130325
2025 March 13
See all posts
Today was a bad day. Maybe I am being too dramatic? Well, how else do you
explain waking up in the middle of the night with your heart beating
abnormally fast and having to push a motorbike for at least 10 kilometers
to close the day?
Tough one. as usual, I wake up with a lot on my to-do list, carpe diem,
you'd say. We are still in the early stages of building NextGenHub, so the
groundwork just keeps coming. We are making arrangements to commence a
financial literacy workshop for kids, aimed at teaching kids to save,
spend, budget, invest, you know, those fun stuff we didn't have the
opportunity to learn when we were their age.
Containers. I had to get 18 of them so we could have ‘save’, ‘spend’, and
‘give’ stickers on them as part of the materials needed for the workshop.
Tote Bags. I had ordered days ago and the manufacturer said I would get
all ordered items on Thursday (although, I must admit, I wasn't entirely
convinced they meant it). Thursday is today, so I called them. They told
me they remember telling me it would be delivered on Friday, instead of
Thursday. Spent the next minutes showing the proof it was Thursday they
said. But to no avail. I had to accept to get the bags on friday rather.
This was when I felt the day starting to really frown at me.
Time to get the aforementioned save, give, spend Containers. That morning,
trying to figure out where I would get the container, I remember I passed
by a not so welcoming store selling them in packs. It is perfect, I
thought. Rode there and made the transaction. To my surprise, the
so-called new containers looked mildly new. Had what looked like scratches
all over them. At first, I thought it would be fine, and it was just dust
and the seller assured me I was right, it was just dust. Bought 18 of it.
He sat there cleaning the containers and bagging them for me. Some had
bumps, I didn't think much of it. I can just push them with my fingers and
they would be fine. A side of me was just glad I didn't have to go through
chaos, to randomly find someone that sold the containers. I remember
classhing eyes with him as he was cleaning the containers and he appeared
slightly startled. That was my clue. I should have just left then. But I
didn't want to be that guy. I couldn't afford that emotionally burst. I
wanted to just be nice and pay him, even when I had doubts about what I
was buying and wished I could just disappear without a trace. Got the
containers. 18 of them. Got home, sprayed some oil on them and started
cleaning, hoping that I could rub all those scratches away. They proved
rather stubborn. I had wasted money. Or maybe not, I thought to myself.
Maybe I can just keep them in my room and store things in them in an
effort to keep things organized. I liked the idea and It managed to take
away the regret. Had to buy another 18 containers from another store, they
were more expensive, but you know what they say, "buy expensive, buy once,
but cheap, buy twice". I remember I didn't really like the design.
Preferred them to be entirely smooth. But these ones had some curves at
the base. Bought them anyways. Enough pain for the day. A lot more left to
be done.
Rode to my co-founder's house, gave them the containers and tried to cheer
them up. This was around 5pm. I Taught her kids some coding and wasn't
able to finish what I had planned to teach because their mouse had a low
battery and the other's keyboard was also low. What is it with the 21st
century and making things overly complicated than they need to be? What is
the whole point of making a mouse wireless? Aside from looking fancy, it
has no valid use case. Is it for easier controls when you are far from the
computer? well, how would you see the screen with the tiny pointer if you
are far anyways? I don't get why things are so messy than they need to be.
Let's learn to keep things simple and actually make things that meet real
problems. Not in the shallow shadows of modernism.
Anyways, I am ranting about this, because it got me irritated. I had told
their mum, My co-founder, a couple of days before, that they should just
change the mouse and buy one with wire so we don't have to be charging
every time. She didn't agree and said I should just call one of the
nannies to charge it every day before I come over for class. MADE SENSE.
But then again, I thought, why does she have to do that when the mouse can
just be replaced? Also, with the keyboard, one of the kids uses a windows
keyboard for the MACOS desktop. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out
where the damn command key was so I could undo a coding typo I had made.
Got even more frustrated. Their Mom (my cofounder) also got frustrated.
They argued that I should have just called the nanny for them to charge
the devices, and that I am only saying they should change the mouse
because I want things my way and that this is modern technology and I
should work with it. Some of what she said was right. I don't see the need
to change things when they work just right enough. We had a flash
exchange. No regretful words were shared. Thank goodness. I am glad to be
writing about it now. Although she made an assumption again for the 3rd
time as I have been keeping track of her patterns. And I plan to confront
her with it at the right time in future. The right time always comes when
you are patient enough.
I was frustrated, kept quiet and walked to my laptop to continue work on
the NextGenHub mobile App. The conflict lasted with me for about 90% of
the time I spent at her house. Although, for her, the minute I walked
away, she had just moved on, almost forgotten about it and even approached
me to share the newly discovered goodnews with so much excitement in her
eyes. haha. You gotta love her.
The Worst and Good Part. It was about 8:17pm as I remember checking the
time. It has started raining immensely. You could tell by the burst of
rain-sound you heard from the study room. I just plugged in my earpiece
and continued to code, hoping the rain would finish it's thing soon enough
for me to ride back home. It did. Or at least it appeared so. It felt
quite outside, so I thought the rain had packed up. Announced to my
cofounder that I was leaving and so I left. Got outside and noticed that
the rain wasn't entirely over. Didn't also want to be the guy that says
he's leaving and you still find him in the house.
"How bad could it be?", I thought. Took a step, and another, and then
another and I was with my bike. Cleaned all rain droplets off it and ready
to ride the wind.
Rode out and the rain didn't take it easy on me. I could barely see the
road. Riding is mostly fun at these times, rain hitting you from all
angles, your eyes almost blind and your entire body shaking on the bike.
In that moment, just for a little while, we get to touch the face of God.
Got to a curve, and realized there was traffic. a bridge had flooded the
entire road and some cars were stuck. I decided to take another path and
warned another biker behind me to also turn around. Got to the path I had
in mind. Also flooded. Decided to try another. This new path was better.
Traffic light had turned red so I had to take a halt. I had to cross to
the other side of the road to head home. The biker I had warned earlier
was also beside me, heading the same direction as me. Saw another flood
ahead, just ahead of me. I had to cross it to get home. At most, in a
split second, I had thought of another route to use, although it is much
longer. I was in the spirit. I asked the biker if he was going to ride
through the flood or not and he assured me with no uncertainty that he was
going to cross it. I heard another biker parked on the side of the road
and telling us his engine had shut off trying to ride through the flood,
or another biker experienced that rather? Couldn’t be so sure. Didn't want
to ask too. I can ride through the flood, I thought. This could be fun.
What could possibly at all go wrong?
Traffic lights turn green. Vehicles in my lane started moving. I also
started moving.
Went through the flood. Felt a bit shaky and unbalanced when I was about
80% through. 100%. I went through! short span of excitement. The Engine
shut off. The bike didn't want to start. Meanwhile, I was a long way from
my house and pushing this bike would be a nightmare. Maybe, I need to give
it some time and ignite again, I thought. Every effort proved fruitless. I
was also on a hill. I had to push it up. and that was just 1 of about 5
straight roads each being about 2km long before I can get home.
The Nightmare started. It was painful. A lot of pain. I could feel my
heart falling out when I was pushing the bike uphill in the middle of
nowhere and in the middle of the night. Oh dear, so much pain. Not to talk
of fear. Hey, I have an iphone 14 pro on me and some cash. What are the
odds of me getting robbed?
First hill done. A lot more to go. I dare not calculate the amount of time
it's going to take me to get home. All I was focused on was one step in
front of the other. Times when you'd prefer not to raise up your head and
see the light at the end of the tunnel. Lest, you rationalize that it is
impossible to get there. It was too late in the night, All my tow guys
were unavailable.
Good things started happening. Or so I thought. After the first hill, I
was still pushing, getting ready to go on the next. Then suddenly, another
biker stopped by. He opted to give me a push with his left leg from the
back so at least i don't have to keep enduring the pain of pushing it
myself. He wasn't the only biker that passed. He was the only one that
passed and stopped to help. What was even more staggering was that he had
one passenger on his back seat and still offered to help. I was
dumbfounded. Didn't know what to say. Besides, I of course also didn't
know if I could trust him. He just shouted that he should tow me and that
he knows a mechanic around that I could go see.
I sat, he pulled his leg to the front and started the push. The first feel
of freedom again after a lot of pain that I didn't think was ever going to
end. Cool breeze on my face and just like that, life was good again.
Although still filled with a bit of anxiety that a stranger was towing me
towards a direction that I had never navigated before. But hey! I knew the
risks, and I was ready to face the consequences should things go south.
I must say, it wasn't a smooth one, the towing. Because it had rained, the
road was more slippery and had a lot of mess. My Jeans were dirty and my
lips were dry. It was a discomforting feeling. But above all, more of the
discomfort ensued from knowing the stress that the biker was going through
to tow me.
We finally got to the said residence of the mechanic. Down in the middle
of nowhere and smokers all around. He asked a friend to call someone
called "Agosho" and just like that, he took off without asking for even a
penny from me and he didn't even tell me his name. There I was trying to
rationalize him going through all the stress to tow me, even with another
passenger at his back just out of good will and leaving right afterwards.
After some wait, Agosho came around. Just at first glance at the bike, he
told me, there is nothing wrong with it and all I needed was for it to dry
out before it would spark up again. Some of his friends suggested that I
leave the bike at their place if my house is far away so that I could come
for it the next day. My house was far alright. But I wasn't about to push
my luck and leave the bike in the hands of another set of strangers for 8
good hours. I told them, it was fine and that I will push it home just
like I was doing before I was towed.
I resumed the push. The push Was pretty alright this time. The Road was
not much of a hill. Although it was still painful. I suppose, my brain had
made peace with its fate. Up we go again. Unlike before when I wasn't
quite sure if I had to see a mechanic or not. This time, I knew, I had to
get home, park the bike and dry it out.
After about 30 mins, pushing the bike, another biker stopped by. This
time, we had a yango delivery bag at the back which screamed that he was a
dispatch rider going to deliver a package to a customer. He stopped by me
and like the other good human, he also opted to tow me. Again, he wasn't
the only rider that passed by, a lot of trucks even passed by that I tried
to ask for help. But he was the only one that stopped. Atop the fact that
he was a delivery rider and had to deliver a package in time. He didn't
care. He just helped out of good will. He asked where my house was, told
him and he wasn't even going in the same direction. Yet, he still towed
me.
When it's all said and done:
He took me through all the hills and got me to the only one way road
leading to my house which was also the most perfect slope. Thanked him a
lot, asked for his number and he said he didn't have a personal phone and
the one he had was the company phone. Forced him to take some cash and
asked him to take a picture with me so at least I remember him. My Iphone,
I was sure had died so I had to stick with the android. Camera quality was
bad, but hey, this is what I got.
Finally managed to get home, filled with enormous stress and gratitude
simultaneously. Wanted to have some wine, get tipsy and sleep it off but I
had run out. Got out to go buy some, and all stores had closed at that
time resulting from the heavy rain. Sat down and wrote this with so much
tiredness.
With respect, Life is Good.
E.B
130325
2025 March 13 See all postsToday was a bad day. Maybe I am being too dramatic? Well, how else do you explain waking up in the middle of the night with your heart beating abnormally fast and having to push a motorbike for at least 10 kilometers to close the day?
Tough one. as usual, I wake up with a lot on my to-do list, carpe diem, you'd say. We are still in the early stages of building NextGenHub, so the groundwork just keeps coming. We are making arrangements to commence a financial literacy workshop for kids, aimed at teaching kids to save, spend, budget, invest, you know, those fun stuff we didn't have the opportunity to learn when we were their age.
Containers. I had to get 18 of them so we could have ‘save’, ‘spend’, and ‘give’ stickers on them as part of the materials needed for the workshop.
Tote Bags. I had ordered days ago and the manufacturer said I would get all ordered items on Thursday (although, I must admit, I wasn't entirely convinced they meant it). Thursday is today, so I called them. They told me they remember telling me it would be delivered on Friday, instead of Thursday. Spent the next minutes showing the proof it was Thursday they said. But to no avail. I had to accept to get the bags on friday rather. This was when I felt the day starting to really frown at me.
Time to get the aforementioned save, give, spend Containers. That morning, trying to figure out where I would get the container, I remember I passed by a not so welcoming store selling them in packs. It is perfect, I thought. Rode there and made the transaction. To my surprise, the so-called new containers looked mildly new. Had what looked like scratches all over them. At first, I thought it would be fine, and it was just dust and the seller assured me I was right, it was just dust. Bought 18 of it. He sat there cleaning the containers and bagging them for me. Some had bumps, I didn't think much of it. I can just push them with my fingers and they would be fine. A side of me was just glad I didn't have to go through chaos, to randomly find someone that sold the containers. I remember classhing eyes with him as he was cleaning the containers and he appeared slightly startled. That was my clue. I should have just left then. But I didn't want to be that guy. I couldn't afford that emotionally burst. I wanted to just be nice and pay him, even when I had doubts about what I was buying and wished I could just disappear without a trace. Got the containers. 18 of them. Got home, sprayed some oil on them and started cleaning, hoping that I could rub all those scratches away. They proved rather stubborn. I had wasted money. Or maybe not, I thought to myself. Maybe I can just keep them in my room and store things in them in an effort to keep things organized. I liked the idea and It managed to take away the regret. Had to buy another 18 containers from another store, they were more expensive, but you know what they say, "buy expensive, buy once, but cheap, buy twice". I remember I didn't really like the design. Preferred them to be entirely smooth. But these ones had some curves at the base. Bought them anyways. Enough pain for the day. A lot more left to be done.
Rode to my co-founder's house, gave them the containers and tried to cheer them up. This was around 5pm. I Taught her kids some coding and wasn't able to finish what I had planned to teach because their mouse had a low battery and the other's keyboard was also low. What is it with the 21st century and making things overly complicated than they need to be? What is the whole point of making a mouse wireless? Aside from looking fancy, it has no valid use case. Is it for easier controls when you are far from the computer? well, how would you see the screen with the tiny pointer if you are far anyways? I don't get why things are so messy than they need to be. Let's learn to keep things simple and actually make things that meet real problems. Not in the shallow shadows of modernism.
Anyways, I am ranting about this, because it got me irritated. I had told their mum, My co-founder, a couple of days before, that they should just change the mouse and buy one with wire so we don't have to be charging every time. She didn't agree and said I should just call one of the nannies to charge it every day before I come over for class. MADE SENSE. But then again, I thought, why does she have to do that when the mouse can just be replaced? Also, with the keyboard, one of the kids uses a windows keyboard for the MACOS desktop. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out where the damn command key was so I could undo a coding typo I had made. Got even more frustrated. Their Mom (my cofounder) also got frustrated. They argued that I should have just called the nanny for them to charge the devices, and that I am only saying they should change the mouse because I want things my way and that this is modern technology and I should work with it. Some of what she said was right. I don't see the need to change things when they work just right enough. We had a flash exchange. No regretful words were shared. Thank goodness. I am glad to be writing about it now. Although she made an assumption again for the 3rd time as I have been keeping track of her patterns. And I plan to confront her with it at the right time in future. The right time always comes when you are patient enough.
I was frustrated, kept quiet and walked to my laptop to continue work on the NextGenHub mobile App. The conflict lasted with me for about 90% of the time I spent at her house. Although, for her, the minute I walked away, she had just moved on, almost forgotten about it and even approached me to share the newly discovered goodnews with so much excitement in her eyes. haha. You gotta love her.
The Worst and Good Part. It was about 8:17pm as I remember checking the time. It has started raining immensely. You could tell by the burst of rain-sound you heard from the study room. I just plugged in my earpiece and continued to code, hoping the rain would finish it's thing soon enough for me to ride back home. It did. Or at least it appeared so. It felt quite outside, so I thought the rain had packed up. Announced to my cofounder that I was leaving and so I left. Got outside and noticed that the rain wasn't entirely over. Didn't also want to be the guy that says he's leaving and you still find him in the house.
"How bad could it be?", I thought. Took a step, and another, and then another and I was with my bike. Cleaned all rain droplets off it and ready to ride the wind.
Rode out and the rain didn't take it easy on me. I could barely see the road. Riding is mostly fun at these times, rain hitting you from all angles, your eyes almost blind and your entire body shaking on the bike. In that moment, just for a little while, we get to touch the face of God.
Got to a curve, and realized there was traffic. a bridge had flooded the entire road and some cars were stuck. I decided to take another path and warned another biker behind me to also turn around. Got to the path I had in mind. Also flooded. Decided to try another. This new path was better. Traffic light had turned red so I had to take a halt. I had to cross to the other side of the road to head home. The biker I had warned earlier was also beside me, heading the same direction as me. Saw another flood ahead, just ahead of me. I had to cross it to get home. At most, in a split second, I had thought of another route to use, although it is much longer. I was in the spirit. I asked the biker if he was going to ride through the flood or not and he assured me with no uncertainty that he was going to cross it. I heard another biker parked on the side of the road and telling us his engine had shut off trying to ride through the flood, or another biker experienced that rather? Couldn’t be so sure. Didn't want to ask too. I can ride through the flood, I thought. This could be fun. What could possibly at all go wrong?
Traffic lights turn green. Vehicles in my lane started moving. I also started moving.
Went through the flood. Felt a bit shaky and unbalanced when I was about 80% through. 100%. I went through! short span of excitement. The Engine shut off. The bike didn't want to start. Meanwhile, I was a long way from my house and pushing this bike would be a nightmare. Maybe, I need to give it some time and ignite again, I thought. Every effort proved fruitless. I was also on a hill. I had to push it up. and that was just 1 of about 5 straight roads each being about 2km long before I can get home.
The Nightmare started. It was painful. A lot of pain. I could feel my heart falling out when I was pushing the bike uphill in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of the night. Oh dear, so much pain. Not to talk of fear. Hey, I have an iphone 14 pro on me and some cash. What are the odds of me getting robbed?
First hill done. A lot more to go. I dare not calculate the amount of time it's going to take me to get home. All I was focused on was one step in front of the other. Times when you'd prefer not to raise up your head and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Lest, you rationalize that it is impossible to get there. It was too late in the night, All my tow guys were unavailable.
Good things started happening. Or so I thought. After the first hill, I was still pushing, getting ready to go on the next. Then suddenly, another biker stopped by. He opted to give me a push with his left leg from the back so at least i don't have to keep enduring the pain of pushing it myself. He wasn't the only biker that passed. He was the only one that passed and stopped to help. What was even more staggering was that he had one passenger on his back seat and still offered to help. I was dumbfounded. Didn't know what to say. Besides, I of course also didn't know if I could trust him. He just shouted that he should tow me and that he knows a mechanic around that I could go see.
I sat, he pulled his leg to the front and started the push. The first feel of freedom again after a lot of pain that I didn't think was ever going to end. Cool breeze on my face and just like that, life was good again. Although still filled with a bit of anxiety that a stranger was towing me towards a direction that I had never navigated before. But hey! I knew the risks, and I was ready to face the consequences should things go south.
I must say, it wasn't a smooth one, the towing. Because it had rained, the road was more slippery and had a lot of mess. My Jeans were dirty and my lips were dry. It was a discomforting feeling. But above all, more of the discomfort ensued from knowing the stress that the biker was going through to tow me.
We finally got to the said residence of the mechanic. Down in the middle of nowhere and smokers all around. He asked a friend to call someone called "Agosho" and just like that, he took off without asking for even a penny from me and he didn't even tell me his name. There I was trying to rationalize him going through all the stress to tow me, even with another passenger at his back just out of good will and leaving right afterwards.
After some wait, Agosho came around. Just at first glance at the bike, he told me, there is nothing wrong with it and all I needed was for it to dry out before it would spark up again. Some of his friends suggested that I leave the bike at their place if my house is far away so that I could come for it the next day. My house was far alright. But I wasn't about to push my luck and leave the bike in the hands of another set of strangers for 8 good hours. I told them, it was fine and that I will push it home just like I was doing before I was towed.
I resumed the push. The push Was pretty alright this time. The Road was not much of a hill. Although it was still painful. I suppose, my brain had made peace with its fate. Up we go again. Unlike before when I wasn't quite sure if I had to see a mechanic or not. This time, I knew, I had to get home, park the bike and dry it out.
After about 30 mins, pushing the bike, another biker stopped by. This time, we had a yango delivery bag at the back which screamed that he was a dispatch rider going to deliver a package to a customer. He stopped by me and like the other good human, he also opted to tow me. Again, he wasn't the only rider that passed by, a lot of trucks even passed by that I tried to ask for help. But he was the only one that stopped. Atop the fact that he was a delivery rider and had to deliver a package in time. He didn't care. He just helped out of good will. He asked where my house was, told him and he wasn't even going in the same direction. Yet, he still towed me.
When it's all said and done:
He took me through all the hills and got me to the only one way road leading to my house which was also the most perfect slope. Thanked him a lot, asked for his number and he said he didn't have a personal phone and the one he had was the company phone. Forced him to take some cash and asked him to take a picture with me so at least I remember him. My Iphone, I was sure had died so I had to stick with the android. Camera quality was bad, but hey, this is what I got.
Finally managed to get home, filled with enormous stress and gratitude simultaneously. Wanted to have some wine, get tipsy and sleep it off but I had run out. Got out to go buy some, and all stores had closed at that time resulting from the heavy rain. Sat down and wrote this with so much tiredness.
With respect, Life is Good.
E.B