Coop's Corner: That Last Week Of October

Thursday, November 5, 2020

That Last Week Of October

Before Month 10 gets away from me, there were some things going on around here last month, things that may (you'll decide) be worth mentioning. If you recall I started out and with high hopes on taking the Helix for a Wisconsin "More Stops, Fewer Miles" ride. Only a few miles from home I knew something was wrong and as it turns out, this was it.

This is what I found after opening up the transmission. Two big problems here, one is that the gear lube has the consistency of Black Pudding and not the good Black Pudding. This water-infused 90w is not as it should be. Problem number two is that there is far too much of it. I try but I'm not always Quick Draw McGraw on these things. There was too much of something because water had some how found its way in and it took me a bit to figure out what, where and how.

This is a perfect example highlighting one of those Cause and Effect relationships....

There is dirt where there is not to be dirt....The mystery remains as to why. Well, besides the fact that I use the scooter like an off-road unit.

To the best of my knowledge, the other bearings and components managed to survive the ordeal. I hope so anyway. Once the new bearing arrives, this is all going back together with some sealant and a joint that will keep heavy oil in and wet water out.

Just a shade under 30k miles on the scooter and time for some serious maintenance anyway. While the rear drive is all apart, new rollers, weights and a belt before this cover goes back on. Other normal service items, a spark plug replacement long overdue.

And...the bi-starter. I'm an old timer and I have trouble thinking of it as anything other than a choke but it accomplishes what a choke does. Cold weather starts are a real challenge when those things don't work properly.

Other goings on....a red head stopped by.

The cornfield was harvested and the deer are now marbling with abandon! Most of our 9" snowfall was gone but not all.

What would the last week of October be without a motorcycle ride??

A quick, short Friday afternoon loop but a loop nonetheless. I had hoped but there are no guarantees at this time of year.

No....I'm not giving this out.

Icy and gooey, I really had to be careful on these north-side valleys. No dilly-dallying here!

Saturday morning another Coffee Klatch in Mpls.....here a Helix w/o water ingress.

Just like we, well not we, the docs, did things in the O.R.

What would the last week of October be without a 2nd motorcycle ride, even if it happened on an old scooter?

The Hwy 61 construction is done in Lake City...wahooo!!

Not much tourism Saturday....

Yes it goes 60!

I stopped, swung by The Pie Shop but eating outside just wasn't to work on Saturday so I kept going up river, stopping to eat in Red Wing instead.

The BNSF tracks along the river....

Barn Bluff in Red Wing, there were hikers up top.

Another view of Liberty's and where I ate Saturday afternoon.

As Mike says, "Red Wing always has cheap gas..."

Lehrbach Rd, another mooshy hidden valley road, requiring even more care than the Himalayan had the day before.

4 comments:

RichardMNovember 6, 2020 at 8:21 PM
Out of curiosity, what is that hose for? The one you have circled...
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redlegsridesNovember 9, 2020 at 9:01 PM
Marbling with abandon? As in getting fat?
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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)