The Ultimate Payoff

In the previous post we learned that Ace has paid off his bike. It's now, financially, all his; no ties to the bank. What a great feeling. He thought that the taste of that would be much sweeter once the transaction was done, but as we found out it wasn't, it was just business as usual. Well today was much different. Today he hopped on his hawg and went for a ride. As the miles passed by and he rolled over the hot summer asphalt it began to sink in that his pride and joy, his hawg was all his; bought and paid for. Ace felt a wave of joyous pride rise up in him as he looked down at the bike and felt it's power under his seat. It was similar to the day that he rode it off the showroom floor of the dealership. He thought about how it was the same bike and the same rider, but now it felt different, better. He seemed to sit a little differently in the saddle, a little more comfortable. It is the ultimate payoff for hanging in there and making the monthly payment. It is the ultimate payoff for working year after year at his job that he dislikes so much. It is the ultimate payoff of owning his Harley outright; that it's equity is now all his. He rode on with a new confidence, with a feeling that from now on, when he's riding his Harley he is truly free.

The Payoff

Ace has been anxiously waiting for this day to come. After checking the mailbox every day with expectancy, today he pulled the door down and slid the white envelopes and junk flyers out and it was there, the final bill to pay off his Harley. "All right," he thought, "let's see what the final amount is." He pulled the statement from the crisp envelope and unfolded the paper. He was pleasantly surprised to see that it was nearly $50 cheaper than the usual monthly payment. Bonus! But true to everything in life today it wasn't that simple; upon reading the rest of the statement he found the due date and it was tomorrow. What the...? So he called Harley Davidson to make the payment over the phone. This naturally soured the sweet taste of paying the bike off and making it all his. He was told that he couldn't make the payment over the phone to Harley Davidson, that he could do it online through the Harley Davidson website and by the way, interest is compounded daily. Ace hung up the phone and headed to his computer thinking that Harley Davidson must have modeled their financing on the mafia's. After going thru the headache of registering on the Harley Davidson finance website to complete the transaction it redirects Ace from Harley Davidson over to JP Morgan Chase's website, the most evil MF'ers on earth!

It seemed sadly logical that JP Morgan Chase is involved, after all, they are corporate America's favorite bank; heck they're the Feds bank of choice... what's that tell ya? After completing the information contained in the website it says that there is a $6.00 charge to make a credit card payment! So this is JP Morgan Chase's version of pay me now or pay me later. If you mail it in with a check, the interest is compounded daily so by the time the check arrives it is for the wrong amount and another payment is then needed. It's that or pay the six dollar fee now. This is considered freedom now in America, since it's our choice of which manner we'd like to get screwed. To add insult to injury, the website also states that there is a $12.00 fee if you make a payment over the phone, which they may just state it to make you feel like you're getting a deal by being forced to pay $6.00! Wait a minute... didn't Harley Davidson say that he couldn't make a payment over the phone? Oh, that was to Harley Davidson not JP Morgan Chase, so I guess they weren't technically lying... or were they? A disgusted Ace did it, he paid the bill with the added fee and even with the extra six bucks it was less than a normal payment and he was free. Free! Once again we see how Harley Davidson markets themselves as a humble, all American, grass roots company, yet they operate so much like every other global corporation. They aren't the rebels that they are always selling to us. They make a great product, but their priority always seems to center around grabbing great gobs of money; ours.

Sneaky Things

Ace checked his daily email messages and happily noticed one that he gets regularly from his best friend from childhood. They have been corresponding for years which keeps their friendship close though they live 1200 miles apart. They share the events of the day, usually sprinkled with a reference to their childhood or inside jokes that they once had. In today's email, his friend was telling him the tale of his work day and some funny things that had happened. He mentioned waiting for the boss to leave before getting some work done in an unorthodox way and added, "I love doing sneaky things sometimes." Ace laughed in agreement. He finished reading and then headed out the door to take a ride. The sun was bright and the summer air was still cool after the night rains. He threw his leg over the saddle of the bike and fired it up. He rolled away.

Has he rode in and out of the shadows of the tree lined country roads he felt the temps change on his skin. He smiled with the thought of his friend's email and that old familiar feeling of enjoying some sneaky things. It was fun as a kid and it's still fun today. To Ace, it is a childlike quality that makes him feel alive. Then it occurred to him; this is why he likes riding his hawg so much. It's that feeling that you're getting away with something in a world of tight-asses and laws. It's riding in the wind while the cagers travel enveloped in their so-called safety engineered vehicles with their mandatory seat belts strapping them down. Sure, it's the feeling of freedom like a bird in flight, but it's also freedom from a tyrannical government. In this "land of the free, home of the brave", think of one thing you'd really like to do and then tell me how you would do it if there wasn't a law impeding you. For example, you want to go for a ride? Think of all of the laws that one must follow just to legally sit on a bike and twist the throttle and putt done a backroad. Helmets? Licenses? Where you can display the tag? Mirrors? Turn signals? Safety inspections? Exhaust emissions? Loud pipes? Speed limits? Get the idea? There is a law for everything to obstruct us from having the freedom to do the simplest things. Want to walk to the store? Better not J-walk. Want to listen to music? Not too loud! How do we not do sneaky things? We cannot function without continually crossing a myriad of invisible, government imposed lines and risk suffering the consequences. We are not a nation that honors civil liberties, we are a nation of laws. We believe politicians when they tell us that they will make changes for the better though we know in our hearts that they are all liars. That is doing a sneaky thing to yourself; how screwed up is that? So Ace will continue on enjoying the feeling of freedom that comes with riding. He will fight the daily fight to retain his independence and smile as, once in a while, he decides to do a sneaky thing.