I saw a poster the other day, one of those old posters. It was the one with two buzzards sitting on a limb, and this one buzzard looks at the other bird and he says …… “Patience my a–. I wanna kill something.” I am the one on the right … That is often how I feel after viewing the news on Channel Five. I just want to kill something. I know, “Relax Bucko, sit back and take a deep breath, chill out.”
Unfortunately, Okie City is now 8th in the top ten in the nation for Co2 emissions. Not very encouraging, everyone take a deep breath! Taking a deep breath here could be dangerous to your health, or possibly cause your babies to be born naked or something like that. (I haven’t read the complete survey as of this date) In some ways, progress has truly came to the prairie, we are now, much like Los Angeles, able to “see the air we are breathing” on certain days.
The weather in here the Central Area of the U.S. has grown warmer, seems as if it is early this year to me. My wanderlust gene has kicked in and will progressively get worse as the weather improves. I am wanting to spread my wings and fly, but we all know that is not going to happen any time soon, don’t we? All last weekend, “I wanna go to Denver, do I wanna go to Denver, I am going to Denver, can I afford to go to Denver?”
I sit at home.
Much like an old dog, on some days scratching at the back door to get out, I want out into the yard to roam. Only to find that I am now ready to come back into the house, I am really having a hard time making up my mind about this, and I suspect, coming into touch with my feminine side. (don’t send me any letters) Which is my way of saying … I just cannot seem to make up my mind.
This morning I was thinking about how it was that I used to go out in the garage, sit down and fire up my old Harley and just sit there and listen to it idle. I would generally do this on the days when it was cold or wet, too miserable to ride, or if I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts. Some guys crank up the 10” table saw and build a coffee table, this is what I used to do. Listening to my Pig Iron Pony in the garage. A small simple pleasure of life, something to get you thru the long winter months. *
One winter, as I remember it, before I owned a home, I completely stripped the bike in the kitchen of my apartment, repainted it, had some chrome work done, and then put it all back together, without ever leaving the apartment all winter long. When I completed the reassembly process, I fired that sucker up, and the landlord served me an eviction notice about three days later.
Life has it problems. But even so, it seems like things were a lot better when I was a scooter rat.
I could pony up to the pump and for a dollar two ninety-five, I could fill that beast up, ride most of the day on that minuscule amount of fuel. Now days, it takes me over a hundred bucks just to get to Amarillo (252 miles). The home of the Big Texan and the monumentally huge Texas sized steak that most people cannot eat.
Sometimes I miss that old scooter, not much, but every now and then. As I sit on the front porch in my lawn chair and sail from tedium to boredom and back again.
000
* The Author of this post in no way encourages the activation of internal combustion engines within a closed environment without first ensuring adequate ventilation. Failure to observe proper safety procedures may result in carbon dioxide poisoning and/or death.
Filed under: Oklahoma, Recent | Tagged: boredom, getting away, Harley Hogs, landlords
The answer: get a new scooter! You’re never too old. We two are bikers too! Used to have a Honda Goldwing.
Alas I find myself too old, too comfortable, too stingy to pay the price they want for what I want. Back in the days, a bike was a good thing, insurance was cheap, and the traffic level was a far sight less than it is now. They are dangerous now, especially in Okie City, where the populace refuses to recognize their right to share the street with automobiles.
I had a Goldwing also. I called it the “Whisper Jet” because it was fast and it was so quiet.
DS
Don, you surely do suffer from wanderlust at times my friend! I guess I experience something similar when I remember the “good old days” of my youth. Yeah, it was a misspent youth, but I never felt so… ALIVE… as I did back then. The memories always bring out a smile.
Brother John
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania USA
I am terminally afflicted with it, sorry. Unfortunately in this day and age, this is becoming more and more, less of an option for me. I will find myself relegated to the cheap seats of the local movie house and there my fantasy will take form I suppose.
Sitting in the dark, with a smuggled Baby Ruth Candy Bar and my thoughts like the rest of America.
Now days because of the fuel issue, I just vegetate. Most of the time I just sit here, and stare at the fishin’ girl ….. eh?
You been working too hard, you are about two or three behind on your reading … hah!
DS
Don, That was wise of you to put that disclaimer at the bottom of your post. You are a very smart and wise man. I can see some kid sitting in his garage with his cycle a running, hear him saying to himself, “You know? Don had a good idea… I can sit here and imagine being on the road. Here I can think!”. Then the kid wonders why he’s suddenly feeling sleepy.
By the by… I liked the “…becoming more and more, less of an option…” line. Good one! Classic!
Fishin’ girl is nice… Who doesn’t love a woman who loves to fish? :)
Me? I eat my Baby Ruth Candy Bar’s alone! Don’t want to share that glorious experience with any on lookers!
Brother John
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania USA
Author has the right idea – get a scooter.
My little beach town is so small that I walk almost everywhere. (I think I drove my car once in the last month.) So I’ve been researching second hand scooters – good on gas, easy to park and cheap to insure.
Can’t think of any downsides…
Not long ago, I briefly checked into it, this was a long time before gasoline peaked and it was still rather expensive. The insurance on them now is about the same as an automobile and that kind of shocked me. I wasn’t ready for that, but then again, I am looking at “full sized motorcycles here” not scooters (Vespa’s and the like).
In Oklahoma City with the traffic such as it is, it is not a good idea to be on the streets with any type of scooter, motorcycle. Okies do not want to share the streets with anything that is not rightly sized. In Oklahoma City alone, we are exceeding 750,000 and with the surrounding areas thrown in for good measure, well over a million people. Too many of them do not recognized the rights of a biker and it can get somewhat scary to ride on the streets around here.
You have to take a special test and get a “M” endorsement on your lic. in order to ride, which I feel is a infrigement on your rights and an unnecessary tax (the fine is $450 if you get caught without it) which I am afraid I would not be able to abide by (I wouldn’t submit to it).
When I was discharged from the service and I came home, I had a brand new Harley Davidson Sportster that was paid for. I also had $1200 in mustering out money from the government, I took that bike and the money and left Oklahoma in late April and I didn’t come back until October of that same year.
When I got back home, I had about $200 left, the scooter had a little over 6,000 miles on it and that was the trip of a lifetime for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was.
Be really hard pressed to duplicate that now, it would cost four times that much at todays “pre adjusted for inflation dollars” as they say on the nightly news.
Things change.
DS
[5] Hey John? I had never even remotely considered it until you put it (the disclaimer in your comments section) in there. In today’s litigious society it might behoove someone to have something in there like that, you never know what some dim witted pecker-head is going to do and then when it goes sour he will say “I read where this guy in Oklahoma did this and that ……….”
So I lifted it and posted it in the piece, thanks.
With each passing day our “options” on travel are being restricted even more, with the fuel issues, then there is the search issues, credit crunch, you name it. It appears that the sector of the economy that deals with home improvements, home entertainment, stuff that relates to staying at home and amusing/entertaining/are the segments that will clean up in the end.
People are going to be radically changing their lifestyles, not so much people, that is wrong. American’s are going to be radically changing their lifestyles.
DS