"Done a Ton"

Yesterday -- January 28th -- I set out on a motorcycle ride that took me 160 miles around southeastern Arizona. If you care to track the venture, go to Google Earth or Virtual Earth and trace out this route:

• I-10 east out of Tucson
• SR-83 south from I-10 to Sonoita
• SR-82 east SR-90
• SR-90 north to I-10
• I-10 west to Tucson

The time spent on Interstate 10 was productive but not enjoyable. I do not much care for driving on the freeways. Here in Arizona the posted speed limit is 75 mph, which means people do 85 and higher. At one point I had the motorcycle up to 90 mph just to keep from getting run over by people on the road. The bike handled 90 mph admirably, but it's still faster than I care to ride.

On my way home, as I cut across Valencia Road near the airport, I trailed behind an old Volkswagen (a Karmen, I think, but not the coupe). Suddenly her brake lights went on and small scraps of rubber started spraying over the road. I thought she had hit a retread that had come off a truck, but it turned out her passenger side front tire shredded. She quickly pulled over to the side of the road. I looped around to help her.

She was a young girl, really ... 19 or 20. Absolutely no earthly idea how to change a tire. So I offered to do it for her and she gladly accepted. The spare for that car was one of those temporary "donut" tires, and was absurdly small. It had air in it, thankfully, and it worked, but I warned her to not drive fast nor hard on that tire, and to get it changed out as soon as she could. She was late for work, so she drove off.

Here's why I write this ... at one point she was on her cell phone with her father. She was telling him that someone had come to assist her. She said, "Well, this ..." and she paused. Were I 25 or even 30 she might have used the word "guy." But I'm not that young, of course, so she inserted the word "man." "Man" as in "older man." "Man" as in ancient beyond comprehension man.

I believe this was the first time that the harsh reality of this has hit me. I am now of the age that young women of that age -- 18 to 24 -- view me as incomprehensibly old and unquestionably not worthy of them. I'm not in the market for a woman, nor would I be looking for one that young even if I were, but still ...

Actually, I find it all pretty amusing.

My fantasy of sweeping Keira Knightly off her feet has been burst. I'm too old for her. :-)