Coop's Corner: Well....

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Well....

The ground is mostly white, the temperature (in the van!) was +4 Saturday morning at 5:30 on the way up to coffee. More important than these two facts, the roads have been salted and I'm not seeing relief on that front until April so you know what that means.

There may just be an exception to my NO SALT rule.....the sidecar rig is and will remain right in front of the big door but the others have had it for '18. On the rig, front tire old and checked, the rear tire so bald it wouldn't have gotten me downhill on the Red Bull Crashed Ice course. So yesterday after coffee in Minneapolis, it was over to GoMoto with both rims for tire replacement. Marty offered and now we're going with something basic in front, a more expensive, dedicated pusher tire in back that will hopefully get me some more miles. 2500 on the current rear.....for the way it's being used isn't terrible, but I think we can do better. Unless things change before then, I'll have new rubber by next weekend and a machine that just possibly may see a few cold-weather miles. Even in this weather, it starts like it's July outside, not too bad with that old chunky summer weight oil.

This one would start that easily, of that I'm certain! A new and very limited production RE, I like the way this one presents itself and it just isn't that hard imagining it over along one wall in my garage.

By the way, for you Himalaya buyers, Marty's got a nice Snow on the floor, prepped and ready. Mine was the first white one of '18, yours could wrap up the season and we'd be twinsies!

Marty's on his winter hours, so my early Saturday plans needed to be adjusted, even more so after we arrived right on time at Diamond's but whomever has the front door key and access to the coffee machines was not, forcing any number of us to arrive and then wander off. It was a sad thing to watch really....

I had a haircut, stopped at Harbor Freight for one more wrench that somehow was missing in my toolbox. Auto oil, filters, windshield wash and some other etc. filled the morning.

It is that time of year.....

Lots of afternoon chores, I'm off again this coming week to Ely, Minnesota to do some training. Our lovely Arrowhead/Boundary Waters area, there will be white surroundings up there I'm quite sure.

Last evening, we were off to Viterbo University in LaCrosse to enjoy the LaCrosse Symphony. Lauren was among the musicians for the Veteran's Day Memorial Concert with music from the period, celebrating the end of the War to End All Wars. In addition to the Magnard, some Debussy, Irving Berlin giving us all the opportunity to be American's in Paris if only for a little while. Tessa Lark was the performing soloist and has obviously adjusted to the violin very well. After 3 standing ovations, she sang and played a Kentucky Hoedown piece from her native state....'gators were mentioned in verse three. We really enjoyed the entire concert and felt very privileged to be there.

The Mileage Pie Chart is complete and will be ready for publication soon. I'm hoping to add some highlights to that Post before doing so. It's been another great riding season. You absolutely have to already know that planning is and actually has been underway for a new season that will be here in only a few short months.

Added 3:30pm, 11/11/2018

The Flyway is busy today, almost traffic jam busy. Often they seem to be directly overhead but today they're flying in multiple lanes, as far as I can see both east and west. I'm hearing swans all afternoon and just after I took this video, they were flying at 3 different levels, on top of each other in huge V's.

8 comments:

redlegsridesNovember 11, 2018 at 2:02 PM
Good to see the sidecar rig isn't put away for Winter!
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RichardMNovember 11, 2018 at 10:19 PM
Nice looking RE! And what rear tire did you go with?
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EricNovember 12, 2018 at 4:56 PM
Pleased to know you are pondering 2019 plans.
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motormikeNovember 13, 2018 at 5:29 AM
I agree about the army Bullet. It presents itself much better then the previous army Bullet versions. I'm slowly add'n military " bling " to my recent Bullet sidecar rig.
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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)