A Weekend Mostly Home

Two rally-less weekends in a row, rare for me in June/July.  The only reason it happened this year is because the big July 4 Holiday weekend is mid-week and our normal "weekend after the 4th Iowa Guzzi Rally" got pushed a weekend later to avoid the competition.  More than a few things that responsibly should have been done around here over the last number of weeks have reached critical stack stage, so they're being gone after.

Early Friday, dawn's early light Friday, there was a Guzzi breakfast run while it was still pleasantly cool outside.  Food good, the ride a short one.  Chores outside and in the garage where some stored overnight coolness was still present (didn't last long enough) with water and house A/C breaks aplenty.  By late afternoon, a family trip down to Nelson Cheese Factory for dinner where I did the usual Mr. T sandwich and not even a half scoop of icy cream.

There was some very great news during the day; my Royal Enfield Himalaya Engine Guards were in and Lissa's email from GoMoto was quickly replied to informing her of my stopping by Saturday morning.

Finally after weeks away, I rejoined my fellow coffee drinker biker friends at Diamonds for a cup or two.  Another eclectic gathering of machines and I didn't even stay long enough to take in the complete mix of machines and their riders that continue to come and go all morning.

Originally planning to ride up, my various planned errands and the 80 degrees at 5:30 AM found me climbing into the van instead.  After coffee it was up to my credit union office to deposit my paycheck.  Our nearest branch is an inconvenient 60 miles away so I make constant use of Mobile Deposit.  That service has been down for 5 days....5 hours could have been a hardship and only after having driven through the Drive-Thru did I receive the email that their system was back online Friday afternoon.  It's in there now.

It was quite a couple of weeks though....shower wouldn't turn on, clothes dryer quit heating, my phone failed up at the Guzzi Rally, my laptop's update made any reboots impossible.  Only recently discovered, last summer's lightning strike not only got our well, the garage door opener and a couple of battery tenders but also my shop's dehumidifier.  Last week's paycheck was a little more than usual.  It could have been an extra little more.

From the bank, it was off to GoMoto to pick up my engine guards, a couple of oil filters for the Himmi and unknown to me before walking inside, my Himalaya T shirt.  There and seeing what the caption under the shirt's image was, I had no choice but to purchase one more short sleeved clothing item with images front and rear.

Extremely attractive, wouldn't you say?

After checking in with Lissa and Marty, it was off to North Memorial to visit Ron.  His trip home from the Grand Marais Guzzi Rally didn't end very well.  A car turning left in front of him changed everything.  Men in our age group are not meant to be flying over the solid objects our motorcycles strike but in Ron's case, I'm of the belief that it saved his life, as banged and battered as he is.  Heal well and quickly Ron, hopefully you can turn the rehabilitation part into all good.

I had memories yesterday.....the last time I visited a motorcycle trauma patient in that very same hospital, his story did not end well.

Doing my best to enjoy a windy drive home with no (working) A/C in the van, I was somehow motivated to wash my bike.  What came over me, I can't imagine....there really isn't anything I can come up with as to why.  Just maybe it was the fact that I needed to locate which mounting bolt locations were required for installing the engine guards.  I found them, now I know and the bike is the cleanest of any.

Raining this morning, I was too lazy to suit up for another breakfast ride and thought I'd take advantage to start composing this week's Post but not until after I had my first cup.  Part of that first one took place out on the deck and it was wonderful.  Temps in the upper 60's and a breeze, it might have actually been better than being in a diner some far off nearby place.

Our farm has been row-cropped for most of the time we've been here, the direction that many if not most farms have moved in, especially those which no longer house livestock.  Corn, soybeans, corn and so on.  This year there was a huge change; alfalfa/clover was underseeded with oats.  A week ago the oats were beautifully heading out and our many deer were able to eat stealthily in a sea of green.  This week the blue-green crop was mowed, baled into big round cylinders and those hauled away.  But before the bales were made, we had to laugh at the turkeys feeding and walking down each 'lane' as if in The 400.  One turkey per, often 8 or 10 lanes wide, it was enough to bring laughs for a short couple of days.

So now that the oat stubble is allowing the new growth to take over, the wildlife is out to feed and enjoy.  In this morning's quiet, I saw one doe with her new fawn.  Much like our baby lambs and goats, the fawn's 0-60-0 movements, up down and around were humorous to watch.  That was around the corner of the house to the east.  I got up and leaned out over the deck railing to the west....another doe and her young one, doing the same thing but that little one must have had permission to roam further.  Going completely out of sight, into the woods and then suddenly bursting back out into the open field at maximum speed.

Inside the house for a refill and I then looked out the windows up into the valley behind the house, the largest part of the cleaned off oat field.  There, a doe with what we're calling This Year's Twins.  The doe looked patient, probably exhausted as the two youth were able to cover an acre in seconds.  Around the bluff, a turkey hen with 8 tiny blobs of feathers, none of them wandering far at all and taking far more time to cover ground than the parents all take as they sweep through.

Almost too much wildlife around here but not quite, all nice additions to my coffee drinking time if not for John's crops (and Peg's garden).

Speaking of, Peg's been busy with sourdough starter and I'm much the richer for it.  There's been date bread, apricot/orange bread and this afternoon, warm, soft pretzels.

Later this afternoon, enough other things accomplished so I was out for a nice loop on Old Blue.  According to those that tell me they know, I enjoy this old beast way more than I should.

 A Min Maint road turned up so that was taken and enjoyed immensely with the other gravel sections.

This sort of foolishness was not....

So, Wednesday off for the 4th and I expect we'll be at the County Fairgrounds for more harness racing.  Fireworks in the evening, then back to work on Thursday.  In the back of my mind, I'm thinking about another week of time off later in August, possibly west across the plains but all plans in the earliest of stages.  In the middle of July, back to Elkader with the Guzzi folks for another great rally.