Coop's Corner: Feb 15, 2014 and even better, some Other

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Feb 15, 2014 and even better, some Other

Our Valentine's Day was modest as celebrations go; my celebration started when I left work early Friday afternoon in order to make the appointment with my favorite doctor; that visit went very well. Directly from there, I met Peg for dinner.

The chicken is good, maybe our favorite though now that I'm thinking about it, I'm a huge fan of the chops as well. The ribs a few weeks ago while our Marine was home were a big bunch of delightful and last night's steak/salmon combo did what it could to challenge my past favorites. We may need to return for a more final verdict; the Oak wood will still be burning.

Their phone number says it all.......651-388-YUMM

We've got some midday horizontal snow today ( that we absolutely do not need) so I've been busy in the heated shop working on bike #1, that number signifying the first one to get its winter 'check-up'. The Yamaha is in getting warm, down on the floor unlike the lifted SL100, staged to be #2.

For the above mentioned "Other", I wind back my clock to a May 15 weekend in 2009. The green on the old Honda is nice but I was desperate for some color shades of hues more Natural. Here are some greens, some yellow-greens that will (hopefully) be returning soon.

Willow Springs Road

Badger Hollow....

My quest that weekend was to cover a small few of Wisconsin's Rustic Roads of which there are now over 110. This is #70 just outside of Stitzer, WI......Liberty Ridge.

Hill Road, heading east, the middle section of RR#70 (#70 one of my favorites so far).

A couple of good but jumpy videos were taken along Sleepy Hollow (no clutch noise, that only happens when the clutch is disengaged) but it's become too cumbersome to include them in the Blog. After the lovely section on Sleepy Hollow, I stopped here at Lovers Lane and Lower Mifflin Road to smell the .......dandelions. I knew there would be a Valentine's Day reference in here somewhere.

RR#75, Bromley Road

Moundview Road, West Mound in the distance. This is Wisconsin Guzzi Rally country......Lake Joy campground is not far away.

RR#99 near Potosi.

Downtown Potosi at the brewery.

Potosi Point Road.....land that juts out into the wide Mississippi River; Iowa in the distance.

Out at the end of the Point, looking back towards Potosi and the rest of Wisconsin.

Another one....Rustic Road #66.....Kennedy Road

Apple River, IL at the ball field, stopped for a snack and a some water.

One last RR for the ride, # 94 Skinner Hollow and County J

So, it's May and this is rural Wisconsin......I stopped for coffee and a cookie, then noticed a guy carrying these plastic bags from one of the coolers out to his car, this a part of 105lb harvested on that Friday, kept in the cooler at The Natural Bridge Country Store in Rockbridge. These were to be packed in one pound Ziplocks, then Sunday afternoon were on their way to Madison, each bag for sale at $15. Need to add that these were all picked by one guy and his son, not an army of hunters the way I seem to find them.

Come on May......the two wheelers and I are ready for you or will be soon!!

8 comments:

Martha February 15, 2014 at 4:01 PM
It never fails. All my life. In the depth of winter, when I see photos of green and warmth it nearly makes me sick to my stomach. I NEED to get out of here.
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RichardMFebruary 15, 2014 at 6:52 PM
Wow! That's quite the haul of mushrooms.

Nice views of MN back roads. But what is all that green stuff?
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SonjaMFebruary 16, 2014 at 2:09 AM
Tinkering on a bike is at least an engaging task while waiting for the snow to clear.
Thanks for the reminder that there will be warmth and green trees coming eventually . Winter had been a bit dreadful over here, too (even without much of the white stuff). Maybe I'll get the scooter out just for a quick spin that isn't an errand...
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Scott GFebruary 16, 2014 at 1:11 PM
Cabin fever is here!
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)