Coop's Corner: March 2016

Monday, March 28, 2016

I Got Out

It wasn't much but it was mine, MY start of the season.

Eric's almost ready for his first oil change but at least I've had one completely warmed up. Made a stop after work at mom's and intended to make 2 more stops on my way home from there but with the bright Daylight time sunny late afternoon and temperate weather, I decided to forego my errands and get the bike out instead.

The first real time I've spent on the ol' '81 Honda 400A and it was a joy. One more variation on a theme, that theme being a two-wheeled motorized machine. I'll be anxious to Rally this one somewhere, someplace this summer but for now, I think I'm going to leave it up at mom's while we attempt to clean and declutter. Saturday mornings at Diamond's will be easier and as my brother commented, "it might be necessary to take a break...blow off some steam" sometimes.

Other than my Tran Zalp, I've not named any of the bikes but I'm tempted to call this one Sparkle.

Marty, the Kenda's are going to be just fine...thanks!

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Too Busy

I've fallen off my almost regular mostly every weekend Posting schedule and even more importantly, I'm far behind keeping up with my Blog friends and their Posts. For that I'm sorry and will do what I can to get caught up.....sometime.

It's been very busy around here.

Mom fell a few weeks ago and as a result, all sorts of things have changed. A broken patella led to a thankfully short hospital stay, a knee immobilizer, a walker and now Adult Supervision (my brother and I). Upcoming is the hurried move to Assisted Living, a house sale and lots of other "ands" that will make for a busy spring, summer and then even more of those "ands".

I'm committed to a couple of side projects, their timing not exactly optimum but then I guess it sometimes goes that way.

We've had an unbelievable early March with some record high temperatures. Our snow long gone, a flooded driveway for '16 appears to be only in our imaginations. Many of my riding brethren have been out but the nicest days so far seem to always fall on the weekends which are my scheduled times to be with mom.

I did get out this afternoon though, 1.5 miles on the old '81 Honda 400 Automatic. Frost is coming out and our roads have the look and feel of giant sponges, sponges that as Peg says, "feel like they're reaching up to grab us." Yes, it really does.

It appears that my low budget tuneup on the old neglected Honda accomplished something, the result is that I'm going to follow that up with some new tires and a battery. The thing runs, I've got faith that it will not only run but run better with a bit more fussing and hopefully will be reliable enough to take me the places I need (want) to go. It won't be pretty but I'm hoping that it will be handy.

Speaking of reliable, check this out......it wasn't just the 165; these guys were apparently made of steel.

From the Harley Davidson Enthusiast magazine, something dad began to receive once he became an HD owner and then continued to receive for umpteen years post 'cycle ownership, for so long that when he once again became an owner of a Milwaukee machine in the '80's, he didn't need to signup again.....he was already subscribed. This magazine just happens to be one month older than I am.

I'm very hopeful, just about confident even that my next motorcycle Post will be a more modern, up to date publish with accompanying photos in colour :)

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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)