Coop's Corner: Busy...Just Stuff

Friday, February 12, 2021

Busy...Just Stuff

Traveling, working, resting...that fairly describes the last couple of weeks. It got cold and has stayed cold. Not that I'm really complaining because as far as I'm concerned, it's been a gentle winter, coming late and treating us gently for the most part. More snow both north and south of us, our ground surface is white but not by much.

Reading, listening to music, exploring some new coffees, Route planning.....wildly exciting stuff that has kept me on the edge of one of the warm chairs.

The Himalayan is on the lift getting some timely maintenance taken care of, some new rubber, possibly some new mirrors (haven't made up my mind yet). Friend Richard bought a brand new '21, one of the very lovely Red/Black ones and ridden it only the few short miles that it took to make it home from GoMoto in Minneapolis. Though Richard has barely ridden his new bike far enough to get it warmed up, he's been very busy 'enhancing', something he is very adept at. Last Saturday at coffee in Nordeast Minneapolis (Diamonds) he shared both photos and highlighted descriptions of all the updates. He's fully geared, I can tell you that. Mention of his new Doubletake mirrors put them right back on my horizon, a place I'd let them fade from. As I said above, they're back in view.

Time for a check-up.....

More trips to Iowa a week ago, a quick overnight to Indianapolis for some refresh knowledge at the Factory a couple of days ago, this time I was the Trainee rather than the Trainer. For most of the coming week, tripping to northern Minnesota when I'll return to my role as Trainer though I continue to learn from and with each and every one of our customers.

A lot of this sort of thing....

Large Red buttons that thankfully see very little use...though they are nice to have within an arm's reach.

These pieces seem to hold my interest more these days....still haven't decided on their final shapes.

Last week Peg asked me to stop for a few things at the grocery and eggs were on the list...darn good thing I got there when I did. Masked chickens are apparently much less productive.

In the Indy airport while I stopped for a sandwich before my flight, a big electronic sign across the way. An Indy boy....

I've only read Slaughter House 5 and it was a very long time ago, might have to check some of these out.

And of course....

Isn't she pretty??

It's winter, even in the middle of Indiana and planes needed de-icing.

Once we left the snow, the high clouds and finally the low clouds, I could tell that we'd made Central Wisconsin; I knew right where we were. It's just like GPS Route Planning in BaseCamp. Below, Minnesota Vikings' Training facility....been quiet there for a few weeks now.

I flew Delta this week, which was once upon a time good ol' Northwest Airlines. I don't get asked about this much any more but for old time's sake, one more time...."It wasn't me"

2 comments:

DanFebruary 16, 2021 at 2:16 PM
Remind them that if they press the red button while the machine isn't being used, all the pumps stop and will last many years longer than if they never shut anything off, like where I work. (grumble)
Soapbox mode, off.....
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayFebruary 17, 2021 at 6:29 AM
Dan is absolutely right. We have many customers that leave machines on, overnight, all week or forever. E Stop shuts down the pumps and motor systems without turning off the computer.
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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)