Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

A 2024 Year End Inventory

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Belgian Sheepdog relaxing in an easy chair.
Relaxed yet forever ready for the next adventure. Or treat.

What? Me Worry?

Aiden is no Alfred E. Neuman but he definitely doesn’t worry about much. Food, sleep, walks, play, and cuddles. In my life he reflects the simple things in life. And right now he lays at my feet as I type, resigned that for the moment I’m sitting in his favorite chair.

The year has gone by quickly. A frightening pace especially considering my age. Something about the closing of a year makes me stop and think a bit about what’s happened. A year end inventory to help understand what the next steps may be.

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The Gift of Riding

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Two Honda Trail 125 motorcycles parked on a gravel lot by an old one-room school.
Paul Ruby and I at the start of a ride to breakfast.

Realizations of the Obvious

I can get lost inside myself. Preoccupied with meaningless or sometimes even harmful or pointless preoccupations that cut me off from the living world. From friends and family. From the things that give meaning to life.

Like going for a ride to breakfast with my friend Paul.

There are reminders everywhere of the certainty that it will all end. When I notice them life becomes suddenly richer. The quality of light in the morning. The look and feel of the Honda Trail bike I’m riding. The cool air on my face.

But how easily I forget.

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Vespa Scooter Freedom

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Vespa GTS scooter along rural road.
This looks like freedom to me. Of the mind, the spirit, and the body.

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.

MOSHE DAYAN

An escape from the noise of everyday life into a state of Vespa scooter freedom is a gift of hope and joy. The same now as it was when I began riding a scooter so many years ago. In minutes the noise and stress that can accumulate in my head burn off like fog on a sunny morning. The air embraces my body and I’m flying. All I can think is it’s great to be alive.

It doesn’t take long until I’m far from home. The scooter has quietly transported me to a different reality. The long road, the spring light, the promise of life emerging again from winter reduces my world to something simple I can grasp. Like the throttle of the Vespa.

Riding provides a taste of freedom, and it quickens the soul.

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Rider Indifference

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While I can’t recommend it, an Emergency Room visit does break up the monotony of daily life. No heart attack this time, instead a foot injured by an overly exuberant dog. As my father always said, “It’s hell to get old.”

Shaking Rider Indifference

*NOTE* This post has been pressured by rider and hair stylist Billy Blades. I avoid him. He’ll tell me my hairstyle is something out of the 1980s. He rides a Goldwing. Can I really trust him? 😃 *NOTE*

One morning my dog Lily knocked me down some steps in the garden while we were playing with the tennis ball. It hurt but I thought I would walk it off. By dinner time I told my wife I was going to the Emergency Room. X-Rays showed no breaks. The doctor said “severe contusion” and sent me home.

Aside from that sort of diversion, my days begin and end with a sameness that is hard to understand. This must be what prison is like, an interminable counting of days where one day is the same as the next. It’s easy to understand how life could descend into a comfortable indifference fueled by streaming video, music, and books. Despite blue skies and sunshine the world feels empty and alone.

I’ve struggled to find balance between the reality of my day-to-day life and the mental construction of it. The gulf between the two is great. And rather than work toward some construction of a bridge, I’ve fallen into inactivity and indifference. As if I’ve been condemned to live on an island with no prospects or resources. This must be why I’ve been stricken with rider indifference.

Of course this is utter bullshit. A result I can only point to because of the hypervigiliance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. There are reasonable actions to take. But there is also the false apocalypse built from too much time and too little activity — physical, mental, or spiritual.

So I think it’s time to make an inventory of reality and imagination in hopes that I’ll emerge from the endeavor moving into life again.

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Dreams and Other Realities

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Vespa GTS scooter in the woods at sunsetThe End of Things

I’ve been blessed with a cinematic form of daydreaming — sequences of images and narration that move seamlessly through time and space to tell a story. I don’t know whether this a common trait among people. It’s provided entertainment and distraction throughout this life. Riding at times provides a stage for a mini-series of adventures both real and imagined. Looking at the Vespa parked in the trees as the sun went down opened the door to a variety of mental adventures.

Recently many readers provided feedback, insight and suggestions in response to an online survey inquiring about possible products and directions that could appear on Scooter in the Sticks. The results will help discern wishful daydreaming from paths worth exploring. For those of you who responded — thank you. You’ve confirmed, rejected and illuminated the palette of vague ideas presented. The data collected will be useful in the decision making process.Continue Reading