Coop's Corner: A Sow's Ear Into Lemonade

Saturday, July 19, 2014

A Sow's Ear Into Lemonade

If anyone is going to mix metaphors, let it be me.

Today's Post was supposed to be about Lorem Ipsum 2014 but it will not be. Things went wrong but then again, some other things went quite right.

I was excited to go this morning, Lorem Ipsum has been growing and I was sure that this year's gathering would be the best yet.

Daughter Lauren was excited to go.

I invited others that hadn't been there before and I was very pleased that they decided to go.

Things started out well, Lauren and I were on the Helix at 7:30, headed for breakfast in Alma at Pier 4. That happened as planned, breakfast was good, Carol was back and served us our breakfast and that was a good thing too; nice to see her again. I didn't ask if she'd repaired her Ninja but I did find out that she's still in school and that was actually the more important.

Off we went with great gusto and full bellies.......and then I started to feel what I thought was more vibration than normal. I wanted to blame the road surface. I wanted to blame the fact that it's been so long since I'd been on the Helix that it was my imagination.

It was not.

We pulled over just south of Fountain City, I got off and looked down, very disappointed to see gear lube weeping out the rear end. Those 'bumps' I was feeling over the last mile were not bumps but internal mechanisms fighting with each other and resisting rotation.

We limped back to the park in Fountain City (did NOT want the rear end to lock up) where we got off and did only a rudimentary inspection. Lots of clunking and more leaking gear oil. Luckily Peg was at home, able to answer the phone AND able to jump in the car to head south for an emergency Save.

We were at least an hour away from home and it took Peg all of that and a bit more to get down to Fountain City. Lauren and I climbed on the playground equipment, tried out several benches, watched traffic go by and studied our watches which seemed especially slow today.

So far this was my Sow's Ear part of the metaphor.

Peg was busy at home working, she's got two gigantic monitors with so many columns of spreadsheets that they are almost uncountable. Keeping track of and reporting various quantities, dollars, totals, etc. was what she was busy with when we called.

We interrupted real honest work; other than for rescuing us, little else would have.

The rest of my broken metaphor, Today's Lemonade, is that as long as Peg was out of the house and away from those columns, we stopped in Nelson at the Cheese Factory for lunch on our way back home.

My "Mr. T. Sandwich", my standard.......sprouts, turkey, swiss, guacamole and a pickle. We always share the sweet potato chips........

Lauren's "Hot Hoagie Sandwich"......

Peg's "Barbecue Pork Sandwich".......

We all brought half of our sandwiches home. Once there, I put the trailer on the van and headed right back to Fountain City to retrieve the broken scooter.

What we left behind.....

Not so BIZZIE for the foreseeable future......

I don't remember having to ever haul anything home before but maybe I'm just conveniently leaving an incident out. If anyone knows otherwise, please correct me. Peg noted that quite possibly, based on past trips to Viroqua for this eclectic event, that just maybe, there's a chance that I should find something else or somewhere else to go on this weekend in future July's. My luck has been less than stellar.

The scooter is now parked back in the corner and will stay there until cooler, wetter weather. I've got so many projects lined up for next winter I'll soon be wishing for that season to grow in length.

Maybe I'll just need to be more efficient at getting things accomplished on those dark, cold evenings.

And....

One more good thing this afternoon. Our own blackberries but the blueberries and strawberries were from somewhere else. Even though they may seem so, those bubbled out portions are definitely not problems and will cause no hardship, I can assure you of that.

16 comments:

Dar July 19, 2014 at 6:49 PM
Coop never a good thing when there is a breakdown, but on the bright side you had pie waiting!
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AnonymousJuly 19, 2014 at 7:14 PM
.... gremlins.. part of the..,charm... adventure... if they ran all the time.. ya wouldn't had a chance to ride a blue Dino... :)
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RichardMJuly 19, 2014 at 7:39 PM
The lunch food pics look pretty good, a lot better than the Helix on the trailer. And the pie looks great!
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UnknownJuly 19, 2014 at 11:14 PM
Coop:

sorry about your scooter BUT that pie looks delicious. The pulled pork BBQ looks delicious, in fact everything looks delicious, everything except the scooter on your trailer photo.

Blackberries, Blueberries & Strawberries my favourites all in ONE pie

bob
Riding the Wet Coast
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SonjaMJuly 20, 2014 at 6:14 AM
Sad to see a bike towed, any bike. Well, Coop, there was a breakdown, but you had Peg to the rescue and great food, plus pie!!! Methinks the outing still qualifies to be called a nearly perfect day.

And thanks for the mutilation of the proverbs, I had never heard of the "sow's ear" before, and now found out that there is a saying with similar meaning in German about a farm horse turning into a race horse...
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David MasseJuly 20, 2014 at 6:16 AM
Doug, that's the saving grace of having a harem. One ride runs out of steam, there's a bunch rarin' to go :)

Hmmmmmm... pie :)::::::::
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Back RoadJuly 20, 2014 at 9:13 AM
Sad to see the scoot leaking fluid. Sad to wish for a long "off" season, but it is the off season and the thoughts and planning that come with it that makes the riding season so special!
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TrobairitzJuly 20, 2014 at 9:45 AM
Bummer about the Helix breaking down, but at least you were close to a town, had cell service, and Peg was able to rescue you two.

I am disappointed I didn't get to see you on the purple dino in full gear. :-)

I think the pie pic makes up for it though.
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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)