or One Monkey Don’t Stop the Show

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- but dammit, they’ve constructed one hell of a roadblock. Thursday I was feeling like I finally had things under control. I had gotten an email about the Charleston house saying lets set a closing date, the bike was very close to being ready and I had renters who will sign a lease for the Asheville place on Monday.

Then, Friday morning I went out to go to work and my bike had been stolen. Sometime between 11p.m. and 7:30 a.m. someone had put it in the back of a truck and driven off with it. Half of me just says shake it off and soldier on – and half of me wants to curl up into a ball and just give up. I posted pictures and info on the motorcycle websites and even on my kayaking message board and the outpouring of support has been amazing. Michelle has mobilized into a machine, getting me on the news and sending out emails to tons of people. The network of eyes on the look-out is amazing. But I don’t really hold out much hope for its return.

I talked with Shannon and we agreed that the next thing to is to look for another bike, Then find a garage that we can strip it down in, and start again. My manageable to-do list just went over the top. I think that this is possible – only adding about $6000 to the trip and an ever-tensing ball of angst to the prep – but I’ll be selling the house, so its possible, and besides, I’d hate to pass up another opportunity to make a bad financial decision.

Then I talked with Carmen about the house. She said that by all her calculations there were only 2 acres – not 2.7 – on the property, and she would like me to adjust the price accordingly. Somewhere I have the original survey. Tomorrow I dig through all my boxes to find it. If she’s right, the value of the house is considerably less than I had thought – AND, I’ve been paying taxes on property I don’t own for 15 years.

So in a day, I’ve lost a half acre, a motorcycle and 8 months.

I’ve always said my luck runs big – ‘cmon pendulum, SA-wing!