Zen and the Art of Moped Maintenance

Taken one system at a time...
Electrical,
Air flow, 
Fuel flow, 
Air/fuel mix,
Compression,
Spark...
Every little detail...
Be clean...
Be mindful...
Get to know its body...
Its inner workings...
Beneath tangled wires, cables, and hoses
Is simplicity...
A simple four chambered mechanical heart/lung brought to life by a timed spark...
No need for a brain...
Take the whole thing apart if you have to...
Bolt by bolt...
I did that once...
Can't even remember what kind of bike it was,
But it was an actual motorcycle...
A bit more than 49 cc under the seat...
A wreck that a gas station pretty much gave to me 
So they didn't have to pay for its disposal...
I was reading Zena and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...
Took it apart
Bolt by bolt...
Completely...
Laid all the parts out...
Fixed a cracked oil pan...
Gave it fresh oil...
Then put it all back together (with the help of a Chilton's manual)...
Turned the ignition...
Engine turned over...
Almost started...
Sputtered out...
Gave up, thinking I failed...
Didn't remember that,
Of course,
I had emptied the gas tank before the disassemble...
And, of course,
It was stolen that night...
The very night I realized that I was actually successful
At getting to know that engine...
All it needed was gas...
This time, with the moped, the situation is a somewhat reversed/similar...
Got stolen from my parking lot on St. Patty's day,
But reclaimed about a week later...
It wasn't in working order when it got stolen from me...
I had just started working on it after about a month of cold weather
(About all you get of that in Austin, TX...)
Bad spark plug...
And, as it turns out, stale gas...
Found that out later...
An arrest had been made,
But the machine came back in "less working" order
Compared to the level of "not working" it was already experiencing...
May as well have been thrown in the bear cage at a zoo...
With very curious, active, and destructive bears...
Bears who do not use the proper tools for the job...
So, diagnosing problems involved replacing stolen/missing parts
And creatively redistributing the remaining bolts...
Then,
System by system,
Modifying and testing...
Had to learn how to hotwire it
Just to be able to troubleshoot the electrical system...
Keyed ignition destroyed...
Air filter casing shattered...
Dozens of YouTube videos on troubleshooting, and wiring, and air flow, and etc.
Patience became more fine tuned...
That happens when there is a clear goal...
Following every wire, 
Every tube and hose,
Learning the landscape...
Being quietly productive...
Appreciating the moment when that little engine finally went full throttle...
A success...
Something that was just me...
Unaided...
This bike, once upon a time, stolen,
Balanced things
With that old, once upon a time, stolen bike
That never came back...
The old "what goes around, comes around" ploy...
There is balance,
If you seek it...
Aide and abet it when you see it...
Watch...
Observe...
Assess...
Plan...
Name it.

Unplanned Staycation

Adrift on a small life raft...
Maybe more like a 
Space capsule...

Almost alone in my room...
Small furry creatures
Sleep somewhere in the many
Nooks and crannies...
They bring some life
To the isolation
Every few hours...
And then,
After about 20 minutes,
Back to sleep they go
For 4 or 5 hours more...
Binge-watching series
And re-watching old movies
I've seen
A dozen times before...
Netflix and Amazon Prime...
Planning
On getting at least one thing done
Everyday
That has to be done,
To justify the rest of the sloth...
Vehicle in the shop...
They're fixing something that they allegedly already "fixed"...
Now they get to do it all again,
Free of further charge...
I guess they missed her...
Didn't get to spend enough time
Romancing the engine...
So,
I'm here,
At the tail end of some
Seasonal Affective Disorder level
Depression,
Drifting...
Just passing time...
Somehow unable,
At times,
To step away from the computer...
Really difficult
To not just cue up
Another video...
Hard to motivate to
Take a walk...
Used to do that all the time...
I should put myself
In situations
Where I am required
To interact with other people,
But solitude
Can be so comfortable...
Relative peace is priceless...
It's something worth protecting...
Or, at least,
It's worth valuing...
It's never perfect...
Nothing really ever is...
But it's sometimes as perfect as it needs to be...
Little moments, here or there...
My first wife always said,
"Life's not perfect,
But there are perfect moments.
Those are what we live for."
She loved truisms and clichés...
Probably heard it at church
When she was a Sunday school teacher
Spinning the prayer wheel...
Almost...
It's close...
Those moments aren't perfect...
They weren't...
But they felt that way,
For a moment...
Suspension of disbelief...
It's a survival mechanism...
Much like cognitive dissonance...
The things we do
To psychologically survive
Being cast into this world
Of matter and morality
When once
We were blissfully unaware,
Drifting in the waters
Of the abyss...