there was an air of mutual respect for the two views being presented. Oftentimes with these issues emotions start to stir.

Finally, the last thing I'm telling you of our conversation but the first thing he told me, is that he has proposed to his girlfriend of several years now and she said yes. His wedding is planned for September 4th, and he wants me to be one of the men of honor. I don't get to go to weddings often, and have never been in the honorable party listings before so I'm unsure if I'm getting the term right, but I'm supposed to be standing up there with him when he says his vows.

Anyway, congratulations go to Peter for his happy news.

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