Pressure, it’s everywhere in life. Pressure to “do the right thing”, pressure to stay within posted speed limits, pressure to pay your bills on time, pressure not to make a scene in public and tell someone to go fuck themselves, pressure in your bikes tires, the pressure your ass puts on the thirty-five year old foam in your bikes seat...causing a sore ass. It’s everywhere and to a certain point uncontrollable. So what relevance does this have to WT’s blog or motorcycles? Lots.
Being a single guy living in a two bedroom apartment with a one car garage will bring pressure. This year with people thinking the economy is running straight into Shit Hill; there have been so many people in over what they can afford. The apartment complex I live in has always had three or four empty unit’s year around, but since July they have all been full.
To worsen matters there wasn’t one single woman from the age 21-40 that moved in…….why do the forces of nature work against me? Not that I don’t like my neighbors, because I do. There’s not a whole lot of drama associated with them. No ex-boyfriends screaming and burning perfectly good tires into black rubber bits in front the house and I don’t have to listen to any loud, late night drunken booty calls. Plus when I come rolling in at 4 a.m. on a bike, they never complain.
So back to pressure.
When is enough, really enough? When does someone stop adding to their collection? I’ve yet to find this out because I’m still adding all the time. With the half a truck load of Guzzi stuff two months ago and the two truck loads of BSA twin stuff, the garage/laundry room/bathroom closet is full…..at capacity some might say. Yet, I still am finding bikes that I could afford that I would like to add to my collection. I’ve been trying to make, what seems to me as some very tough decisions lately. Do I sell some stuff to raise some cash for more, or do I selectively sell to focus more on one type of bike?
When I say “selectively sell”, that means do I sell the one Honda I have so focus can be applied to the ever growing BSA collection. Even more drastic, do I sell all the Japanese made bikes and focus on Guzzi’s and BSA’s? I don’t see the later scenerio happening anytime soon. Where is a role model or mentor when you need one?
So the pressure is what to do. If I keep adding, I will have to get rid of my couches and sit on a bike to watch “Swamp People” Sunday nights. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. So the only logical action in this scenario and what most everyone around me tells me to do and that is “BUY A HOUSE”! That’s great for all you people who collect wizard and unicorn statues, but I’ve got motorcycles……like eleven or twelve of them. No single family house will be any different than what I have now. If I’m going to go through all the work of purchasing a house, it will be suited for what I need it for.
The ideal situation for me would be a large 40 X 60 pole barn or building with living quarters. By living quarters I mean a silver bullet trailer located on one side of the pole barn with a bed and television inside of it. Then a kitchen and bathroom framed in near the trailer…..all of which in the building. No windows because it will save on heating and air conditioning costs, not to mention it will keep anyone from peering inside. I’d thought about doing the “green” thing and have in the floor heating as well via the whole geothermal system. Hell, if I’m doing the garage floor might as well do the first thirty or so feet of the driveway in front of it so I won’t have to shovel or use salt in the winter!!
A house is for a family of people, which I am not interested in. There’s a difference between a house and a home, I can make a home living in a silver bullet trailer inside a pole barn.
During my very short life and limited experiences, I have learned that the more stuff you have…..the more responsibilities you also have. So in collecting all this old motorcycle parts and bikes, I knew one day that there would be no more space to store it all. So this only adds to more pressure.
There was a time earlier this year, in the spring to be exact, that I found the perfect house……located directly behind me. Some poor souls got foreclosed on and it was going for cheap. As soon as I found out about it, I contacted a realtor who contacted a bank all within a day…..we will call this “Day 1”. The banker told me what financial documents I needed and they were delivered to the banker the next day….”Day 2”. On day three I called the banker and he wasn’t available, so I kept calling. Finally I was told he wouldn’t be able to help me for two more weeks because of his work load. Bullshit. At the price this place was going for it was probably already gone. So I wrote a nasty email to the realtor and the banker expressing my sincere desire to own this property and the unsatisfactory job they were doing thus far. The realtor at least emailed me back. The email was some “Billy bad ass” letter telling me how he’s going to get the job done at no expense. I was already tossing out the bullshit flag. On day four, the house had a contract on it and was gone.
I slipped into weird coma/funk for a few months and still have a very bad attitude about buying property to this day. Did I mention this place was a duplex (so one side could be rented out, pretty much paying the whole mortgage), had a two car garage under the house and had a massively sized shop already wired for welders, lathes and a mill. Not to mention it had a black top driveway and wasn’t a POS. Total bummer.
The way I look at it is, if I want a $50K car the banker can tell me within a few minutes “yes” or “no”. What’s so different about a house or property? It’s the same thing as buying a car, but without depreciation (for the most part)…..pretty safe bet right? A new motor home costs more than what I was asking to borrow. So I must have sounded pretty dumb and naive…..well in many ways I am. It’s my fault for not wanting to devote my time or energy in dealing with people who get paid to shuffle paper for a living. There’s not too much respect held by me for a banker or realtor……they are one step away from a lawyer. At least a lawyer keeps you out of the clink while padding their pockets.
So there’s a little bit of an extended rant about my “pressures” in life. Not much to most, but significant to me none the less.
Will try to update more often.
- WT
