Coop's Corner: (Another) Weekend In Cleveland

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

(Another) Weekend In Cleveland

This one was the Grand Finale.....at least for our daughter's Bachelor's Degree. She graduated this past weekend and we were there. It was a whirlwind of activity, plans previously made needed to be adjusted and 'adapted to conditions as required' but we got through it. Her old dad managed to keep up with the changes but just barely; mom appears to take these minor adjustments more casually.

Her ceremonies introduced us to her many, very talented and gifted friends, their parents and other family members, making Friday and Saturday simply wonderful times. Students from all over the place, parents literally from other continents and hemispheres. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Speaking of heartbeats, I'll take a pass on moving an apartment's worth of student collected treasures and household goods again though. I may be getting just a bit too.......

Early for the Convocation Ceremony on Friday.....

....and after it was over.

Graduation on Saturday......

After the reception, I left and headed out to make last minute arrangements for the storage area and van rental for the Big Move. It just so happened that a couple of other stops (Waypoints for those that don't know) were already loaded in the GPS.

Cleveland Cyclewerks........I stopped but Saturday afternoons are apparently not on their schedule. There's a young man back at home in Red Wing that owns one of these and it really caught my eye one day while driving past. I turned around and went back to learn more from him and did. Unfortunately I didn't learn anything new over this past weekend.

Not all that far away (on Detroit Avenue) I managed to find a shop that WAS open. Cleveland Moto. They were easy to find and there was treasure aplenty inside.

I think I know how Audrey feels........

Scooters from a few countries.......

Some older than others, lots of new ones too.

Royal Enfields.......

Italian scooters AND motorcycles........

A couple of the machines really caught my eye but Cleveland is too far away for service.

So I came home without any new motorcycles, though I did pick up a couple of pretty cool T-Shirts. Some day soon I may just model them for my closest friends.

Since it wasn't a weekend for riding, my visit to their very fine and welcoming shop was a pretty good substitute.

8 comments:

UnknownMay 20, 2014 at 9:58 PM
Coop

I can't wait until you model those T-shirts for us. don't keep us in suspense . . . Congrats for your Daughter and her degree. I'm not envying you having to move all of her possessions home

That is a great scooter shop, lots of vintage parts. I suppose the prices for those used bikes aren't that bad either, are they restored or do they have a warranty ? I'm having a hard time deciding which one I would like, perhaps one of the Hondas

bob
A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

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TrobairitzMay 21, 2014 at 10:23 AM
Congrats to your daughter on her graduation. The Bachelor's Degree will serve her well.

And you managed to sneak in peeking at a motorcycle shop. That is always fun and helps make up for the moving part.
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RichardMMay 21, 2014 at 6:02 PM
I'd like to add my congratulations to the list and I'm amazed how those gps things magically put in their own waypoints for your.

That did look like a pretty nice shop but it took me a while to figure out who "Audrey" was. (I don't watch very many movies)
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VStar LadyMay 21, 2014 at 9:39 PM
I am always in awe of those with musical talent ... add to the list my congrats and best wishes for your daughter. Good luck with the moving and when it's done enjoy the ride -you have earned it Dad!
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayMay 22, 2014 at 8:29 PM
Thank you VSL; these milestones are coming and zooming past faster and faster.

Sounds like we've got ride plans simmering for Saturday .......:)
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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)