To make some changes. Changes to Scooter in the Sticks. Changes in other areas of my life. This is the time of year where many people, myself included, take stock of things and resolve to make life different — better.
It snowed last night — walking the dog at 3AM on trackless streets with large, heavy snowflakes falling hard transformed my neighborhood into something right out of “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I kept waiting for someone to run past screaming “Hello you beautiful scooter rider!” By the time I woke up this morning it was 10:30 and the snow had melted from the roads though I did manage to find an abandoned farm to further experiment with snow riding. I’m always pleased with how the Vespa GTS presents itself in pictures.
Resolutions don’t mean much without action. That missing element may explain why diet and exercise continue to show up on my resolution list year after year. Something new has caught my attention and has been turning for months in my head in an embryonic, pre-cognitive state until just a few days ago during my two-week holiday I realized I always seem to be in a hurry. Always in a rush.
On the way to the grocery store for supplies to supplement the sauerkraut cooking in the crock pot I stopped in town to take a look at the ice sculptures that are part of the First Night festivities.
Ice carvers were putting finishing touches on a variety of art ice from George Washington to a royal throne. Cold weather helps keep things looking good unlike previous years where rain and 60 degree temperatures made the ice work quite ephemeral.
Even though I have been visiting Tim Hodgens’ blog I Will Rush No More
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Steve!!
Happy New Year!
Happy new year. Sounds like you should resolve to get some of those Kenda tires Gary is always bragging on. 🙂 Might make getting up those snowy farm lanes a little easier.
When I was a much younger person (Ok, 7 years old) my uncle took an old dog chain and wrapped it around the rear tire of my little Yamaha GTMX 80 so I wouldn’t have to quit riding in the winter. While I doubt it would work for a scooter, it sure made it fun on that old minibike. (New at the time) Thanks for bringing back those memories.
Dave T.
A great post as always Steve.
Happy New year. I look forward to continued visitations here at Scooter in the Sticks in 2008.
I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that it was the adventure of trying the farm lane that made the day. It’s like the old saying: “Having loved and lost is better than not having loved at all.” I dont’ know if slowing down is all it’s cracked up to be. I rather think that “keep on, keepin’ on” is more the right speed.
P’taker
Happy New Year! I can relate to your feelings of being rushed. The older I get, the more I feel like I am on a run-a-way carousel, clinging on with just my finger tips as my legs are flailing away.(Quite the visual of a tattooed biker!) I attribute this to the world we live in and the pressures society, and our generations struggle to fit in now. Yeah us Boomers are dinosaurs. My teenage son can talk on the cell phone, chat on the computer with his right hand, text message with his left hand, listen to his ipod and play with that damned Xbox thing all at the same time and still say he is bored! I ask him to go out riding with me and I get that up-turned lip , tilted head and reply, “if you want”. It’s no wonder I enjoy the solitude of the open road.
Well, Steve, Happy New Year. I’ve enjoyed your blog very much over the last few months. I’ve read all of it, which was very nice. I was looking for help to make some decisions. What to ride? What to do? Your blog has been very helpful. There are some truly excellent pictures, but you’ve heard plenty of that. But I’m talking about something much deeper. Any picture on your pick-up truck would’ve been just as great! I mean that. That’s how good the pictures are. But it’s about much more than that. I still don’t know – after these few months – what I want. Motorcycle? Scooter? Nothing at all? That might say a lot or nothing at all. A great blog. Little else out there because I know it has little to do with two wheels or four or bicycles or what not. I suppose the only way would be to ride and to say nothing about it. Nothing. Thank you.
Happy New Year Steve and wishing you more hours in a day, more days in a week, more weeks in a month and more months in a year. May you stretch your time in 2008 and reap every second.
rick, maggie, and micah: Thank you for your kind wishes and I hope the new year is finding you well and happy.
Ride safely!
david: I promise, next tire change I will try the Kendas. I am just sort of slow to change…
I’ve seen pictures of chains on the vintage Vespas but not anything for the Modern ones.
Isn’t it amazing the things you will try on two wheels when you are a kid?
sarch: I plan to keep going. Maybe change the length or type of posts now and then but still here.
Have a great New Year!
pitchertaker: Exactly right! Unless you try that stuff you never really engage with things.
crusty: I like the image of the out of control carousel. That is what it can feel like.
I never thought of myself as a dinosaur but more and more I am beginning to see that I am out of step with a lot of things in society. Enjoying, expecting, and requiring solitude is certainly not a mainstream desire. More and more people seem to avoid it at all costs and ask “where’s the fun in that?”
Have a fine and safe new year.
chaty: Thank you for your kind and insightful comments. The choices for riding are so expansive that it is hard to figure out. With all things I own I try and choose things that I make a connection with at a level deeper than pure utility. If I don’t I tend not to use them. The Vespa was one of those choices that just clicked.
Not sure if pictures of my truck will ever appear here or not. Actually I am hoping to get rid of the thing and replace it with something smaller, cheaper, and better on gas.
Take your time with your choices. One day you’ll just know what you need to do.
heinz & frenchie: Thank you! I hope to see the days pass slowly this year.
Ride safely in Florida!
Hey Steve,
Happy New Year!
I’m glad my mantra velcroed to your mind and am curious to see how it all develops in your life.
It has made an enormous impact in mine. I do go slower, but it’s not the key factor. The key is to take rushing off the table and then let the speed and the gears just find themselves naturally.
A suggestion: shift from “quit rushing” to “I will rush no more.
It’s probably splitting hairs – but it seems very real to me.
“Quit rushing” implies that you are putting on the brakes and that requires effort and for some highly action oriented people goes against the grain.
But when you say “I will rush no more” it is a positive statement which the mind can relate to easily. It’s not a command. It offers an implied picture to the mind which invites a sense of freedom. It would be awkward but maybe it could be “I will rush-no-more.” Yea, I am splitting hairs now.
I find it interesting that almost everyone likes the mantra, and equally almost everyone morphs it to “don’t rush” or some such variation. For me, at least, those variants don’t work as well.
ride safely.
Tim