Coop's Corner: November 2022

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Red Wing's Holiday Stroll - 2022/11/25

A beautiful late November evening the day after Thanksgiving, 46 degrees beautiful. I chose not to wear my shorts but had I done so, I would not have been alone. At least among the men present.

"Chewy at 46°F ....."

After the parade....

Sights and sounds....

Friday, November 18, 2022

2022 Riding Year In Review - Part 1

The totals are in, the Pie is complete with all slices accounted for. I decided to do a look back video this year and broke it into 2 parts.

Here's Part 1.... January - June, 2022

Friday, November 11, 2022

Minnesota Orchestra Open Rehearsal - 2022/11/04

First and foremost, warm and sincere thanks to all of your veterans for your Service! I'm lucky enough to know more than a few of you. In fact, a few Veterans were part of this special day.

I'm a small (220#) donor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as such, I was given the chance to attend an Open Rehearsal last Friday and, to bring a friend. Well, I brought 5, two more friends had to cancel at the last minute or we'd have been 7. This day rehearsal thing was something I had never done before, hadn't even realized that such things occurred.

We met at the Hall, doors were opened at 9:30, the rehearsal began at 10 and lasted until 12:30, the rehearsed music would be performed that Friday evening in live concert (simulcast too). We had an intermission, cookies and coffee served in the lobby.

Our plan after music was to enjoy lunch across the Plaza at Brit's Cafe and that's just what we did, my Bangers and Mash was especially good.

I was early so took advantage of some exercise in the Minneapolis Skyways....

11th Street.....

Minneapolis Convention Center.....

Chain of Lakes....

After Intermission...

Colleen and Mike in front of Brit's....thanks Tom, nicely done.

Waiting for my Banger's and Mash....here Richard and Hanna are discussing custom ear plugs. We covered a lot, learned a lot... we heard and discussed great music, even in stops and starts, doing so with good friends.

Thanks all for making a music rehearsal special, hopefully next time Steve will be able to stay for lunch.

Trust me, this video is the better and certainly more complete story!

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Thirsty Buck - 2022/11/09

Watch him here....

Sunday, November 6, 2022

To The River Ride - 2022/10

An early November, late afternoon, with late afternoon light, our leaf color accurately described now as brown. The Classic Stealth 500 once again my machine of choice and my choice was a good one. The drone was along and up once, nothing dramatic, just a highlight of one of the many tributary valleys between Frontenac and Lake City.

My loop of 55 miles....

I'm normally not this arrogant....

I stopped for coffee, but not the normal 'On The Post' kind. Rather I'd meant to bring my thermos...which I'd forgotten. So a bottle of water it was.

Here's the active version....

MY riding season isn't over yet, hope that yours aren't finished either.

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Halloween Lunch Ride - 2022/10/31

One more...how many can there possibly be...lovely end of October days. Too exceptional to pass up a quick Halloween afternoon ride.

And another, this one on November 1st, today.

But first, she's got a name....Rollie. A great companion, she travels like a pro!

Halloween's ride on the Honda 400 Auto....

A nice start, Minimum Maintenance road...

New County 21, a year for the gravel to settle before they pave...

Entering Kruger State Recreation Area

Up the quick hill to the campground....

My lunch spot...

Home on County 20...

Today I went for a very late lunch to Red Wing, this time on Ol' Blue, my 1978 Yamaha XS650 Special.

The Tuesday Cheeseburger Special....Jen didn't even have to ask.

OUR (well John's) corn is gone....

The 'Spinners' are once again spinning!

Finally, the Picking Ear Corn video is up on the video place.

That's all for this week....seems like more than enough.

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)