Coop's Corner: Meet Friends At The Pump Day

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Meet Friends At The Pump Day - 2023/11/16

We here in MN are enjoying another Give To The Max Day, our annual drive for fund raising, giving to our favorite charities, often with matching. It was all of that, we give and gave to our favorite things. In addition to the official day, I had a celebratory day myself. Record-setting temperatures for mid-November put me in the mood for a ride. I was out, made it home through, up and over what must have been record-setting winds as well. Riding on some roads at slower speeds with my visor up, dried, blowing leaves were pelting my face. In the areas most flat and open, the adjacent harvested cornfields somehow found small chunks of corncobs smacking my helmet and now-closed visor. That was a definite First.

My friends at the pump? First of all in Wabasha right after an early lunch, I was filling my tank when a convertible MG pulled up beside. Richard, recognizing first the Himalayan and then Coop, pulled up to say hello. Had I not just finished a meal, we'd have dined together. He was out enjoying the weather just like I was, the MG would soon thereafter be tucked away for its long winter sleep.

Later, at another filling station, I stopped not for gas but for a quick cup. A red scooter pulled in for fuel, a scooter and rider that I've been seeing off and on the last couple of weeks. We met yesterday when I was on another bike but this scooter rider has become familiar with my white helmet and jacket on who-knows-which-bike.

I walked over to say hello and shake hands while the scooter was just being topped off. Larry The Indian Guy was filling his 2010 Honda Scooter and it had been months since I'd seen him. The last time I attempted to see him was a visit to his hospital room in Lake City. In July, Larry totaled his Indian Chief and the deer, Larry came far too close to being totaled himself. That Indian Chief has been featured previously on my blog.

Back in June...at 70 years of age, the bike's odometer looked like this....

I believe that I'm correct in saying that the last time Larry saw the bike's odometer it read 520,XXX. After the bike was determined to be totaled, Polaris R&D obtained the bike and what they did or found hasn't been shared with its former owner. A replacement knee, healing bumps, bruises and road rash all tried to slow him down....and they have. But in no way have they stopped him.

Larry went on to mention that he's probably done with big bikes. He also mentioned that the local Honda shop has an ADV 160.....So good to see you out, up and about today Larry. You've done well!!

It was a very good day for me while stopped at fueling stations.

Here's a sample of what my going entailed....

Steep....

When I got home, added this one to the "Full tank and Seafoam added" list.

Over the last week or so, these have been list-building....

Poor little Helix didn't get his portrait....but he's in for the big sleep like his siblings.

A few more to go, the RE sidecar rig will likely be the last...or not at all. We'll see.

In other news, there was a picnic lunch in the River Falls park...

And Arthur's been out for early morning Deer Hunting season walks....

3 comments:

mohessianNovember 17, 2023 at 3:18 PM
So Larry is done with big bikes and might get the ADV160, because why? The maxim that the slower you hit the deer the less messed up you get? Sounds wise for you guys living in Deer Country. And best wishes to him!
And Arthur's collar is the kind that makes sure a strong young dog pays attention? Gets ALL of the message?
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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)