Coop's Corner

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Almost Key West

This weekend is the annual Cabin Fever event at Scooterville in Minneapolis. Tradition has it that we gather as usual at Diamond's for coffee early and then head downtown to be tempted by a warm showroom full of new and colorful scooters.

It felt mild this morning at 5:30 when I climbed in the car to head up to Minneapolis. The thermometer in the car said +2 and I just knew it was going to be a good day. Our new car (the one with the heated seats) has satellite radio and during what's left of the Sirius free promotion, I listened to the Jimmy Buffet Channel all the way to the city. I'm not in actuality much of a Land Shark but hey, a guy can dream.....and I did get to feel quite warm, what with the lyrics of "Let's Get Drunk and ......". I even started imagining that the piles of snow everywhere might just be sand. So yes, the miles went by quickly and with a smile, parts of me at least very toasty.

I stopped for gas and for the first time in a few weeks, the car got washed though too much of the 6" of new snow we plowed through Thursday in the driveway on the way home was still stuck in the grill. I guess "Touchless" wasn't meant to handle packed in grill snow. I went out to once again in what has of late seemed like a daily ritual, open up the driveway right after we got home that evening and laughed about the dragging tracks the car had left on the entire 1000' of our private road. At least I had been able to park the car where I wanted it.....out of the way and in front of the garage.

Enough about snow.....back to Key West and other warm subjects. This is what the parking lot at Scooterville looked like when we got there.

But first, it was 7AM coffee Diamond's and turnout was good. As Mike said, there were even some new lies today, I'd guess probably due to it being a new month. Of course Paul rode, it is February after all.

Early turnout was light at Scooterville when they opened but it did get better as the morning went on. My car thermometer at that time was reading a very balmy +18, affirmation of my ensemble today, my trusty Scooterville T-shirt.

This lovely Italian woman was sort of there.....we're always glad that she is.

and naturally Flo was there; she shows up most everywhere there are 2 wheels it seems.

There were Stella's, both 2 stroke and 4, Buddy's, People's, Downtown's....there were a bunch of these and others.

Don't tell anyone but this used 200i Like really caught my eye.....I did NOT bring it home however. Three years ago, a Hyosung GT250R did follow me home from this event.

The Vespa's were lined up along the front window.

Just as I was walking out, Dick showed up. Rick, Tim and Kraig not long before had arrived together; these guys all members of a Twin Cities scooter group that I've ridden with. Rick was the former owner of my black Morphous.....he's now got another scooter for sale, an Italian one but I'm so far saying "no".

Bright and shiny things everywhere.....Mike was there as well.

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)