Coop's Corner: Winter Has Arrived

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Winter Has Arrived

Certainly the white part has....we've got some snow, though this photo was from early week when I traveled to far north Minnesota on my way to Ely at the edge of our Boundary Waters area.

Saturday afternoon in Red Wing....

Marty had my new Shinko 244's mounted on my Himalaya rims so we're a bit more prepared for the softer, gooier trail conditions. I like these tires and this must be my 3rd, maybe my 4th set. The Trail Pack was something I was only recently made aware of on the Himalaya ADV forum. Marty happened to have a couple of sets on the shelf and he wondered if I might be interested. I most certainly was. I've installed them and they look like they're going to work very well.

The Himalaya has been propped up on its center stand all week with this wheel truing stand that I machined quite a few years ago holding the front forks off the ground. The construct was reasonably stable but I'm glad, as Mike had put it...."as long as we don't have any seismic activity". The front wheel is now back on the bike so we're ready for at least a small amount of earth shaking. There's a new rear sprocket ordered and on its way from England or the back wheel would already be hooked up as well.

Last night (Saturday evening) was our Minnesota Moto Guzzi Banquet and hopefully due to the weather, turnout was a bit sparse. There were 5 of us...passing the bread and relishes was quite easy. I was the only one that didn't do the half-cow or quarter-cow prime rib though my choice was enjoyed immensely. Plenty of time to talk, enjoy each other's company and look over Jeff's 2019 riding/rally calendar that he kindly shared with us all. I gather in various groups...brands, riding styles, coffee drinkers and non but it was especially cool last night that we 5 had all shared last June's Grand Marais MN Guzzi Rally. I'm calling that fact something novel based on past experience.

This morning's email from Cycle World Magazine, the headline stating.....and a good thing!

The purchase was paid for yesterday, today in the wet and after 5 inches of new snow, the pickup was made. Excited about hooking the trailer on to the van for a new 2 wheeler, this time bigger than a 250cc, shoveling the trailer off and out of the snowdrift wasn't all that hard to take. I did lament the fact that the roads were wet and sloppy with road spray, salty road spray but a guy can only do so much.

Now I ask you, when is Gross Torque not a good thing??

Unbelievable, I blew snow for almost an hour without gloves on today....my hands have been more uncomfortable in late June on a motorcycle!

14 comments:

RichardMDecember 2, 2018 at 3:13 PM
Heated grips on a snow blower! What’s the world coming to? Now for some chains for that two wheeler...
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motormikeDecember 2, 2018 at 6:17 PM
… sidewalks. parking lot.... I got people... :)
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David MasseDecember 3, 2018 at 6:59 AM
Ah big city condo living. Our grocery store one-and-a-half blocks away has underground parking, it’s all underground-parking-to-underground-parking. We don’t even own a shovel. I almost feel guilty.

Plus, living within 14kms of the north shore of lake Ontario means only light snowfall that usually melts away of its own accord within days.

So spoiled.
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motormikeDecember 3, 2018 at 1:37 PM
Dang.. underground to underground... sweet... best I could do is pull up to the store.. and tell the wife hurry up and shut the door
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UnknownDecember 4, 2018 at 5:27 AM
If you had a side car for that new snow blower you could bring a friend along
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AnonymousDecember 4, 2018 at 4:31 PM
Looks like a nice blower. Frostbit a finger on the bike last fall but there were extenuating circumstances. It wasn't awful and it's nearly all healed up. I'm guessing the generator/alternator on the snowblower has more extra oomph than the '77 airhead. We've got too many steps for a blower. If I want warmer fingers, I've got to shovel faster!

Scott C
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ScottyDecember 5, 2018 at 11:00 AM
New snowblower you say? I just plunked down for a Toro Snowmaster. I somehow thought Sher might be interested in using it in last weeks storm. Didn't happen.lol
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayDecember 5, 2018 at 7:38 PM
Scott, she'll be ready for the next one....she's saving up the excitement!
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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)