Scooter in the Sticks

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

Retirement: A New Adventure

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foggy country roadWhat’s Ahead on the Road?

A foggy ride to work this week and I’m wondering what’s ahead on the road just beyond what I can see.  And I’m wondering the same thing about my life.  My employer, Penn State, is offering an incentive for myself and over 1200 of my colleagues to retire.  After a career spanning over 42 years it opens the door for a new adventure.

I guess.

Even though I ride my Vespa in fog and snow I’m not a person who takes risks.  Retirement feels like a big one.  And I don’t really know why other than it brings a dramatic change to a life built on routine and ritual.

Vespa scooters with motorcyclesLife on Campus

I’ve been parking a Vespa on campus for over ten years.  A lot longer for a cars.  As I looked at the scooter parked outside my office I can’t help but wonder what all these years meant.  Retirement means walking away and not coming back.  Like saying goodbye to an old, familiar friend and knowing it will never be the same.

The financial calculations are complete.  And I have some pretty serious plans for life after Penn State that will keep me busy with things I want to do.  But I hesitate.

I’ll be going for a long ride in the morning to think about the offer and make a decision.  I have six days to sign a letter of intent if I want to take advantage of the incentive offer.  Or keep working and retire down the road.  If I decide to sign the paper there’s no turning back.  At the end of June 2017 I would be a full-time Vespa rider.

Retirement.  That would be a new adventure.

Simple Pleasure: Where Do You Find It?

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Vespa GTS scooter along freeway exit in the morning lightA New Day

Took the freeway to work one day this past week.  A crisp clear morning,  a spine pretending to almost be normal, I stopped to enjoy a moment alone on the road.  It’s a communion of body, mind and spirit that sweeps past unlooked for but welcome.  A simple pleasure that can’t be bought or planned.  A gift I’ve opened and received gratefully as a rider.

Simple pleasure of seeing my dog in the garden grassSimple Pleasure – a dog in the garden

Being open to the small moments that flame life takes practice.  Lest I miss them, I need to slow down and transform my eyes from detection devices into tools for introspection and insight.  Noticing Lily stalking through the garden grass, I realize how much there is around me that I don’t want to miss.

Riding a scooter, going forth on a motorcycle, these exercises have cleared my eyes.

Vespa GTS scooter in a pastureRiding Shrine

There are moments when my Vespa ascends from riding contraption to shrine.  It usually happens when it’s standing in some lush promontory where it stands against a wider world.  After weeks of nagging irritation from my back, it was a joy to face the morning and feel good about riding, the job I was moving toward and the knowledge that life was rich as a result of a few simple pleasures.

Tea at a morning call on a cafeTea, Light and Friends

An hour in Saints Cafe, some hot tea and conversation with a friend; it’s a simple pleasure that requires only an investment of time on my part.  Time that, in almost every case, returns far more value than the cost of admission.

Vespa GTS scooter in the blazing sunA Ride Home

My back has recovered enough to ride back and forth to work.  I’ve learned to sit up straight to minimize fatigue to that area of the body.  Still experimenting with the rougher experience of riding on gravel roads as habit leads me to old cow paths on the ride home.  The dazzling light of a low sun at the end of the day is a simple pleasure that I don’t embrace nearly enough.

Is there a good reason why I don’t see more sunsets?

Meyer Dairy milk bottle in a GIVI topcaseMilk in Glass Bottles

Twenty four hours ago the milk in the glass bottle was grass.  At least that’s what I like to think.  Meyer Dairy is two miles from my house and they still bottle and sell their milk to the community, a dying breed of dairy farmers not shipping their milk to a cooperative or factory in return for a milk check.  The simple pleasure of drinking fresh, local milk, hides the hard work and complication of daily production.

Seeing the bottle in my GIVI topcase has me wondering how long they’ll last.  Or my Vespa scooter.  Or me.

For now I’l enjoy the little rides I can take, a simple pleasure purchased with the effort I make to choose the scooter over the car.

Where do you find simple pleasure?

Official Geezerdom

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Dogs offering birthday greetingsHappy Birthday Daddy

The dogs greeted me with reminders of the big day — geezerdom and eligibility for Social Security all coming together in a cosmic event.  There’s a full moon in the sky as I write.  I still remember throwing rocks at plastic soldiers dug into a road bank after school. Shooting photo assignments for the Daily Collegian at Penn State seem like they happened yesterday.  And now suddenly, without warning or explanation, I’m 62 years old.

The dogs think it’s just another day.  You have to love them for that.

There are no Vespa photographs in this post.  I rode to work today but didn’t feel the urge to make any photographs of the scooter.  It’s a holiday.

Shadows of the dog and I on a late day walk in the parkIt’s Late in the Day

Long shadows indicate the end of the day.  I see a metaphor for the position I occupy on the course of my life.  A birthday offers an opportunity to think about what’s ahead.  Lily and I walk in the park, a chance for me to exercise and her how to walk on a leash.  I’m averaging 12 thousand steps a day.  She’s not doing so well on the leash.

Progress not perfection.

Sunset and Mount NittanyWatching the Sunset

Late in the day Junior and I take a walk to the top of the hill to watch the sun go down over Mount Nittany.  Behind me a full moon rises to later illuminate the night.  Kim bought me a Nikon DSLR camera and two lenses for my birthday.  After years of lugging big, heavy professional cameras I’m looking forward to a smaller, lighter version — the D3300.  I’m excited to entertain the next steps in my photographic journey.  Personal and reflective.  No art directors or clients.

Just me and the world.

So far, it’s been quite a party.

 

Balancing Riding with Life

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stone steps in naturalized gardenWorking with Stone

Evidence of work; an iPhone image at dusk of of a series of meandering stone steps rising through a steep part of our woodland garden.   A day ago this was thick with mountain laurel, ferns and other plants.  Even the dogs had trouble penetrating this area.  While sitting in my little chair in the garden with a bowl of cereal I decided another pathway was necessary and abandoned plans to ride the Vespa.

A lesson in balancing riding with life.

Blue sky and clouds over central PennsylvaniaBlue Skies over Central Pennsylvania

Balance has never been an easy state to achieve as I can become obsessively focused on a task — particularly one as enjoyable as riding.  A week ago I was on the road and enjoying the clear air and low humidity on a morning ride in central Pennsylvania.  It would be a lie to suggest any sort of balance — I was just doing what I wanted to do — ride the Vespa scooter.

Vespa GTS scooter along side a cornfieldOn a Clear Day You Can See for Miles

The riding weather a week ago was exceptional — not too hot and low humidity.  As the week progressed the temperatures climbed along with the feeling that everything was moist.  I confess a level of disappointment riding on sunny days.  Everything seems too easy and relaxed with little natural drama to behold.  It affects my desire to make photographs too.  Everything looks like a postcard which to me translates as boring.

Still the desire to ride wins out and I headed south out of town to no where in particular.

Vespa GTS scooter with a 1932 Ford hot rodHot Rod and Scooter

This ’32 Ford Hot Rod looked dazzling in the parking lot at the Spruce Creek Bakery. My father always talked about building one of these but ended up always working on some other more conventionally useful and adult project.  I’m not sure how his example informs my own behavior.

The owner told me this was a kit car and not build from a ’32 Ford.  And I think it has a Chevy engine complete with some snazzy looking Offenhauser heads and dual four-barrel carbs on an Edelbrock high rise intake manifold.  For a few moments these brands transported me back to hours spent on a creeper underneath cars dreaming of building fast cars.  Those motor head days are behind me.

The chrome sparkled in the sunlight. I bought chocolate chip cookies at the bakery.

Vespa GTS scooter along the railroad tracksWaiting for Trains

If I ever hope to photograph the scooter with a train I need to coordinate schedules better.  These two tracks carry all the freight and passengers back and forth across Pennsylvania.  As I write this passage I struggle to remember how I got to this place.  I do remember a spark of excitement at the possibility of seeing a train.  My wife’s cousin was an engineer for Penn Central then Conrail and finally Norfolk Southern until his retirement.  He spent years running trains east to Philadelphia and west as far as Chicago.

I’ve still not ridden a train in the United States.  That’s a sin.

Vespa GTS scooter and the Allegheny PlateauLeaving the Allegheny Plateau

The morning evaporated during a long, meandering ride through three counties and across the ridge and valley region and onto the Allegheny Plateau.  As I stood along the road making this picture I felt an odd satisfaction knowing the Vespa had transported me to this point all the way from the horizon.  By the time I would return home the scooter and I would ride another 120 miles.

Vespa GTS scooter and farmlandChildren of the Corn

This time of year the cornfields are beginning to soar across the wide agricultural valleys of Pennsylvania. I’m grateful to be able to so easily escape the noise and confusion of town so quickly and easily to find myself standing somewhere and look to the horizon and know there’s more of the same rural landscape.

Thinking about balance while riding usually means an eye on the clock to be home by a certain time.  Kim wants to see me.  The dogs demand my presence.  It’s an old balance.

Vespa GTS scooter with the Big Vespa sculptureThe Big Vespa

I was surprised to see the Big Vespa sculpture on a trailer on my way home.  At one point the creator, William Snyder III, was going to set it up at my house for awhile as a temporary storage site until a better location surfaced.  Will and I were in art school together.  I photograph a Vespa.  He builds monuments to them.

This one is 16 feet tall.

Arriving home, tired, sated with riding, hungry and smiling inside I’m uncertain if I’ve learned anything about balancing riding with life.

Perhaps I’m looking at it all wrong.  Maybe riding is life…

Karma and Coincidence

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Vespa GTS scooter at sunsetGrand View of the World

It’s been one year since I had a heart attack.  The road since has been a scenic tour of the countless expressions of life racing by minute by minute and a vast collection of moments that make a life.  Riding home last night from the Moto Hang I had to stop to make one more photography of my Vespa scooter against the background of a painted sky just after the sun went down.

I’ve wondered more than a few times during the past year why I keep photographing the scooter.  For a long time I told myself I needed the pictures for my blog.  But I know now there’s something else at work.  Perhaps the scooter is me, standing in the world and acknowledging time and place, creating reminders of where I’ve been and where I’m going.

There’s some karma and coincidence in play.  A year since a heart attack, a full moon approaching overhead, and here I am writing the 1000th post on Scooter in the Sticks.

There’s no way to know what tomorrow will bring but for the past year I’ve looked forward to each day, each ride, each gift that comes my way.  Riding a Vespa through the countryside brings everything into focus and leaves me breathless for the next mile.

It’s been quite a party…