Scooter in the Sticks

Make Mistakes

December 6, 2014 by Scooter in the Sticks 18 Comments

If I’ve learned anything in life it’s that I make mistakes. Albert Einstein counseled people to make them as part of a method which makes life richer, deeper, and opens doors otherwise invisible. I was pondering this idea while trying to ease my frustration at line of little mistakes and misjudgments that are maddening. Ordering the wrong parts, staying up half the night instead of sleeping, neglecting new ATM cards until the bank decides to cancel everything.

My own magical thinking leads me to believe that things will just work out.

Junior is oblivious to the fairy ring he’s laying in. I asked him to pose for this picture, a momentary break from our repetitive exercise of hurling and retrieving tennis balls. Come spring there fairy rings, elf rings to some, will burst forth as a line of mushrooms. The biology is more complicated than I want to go into. Being able to see them is a gift of my wife Kim and her naturalist ways slowly rubbing off on me.

Junior reminds me of mistakes, especially in timing related to inadequate sleep. The less sleep I have the less time there is for the two of us to run wild.

Junior reflects my own laziness and sloth of late. And I’m sure it’s fueled some of the mistakes I’ve been making, especially in regard to installing the heated grips on the Vespa. It’s still in the garage in pieces and at the rate I’m going it will fall in line between printing my daughter’s prom pictures and finishing the darkroom sink.

I’ve been waiting for over a week for some Posi-Tap connectors only to discover I ordered the wrong size. With my patience exhausted I just grabbed the quick splice connectors I had on hand and started the electrical work. It wouldn’t be as “perfect” as I imagined but would likely work just fine.

Success. Switched power to the grips and all the lights are on. So the power is wired correctly. Was working a bit on the grips. Have to do a bit more sanding before I can push them onto the bars. Ran out of energy, heard the whisper of the easy chair.

One step at a time I’lll get the project finished and i’ll probably continue to make mistakes…

Other Forms of Travel

December 1, 2014 by Scooter in the Sticks 9 Comments

Having taken a few days of vacation time from work provided the potential opportunity to do some more serious scooter riding with the Vespa. Sloth, weather and bad planning on my part eliminated my options revolving around the Vespa and relegated me to other forms of travel.

Weather interfered on a few mornings as the temperature dipped below freezing and transformed lingering slush and moisture into the kind of early season road ice that can give a scooter rider fits. Standing in the driveway I could see the remains of salt still at work and with my Heidenau snow tires still sitting in the garage it would not be a great idea to go for a ride.

Even if the snow tires were mounted, the scooter headset is still dismantled as I await some additional parts for the heated grips.

Sunday morning in State College, Pennsylvania, the view down Allen Street as I make my way to Saint’s Cafe to join fellow riders and photographers Gordon Harkins and Paul Ruby. Neither rode on this morning either though ice was not an issue with the temperature in the upper 30s.

As the morning unfolded I realized that there are more travel options than I often realize. And many don’t involve motors or wheels.

Finding and establishing rituals is more important to me now than when I was younger and the world was something to consume and discard with each new day something to experience. I don’t believe my experience was that robust or unique but it was easy to romanticize newness and adventure in ways I don’t now. The younger me wanted to see every sight on a trip. The older me wants to revisit the familiar over and over until I understand what I’m seeing. Can’t say which is the better approach, only that they’re different and where I am now.

Saint’s Cafe has been the place I return to on most Sunday mornings for the past seven or eight years. I wonder if I’m considered a regular and if I’ve become a character like those on Cheers. I don’t think many people know my name but they do recognize the yellow riding jacket.

Earl Grey tea and a Moleskine journal — part of another long standing ritual. The tea has remained consistent though my writing has fluctuated in the past couple years as I’m drawn more and more into the digital bog. Digital is so alluring and easy that I’ve considered abandoning the pen and paper, film, darkroom and more. Some lingering voice whispers for me to resist. Part of the ritual of being at the cafe is to ponder the meaning of those whispers.

Gordon returned some of the Kodak Tri-X film I lent him to shoot the Penn State football game. I bet there were no other photographers along the sidelines shooting film, especially black and white film. I’m not sure if he’s an enigma or an anachronism. Either way, seeing that film sitting on the table triggered some powerful desires to pick up my Leica M6 again and make the photographs that so faithfully fulfilled the creative hole that lives in me. Everything stands ready to do it save for the personal hesitation I shroud in excuses.

Film is not dead. Merely tired.

Paul and Gordon routinely show up with new work while I sink into my chair as a distant observer who remembers what it was like to be a photographer. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Or maybe just over scheduled.

Gordon brought a lovely set of images he made of our friends and colleagues Stephen Dirado and Frank Armstrong at the opening of their exhibition in Massachusetts titled Regarding Landscape.

I can barely comprehend the work involved to produce another exhibition myself. It’s been too long.

Paul also had a lovely set of images made over Thanksgiving at a friends place in the Catskills. This print of his girlfriend’s daughter emerged from his backpack along with some others of the location. Paul is persistent in his image making and works hard to stay engaged with the camera, a critical component in being a good photographer. He was working with an 8×10 Deardorff camera when I first met him and while today he’s fully digital his work sometimes echoes that large format approach.

Paul put together this lovely composite image that for me creates a powerful feeling of that snow filled landscape. I can’t wait to see a large incarnation in print.

Thinking about photographs and photography I realized that there are other ways to travel besides the physical act of moving through space. Like Rod Serling often said, “You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!”

Perhaps that’s where I’m headed.

The signs juxtaposed against Gordon was too much for me to resist. He would be the first one to say he’s always going the wrong way. While I don’t agree with the assessment it was a funny scene.

For an hour or so each week the three of us exist in close proximity, sharing ideas, problems, stories and lies, all part of a ritual that provides me with a great deal of satisfaction. Seeing our feet on the floor reminded me of the closeness that’s developed because of our shared interests.

I still don’t have the scooter put together. I’ve not shot any film. I haven’t accomplished much of anything lately. I did buy some craft beer.

Alcohol is no longer part of my life. Not even a little due to the medication I take for my ankylosing spondylitis. My doctor at Johns Hopkins grilled me about perils of even sips of beer or wine and how they can fry my liver.

Right now. Fast. Badly.

My luck it would come at a time when the craft brews exploded. So while I can’t sample any of them I do enjoy looking at the labels and names and putting together little collections for friends and family that can still partake. This Christmas Ale was one of the graphical items that caught my eye.

So that’s the news from Happy Valley. Hopefully by the end of the week the scooter will be back on the road and life will be grand…

Installing Heated Grips

November 24, 2014 by Scooter in the Sticks 17 Comments

Any maintenance work on the Vespa puts my head in a mental jungle. This picture of Devil’s Walking Stick I made last night while Kim and I were on a walk does a good job illustrating the jagged tangle of thoughts that I have to wade through. Came close to just handing off the scooter to a professional to do the install but decided to take the plunge and embrace the installing of heated grips.

Before starting I reviewed two resources to help reduce the chances of disaster — a blog post by David Masse on Life on Two Wheels: The Scoot Commute that details installation of another brand of grips on a Vespa GTS300. Figured it would be similar.

And a video produced by Scooterwest.com showing the installation of my grips on a Vespa S150. Again, has to be of some help.

So this evening I started even though I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time. Made pretty good progress considering I was diverted to transplant a shrub and repair a garden hose.

The dismantling was quick and easy. Had the windscreen, front rack, mirrors and headset off in 15 minutes or so. David’s post pointed out a possible problem with a headset screen that could be dropped down into the bodywork and recommended a magnetic screwdriver. I don’t have any such things so I went to Sears to buy tools. Unfortunately there were no Craftsman brand screwdrivers in stock so I had to go with a cheap knockoff brand they had. Says “magnetic” on the packaging but I found no evidence of magnetism. I did get the screw out without any problems. Getting it back in will be another challenge.

I did find some issues with the headset though. Three screws hold it on but only one was in place. One screw just was gone, probably fell out or was never replaced during some past service, and the other side the plastic was broken. Oh well.

Once the headset was off all that was left in the dismantling actions was to remove the bar end weights and the stock grips. David’s post talks about using a heat gun to get them off. I opted for the less nuanced approach and cut them away with a utility knife.

I quit after that because I’m not at the harder part of prepping things and figuring out how to wire the grips to a power source on the scooter. Wires are wires to me so i’ll have to concentrate. Saw this connecter. Wonder what it does.

More to come in the continuing saga of idiot meets heated grips.

Backup Photography

November 23, 2014 by Scooter in the Sticks 8 Comments

Departed this morning to take advantage of the warming trend before sidelining the scooter as I attempt to install the heated grips. It was 35F at this stop but the temperature increased quickly into the upper 40s within an hour or so. After some sub-freezing riding that feels positively warm.

Had to switch to my backup photography plan at this point of the ride when I realized I had forgotten to put the SD card back in the camera after downloading images last night. I briefly considered riding back home to get it but decided on plan B and use the iPhone.

This photo was made as I entered Linden Hall, Pennsylvania. It’s typical of many small central Pennsylvania towns — narrow roads, little traffic, a church and a few buildings. I never tire of riding through these places.

Despite the greyness of the morning the riding was outstanding. I just needed to put some miles beneath me to work out the mental cobwebs. At this point I still hadn’t made any decisions about destination. A lot of rides are like that — just a casual approach to the road.

Almost all crops have been harvested leaving many open fields in their wake. There was a time when I might venture off through these places but of late I’d rather get permission to trespass.

Sometimes it seems as if scenes are constructed for photographic stories with a variety of graphic elements in play. I stood at this intersection for awhile imaging what it all means. Maybe nothing. Maybe there’s a cosmic message coded in this picture that I really should decode.

A shortcut over Mount Nittany meant some dirt and gravel riding. I was glad the temperature warmed well above the freezing mark leaving me mostly free to ride without fear of ice. The Vespa isn’t a dirt bike but can easily handle this kind of track. Takes a bit of practice to get comfortable but well worth the effort. On the downside the scooter does picture up a lot of grit, dings and filth on the machine.

If there was a downside to the ride it’s the fact that I passed on breakfast and rode to my office to complete a few unfinished projects. I’d thought it would only take an hour but it turned into three hours of focused work. But I can rest a bit easier knowing some things are finished and not looming in my mind.

Got home in early afternoon and have begun work on the heated grips. Removed the front rack, windscreen, mirrors, and have begun the headset removal. First time I looked at it closely and I see one screen is missing and there is damage to the plastic where someone over-torqued some screws. It’s always something.

I have my fingers crossed that I can finish the installation in less than an hour.

Sounds funny as I write that.

Reluctant Vespa Mechanic

November 22, 2014 by Scooter in the Sticks 14 Comments

Soon, perhaps this evening, I’ll start removing things from the Vespa; front rack, windscreen, mirrors, and more in order to install heated grips. The task has been postponed a number of times since the accessories arrived due to the flimsiest of excuses. Too cold, too tired, Leonids meteor showers, hangnail, dog ate the instructions, possible plague, the usual things.

I’ll say it though, or write it actually, I HATE WORKING ON THE VESPA. Hate may be too strong. Loathe could be more accurate. Maybe even despise. Regardless, I’m not one of the scooter or motorcycle owners who thrives on the prospect of servicing the machine. And it extends beyond the scooter. I don’t like mowing the lawn, paying bills, doing laundry, washing cars, and on and on.

Maybe it’s the weather that’s got me worked up. Regardless, there are just some things in life you have to do and the less time complaining and the more time doing then things will get done and a person can move on.

I keep telling myself that.

Late this afternoon I rode down the street to the Pump Station Cafe for a few treats. Seeing the scooter standing alone in the parking lot triggered some tiny desire in me that I should do more work myself. Not just maintenance on the Vespa either. Things like remodeling the bathroom or repainting the inside of the house. If people actually turn over in their graves my father has had to do so many times watching me reject the kinds of things he loved doing, and taught me to do.

Unfortunately whatever gene or DNA sequence that programmed my father into a maintenance/remodeling/building machine was not passed on to me. He provided me with the knowledge, information and training to do an awful lot of stuff. I just don’t like doing it. And the older I get the more I dislike doing a lot of things.

Still I’m going to install the heated grips despite my strong resistance. Perhaps I’ll find some serenity in the process much like I do washing dishes by hand.

I’m stretching.

Stay tuned for news from the reluctant Vespa mechanic.

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Scooter in the Sticks