Coop's Corner: International Motorcycle Show Minneapolis

Sunday, February 3, 2019

International Motorcycle Show Minneapolis - 2019

We were ready for something associated with a different season, a warmer one.

This was last Thursday's weather; the wind had died off to the point that the media had quit mentioning it. Tuesday we had snow and then the drifting began. I plowed using the F350 and the world was a wonderful (working) place. Wednesday morning the plow truck would not start and our driveway was drifted shut. Late afternoon the new Ariens was fired up, the wind had calmed but not stopped and I quickly remembered why it's so nice moving snow from inside a vehicle rather than behind it.

Drifts removed, an open driveway and AFAIK, vehicles that ran. Thursday morning a slight wind, just enough to keep things fresh with the lowest reading I saw on our thermometer at -32. Four vehicles + the plow truck, not one of them would start. It was a long day of battery charging, playing with battery connections, wires/hoses touched and easily fractured.....all for naught. Friday around noon, the driveway was touched up and most of the autos were running again.

It's now Sunday afternoon, misty/foggy and we've lost most of our drifted snow. Water is dripping everywhere and it was awfully nice yesterday in Minneapolis.

Had a really good time this year, focused on things that interested me, the result, I spent much less time around the new machinery. Did check out those new 650 twin Royal Enfields. Had a great chance to meet and talk with lots of friends, worth my trip if for no other reason. Our Minneapolis show has waned a bit these last few years but I was encouraged by the crowds during the 5 hours that I wandered.

Brought home a lot of goodies, these particular items will be kept at least for a time as reference and/or actual use. Not to give anything away but I was very disappointed that the Irish bike rental folks weren't there this year (I looked).

I didn't spend any money this year though the temptation was great with that warm shoulder pad that those wonderful young women were demonstrating. I thought about it but didn't go back. There was something else I returned to a booth 3 times for and then decided not to buy at the show. I expect to order online before the week is out.

4 comments:

RichardMFebruary 3, 2019 at 8:46 PM
I like the voice overs in the video. There’s a blog post in that Honda 350 story...
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayFebruary 8, 2019 at 7:51 AM
Thanks Richard, I'm attempting to polish some of my content....let me know if it's working.

I like your idea about that Honda story. Not all that long ago that exact magazine was in dad's 'collection'. All of the old issues have been dispersed but I should be able to put something together anyway.
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TrobairitzFebruary 9, 2019 at 8:36 AM
I had been watching your weather on the news, sure won't be complaining of our weather any time soon.

We lost our PNW motorcycle shows. Closest is Long Beach, CA so we haven't been to one in a few years. It doesn't sound like it is quite the event it used to be. Glad you managed to bring home a little swag though.
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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)