Coop's Corner: January 2020

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Friends and Friendships

A package arrived in the Post this week, a complete surprise; a wonderful gift. From David, a dear friendship of almost 15 years, another true prize springing from the sharing of our motorcycling pastime.

Thank you David, appreciated more than you know.

I've been very blessed.

Friends and our friendships....you know who you are, thanks to you all.

Sunday, January 26, 2020

January Saturday Sunday

Some motorcycle content first since that's how the day started. Another early drive up to Minneapolis for coffee at Diamonds, then down to Scooterville for 2020's Cabin Fever.

SYM.....I admired their scooters and I admire this Wolf CR 300i. At this point I do not own one.

There were some very fine prices on used machines....

Apparently there's Off Season demand for scooters!

Haven't owned a Vespa yet......

Speaking about Vespa....there's an event coming this summer to Minneapolis!

Back to Red Wing and up the hill to see mom. Relatives of ours have put together some incredible history of their/our family....a DVD, a book, a VERY complete 2" three ring binder of genealogy charts, stories, information, etc. so we spent some time looking through everything and discussing a branch of the family I knew very little of, at least that's the way it was. I've been busy updating one of the ancestry sites online and this information, at least some of it will find its way there.

Mild weather and a change of plans found me out for a late afternoon stroll in town. A fine loop down to the river and back again; slushy sidewalks the only challenge, otherwise a lovely walk-a-bout.

Original entry for the Historic St. James Hotel....back when the river boats and trains were the main transportation options.

Red Wing AMTRAK and Red Wing Arts at The Depot

Red Wing's Japanese Sister City's display.....

Red Wing Marine Museum... Red Wing Motor Company, former producer of Thorobred Marine engines, a FREE museum showing off restored power units.

Must have been a hot day on the river....

Red Wing's Boat House harbor....

A nice hike and I'll be doing more of these.

Sunday, went back to the house to do some laundry and while that was churning, spent some time in the shop. New clutch dogs required, luckily I had some on the shelf, originally purchased for the Helix. Rollers required, a belt and those were on the shelf, originally for the Helix as well.

A potential Mouse House and they'd found this one.

Finally, some more wildlife....the March of the Turkeys.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Urbanites

We've done it now....moved to the big city!! The big city of Red Wing, Minnesota, population 16,412 at last count. The sights, the sounds, the motion and oh the excitement!! My growing up on the edge of St. Paul, suburban-raised and schooled, numerous apartments and even our first home in St. Paul proper....we've never been the Downtowners that we currently, temporarily are for now.

Our rural home is being transformed from the one that Peg and I built over the course of a few years back in the mid-90's into something a bit more polished (finished!). We made it as far as being livable, something that in our minds we've done in spades these 25 years though we never really Finished it. Peg has been more patient than she had any justifiable reason to be but it's finally time so the remodeling has commenced. The plan is and we hope it materializes to be back in our little home in a couple of months, comfortably ahead of Riding Season. Finding room for the bikes nearby may be more complicated than I'd ever be able to deal with. Heck, I'm already losing track of where our 3 vehicles are in the public parking ramp.

A recently remodeled 2nd story apartment above a coffee/sandwich shop is where we're calling home; it's cozy, comfortable and affordable. There were some other two-month options, I'm glad that we are where we are. Peg was a bit nervous about my being satisfied, even tolerant of space this close. She may not completely appreciate how much I enjoy my 1 and 2 man tents...I would and could spend a lot more time in those environments than has been recently allotted.

I mentioned the coffee shop downstairs. Across the street and very easily seen from my living space chair through the window, another coffee/sandwich shop across the street that my grandmother was bringing goodies home from when I was summer farming back in the 60's. It was a good place for heated dough then and now, only very recently voted Best Doughnuts In Minnesota. I need to remind lest you forget, a couple of Thanksgiving weekends ago, I enjoyed a Bacon Maple doughnut during the Holiday Stroll Festival from the very same establishment. This morning after my Sausage Breakfast Sandwich, I came very close to adding another of those bacon-topped delights to my order of two takeout Paczki's but stopped short. My little box was already filled with plenty of goodness to share with my bride across the street; a bacon doughnut would have been a bit much.

I've walked to the Post Office, to another breakfast, a lunch sandwich, potentially a fish fry. In a couple of weeks I'll walk to the Sheldon Theater to once again listen to Mr. Leo Kottke. When there's a few less inches of slush, I'll be strolling down along the edges of the Mighty Mississippi to watch some ice flows ease past.

The contractors started demolition work on our house Monday morning and in our eyes, have been making excellent and encouraging progress. I was there before dawn on Thursday morning to plow snow.

Where the kitchen wall was cut away above.....this endcap was our record of Cooper Progress...dates and height measurements of that Progress. Cat's tails, cat's heads, the same dog related parts for a Corgi as well as a Chocolate Lab. Our youngest daughter's details were next up the scale, her siblings, up past Peg, an inch more for me and finally topping out the whole works, our young son. It's all there, dates and "stand talls......"

I took a video, expecting that we'd lose it. The contractor knew better without even being asked.

Our pet did NOT join us in town, instead stayed to keep the guys company.

Friday, January 3, 2020

March 6, 2005 - A Lovely Spring Day

Those were the days....

More sorting, more discoveries of things that we WILL get sorted in our dotage. Some images only recently collected and edited into a video.

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)