Coop's Corner

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Weather - Unbelievable!!

The weather reporters told us this morning that we are enjoying "end of September weather in early November" and we most certainly are! Cool evenings, almost frosty but afternoon highs near or even over 70 degrees.

Friday started like they all have been with breakfast and friends in St. Paul and then working in mom's house. As long as my weekend afternoons are still so wonderfully rideable that is what will be happening....REEEquired! So the house sorting work went fast, the TW200 calling my name at home.

Since it had been quite some time, I decided to do Doug's almost famous "75 Miles Of Gravel". The ride never gets further than 13 miles as the crow flies from home, covers 4 Minimum Maintenance Roads and in total has just a few miles of pavement.

Barn cleaning time now that the crops are off. Some farmers are pumping the 'fertilizer' rather than hauling it.

Perfect ride length and timing had me home in time to make our evening plans; those plans were to gather at our local casino for dinner and then the best part, enjoy Boy George and Culture Club. Normally not the venue or musical group that I'd have chosen, we had a very special reason to attend this one. My long ago riding buddy Brad and wife Joan (he and I did Montana/Alberta/British Columbia in 1976) have a son that's a fantastic saxophone player, a player talented enough to be part of Boy George's band during the Canada, USA and European Tour.

We went, really enjoyed the show, heard and saw some very incredible talent but disappointingly missed meeting up with our friends. Peg's Web meeting started later and lasted longer than we'd ever dreamed possible, so that messed up our time together before the concert. Lauren's early morning flight today made it tough to gather after the concert so there will have to be another time.

IF the group is coming to a city near you, I'd strongly encourage you to "feel some '80's again". When you go, be ready for some outstanding sax work on Black Money.

This morning I was up early and off to Diamond's for coffee but couldn't stay long; something needed to be picked up and brought home.

So now I have 2 non-running 850cc motorcycles. If there's some sort of limit as to how many a person should have, I won't be coming up with an absolute answer for quite some time.

Another bluebird afternoon, it was the XS650 that needed some exercise today. Gravel really hadn't been a goal but sometimes these things just sort of happen and as is my custom, I run what I brung.

There's nothing sadder than a field of homeless punkin's!!

Home as the shadows were getting longer, orange vests in the woods only for another hour or so. There were hunters and hunter vehicles everywhere I rode today. Once Peg was home, we two visited our favorite Mexican restaurant and then sat down this evening for The Imitation Game.

A clock change tonight and the Swan Ride tomorrow!

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)