A prosperous day!

I bought a scooter. I hadn’t intended to. I wanted to get a good bicycle to get around on. The camp is actually pretty big, like a good-sized mid-western town with 15,000 residences (I can’t verify that number, but I’ve heard it from several sources so we’ll go with it for now).  There are places I’d like to be able to get to but were too far for a reasonable walk, and a bike seemed like a good idea. Problem is a good bike costs nearly $1000, and I’m not willing to make that investment until I know if my knees will let me put it to use.

One of my coworkers just left for home, and he had two scooters! One is just a top of the line, less than a year old Suzuki. I didn’t buy that one – he’d already sold it to someone else. But he did offer to sell me his old Suzuki, cheap. You see, the reason he had a new scooter is that he lost the only key to the old scooter! And after a month of trying to get it fixed, he gave up and bought a new one.  Well you know me – I love a challenge.

So last Wednesday, at the end of the workweek, we met in the hallway, and while standing at the elevator came to an agreement and shook on it.  I sent him money via PayPal and we’re squared away.  Later I went for a walk to see the prosperity well. This was the first well in Saudi Arabia that produced oil at commercial levels, and it was completed in 1938. Here is the plaque mounted at the site.

They turned Well 7 off in 1982 although they could turn it back on tomorrow if they ever need to.  This is really a significant historical site, and they’ve made a nice little park around it, but it is locked and you can enjoy the view from an overlook. 

After I visited the well I climbed to the top of a nearby jebel (rocky hill – more on those another day) and enjoyed the breeze for a bit, then started back downhill to the main part of the camp.  After passing my building I was walking past a large parking lot (think Walmart super-center sized lot!). The sun had set half an hour earlier, so it was well into dusk, but as I walked past a light post I just noticed with my peripheral vision that there was something on the post, and I instinctively turned my head to see something tied around it. 

Being the curious sort I stopped to look, and it was a lanyard like you would use to wear an ID badge around your neck. But this one had something else attached to it, and then I realized it was a key.  Hmmm, I thought.  Looking closer and squinting in the dusk and without my glasses, I could just see that the key said “Suzuki.” No way, thought I, but y’know I unwrapped the key anyway. It was crusted with dust, and the lanyard with stiff with mud and dirt baked into it, so I knew it had been there for some time.

So now I’m pretty interested to get back and try this key in my Suzuki, and it went right into the slot, but alas, it didn’t turn. Oh well, it didn’t cost me anything to bring the thing with me, and if the owner hadn’t found it on the light pole by now they probably weren’t going to, right?  I went in intending to throw the key away, but set it down instead with the rest of my stuff and forgot about it.

I woke up the next morning from a vivid dream (and I dream in big screen, full color high definition) where I walked outside, sat down on the scooter, put the key (on the lanyard!) into the ignition, turned the key and started the scooter.  Well, I thought, maybe I should try this key again! Went back out (the scooter is parked with several others and some bikes in a courtyard of the building), put in the key – same result. It just feels like the lock is frozen. But then I realized there is a lock on the seat (which hinges open with some storage underneath) and put the key in that lock and it turned perfectly! This must be the key.

Took the key to work Saturday morning and held it up to show my friend who is leaving. I didn’t even have to ask, and he said “Well I’ll be damned. Where did you find that?” Pretty cool, right?

So now I’m still trying to figure out how to make the key turn in the lock. I’m guessing that 5 months in wind, dust, heat and an occasional rain have just fused it. I’ve tried blasting it and soaking it in WD40 with no success. I will try to get to hardware store and get some penetrating oil and see if that helps. I took the front end covers off to see if there is a part number and just order one and have it shipped to me, but there is not one visible and I don’t have a tool I would need to remove it.

I know it will work. It was put into my hands too perfectly not to work. I just have to keep trying until I figure it out!

It reached 108 degrees day before yesterday – a taste of what is to come. Very low humidity, like 11%, but still very hot. I took a stroll instead of the vigorous walk I usually take – I will be very cautious about the heat. Today was back into the 90s which felt very nice.  Best to all, more soon!