Motercycle Mania

Abut a week later, Mr. Wilson had just gotten back from town and had parked Elsy under the covered porch. I was talking to the kids and decided to sit on Elsy, when out of nowhere and with no provocation, she attacked me! That's right, Elsy must really have something against me, cause just as I was sitting down, her crazy exaust pipe just jumped out and burned my leg! After doing an interstng indian war dance, I sat down to inspesct her dammage. On the inside of my right calf, there was a very nice semetrical burn about and inch long by a half inch wide. By that evening it had a beautiful blister in the center, and two days later, the entire thing was a blister about a quarter inch high. It looked really kool! So I guess I've got one more battle scar to add to my already long list. But hey, I've never been out to have beautiful legs anyway!

The first time I drove Elsy anywhere substantial was to Big C - Thailand's equivalent of Wal-mart. She got me there fine, but when I came out of the store, I couldn't restart her! No matter how much or how hard I stomped on that starter, she wouldn't turn over. I was getting frustrated by this time, especially when a well meaning thai guy came over to assist the poor foreigner. Thankfully, Elsy decided I'd suffered enough and turned over before I had to accept his help.

The next time I drove Elsy, I was headed to the office. I had been given explicit directions on how to get there, but had forgotten to ask how to get back (as many streets are one way, and superhighway exits look different from the other side). So after arriving safely at the office to check my e-mail, I found it locked, so decided to head back home as there was a storm comming in. So Elsy and I headed off. Unfortunatly Elsy is no nice family car who heads home on it's own. Oh no, she's got a mind of her own, and today, her mind was set on not getting me home. So we zipped up and down the supper highway (freeway) trying to decide which way was home! Finally, I just picked a direction and headed that way till I was sure home wasn't that way. I got all the way to the big yellow airport plaza sign (for those of you who know what I'm talking about) before I concluded that home was the other way. Thanks to alot of prayer, Elsy got me home right before the rain began to fall.

Well, Elsy wasn't through with me yet. A few days later, on my first trip to the internet cafe by myself, Elsy made another strike. I had come out of the shop and turned the key. Immagine my horror when no little green light came on. Elsy had died. Thinking I had not stopped her in neutral, I shifted down a couple times, but to no avail. So I hiked down the street to the nearest pay phone and called the wilson home. No on was there. Then It dawned on me that they were all at the office/ resource center, and I didn't have that number or their cell phone number. So I hiked back to where Elsy was sitting, laughing at me. I know she was calling me all kinds of "stupid american" names. After another prayer, I decided I'd try again, but this time I shifted up, and then down, and praise the Lord, the light came on!!! I was so happy! Drove down to the office and asked how to get home so we wouldn't get lost again!

My most recent episodes with Elsy occured yesterday. We were headed to the office once again. I was rolling along at a good pace, when a big truck pulled out in front of us! I slammed on the foot brake, forgeting about the hand brake, and so we fishtailed a bit before we finally stopped. The look on the truck driver's face about matched mine! But I was ok. It seems that not only is Elsy out to get me, but is suicidal as well! Then later yesterday, I went to the market to buy some food. Bought what I needed, including eggs (which are bought in a plastic bag). as I was loading Elsy up, I tried to decide if the eggs would get broken in the basket or not....hmmmm.... finally decided to give it a shot. On the way home, Elsy seemed to try to hit every rough spot in the road! On arriving home, I was affraid to look at my eggs. Sure enought - 7 out of the 10 were smashed. So I will have to come up with a better way of transporting eggs.....

So as you can see, Elsy and I have gotten off to a rough start. But we are comming to and understanding, and hopefully she'll leave me along after a while! God bless - Sha