Riding Easy

June 6, 1999

It's been a hot and hazy lazy day of summer here, and it is only early June. Summer came early, and immediately. Just last week I was swimming outdoors at the club in a balmy 50-degree wind.

But today my pool is open, and it is gaining a degree an hour. It's an above ground contraption, surrounded by a deck, but 94 degrees in the shade is warming it quite nicely, thank you.

Today though, was one of trying out new things, reflecting on major passings and wondering about the future. Earlier in the week I was with a client that has hired me to try and sort out some of his finances.

I guess because the running of his office is a related topic, we got on to the question of his daughter. She works there, and is not happy. Probably because deep down, we all want to feel that we contribute, and are not just sucking down paychecks because we happen to be daddy's child.

But that still is a problem, being daddy's child. It is especially hard when daddy has a big heart and a wallet that seems to have no end. Daddy and mommy enable, big time. Hey, I'd probably take it too if I was in her place.

As we talked, one thing led to another, and we ended up in the garage. All of a sudden, a whole bunch of things clicked for me. I guess that's why he hired me. I look, I ponder, I think, and I see things. The curious thing is that he never hired me to see what I had just figured out.

I told him what I had figured out as we sat and talked for another two hours. The topic had shifted to the daughter. "I get it." I said. "I get it, I get her, and I also get how you don't have a clue."

Some days she walks into the office in a cowboy hat. One day the hair is red, another blue. It made complete sense to me.

But he wants her to be "successful."

Hey, daddy, have you ever played with her... just in her world?

She thinks welding is cool? Maybe you should learn how to weld.

He listened. For some reason, he has always listened to me and I to him. As things progressed, he said, "Tell you what, NSR, I'll make it easy on you. You won't even have to come up with any cash. I'll just take it out of the money I would have paid you at the end of the project."

I thought about it, and told him Friday, "No, I have to do the financially right thing."

I don't like doing the right thing at this point in my life. I want to do something, anything, which will bring some measure of pleasure and excitement.

This hot afternoon I went out and met with the daughter. All of a sudden, she is not a spoiled brat, but a child who needs to find her way. I understand her, and actually like her. I never knew much about her, certainly not this side of the picture.

After our meeting I drove home. I had a new appreciation for things and places I had ridden past a thousand times before. I truly enjoyed the hot afternoon.

At home, the teenager smiled a big, big smile.

I went back to see the daughter.

I told her I was buying her Harley.