Holy hell the Vespa is fixed. It only took 6 months, but they were finally able to find the problem. It actually took me losing my temper to get the job done. But I'm not sure I'm taking that as a life lesson. I was exceedingly patient throughout the entire process, and while it didn't necessarily shoot me to the top of their to-do list, it definitely ended up with them liking me. So now I feel like if I needed something I could just call them up because I know them now. They ended up finding a leak in the engine so they took the whole thing apart. And while they were in there they found the oil shaft was not properly tightened down and was just floating around, occasionally floating in the way of the gear shifter which explained another leak and the difficulty changing gears.

Now that it's all fixed, I'm a much better driver. Not only was the bike keeping me from doing things correctly, but it kept me from thinking I could do things correctly. It's amazing what a little confidence will do for you. Now that it works I can shift smoothly and seamlessly and accelerate like a normal person. Some of it wasn't my fault and that feels really good. I rode to work all 5 days last week. The weather has just been made for motoring. I think I might take a nice long ride today, too.

In other news we did The Walk with Hanson. One mile barefoot across the SMU campus. It was to raise awareness of the plight of people in developing nations who truly cannot afford shoes. And let me tell you this -- walking barefoot sucks. I mostly hung back and just participated in the walk but Lindsey was determined not to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. So she went about meeting each of the brothers. Zac is her favorite and she's been wanting to meet him her entire life so when the chance to sidle of next him arrived, she took it. And what she meant to say was, "Oh gosh, I've wanted to meet you since I was eleven." What came out of her mouth was, "Seven oh gosh." To which he replied, "Seven oh gosh?" and Lindsey, realizing she'd just gone over a precipice just said, "Yup." and Zac jogged ahead a little bit.

So not exactly what she'd envisioned but it didn't matter because she met all 3 of them and then we went to their concert at the House of Blues and they rocked. So mission accomplished. Another reason we walked barefoot to see how bad it is is to encourage people to do something about it. I've talked about them before but TOMS Shoes gives one pair of shoes to a kid in a poor nation for every pair that you buy. And they're pretty stylish. And I finally bought a pair -- the green madras ones. Very cool. They're not high quality shoes, obviously, but they're cool and comfortable, and make you feel smug. So check em out.