playing in the dirt

[robinmckinley]

 
Still only about a third of a person today, I fear.  Fortunately I didn’t have to do anything today, like ring bells or make bread or have a root canal,* so I could dodder along without feeling forced to notice that ‘dodder’ is a very good choice of verb.

I did manage to get out into the garden at least.  It’s not only not raining **,

Comments

er...Bike Leathers?

[ajl_r]

"I’ve actually ridden a Vincent, and it was like having your bum beaten by a slow thoughtful mallet. I think it had only one piston, it was vertically mounted, and it took its time."

I take it you weren't dressed like this - http://www.motorcycledaily.com/15october02vincentmotors.html ?

My (younger) brother is a long-time biker - latest was a Moto Guzzi Mille GT. Very comfortable, it was. :)

Re: er...Bike Leathers?

[robinmckinley]

Oh, gosh! Nostalgia! I was a biker in my youth--that's when I met the Vincent--okay, I guess it was a twin. But the ohter piston was pointing in the other direction. It was some kind of pre-war, I remember, because it had been packed in grease for the last x decades, and the fellow who owned it had actually put it together for the first time, because it was supposed to be a messenger bike and too few of them got shot or something and they never used this one.

Re: er...Bike Leathers?

[ajl_r]

"Nostalgia! I was a biker in my youth--that's when I met the Vincent--okay, I guess it was a twin. But the ohter piston was pointing in the other direction."

Ah, an early 'boxer' engine perhaps, if they were back-to-back rather than just slanting slightly differently? My car for several years in the '80s was a much beloved Alpha Romeo - a Green Cloverleaf 'Sud' - and that had a boxer engine too. A lovely sound and an absolute pleasure to drive.

If you ever feel strong enough to wrest yourself from the hellhounds for a day and feel like wallowing in nostalgia, the National Motorcycle Museum on the outskirts of Birmingham is well worth a visit. They've got some amazing machines there and one can almost feel the love with which they're all tended.

Btw, have you seen 'The World's Fastest Indian', 2005, with Anthony Hopkins? Fascinating, and I found it such a feel-good film. :)

Re: er...Bike Leathers?

[robinmckinley]

No, but Hopkins is--almost--always watchable. I'm not a Lector fan.

[vikkik]

**‡ And a small dented CD player with Richard Thompson still on it. Someone asked me here what my favourite Thompson song is, and I said, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, isn’t it everyone’s? and she wrote back and said she preferred Cold Kisses. Which is a very good song, but to me it’s just another broken love affair song. I don’t see how anyone can resist a lyric like

[robinmckinley]

And the vehicular theme: MGB GT :)

[southdowner]

Glad you had a day to dodder along. (I'm not even going to tell you about early nights - you know, Peter reads this, and anyway, don't do what I do, do what I say... LOL)

*** For accuracy I look for ten cows in a field. You know the ten cows in a field weather-prediction system, don’t you? ***

I love folkloric sayings. It must be a different saying north of the border tho, 'cause last time I was in Scotland those shaggy Highland cattle were stubbornly standing like mohair tents in the rain - very WET mohair tents!

[livvispatula]

* I know! Let’s have that joke about going to bed early again!

Why is it that the tireder you are, the less likely you are to go to bed on time?

[robinmckinley]

Indeed.

[anonymous]

When I was a kid in Massachusetts, cows were regularly cited as weather forecasters: "The cows are lying down, it's going to rain." Your percentages add an increased level of sophistication to this obviously universal perception.

We won't be thinking about digging in the garden (as opposed to chopping stuff down) until the end of the month at least. I am so ready. I am going home by way of Maryland and will probably see green stuff there . . . that almost makes a winter full of mud worthwhile. Glad you were able to get your hands dirty and enjoy it.

Diane in MN