Coop's Corner: 2024

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

1970, A Very Big Year For Me

Here are three, if not the biggest, they rank right up there.

https://youtu.be/zLp0AsKXMEs?si=pThaMq2rO3gefS63

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Visiting Dave - 2024/07/17 - 19

Last week I went over to Franklin Grove to visit my friend Dave in his new home, spent both nights in Dubuque, one of my favorite towns and spent a few hours with Dave on Thursday afternoon. A really nice ride, the big VStar eats up the miles making 855 of them seem easy.

Dinner Wednesday evening in Dubuque, my first time at any of this company's establishments...

As such the Manager Host brought out samples of The Sides... all met with my approval.

Spent some time in Galena....

There had been a lot of flooding....

The Mississippi still high in Savanna.....

The last time I was in Savanna.....no, that was 4 times ago.....was in 1981. 2 times ago was for Putt's funeral. Anyway in 1981 I rode down to the Quad Cities on my Ducati 900SS and just north of Savanna I was pulled over...had forgotten to put my headlight on. He liked my bike, must have liked me and sent me on my way. There was a dealer in Rock Island I'd heard about so I stopped in to say hello. Years later I returned and the photo he'd taken was still on the wall. That time I turned around and headed home, saving a return to Hannibal for another trip.

Dave found dust on the bike....gravel dust.....he was confident he'd find some. I don't have to look very hard to still see "COOP" written on that big, wide, rear fender.

Take care of yourself dear friend, it was so very good to share time with you.

Thursday evening the 100 mile ride back to Dubuque, plenty of time to think, remember and smile rolling past the Illinois beans and corn.

Saturday morning I was out early, this time on the big grey scooter to visit Lorem Ipsum in Viroqua.

Barely home and already full of dog hair...

Thursday, July 4, 2024

Happy July 4th! - 2024/07/04

A very wet day here, potentially stormy later on so noisy lights in the sky will not be happening in our area that are powder-based. Things that DID happen here so far today.....

Early, before showers...

Later....between showers... This the fun part of gardening. Must be the wet spring and early summer, carrots sweeter, kohlrabi milder and the blueberries plentiful. If/when it quits raining, thousands of green beans are ready and more of all shown.

Enjoy your Holiday weekend!!

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Minnesota Moto Guzzi Rally - 2024/06/28

Had a couple of requests from friends that don't necessarily pay attention to my videos on the Video Channel so I'll link to it here and share a couple of the photos for those that don't or won't see the video. All the photograph, still images from the video are included below, actually much easier to see.

The video....Minnesota Moto Guzzi Rally 2024

Thursday....

Thursday around the Superior/Duluth area....I rode to Superior alone and then met Eric there.

Friday to Grand Marais in the rain...

Saturday I walked, never did any riding around town.

Sunday's trip home....

Baldwin Wisconsin on the way up...

Fry bread Space Rancher taco....

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)