01/19/03 - Surprise! I got two this weekend … one bad, one good. Well maybe the bad one was more like a disappointment. Funny, you think with an ordinary word like surprise, you would know what it means. I will refer to Webster. Hmmm, how surprising! 1. An attack made without warning, 2. A taking unawares, 3. Something that surprises, 4. Amazement, astonishment. And then we have surprise as a verb … to cause fear by sudden surprise. Yep, surprise is the right word. The synonyms startle and shock could be included too. The disappointment came when I realized I might have been duped. No, might doesn't fit. I was duped. I guess that was why there were no apologies. For some reason, I was supposed to have known. I didn't. My bad. There's no need for explanation, not then, not now.
The good surprise fits under definition 3, something that surprises. It came in the form of an invitation. I was invited to go for a ride on a Harley Davidson! Which do you think was the biggest surprise, the invitation, or the Harley? Both! And both were very pleasant surprises. The ride was amazing. Guess what? I have never been for a motorcycle ride before. How amazing is that? It was a great experience. I must admit that I was a little afraid, but I had no need to be. The helmet was heavy. I'm not used to having weight on my head. The sunglasses helped a lot. I could look straight into the wind. I think I may have been spared anything too adventurous. Maybe the ride was tamed down for me? How would I know? I just know that I loved it. You know, I thought I might have a hard time explaining this, the sounds I heard, the force of the wind against me, the vibrations … it's a kind of you had to be there thing. It sort of reminds me of a first experience I had last January … my first time in a hot tub! I was scared with that one too, for a moment. The sounds, the bubbles, the jets … awesome! Gees, you'd think I'd been deprived; took all these years to experience hot tubs and motorcycles. No, I've not been deprived; just never came up. I've never been to Hawaii yet, either … maybe next January.
So, I had a bad surprise, and a good surprise. That just goes to show you the yin and yang of life now, doesn't it? So the weekend has come to an end and I'm going out singing … Get your motor running, way out on the highway … |
