Coop's Corner: Almost Ready For Santa

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Almost Ready For Santa

Friend Tom sent this one....

...with original artwork inside. I'm lucky to have friends with a full spectrum of talents.

I put my Christmas Card processing off each year and don't get after it as quickly as I once did....this weekend it was time. 1/3 of them on Friday morning, the next 20 in the evening and the last 20 or so this evening. This stack dropped off this morning on the way home from coffee at Diamond's. For those of you not on the Naughty List, they should be arriving soon.

According to tradition, Christmas Tree hunting begins (or includes) a stop at King's Place in Miesville, even if it happens to be out of the way, of which it was this year. I had the Umpire Burger this year, a break from my traditional Bleu Burger. The horseradish had my sinuses draining into my boots....but I'd do it again.

We decided to try a new place this year.....Mark's Christmas Trees in rural Red Wing. Circled is where our tree grew up.....

We got it home and I trimmed the lower branches off so that it would fit in our stand. It was so nice out, I had to take a break on the garage porch swing for a bit of respite, coming very close to dozing. The low southern sun comes in nicely under the overhang.

Where it will spend the rest of its days....decoration begun and complete once Ben gets home.

After the last of the Christmas Cards were written out last night, Peg suggested a film that she knew I'd like. Peg of course was correct, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was very much enjoyed, the scenery fantastic and had me looking up the Channel Islands because I just needed to know.....and had forgotten where in The Channel they were.

This morning, off to Diamond's early for another rousing session of coffee, a muffin and more great discussion and dialogue. We actually did manage to solve some problems and were sure to leave at least a few for next week's gathering.

On the way home, I was in the mood to stop at Duff's.....

I sampled (a stick and a half) the Smokey Beef while on the move before presenting this group at home to the rest of the family. Since we're speaking of food, you should know that sauerkraut production is in full swing in our kitchen; 3 batches, 3 flavors, one of these has way more kick than anything your grandmother used to crock.

I got out.....last weekend a few miles that really only warmed up the machine. Today, a real ride, almost 30 miles worth. Here I'm coming down our nearby Minimum Maintenance Road. I was foiled, almost making the top, too steep and not enough traction, those last couple hundred yards crab-steering. My new high mileage rear tire just doesn't have the required lugs that I should have for snow travel.

Pleasant doesn't do this justice....

I stopped in front of Old Frontenac's Villa Maria, soon to be a very busy place according to plans.

Like last week, another stop at the Frontenac Beach. I'm more patient than these ice fishermen are. I can wait....I was standing a ways away, zoomed in.

They're out there quite a ways .....further than it looks. When the ice is ready, I'll be out there too.

Some decent mileage was added today but it won't impact the 2018 pie chart. Instead, these are head start miles for the grand 2019 riding season to come, the chart stays as is.

6 comments:

UnknownDecember 15, 2018 at 6:57 PM
It was a better idea than a GS based thing, that can be a real bear to turn around. Merry Christmas
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RichardMDecember 15, 2018 at 7:35 PM
Isn’t it nice to not be put off by a bit of snow and ice? Some GripStuds in that new pusher would help with the hills...
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EricDecember 15, 2018 at 8:16 PM
Bet you turned some heads with the rig today!
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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)