Unexpected acquisition, Break Tradition

I had a busy weekend after my two day work week thanks to Hurricane Milton. Saturday after playing pickleball I worked on various tasks around the house during the afternoon. Later in the afternoon I got a call from my buddy Jason who I have ridden wheels with a number of times . He told me surprisingly that he has lost interest in riding. He lost it so much that he asked me if I wanted to buy his two wheels.

I was very surprised by this and tried repeatedly to talk him out of it, sharing stories of how I have had my interest come and go over time but I always come back to it. He had already made up his mind however. He didn’t want to even deal with the hassle of selling the wheels himself. His thought was to sell them to me cheap enough that I could turn around and sell them for a small profit that I could put towards future wheel purchases.

The last thing I really needed was two more wheels but I agreed to do it both to help him out and to hopefully generate a few extra bucks, it won’t be a windfall by any means. I made arrangements to meet him somewhat halfway between Naples and Cape Coral where we did the exchange. It was a situation I absolutely did not expect. On Sunday I rode the wheel and did a video describing what went down.

On Saturday I decided to go to Carrabas to visit Helen, it was nice to catch up with her.

Besides riding on Sunday and doing the associated video editing I watched the Eagles/ Browns game. The Browns are statistically one of the worst teams in the league but stayed in the game the entire way, remaining tied into the fourth quarter. The Birds squeaked out a 20-16 win but I was finding it very difficult to be motivated to watch the team. It’s just not fun. After the game I went to Tacos and Tequila to eat dinner and get a little drunk on four margaritas.

I went to one of our remote offices both Saturday and Sunday to revert a work around we did on Friday for a power problem. The power issues were supposed to be fixed both of those days, it wasn’t. I was less than pleased.

I told Larry I was going to write something regarding breaking traditions in relation to a situation he is mulling over. I have always been a person that is yearning for routine as well as participating in traditions. With Halloween being roughly two weeks away it got me thinking about traditions once again and specifically how I have been letting a lot of them fade away.

For a long time I would decorate for Halloween. I would have various inflatables in the yard along with other decorations both in and outdoors. I thought it was fun and thought others enjoyed my efforts like Cindy, her daughter and later baby DJ. However this year you are seeing the extent of my Halloween decorations, I changed the LEDS by the garage to orange, done. Christmas may also see a drastic yet similar shift in the amount of f’s I give about maintaining those traditions.

In a nutshell, to me, if a tradition is no longer serving you or has become more hassle than it’s worth, it’s not a tradition I am interested in entertaining any further. As I mentioned this also has applied to my various routines that for so long seemed like they were made out of stone. Instead I realized they are simply made of sand that can be brushed away and reshaped in any manner I so choose. Is there an element of sadness from walking away from things you traditionally have done? Yes, at least for me there is. However I have been continuing focus on what I want to do as opposed to things I feel obligated to do for reasons that just don’t matter that much anymore. That’s my two cents and it might be worth less than that.