Coop's Corner: July 2019

Monday, July 29, 2019

Sunday Monday

Mom, remember when I used to bring home pretty rocks? Found a good one today while washing off my boots.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Friday Saturday

There will be time later for the fancy stuff....just too much work and too complicated.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Lovely Skies - We Do Not Need Rain

As the phone saw the sky, no futzing.

Iowa Moto Guzzi Rally - Elkader - 2019

Well it took some extra time to get this one Posted. I've been out of town for a couple of days for work and as luck would have it, was in Iowa only a few miles away from where we spent a joyous weekend for the Iowa Moto Guzzi rally.

Here's the story, hope I got it mostly correct....exaggerations to a minimum.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

A Week Is A Long Time In A Flooding River's Life

Saturday, Day 3 of my July 4 weekend found me up and out early, once again up to Mpls to enjoy coffee with my pals at Diamonds, 7AM our agreed upon time of first sip. There were bikes, there was Pete's old "A" and my red van is back there in the distance. From just the proper number of multiple cups I was off to GoMoto to pick up my freshly mounted Breva rear tire and then made the return trip home.

It was late afternoon before I was able to get back on the bike; the re-installation of the Guzzi 750 wheel probably the most involved wheel off/on process of anything I own. I did get 'er done as they say.

Hanna, thinking about her old dad, kindly brought me a gift....a scroll with some very important information to be rolled out. With all of the time I've spent over the last months paying attention to (and learning from) you Preppers, Hikers, Cooks and Boondockers (you know who you are!), our youngest saw these and knew that I had to have one.

I haven't worn a Paracord bracelet to the mall yet but that day may come.

Without a plan but an interest in putting some miles on the newly shod Guzzi, I headed one direction, quite surprisingly traffic and a split second decision then sent me off in the opposite direction. River flooding, standing water and excessive moisture seem to becoming part of my being, my psyche.... certainly part of my riding plans since it's becoming darned impossible to avoid those surroundings. The day's ride once again found my machine with wet and muddy wheels.

Here was the ride, 90 miles worth....

Zumbro Bottoms flood waters receding, I decided to attempt the North Unit once more and this time I got through perfectly fine. A few puddles to aim around, riding conditions not bad at all. Trails for the horses, still not open though.

For most of the year, this area is intended for horses and for hikers. Two weekends a year the off-road motorcycles are allowed on the extensive system of trails.

Crossed Hiway 61 and took a right, down past the old 61/Zumbro River bridge and along the huge dike that's been built to keep the Zumbro where it belongs. The river itself right now is where it belongs but 5+ inches of recent rain has lakes where soybeans are supposed to be. Too bad the farmers didn't plant rice.

Small plants in rows are what belongs here....

Standing on the dike looking from whence I came .....

I broke down and went traditional.

The Moto Guzzi will get loaded for the weekend, the marque properly ridden to the Iowa Moto Guzzi Rally. We're all excited.

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)