As I Glanced at Myself, I Noticed I was Wet.

It seems like this whole summer (as well as last schoolyear) has been filled with nothing but “last times”. My last high school retreat, my last christmas break, my last golf tournament, my last final, my last birthday (ok maybe not that one)…

This weekend is yet a couple more “lasts”. Last day of work at Sports Center (for this year anyway) was today. And what a day it was. It rained all day, and so we finally decided at around 5:00 that we should close. The problem? All of the go-karts were still out. So me and another guy went down to put them away. Now of course the engines were cold and so it took forever to get them started and to stay on, and that was the least of our problems. Go-kart tires don’t have treads, so they don’t work well in water. You have to push them (without slipping and falling) and then jump in and slam on the gas while it’s still rolling for it to go anywhere. If you just get in and press on the pedal, then one of two things will happen. Best-case scenario is that the tires will just spin and you won’t go anywhere, and the worst-case scenario is that the engine will die and you’ll have to restart it. But you finally get it started (with only a few scrapes from rubbing your hand against the plastic edges while yanking on the pull-cord) moving and you head towards the first turn. The rain drops fall into your face making it virtually impossible to keep your eyes open, and the front tires spray water up into your face as a little extra gift. As you squint you then proceed to slam quite forcefully into the outside rail because in the rain turning the steering wheel has no effect on your direction (you can only go straight), and you can’t slow down because then you might not be able to get going again. You follow the rail around the corner, then slam into the rail on the other side of the track for the next corner. Right about then is when the engine dies and you have to get out and stand in a puddle and have water seep into your shoes while you restart it (and it dies) several times. You then follow the first few steps of scraping and starting and pushing and jumping in until you finally do it without falling down and without letting the engine die. If you’re lucky and it didn’t die, then you probably just spin out and do a 540 and have to get out and push it around so it’s facing the right way. So you get it rolling and jump in again, and then you drive through a puddle of standing water. Here is where you learn that go-karts aren’t water proof. The seats are already soaked anyway, but standing water seeps up through the bottom and chills you a little bit for extra measure. But eventually you get it into the garage, wipe the water out of your eyes, ring out your clothes, and then get ready for the fun part.

You do it all again.

Needless to say it took the two of us over an hour to put them away (it usually takes about ten minutes in dry conditions). And keep in mind that it’s absolutely pouring rain this whole entire time. By the time we were done, I looked like I had jumped in a pool, gotten out, had somone hose me down, and then had a twenty gallon jug of water poured on top of me. And then hosed down a bit more. And maybe tossed into the pool again. My Sports Center shirt increased in weight by at least five pounds.

Anyway, it was a great way to end the summer. Freezing cold and wet. But tomorrow is another day of lasts. My last high school sunday school, as well as….my last youth group. That makes me the saddest. Youth group has been my favorite part of the week for the past three years now. I can’t believe I’m leaving it.

Also, I was going to start packing tonight but ended up watching a Pink Panther movie instead.