Triumphrat

tba-golfer

I live in an upper duplex, and I have a little 3' by 6' deck, where I step out for a smoke, quickly, in the winter. In warmer weather, I have a few herb and pepper plants, and a wee folding chair, and I can have a G&T and enjoy some late afternoon sun.
Just now, in the frigid cold that is Minnesota, I was out for a quick Camel Light, and could hear, a block or so away at the neighborhood ice rink, the sounds of hockey pucks being slapped into the boards, the icy skweek of skates stopping and starting.
Rink Rat hockey is what we call it. You show up, no pads or goalie, no "lifting" of the puck, just free wheeling skating, stick handling, and dipsy do. Kids from 10 years of age to coots like me.
Magic.
One little sound from a block away brings back memories of 40 years of playing.
While I finished my smoke and was flooded with all those years of hockey, my brain tripped over to thinking about the sound of my Triumph when I start it up, a vision, a sense just as real, just as foreign, just as hopeful.
We in the tundra explain our existence in terms of "How can I miss you unless you're gone." Right or wrong, that's how we deal with things. I miss my bike, the sound and feel of my bike during the long winter. I miss playing golf. Huge. And yet, standing out on my little shelf tonight, I know that at some point this summer, I'll be sitting in my chair having a nice Gin and Tonic, basking in a humid July evening, and I'll be mindful and whistful of the sound of a frozen black puck cracking against the side boards of an outdoor hockey rink. And I'll look down into my garage, and my bike will be looking back at me: "C'mon, start me up, let's go."
Good stuff.

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"And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose."
A. E. Housman

mistermellow001

That was indeed good stuff, Scott. I lived in your moment for a bit. Thanks.

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Guy

"Always be yourself... unless you suck"
~ Joss Whedon

Tbirdnz

It's all quiet in the sticks here TBA, at night all I can hear is the 'Morepork' bird, not sure of their real name, a type of owl, but it's what we call it. It calls out at night "More Pork"

Only hear it in NZ and it's very familiar and nice to hear it again when I come back home if I've been oseas.

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Ride on !

mistermellow001

Seagulls and the sound of waves take me back to the day my mother and two brothers arrived from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Oceanside, California in 1966. A friend of the family had arranged for us to stay in a cottage right on the beach. Out the door, across a little lane called the Strand (always covered in sand), and there was the beach. We did nothing that entire summer except cross the little lane and walk the beach. Our feet were caked with sand, we tried to catch little crabs on the jetty, watched the surfers, tried belly boarding, and generally just lay there on a blanket. Pulsing, hypnotic waves punctuated with the cries of seagulls, children playing and laughing, and a radio station that didn't play country music. I was retired at 11 years old for one summer.

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Guy

"Always be yourself... unless you suck"
~ Joss Whedon

Wombat

Also known as the Mopoke, or Mopoke Owl, or the Tawny Frogmouth Owl.

On the subject of Tawny, I am off to have a port.

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Bob

Click to see My Photo Album

Age is of no importance, unless you are a cheese.

Luxamor

Although it's not as pungent in the winter, we often refer to that malodorous elixir wafting up your nostrils in our farming community as - fresh country air.
Having grown up working on farms here, for some reason...it just doesn't bother me.

HiDesert

I'm convinced God gave us the changing of the season because we are fickle creatures, and would get bored with any weather if it were constant.

Those of you in places like Hawaii or San Diego must be men of better character than I.

Nice piece, TBA!

Tbird, do any of those owls carry an Ankh with them?

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I won't stop riding because you tell me about someone who died in an accident, just as I won't stop eating because someone died of e.coli.

HiDesert's ride photos

Tbirdnz

Very clever hidesert, no but it's where some of us live some of the time!


Ankh-Morpork is a fictionalcity-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brou-ha-ha on a fairly regular basis. It is home to the Unseen University, a centre of magical learning.


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Ride on !

HiDesert

I try to visit as often as possible.

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I won't stop riding because you tell me about someone who died in an accident, just as I won't stop eating because someone died of e.coli.

HiDesert's ride photos

Old Scratcher

A lot of people really miss winter, when they first move to the tropics.
We locals call it "going tropo", which is someone who's wigging out about the relentless heat. & all that.
Personally, when I want to thin my blood with a burst of cold weather, I go for a ride around the Atherton Tablelands, 50klms west of here. In June/July, they can get -5C frosts up there. & it can get quite brisk on a bike.
The best part is that when I get sick of the cold, I just have to ride back down the Gillies, to find the summery weather again.
That's the only kind of winter I'm prepared to endure anymore.
One I can end with just an hours drive .

BTW We get Tawny Frogmouth's around here too, & they make the morepork sound.
We also have Wampoo Pidgeons (very pretty) which make a wampoo sound.
& Whip Birds, which is actually a call & response from the male & the female, & is a long whistle followed by a loud report, which sounds like a whip cracking.
Our freakiest bird noise comes from the Curlew, which is a night stalker & sounds like a baby being tortured in the dark.
Now that takes me back......

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"They told me I was goin to have to work for my living, & all I wanna do is ride. I don't care where we're goin from here. So Honey you decide" Jackson Browne (the Road & The Sky)