Another Waste Basket Bio

Kinda self explanatory. A cautionary tale.

What an ever luvin’, amalgamated mish-mosh, of biblical, umbilical effluence. But there it is, a bashed up, unabashed b*****d of discord and dissonance. 

And here we are now. 

I say ‘we’ as in the singular ‘we’…. 

‘Now’, as in better late than never now-  but not too soon or soon enough. 

Get where I’m going with this? 

Me neither. But I remember when at 12, my old man let me back the family Volkswagen Beetle out of the single car garage in back of the house and I took out the door molding and damn near tore off the bumper. Talk about a long walk back to the house. Kids, go figure. Can’t live with ‘em… can’t… well, you know. 

That same old man a year later let me do figure eights in the YMCA parking lot at 1a.m. Again, go figure. 

Between then and my next car accident, there was a lot of “you don’t wanna know” happening…then I was in a convertible Jag XKE and T-boned it into a Thunderbird making a left turn against my green light, a shoe salesman from out of state with no insurance…. I survived, the jag didn’t… and segue through the next three years, parting out the convertible, and buying another jag, this time a rusted out XKE coupe. And so began all my bad decisions of wasting money on sports cars for the next 20 years… but better late than never. I now drive a 4X4 pick-up. Love it. 

But as you might already have guessed, I left a bunch of stuff out…and probably will again. I had about as much luck with women as I had with sports cars…maybe I should have examined that comparison sooner… sooner than later. 

So on to the Cliff Note paraphrase: I wasted 5 yrs getting a teaching degree, two contract years teaching, 7 yrs doing freelance fine art, then beat it to Cali to pursue Robin Leech’s definition of lifestyles of the rich and famous, only to return back east, to waste three years in retail, before embarking on a long lost, deep seeded passion, music.. jazz music (is there any other kind?) 

We’ll skip those twenty plus, swingin’ years for a later psycho-analysis session- heavy emphasis on the psycho part. You’ll thank me later. 

I’m still working on what came next, specifically the last twenty years, that saw me marry a second time, move to northwest Montana to live off grid, give up my beloved trumpet for a chainsaw, and then struggle with my inner metaphor dyslexia by diving into short story writing and now in the winter of my ego, I’m enjoying my very first ever hobby, photography. 

So if this whets your interest, just hit me up on any of a million internet social sites for the juicy details…. Nah, not really. I’ve been banned from almost all of ‘em. 

So in the words of a well know American news anchor: “Over to you Chet.”

Author's Note

One of these days I’ll get it all down, all the truths and lies, and what not…. Critiques and comments welcome.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

I've now learned some new things about you--especially your love of sports cars. Too bad about the XKE. Really bad, in fact, as I always dreamed of having one. On Navy pay, an MGB was as close as I got. Ah, yes, Huntley and Brinkley--I miss those guys.

[roarke]

And here I thought you were a motorcycle guy Sam. BTW my very first car was a 1965 MGB, loved that car, but it had a terrible clutch, crappy heater boxes and chewed through two mufflers in the time I owned it. Other than that it was a blast to drive. Strangely enough, if I was in any other car but the jag, I might not be here today, the jag had a monocock design and a bonnet that lifted forward not back. If I had opted to drive a Subaru from the age of 18 to 40, I’d of saved enough money for a down payment on a house… stupid me. lol

[Samuel Dickens]

Well, we do what we think is right at the time. I've owned two mgb's--a '69 and a '73. Also a tr6 and tr7. Not British, but 240z, too. Between British bikes and British cars, I learned Lucas electrics pretty good.

[roarke]

Yeah, British electronics… ugh. My most favorite and most dependable car was my ‘75 280Z, the car I tricked out with free flow muffler, sway bars, Bilstein shocks, and a cool stereo system. Other than that, the basic design of the car was near perfect… not a fast horsepower/torque muscle car, but I could get it up to 110mph….Datsun ticked all the boxes… all the successive versions of Nissan’s Z cars had serious problems…. Especially the twin turbo version… after that I stupidly went with a Dodge Omni GLH, and it was a lemon…duh, dodge…lol. But like an idiot, I was seduced by a turbo, race tuned version… and that was the last sports car I owned… no one could work on it… that’s when I got my first truck… I had a momentary relapse ten years ago when I got a Subaru WRX… wow… sure wish those were around back in the day. But I had to sell it as I’m too old and my reflexes weren’t up to the task. Great little slot car that WRX.

[Samuel Dickens]

My Corolla will run forever.

[Coyote Poetry]

A very nice bio Roarke. I have forgotten more than I can remember now. We do so many things in a lifetime and if we are lucky. We land in a good place. Truth and lies become the same in old age. I did enjoy the wild thoughts and the places/things you saw and done. Thank you for sharing your life. A part of it.
Coyote

[Philip Gaber]

You don't sound as hard on yourself as me. Maybe you are. I don't know. My older bro plays trumpet. A nice trip back in time & forward again. Well done, Bro #2