Coop's Corner: I Am Hoping 2019

Friday, March 22, 2019

I Am Hoping 2019

There are finally some dates....and some dates in between with some High Hopes but we'll see what happens. Since there have been quite a few questions lately, I thought it was high time that I get some of the dates on the public calendar.

Speaking of what happens, I COULD have been out yesterday afternoon, I could have been out today, 50 degrees and all but we've still got issues with egress. The Rig and the Ariens are right in front by the big door but neither one of them, in fact no machine that we own will tolerate this faffing about.

And early this morning.....when I walked down thinking, "just maybe...."

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours playing Water Engineer with an ice chopper I managed to break most of the icebergs away, freeing up space for the water to run rather than dam up on our driveway. It was progress and especially fun watching that 4' x 3' x 2' tall ice berg break away. We're still island dwellers but great leaps have been made forward.

Peg and I just walked down before it got dark. The good news, the water is really flowing and will flow all night. The bad news, it's still too deep to walk across but I'm thinking by morning....

The organized events....

May 3-4-5 Slimey Crud, van and trailer Richland Center, not sure which bike

May 17-18-19 GR3, a bike at Soldiers Grove, not sure which one

June 21-22-23 Minnesota Guzzi, Grand Marais, I'm riding the V-Star cruiser up so no dirty riding. I might go up Thursday night, motel on the way.

July 12-13-14 Iowa Guzzi, Elkader. Not sure which bike

July 18 - August 4 Black Hills/Northern Colorado. Van, trailer and Himalayan.

August 29 - September 2 Wildcat Rally, Westby Wisconsin.

October 4-5-6 Slimey Crud, Richland Center, Van/trailer

Also, a proper scattering of overnights at the very least in between; we'll do our best. Hope to see some of you out there or know that you're out finding your own events and destinations.

Just had to add this; I feel better every time I look at it/them.

15 comments:

MikeMarch 23, 2019 at 12:04 AM
Have never seen hats like that.
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redlegsridesMarch 23, 2019 at 9:52 AM
Your comments re water engineer reminded me of the early pre-ural days....shoveling a path out to the main streets that were plowed, then ensuring channels existed to allow melting snow to drain away instead of pooling and icing up overnight. I must have been quite the sight.
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motormikeMarch 23, 2019 at 5:25 PM
I'm in for 3 of the gigs... the usual suspects well miss ya at R/America... but fear not.. they'll leave the tab at the café for ya to pick up... we'll get the tip. Woof
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayMarch 23, 2019 at 8:56 PM
I just discovered that I left one event out (thanks Eric! - completely missed it)

May 31 - June 2nd MN BMW Hiawatha Rally, Money Creek, MN, bike ridden TBD
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MikeMarch 23, 2019 at 9:10 PM
Buddies forever.
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MikeMarch 23, 2019 at 9:16 PM
Call them "buddy hats",we can wear them with out a helmet and our "ears" would be flapping,like a dog with its head sticking out of a car window with a big smile.
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TrobairitzMarch 24, 2019 at 9:55 AM
Looks like your dance card is getting full for the summer. Hopefully the stars align and you make it to all of the planned events and more.

Sure hope you can cross the driveway soon. It is a good thing you love where you live or it might be tougher to take.
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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)