{"id":12114,"date":"2025-05-10T18:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T01:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/?p=12114"},"modified":"2025-05-10T18:26:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T01:26:49","slug":"doctor-bombay-was-always-my-favorite-bit-character-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/?p=12114","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Bombay Was Always My Favorite Bit Character"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mike is your typical middle-aged man, 6\u20191\u201d with wild brown hair that he tucks under a smelly Oakland A\u2019s cap when trying to look presentable. Not fat but not skinny, he settled into a comfortable weight for his age years ago; but it fluctuates greatly at times, due to his overall mood and periodic bouts with depression and hopelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He wears steel rectangular framed glasses that usually make me question whether he can see me given the amount of dirt and fingerprint smudges on them; and his several day old whiskers turn into errant grey patches on his chin that match the grey streaks gaining momentum near his temples, and just above and behind his ears.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Born and raised in South California, Mike speaks with an \u201cI\u2019m so fucking stoned\u201d accent, and he constantly uses Southern California expressions, like using \u201clike,\u201d &#8220;totally,&#8221; and &#8220;awesome&#8221; all the time; &#8220;you know what I mean?\u201d at the end of sentences; and referring to highways as a proper number, such as \u201cThe Five\u201d or \u201cThe Four-O-Five.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witchcraft-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witchcraft-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witchcraft-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witchcraft-768x1153.jpg 768w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witchcraft-1023x1536.jpg 1023w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witchcraft.jpg 1047w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/witch.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Galactic; &#8216;Witch Doctor&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Haunted with a nervous precondition, he uses a lot of drugs and alcohol for basic overall comfort, but such things have waned through the decades, and now he\u2019s trying to locate comfort elsewhere. He tells me writing is his true love, his hobby, whatnot; but I\u2019ve never read any of his writing, and most people think he\u2019s just full of shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I learned a lot from Mike over the summer. We shared everything: space, time, devotions, contemplations, realizations &#8211; motorcycles, drugs, alcohol, and fucking women too. Who would\u2019ve known it was possible to discover something so extraordinary out of something so ordinary? Self-realization was only part of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">When we met, Mike was clearly in the midst of a spiritual crisis. Few things are more tenuous than the faith of a disillusioned middle-aged man. He told me that he was planning to commit suicide, a big bang at the end of his ride around the country; but all of that changed after we found each other, after we uncovered some shared reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\">&#8212;ooOoo&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">After shutting down my business, having decided to take a sabbatical, I left California in mid-June. A motorcycle road trip around the country. An epic journey to finish riding through the Lower 48. I didn\u2019t make plans. I didn\u2019t make reservations. I just loaded up the bike one morning, looked at a map for some general direction, and hit the road without a definitive destination or date of return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I met Jake on the third day at a campground outside Benson, Arizona. I was doing laundry because all of my shirts had a horrible smell &#8211; the hot desert sun was tough going through Nevada\/Arizona, requiring lots of sweaty shirt changes. Thankfully, I found a campground with a laundromat, albeit a tacky one with dirty funky machines. \u201cJust be cleaner than when you went in,\u201d was my plea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I wasn\u2019t feeling good. My nerves were beyond done; my mind wouldn\u2019t stop racing; and my body was hurting from not adequately training for the ride. Like I always say: \u201cEverything gets sorted out on the ride one way or the other.\u201d That being said, I was delighted to be running away, and I knew things would only get better. Everything looks up when you&#8217;ve hit that lower emotional\/spiritual bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\">&#8212;ooOoo&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">After shaking hands, Jake picked up my laundry bag and opened up the screen door for me while we walked inside. That nauseous feeling I felt while walking over seemed to go away, and I felt a wonderful sense of ease than before.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">It was like kismet to me, and what chance did we stand against kismet? Knowing what we know now, it most surely was inevitable for us to meet; but who would\u2019ve thought it would\u2019ve been this way? I didn\u2019t see it coming.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/billy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/billy.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/billy-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/billy-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/billy-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/oddee.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bobbie Gentry; &#8216;Ode To Billie Joe&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike is your typical middle-aged man, 6\u20191\u201d with wild brown hair that he tucks under a smelly Oakland A\u2019s cap when trying to look presentable. Not fat but not skinny, he settled into a comfortable weight for his age years ago; but it fluctuates greatly at times, due to his overall mood and periodic bouts &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/?p=12114\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Doctor Bombay Was Always My Favorite Bit Character<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2532],"tags":[2806,1844,16,19,2807,2533,2805],"class_list":["post-12114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-aesthetic-ride","tag-bobbie-gentry","tag-galactic","tag-neuroticattorney","tag-neuroticattorney-com","tag-ode-to-billie-joe","tag-the-aesthetic-ride","tag-witch-doctor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12114"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12134,"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12114\/revisions\/12134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neuroticattorney.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}