The Morning Routine
and other occult rituals
She can be tricky, my Blue. You have to start her up just right, and not anyone can do it. I, of course, attuned to her whim and mood by the long season of our acquaintance, almost always succeed.
It's not just that the propane heater requires a careful calibration on-wards and off-wards in cold weather, lest the windshield fog and freeze to an impenetrable icy crust - though of course, it is that too. One must be in constant touch with the variables of temperature, humidity, en-furnaced-ness, and time elapsed between the reluctant abandonment of bed and the prescribed hour of one's employment. So too, must a person judiciously select a parking spot both secluded enough for whatever activities one wishes to carry out that evening, romance- or cannabis-wise, and yet one that is not likely to becalm a person some impossible distance from a bus stop in the case of glaciated entrapment.
But these considerations, while crucial, remain within the locus of control vis-a-vis the operator. Baleine has a mind of her own which also must be reckoned with, in the way that especially beloved objects become ensouled; recall the tale of the Velveteen Rabbit, and understand that Blue-girl is my own personal Skin Horse. Once a mere gasoline-powered conveyance, her mechanical body has acquired an essence, and in doing so adopted many of the traits original to her inhabitant. Most notable among these is a distinct disinclination to commence work until well after the ten-o-clock hour, or until a certain internal temperature has been achieved. While she is well-adapted to the cold, once chilled, she refuses to function until the complaint is sufficiently addressed.
Bribing myself out of bed with the carrot of various legal stimulants (accentuated, naturally, by the hypothetical stick of embarrassing tardiness), Blue and I grumble with the morning, companionably wiping both eyes and windshield of their sleep-endowed encrustations. My feet are cold and so too are her tires, frozen slightly to the slippery surface of the road, or parking lot, or gravel-ice trailhead. “Come on baby, come on,” I murmur encouragingly at her engine, listening to her starter cough away the fog of dreams and endeavour towards its purpose. A well-timed tap of the gas pedal and she roars to life, throwing up one magnificent yawn of noise before settling into a rumbling hum of coffee-coffee-coffee. “There’s my girl.” I smile to myself, letting her warm her pistons and stretch a moment while I select a soundtrack for the morning's drive, giving a reassuring pat to the dashboard. Gently, I reverse, and with luck exit the parking lot with a minimum of revving and trouble through the slick spots. She's slow to shift gears in the mornings - a creaky old engine will do that, and so I take her slowly through the winding turns past the cemetery, feathering the brake downhill to give her time to catch up, listening to her cetacean groaning as the transmission broadcasts its displeasure at the exertion. By the time we're at the highway, she's back in her rhythm, smoothly pulling up to 60km/hr just as my well-chosen morning soundtrack moves from the acoustic introduction to the full force of amplified guitar. It is, without question, one of the best parts of my day. Blue and myself and a propulsive blues riff, reminiscent of road-trip-movies and teenage-hood, of the particular best-friendship that comes of aimless possibility. In those moments, I can believe that I have no commitments whatever, that Blue and I could ride off into the sunrise and into a grand new adventure, wherever the road takes us. Where shall we go today, my girl? What do you say to a cup of coffee? I only wish that I were ensouled myself, that someone would be there to coax me out of bed and tap my gas pedal just-so.
What I'm Listening To:
The drive from my favourite secret parking spot to work is exactly these three songs long, weather-permitting. One of the best puzzle-solving small pleasures is a playlist that's exactly the length of your commute, no?
Talk soon, and take care
-Magpie