Triumphrat

Joemomma

After losing another of my friends in the same age bracket as I am this past week, I am struck with the realization that I must have somehow hit "that age"...the age where you feel you are still way too young to die, yet those around you, your contemporaries, continue to pass on. Which means, I guess, at any time now I could next. A few have lived their lives a little harder and a little closer to the edge, perhaps, but we always bounced back before, didn't we? It's sobering, and somehow makes quibbling over the little things in life that one cannot hope to change somehow less amusing.

I'm glad that I had 5 or 6 hours on the S-3 today despite the gray weather. Not the best ride of the year, but maybe the most important.

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insert clever saying here...

Nickwiz

Hmmm you only have one life huh? Makes all the angst and aggro over politics and the other stuff seem pointless really. we'd all do well to remember that I think.

iceman

..... too true - a school friend of mine dropped dead from a massive heart attack at age 43 - about 7 years ago.

That was the catalyst for me to get a bike - after about 20 years without one. I suddenly realised mortality and theres no point putting off for tomorrow what you should be doing today.

Sorry to hear about your friend.

Grant

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http://www.triumphrat.net/photogalle...790/album1051/

mozart

It may seem stupid, but every near miss I have with the bike makes me appreciate the time I have left that much more. Living a little close to the edge makes life seem a little sharper. Not that I'm in any hurry to go.
My friends that live so much more safe and sane don't seem to live any longer or better.
Blue

Catenaccio

I had a heart attack three years ago (in a few months) and it fundamentally changed my outlook on life: sharpened my senses to things around me, made me change my priorities, increased my awareness of important relationships, and helped me appreciate the things I like to do all the more. Family is main priority, but I leave time and resources for activities I love to do. Motorcycling rose to near the top. Photography is becoming a way to capture reality and then bend it a bit. Walking, exercise, and healthy living are now more important than ever. I retired early to make sure I have time to do what I want to do (w/in the limitations of She Who Must Still Be Obeyed). Strangely, having survived what might have killed me has liberated me.

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I like to reminisce with people I don't know.

welshrob

I`m not worried, I plan to live for ever. So far so good...

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"An unarmed man can only flee from evil and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."

roadscum

The sad truth is that we are just mortal men and women and can leave here, without notice, at any time.

According to Billy Joel in his song Viriginia, I'll be here for a long long time to come as...... "ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG"!

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"One of the things that make motorcycling so great because it never fails to give you a feeling of freedom and adventure." - Steve McQueen

davids

I can sympathise with the sentiments. In the last 16 months I've gone to 3 funerals, 2 friends and I uncle in law & only 1 wedding. Yesterday I gave the eulogy for a friend I first met in 1983......sobering, and yes I've had a 'warning' too so I value my time with my wife (she told me to say!)

I now realise that ..today is the tomorrow you promised yourself yesterday... & I'm planning to actually do all the things I promised I would eg visit Australia (esp Phillip Island) & New Zealand & see the Lions beat 'em both at Rugby (might have a wait there...), ride around the coastline of Britain, fly in a glider, ride a bike down the big sur in california, and to hang on until I get some grandchildren from my daughters.....do what you plan & live for now before its too late. life's not a rehearsal.

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Is this a rhetorical question....

Normandy

The reality of life is that no one gets out alive and there is nothing to remind you of that fact more than a near death experience. Your priorities in life will change to accomodate that fact as you age and come to accept your mortality. This discovery will make you happier and more accepting of the world around you.

wheat state

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"I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people."

John Lennon