In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a sea-change is a change brought about by sea: Full fathom five thy father lies … / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change. This meaning is the original one, but it’s now archaic. Long after sea change had gained its figurative meaning, however, writers continued to allude to Shakespeare’s literal one; Charles Dickens, Henry David Thoreau, and P.G. Wodehouse all used the term as an object of the verb suffer.
Merriam Webster
Having discovered that six decades of life “unqualifies” me – despite over four decades of experience – my life suffered a “sea change”.
After Going Walkabout for about five years now, it becomes obvious that I need to be my own boss. Mostly this is because I can count on me to give me a fair break. I won’t reject me for being old. I won’t coerce me to violate DOT guidelines. I won’t resent me for having more technical knowledge than me or for speaking my own language better than I do. I won’t assign myself menial tasks (which I would cheerfully carry out, anyway) in a forlorn attempt to convince me to quit and I won’t set myself up to fail. Yup, that’s what I learned.
My Walkabout was the result of an early – and involuntary – retirement. It was complicated by winding up as the sole survivor among my parents, dementia suffering stepmother and cardiac-failed 59-year old sister.
That is what happens when you continue to survive because anybody can just up and die. Life goes on and I hope that my wife and children will live long and prosper. Make no mistake – I fully intend to do so myself for about five more decades. I decided at age 15 to live 100 years more. As I am now 65 and work about 35 hours a week, swim an average of a half-mile per day, have lost about 80 pounds and I still mow my own yard – I do not think that goal to be unreasonable.
But the post is called Uber Alley for a reason. I am now a humble Personal Transportation Contractor and I find that every day is a unique adventure. In that sense, it is somewhat like over-the-road (OTR) trucking. I start out at five or six in the morning from the house or the gym. I have wound up in places like Prairie View, Pasadena, The Woodlands, Rosenburg, Needville, Texas City, Seabrook and Galveston. While I have had some repeat passengers, I can count them on two hands – out of 1348 trips in nine months.
There is enough to write about and it promises to be just as interesting as the Going Walkabout series that started this whole imbroglio. I stumble across things that should serve to illustrate the stories with photos and I’ll include some here, just to get started. I won’t be posting pictures of the passengers – for obvious reasons.
Below is the Main Street Wharf, in downtown Houston. I was just about to go see it up close, when another ride came in and I had to leave. That is a lot like OTR, as well.
Hasta Luego,
Steve
GoingWalkabout.Blog 