Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.
Embracing the Sunny DaysInto every life a little rain must fall. The same can be said of any relationship or marriage. It can’t always be sunshine and scooter rides. Two ambulance rides to the ER for my wife in one week along with some days in the hospital brings a reality to the phrase, “In sickness and in health.”
I’ve not posted anything since the end of November. Distraction is my claim. I’ve been adventuring. Just not in the usual manner.Continue Reading
CC0 public domain image from Pixabay.com
Standing before a stack of pre-heart attack cold medications in the bathroom I realize how much has changed in the past eighteen months. Not so long ago I would down any number of cold remedies without hesitation to relieve any symptom I had in mind.
After some consultation with Doctor Google I settle on two Tylenol and a big glass of water.
I feel like crap. The common cold on top of a sore back within the landscape of post-heart attack and ankylosing spondylitis life.
It’s funny the thoughts that come into your head when you wake at 3:12 a.m. after six hours of sleep.
“F*ck I feel bad.”
“My head hurts.”
“Better text Paul that I won’t be riding to Saint’s.”
“I need chicken soup.”
I rode into town this morning on the Vespa to run a few errands. A few hours earlier I had planned to ride 120 miles for lunch. The spirit is willing but the flesh is sick. Even the ride into town was too much.
I walked laps around the house with a bowl of chicken soup, dogs trailing behind wondering what this middle of the night activity meant. I didn’t tell them it was purely to limber my back and allow gravity to drain my sinuses.
After fifteen minutes I’m feeling a lot better. Not well, but improved enough to embrace delusion and denial.
CC0 public domain image from Pixabay.com
It started with me thinking about riding in the morning to Saint’s Cafe despite feeling light-headed, sneezing and coughing.
“It’s not that far.”
“The fresh air would be good for me.”
A lap around the house later I’m thinking about going for a ride now. In the middle of the night. Kim, who’s awake now and reading a book, breaks the spell by asking if I’m going to take off work today because she thinks this is Monday morning.
I don’t mention the riding idea.
A dog is nosing me. He’s suggesting it’s time to go back to bed. Don’t have the heart to tell him I’m going to have a cup of tea and a cookie…
Emerging from the FluAfter eight days of the flu the world is coming back into view. A walk in the garden this evening with the dogs, noticing the forsythia blossoms in the shady deer den — a private place where Kim and I can sit with journals and tea. Until today I could only slog through the space solely in duty to canine companions. Still coughing and feeling a lack of energy it’s heartening to notice there are beautiful things in the world.
Photo Courtesy of Triumph Motorcycles
Forced to bed, drifting between delirium and reality, I spent some time thinking about motorcycles — the Triumph Street Twin specifically and how it might fit into my Vespa riding world. In an email exchange with moto-journalist Frank Melling he shared an illuminating comment:
You can ride a Street Twin coast to coast, and risk your license all the way, and the bike would eat up the miles. Equally, it is as a docile as your Vespa and will amble around in third gear at 30mph without a complaint.
I’m pictured those words for days and wonder what the future holds…
Imploring ActionJunior showed remarkable patience with my lack of attention during the past week. He’s also attuned to my recovery and senses a change which can only mean more action and activity. Good for him. Good for me.
Wrenching Coming in to ViewIt’s time. In the short term I need to repaint the muffler, change the engine and hub oil and filters, new sparkplug, and check the other fluid levels. And a couple months out I’ll need two new tires, belt and roller change, steering adjustment and a flush of the coolant. Not sure at the moment what I’ll do and what I’ll leave to the professionals.
Tapping Into Young EnergyWith just 14 months under her paws, Lily the Hammer is bristling with energy and a cheerleader striving to keep me moving. That youthful energy is contagious sometimes — for me and her Uncle Junior. She doesn’t want anyone slowing down.
Things are coming back into view — we’ll see what a new day brings…
She said it would be a momentary discomfort…
A Pile of GratitudeOther than the minutes I was actually having a heart attack these past few days are the worse I’ve felt in a long, long time. I knew something was different when the nursing staff donned masks and gloves to work on me — both at my family doctor’s office and at the hospital lab.
A nasal virgin, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw the long swabs in the technician’s hand. “You may find your eyes tear a bit” she said, before pushing the first toward my brain. First came the sense that it shouldn’t be there, then the acknowledgement that she reached the end followed by the simultaneous realization she was still pushing further as discomfort changed to a slight burn to a sharp pain.
“That wasn’t so bad.” she said as she readied the second. I understood now why she wore a mask — so I wouldn’t recognize her in public. A series of throat swabs were equally distressing. The encounter reminded me of conversations with riders who ventured out in the winter not fully understanding what they were about to encounter. I thought I was getting a blood test.
As much as I could the past few days, mentally straddling the real world and a netherworld, I’ve been thinking of the changes in my life the past few years. The medications in the photograph represent the sum total of medical science bearing down on me. Some I take daily to stay alive, some weekly to keep my body from chewing its joints apart, and others specific for the matter at hand. It’s stunning what they represent — I’m wearing out. And unlike a Vespa that wears out I can’t trade myself in. So my doctor and I keep tinkering like old mechanics to keep me running.
I’m grateful for the medical care I can access. The situation is just another event on the path that I need only accept and figure out what to do next. As I write my sinuses are just beginning to clear enough that I don’t have to breath solely through my mouth.
There is a bright side to the sleeping and laying around — there’s been opportunities to dream. I’ve looked at and read about the new Fujifilm X-Pro2 Body Professional Mirrorless Camera
So no riding, just trying to recover before anything bad happens. I’m grateful to have the chance.