“So we drop out of the sky & spring into life. But life is not that straightforward. Nor are machines, at first glance. The Kubota RTV 4x4 died yesterday, with an unassuming “click”. This usually indicates a battery issue; at least I knew that much. And although immediate work was about to be curtailed, a new trajectory of challenge & adventure awaited me. Each mini-disaster invites us to become our own savior. The absentee owner of the vehicle put it this way: “You can wait until I come home next week, or replace the battery”. I figured it was time for me to learn something new, and do it myself. I headed to New Hampshire, to the closest O’Reilly Auto Parts store I could Google. Eschewing the foliage crowds on Rte. 4, I thought I’d take a shortcut - hey, didn’t I know all the back roads around Woodstock? I guess no. I drove east and made a slightly indecisive fork left, then another equally indecisive right turn onto a one lane cow path. How could this be? Tourists began to pass me. This, was truly embarrassing. Unfamiliar farmsteads, a quintessential old woman, a goat ... what the heck! I pulled over, to examine my Gazetteer ducking my head as pickups passed, pushing the maps below my steering wheel. Hadn’t I driven all these parts, worked one valley over for a whole season mere years ago? I turned around, recognizing nothing, as the road began to rise towards a sugar bush I’d never heard of, holding some kind of open house. The aggravating distinction between “no outlet” and “dead end” was perhaps, in the end, about to become a relevant one. To my chagrin, a cruel, and grossly unfair treatment of someone merely taking pride in being able to forge a connection between one side of the wilderness, and the other. Indeed, I was lost; my fate, on this glorious, perfect, autumn day, yet to be determined. Who knows what quirk of fate, allowed me to eventually wind my way from utterly foreign territory (“Abenaki Trace”?) and back into the valley, to a golf course and tiny ski run I recognized. Then, before I knew it, I was leaning on the counter of O’Reilly’s, being asked politely: “Do you want just a few rubber gloves, or a whole box?” I took a kit including sprays, steel brushes and wipes, to ensure the cleanest replacement. “Can I get a wrench?” I asked, meekly. He knew what i wanted. Once back on the road with my new battery, and wrench, I took the main highway. It was slow, clogged as I’d imagined with leaf peepers, but made faster, by sticking to the tried and true. Sometimes it doesn’t pay, to complicate an already complicated situation, as appealing as that may be. Once back on the job site, I waited for the mowers to finish, and pull their trailer away down the road. I didn’t want interference from anyone with experience putting a battery in a 4x4. That would defeat the whole point of this exercise. A beautiful fall day, with enough clouds to keep from over-heating outdoor activities. I’d managed to free the trapped bird from behind the log pile in the garage, and the world, was suddenly, my oyster.”
