Taking Stock…
I made the ride over to Nohead City, NC, for the annual fab confab… For thirty years in a row now, my cousin/brother, Nick, and I have been getting together to celebrate our birthdays… He was a career military person, so for the ones that occurred during most of that twenty-year period, we just weren’t able to make it happen; otherwise, that string would be decades longer.
His and my special days happen to fall eleven days apart, so sometime in between those two days we do the deed. Once in a while, though, we actually have a visit extend to cover both days, but this year the FCR will necessitate my departure a couple of days before his actual big day… maybe next year…
One of the constants in my mostly unscripted life is that I will be near Nick come the middle of October in any given year… Through sickness and health, ‘plenty’ and involuntary celibacy, marriage and singlehood, only duty, honor and country have ever stood in our way… (I’m humming the national anthem as I write this part. You can say ‘Amen’ here, if you’re so inclined……)
Another constant is that when aboard ALI and cruising around someplace, I’ll be pondering stuff… All kinds of stuff, and occasionally I’ll have some sort of stuff cross my thinker muscle surface that will strike me as significant. (No really, that does actually happen!)
I’ve come to understand life generally and myself in particular so much better and in so much greater depth than ever before, that I’m absolutely flabbergasted that the opportunity to do what I do has come to me… Yep, I’m a happy camper about the outcome of everything that has preceded and led to this point in time… I’m a very happy rider, too, that ALI came into my life way back yonder and made so much of this possible!
Well, as ‘our girl’ and I were cruising down some non-descript back road between here and Montgomery, AL, the other day, I began to take stock… I’ve seen so many things previously unknown to me, and things I likely would never have seen otherwise, since undertaking this thirteen-year Odyssey. I’ve also learned many lessons along the way, and I’ve had many habits altered and ‘beliefs’ modified… I began to list some of them on an imaginary sheet of paper in my contemplator chamber…
‘Prairie dog fishing’ is easily one of those activities that would never have occurred to me as something that actually exists, let alone an item that might be worthy of discussion. I’ve written about this ‘sport’ in another post, but I do think I should give an additional nod to TJ, our west Texas friend and riding legend, for raising our awareness of a topic about which most of the nation has heretofore been totally oblivious…
I learned of that Texas pastime while at the reception following the recent wedding of our good friend JP, aka uncle Jerry, Jerry, and Hard6. I also learned a couple of other things at that recent venture down to ‘Acadiana’ (the Cajun region of southwestern Louisiana). Yup, there were indeed other revelations encountered that evening… naturally, alcohol was involved.
Soaking drawers in a motel coffee pot is something, I assure you, that never occurred to this otherwise fairly experienced road warrior. Our good friend from the burbs of the motor city, Gig, filled us in in response to an interrogatory about one of his other past-practices: The burning of his drawers publicly at Valk gatherings.
See, at another gathering a year or two ago, Gig had hoisted a pair of his dirty briefs upon a stick and set them alight… He then paraded around some, making a visual statement, a protest of sorts, that no guest laundry facility was available at that particular motel. Frankly, I do prefer this form of protest to kneeling during the national anthem. Anyway…
When asked if he intended to do that again, he said he’d found a better way forward… Now he soaks his tidy-whities in the motel room coffee pot! The pot is just the right size, he claimed, and the hot water facilitated and enhanced the cleaning process. Frankly, I’m neither jubilant nor particularly receptive to gaining this new information… I’m not sure I can ever look at a coffee pot in the same way ever again… And, so far, I haven’t made coffee in a room since…
Yet another important lesson unfolded before my very eyes and struck me rather hard during this same foray… The risk of matrimony still exists even as we age… Our bud, JP, is a few months my junior, but there he was, right up front for all the world to see… exchanging vows, tying the proverbial knot, having the proverbial ring inserted into his nose, and otherwise surrendering his autonomy and freedom…
It was sad indeed for this committed bachelor to witness, but he seemed OK with all that; so, who am I to say he shouldn’t have… For most folks this is a good solution to many of life’s most daunting challenges… I just don’t happen to be one of those… fortunately for me, and most likely for all of womanhood, as well!
Since my arrival in Nohead City, in the land where bathroom selection based upon gender sign markings is still a hotly contested issue, I’ve been reintroduced to yellow grits. I know I’ve tried them before and I encountered no adverse reactions or unfavorable taste responses, but I could not remember just how they were.
Well, Nick’s new squeeze and very good friend has been turning Nick onto that variation of such an iconic staple, and he has become a convert to them… at least for as long as he and his newest flame remain a couple… Given his track record, that could be anywhere from all night to forever and ever… No way to know, of course, so I assume forever and go from there…
Anyway, yellow grits, to this stalwart believer in the power of this entirely worthwhile basic food group at least, display no detectable difference between them and the more usual white grits. If there is a difference, it would take a more sophisticated palate and set of taste buds than I apparently possess to detect it… Hmmm, I did mix most of my serving of them with my fried eggs… Perhaps I unintentionally spoiled the sampling, but…
Examples of other lessons learned on my various rides include the sad fact pooperosity levels increase both in frequency and intensity with advancing age. Yep, I was chatting with a much younger riding acquaintance not so long ago, and I happened to mention that very thing, more in passing and lamentation than anything else, but he apparently took it as a sign of ignorance, I reckon. Anyway, he responded, as if he were offering some sage advice to a newbie, that he took care of that before he left in the mornings on a ride… Really?
WOW! What a stroke of brilliance! Why in the world haven’t I thought of that before? I didn’t let on like that was my true reaction, of course… Nope, I just added that I used to do that, too. And, that in another twenty or thirty years he’d know all about the point I was making…
Practice does not always lead to perfection. Nosiree, not in all cases, anyway. I’m constantly having to revise and modify my pick-up lines with the ladies. Sometimes they work, while most other times they fail miserably. No way to know, either, which way that will go until it’s usually too late to make any meaningful adjustments or corrections. Still, I press on… maybe someday…
Contrary to commonly held belief down in dear old Dixie, Yankees are trainable… well, sometimes. I’ve had varying, albeit quite modest, success myself, but I am observing a most positive trend in the availability of sweet tea and grits as the boundaries for their presence continue to expand outward!
Good news and good stuff are not strictly limited to a particular location by custom, and as the many virtues and wonders of those miraculous items continue to be better understood and tried, I’m thinking… well, perhaps not in my lifetime, but someday one will be able find those anywhere throughout our vast continent!
Since my parents have both passed some time ago, I soon afterward began to not clean my plate at meals. Nope, I’ve made the very practical, and selfish if you insist, decision to stop eating once my appetite has been sated.
I’d long ago observed that the folks in my extended family who seemed to have the most and most severe health issues later in life were the ones who’d allowed themselves to get heavy. I’d also learned through personal experience that it is far easier for me to keep weight off in the first place than it is to take it off once my clothes have gone up a couple of sizes. I’m happy to report that I can find no evidence to indicate any increase in the ill effects upon starving children in other parts of the world because of my actions…
Of course, these examples are not all of the things I’ve picked up on over the years, but they are a few I wanted to share with the rest of you… I’m going to continue to work on self-improvement going forward, and who knows… perhaps I’ll have some more good news for y’all down the road someplace…
DDT
