Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Trailer Queen She Ain't... She's Also Not a Dirt Bike...

So... You're camped and Sonja your Raider remains sitting in her nest behind the cab of the truck for three days... un-unloaded... because it's freaking Raining.




Yup... raining... something on the order of 5" of that beer without the good parts falling on the roof 24/7 for two days...

And then... and THEN... and THEN... it stopped! HooYa! now I can ride... right?



Uh... Nope...

Two days later... the sun shining brightly... the breeze blowing lightly... and it's time! Right?

Nope...

*48 hours after the cessation of rainfall... and things are still a mite gooey*

It's warm... and it's dry everywhere but the ground underneath. The legs of the rig sank two inches into the ground... the tires on one side wallowed deeper into the once hardpan... now softpan... The rig (our home) starting to lean out of level like a modern wheeled tower of Pizza... uh... Pisa.

And the bike... That lovely red headed, big bootied, lusty two wheeled seductress rolled down the ramp... into the muck and mire...


She didn't roll... push... wallow far before she whispered to the wishful thinker straddling her back; "It ain't gonna happen today cowboy... it's three hundred yards to the road... and four miles to the pavement... we'd best give it another day..."

So he flipped the switch and shut down the rumbling V-twin resting in her frame and lumbered through the clinging clay...cussing... to wait for another day.

Grab Your Handles and Ride.
Brian

Friday, November 22, 2013

Well Crap... What An Escape THIS is...

So... the whole Idea is... live in a rig... so I can park the sucker where EVER the weather is Motorcycle Weather... right?

Yup... north in the summer time... south in the winter... Keep it in the wind year round...

So... Arizona sounds purty damn fine for the winter... Don't it? I mean... got out of Montana... juuuuuuust 'fore the first big blow of the winter... and then only had to work a week at NASCAR in another generally futile effort to stay ahead of the machinations of the man to suck my meager wallet dry...

and then... Just ride...

Right?

Uh Huh... Buuuuut, ya'll diiiiiiiiiint tell me 'bout that weather fella and his Murphy like inclination to pee all over a fella's careful architecting of winter riding plans!

So... camped here on the Prescott National Forest just a part of a gallon or so below a place called Camp Verde...


Been here before. Not so shabby for a place where the Rent is ZERO...

The neighbors leave a lil' to be desired on occasion...


But again... with views like these... who can truly complain?




Who? Welllllll... how 'bout me?! Ya see... take a look at that last picture... that was taken... oh, about 27 hours ago. See that big dark cloud hangin' low? Well... that sucker opened up about 24 hours ago and hasn't truly let up since.

I just stepped outside to shut off the generator... since the solar power system doesn't produce well when it only receives the liquid sunshine variety... and damn near vanished in the Arizona hard pan... that ain't quite so hard anymore after a full night and a day of rain.

Yeah... this escapin' lifestyle ain't Always what the songwriters crack it up to be. ;)

Sometimes it's a whole lot of coffee sittin' in the cold with a lap blanket, trying to sort out the outline of a new western book I'm writing... cuz I'm too cheap to buy enough propane to keep the heater runnin' all the time.

Oh yeah, almost forgot... and then, just to keep your mind active... how about finding the remains of a partially detonated IED on your last walk out from  camp... just before the deluge started???

Yup the poorly executed soda can version of an Ammonium  Nitrate Bomb... talk about questionable neighbors...


Yeah I know... Quit my Bitchin'... Instead of being trapped for a couple days inside a worn out plastic box parked in the Arizona desert... I could be back standing in the aisle of an Ace Hardware dreamin' of sunny slopes and selling plumbing parts to overweight matrons with purple hair who want to make imaginative centerpieces out of 'em for their knitting club luncheon!

... and lookin' at a 15 degree ride to get home... ;)

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

He Wants to Escape... As If That Were a Bad Thing

Roll me Away ... A song that still touches my soul... forty years later.

 ...I've been told that climbing on a bike and Riding Away is Escapism...

The lies told about Escape could fill a book... They're all based on one, single, false, accusation. "He's a Quitter." ... "He's a weakling, he's got no guts."

"You just want to escape" is a slur thrown as an accusation of weakness of character meant to humiliate the poor bastard into submission; "You're trying to escape from Your responsibilities. You only want to escape from reality, You made choices and now you're only trying to escape from the consequences..."

Well DUH! Of course he is!  Reality often sucks, and eventually, even a strong man comes to learn that Running Against the Wind is an exercise in Futility. The wind always wins.

... There are all sorts of variations. The sad thing is most people are so un-thinking they just routinely accept the propagandized slur as bad. As long as it's the party line (and it's that "party line" that's the main problem)... the actual actions of the person involved, and their motivations, are never weighed.

All that's remembered is; "He quit. I've got no use for a quitter."

Context is NEVER part of the process... The "Bunch Quitter" is simply demonized. The man who "stays the course" ... though it eats his liver and soul, is Immortalized as the hero...

... while the one who had the spleen to wave good bye and step off into the unknown to find his joy is ridiculed as the fool by those timid souls left behind...

Seriously?

A person finds themselves living in a situation that one way or another is abusive, emotionally, physically or spiritually; Of COURSE they want to escape!

If you're in a building on fire, is ESCAPE not the sensible thing? If you are in a relationship; business, personal or otherwise, that is consuming the essence of you, consuming your spirit and joy... and fighting to make it work ~ has failed, time after time ~ is ESCAPE not the reasonable action?

If you're slaving at a job that injects an aching dread into your guts, that is sucking the life out of your soul, each and every morning as you approach the front door... is ESCAPE from that servitude not the self preserving action you SHOULD TAKE?

If you are a prisoner held against your will, no matter how long it's taken for that Will to come to be, is not ESCAPE the natural, healthy goal of any Creature?

If you've made choices along the road of life, which subsequently turned out to be very, very wrong for you; not evil, not abusive, not morally wrong... simply misguided, bad judgements based on missed perceptions or the misleading, misinformation provided to you...

...if after a good long while and heavy effort to "Tough it out and make those choices work" the clarity of their wrongness for you was made un-deniable;

If after all of that came clear to you... Wouldn't it be foolish to sustain the consequences of those choices in place, simply because you once made them? Simply because others disagree? (and isn't THAT, the imposed opinions of others, generally THE problem in the first place?)

Isn't it wrong to NOT take action to infuse a light into your life, rather than ESCAPE from the consequences of those wrong decisions and START OVER?

That old cliched saying comes to mind; "If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is STOP DIGGING."

Escape. More often than not, IS the adult, honorable and Right Choice.
It's Never too late to try again...

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian

Sunday, November 17, 2013

ATGATT... Reasonable Care? or Unreasonable Fear?

Well, this rant isn't all about atgatt... It's a convoluted and fuzzy rambling about... surety and how the foolish quest for that, ruins the life that IS surely here.

There's but one thing that's for sure and for certain in this life... Death.

I am weary to the bone of all the people droning on and on and on about do this safe or that safe... BE SAFE!

Ahhhhh... I wouldn't pay a nickle for a pound of Safe... I'm weary of that anemic idea because it's all mostly baloney built on a base of unrealistic fear in the first place.

No matter how much care you take, how religiously you eat your vegetables, no matter how skilled the Doctor or how well your preacher has the ear of God... You my friend... are going to Die.

As long as I can remember I've been propagandized with the idea, in one form or another, to always turn away at risk. Avoid it like the plague. Only foolish people take risks. Risk takers are some sort of whack job.

The reality is, nothing happens without RISK. Adventure is RISK. Excitement can't happen... without RISK.

The reality is, that psychotic, trained in fear of all the things that could go wrong... is surrendering to cowardice under the color of reasonable care.

Life is a dreary and grey place... absent of RISK.

Now... listen up... I'm saying RISK... not STUPIDITY. Accepting Risk doesn't mean ignoring  common sense. It means weighing the benefits, playing the odds and having confidence in your abilities...

OF course... if you believe you can outrun that grizzly after you poke that ugly basket thief in the butt with your sharp stick... I've got my video camera warmed up and focused...

***a bit of a sideline*** just to say it... the base source of this malicious idea of "safety" is our "Leadership". The leaders of Society don't want excited, adventurous spirits taking risks. They want obedient, quiet, productive serfs laboring in safe and reasonable pursuits. (adventurous people are difficult to control) They want those laboring, fearful masses working for them... so THEY the leadership can go out and adventure, sky dive, climb mountains, TAKE RISKS and enjoy LIFE while the rest of us support them***

I've allowed too much of my life to be stolen by that never ending droning about all the dangers of this life and their avoidance; this toxin, that seat belt, red meat, safe sex, crap in the water, crap n the air, speeding, drinking, smoking, running with a fork in your hand, bucking horses, saving money, mercury fillings, genetically modified food, cancer from your cell phone, flu shots, colon cancer, calm down you'll get a heart attack... blah blah blah...

Ugh... I Vow... more people have died from the worry piled on 'em about what might could kill 'em... than from any of those multitude of options that in the end don't matter... 'cause in the end we all end up in the same place...

... The belly of a worm burping and rubbing his stomach; "Damn! That was one good Biker!"

But even worse; While you sit around waiting to die... because once all the risks are seen and avoided... there isn't a hell of a lot left to do but read a book about Somebody Foolish Going out and LIVING... while YOU wait for the worm ... LIFE passes you by.

The thing is this... take  bit of care here and there. Don't be stupid... unless stupidity wiggles your bean. If straddling your bike geared up like a science fiction warrior is what captures your imagination... do that.

If putting it in the wind bare headed and bikini clad is your thing... do that.

Just own it. Accept the consequences of your Choice... and don't judge others for theirs. (or, think you have the right to judge... or impose YOUR values)

The thing is... live while there's living to be done. Live a Class A life while you're living.

Would you rather live one GREAT 30 year movie? or... sit through the agony of 67 years of the worst, dullest, most agonizingly moronic home movies kodak ever created? Think about it...

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian



Monday, November 11, 2013

No Matter What... That Never Ending Road Keeps Stretching Out to the Horizon

Left the Montana Beet Harvest behind. Detoured in Denver for tires on the rig and a short visit and then on to Avondale to work the NASCAR race...

That ended last night. This morning I'll get Sonja Loaded for a short ride moving camp to Glendale.

The "job" stuff is done for a while... a couple of days of maintenance chores to catch up on here in Phoenix... then it's back out to the Far Country where I belong.

Back to that ribbon of highway... the wide open views that let a man's spirit expand... and the quiet camps where I can sift through the kaleidoscope spinning in my head and string the words of my next Novel together! ;)

The future is foggy... I can hear "noises" of change... but can't make out what they are. I ride with a sharp awareness and a keen sense of something in the air... It'll be what I planned - or it will be something else...

Ha ha... plans... for years and years I made one after the other... a slow learner I guess.

I always wanted a calm and quiet ride. I've come to realize that you don't usually get what you want.

"Life is what happens while you are making plans".

You have to learn to savor what you get. That's a tough lesson to learn for somebody as stubborn as "some" fellas I know. ;)

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian