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inspection day. in this state, it happens once a year... take your car to the "shop," flip on the lights, turn your wheels and cough. "all sorted, then? off you go." well, it's more like "fuck" this and "god damn" that, in the barely-moving-lipped mouth-full-of-shit manner so popular in virginia. such poets, mechanics. i prefer to curse solo when i twist wrenches. so, it had to happen. busy week coming up, today the only free time to waste. one of society's great common denominators, just like getting a license, buying groceries, paying taxes... and just as exciting.six cars ahead of me. time to slip into...s l o w d o w n mode. i carried a magazine with me, sitting with my back against the metal wall outside the bays. listening offhand to old guys swearing... talking about who had what, why this one died undignified, who's that young woman. all the crap i hope i never descend to. old men embarrass me... old white men, anyway. judgemental... imperious... hippocritical... smarmy... ass-grabby. trouble is, all the young ones within sight seem to be heading the same way. the legacy continues.... it was down to two of us. i hadn't really noticed this one guy... requisite baseball cap, dark complexion, aviator shades. i noticed his t-shirt, though. surfer thing. i asked him about it, and it turns out that he's from hawaii. and he's surfed some of the big ones. interesting coincidence. next week, i revive the hawaiian music show that i used to do a few years ago... the one where i used to get more phone calls from the listeners than the reggae one. cool. i probably gave him the impression that i knew more about surfing than i do... which i will probably have to pay for at some point. what i do know is that i love to watch waves, and people rip across them... or in harmony with them, more like. i can only imagine the poetry of actually dicing with one, standing on a flat missle atop liquid power. never say never. you pay for it. interesting how something as dull and time-consuming as waiting in the queue unearths these chance connections. moths drawn to a flame, as inconsequential as the flame might be. think i'll be looking for more flames to circle.
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