Young again or a silly old man?

As you can see, I've met a beautiful lady.

Bridget is sweetness personified.  My grumpy old man personality and her young and happy-go-lucky personality seem to match well.  We spent Thanksgiving week 2011 in Madrid.  Saw some museums and walked around the central city some.

We did spend a large amount of time talking.

We got on so well that we are planning for future visits - her here and me to Gran Canaria where she's lived for the past 25-ish years.

We both believe that destiny smiled on us and serendipity happened the day we first exchanged emails. 

Why I bought a bike

These two pictures sum up - at least in my mind - why I bought a motorcycle.

 

Out in the Hill Country west of San Antonio - on Ranch Road 337 - a big right hand (from that direction, east to west) sweeper of a corner.

I'm going back again on Sunday.  Yes, it's that addicting of a road.  

Tight corners at 15 MPH.  Big sweepers at 45.  And I 'spose were I a young-gun I'd be a crotch rocketeer and make the 15 MPH corners into 30's and the big sweepers into 70's.

But as you can see from the bike - a Suzuki C50 Boulevard cruiser style - I'm a little more laid back in my doddering old age.

So, while I can I will.  For someday - hopefully in the far distant future - there will come a day when I can't.

But for now, it's joy unleashed.

All Alone

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of True Romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

—	Hunter S. Thompson

There's no courage in suicide

So... August 29, 2011

Ricky stuck his service pistol - a .40 caliber - into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Selfish bastard.

Family. Girlfriend.  Regular friends.  Co-workers.  All lost out when Ricky pulled the trigger.

We'll never know what caused that action - no note.  But it had to be something pretty bad that he'd rather cause the pain to his family and friends instead of facing the problem head on.

His Hispanic machismo culture - the Marines - his job - all ultimately contributed to his action.  These exterior pressures made him believe - enough to pull the trigger - that there were zero alternatives. 

But for me it means that there's no more photo-buddy trips.  No more yelling at the TV when a sports team is on.  No more beers together.  No more honest, good and deep friendship.

Selfish.  Fucking.  Bastard.

Motorcycles & Courage

As I write this I'm 60 years, 9 months, 4 days old.


Most folks might think that I should know better.


But about six weeks ago I went and purchased a new motorcycle.


A Suzuki C50SE Boulevard.  That's a 50 cubic inch - 805 cc - cruiser style bike.

 This picture is from my first ride - to the iconic wide spot in the road - Luckenbach Texas.


I am adding a significant amount of aftermarket accessories to make the bike into exactly what I want in a motorcycle.


In a later post I'll provide details and pictures once the process is complete.


Suffice to say for now that buying the bike correlates closely with my first post about courage. 


I'm not ready to go easily from this earthly plane and while I'm here and physically capable I'm gonna go have some fun - and riding a motorcycle is - for me - lots and lots of fun.


The point of this blog is to provide a spot to share adventures and thoughts.  Plans and foibles.  The major successes and the lesser.  Document serendipity.  Comment on man's fate - La Condition Humaine.

So check in from time to time as this blog begins its journey documenting all that and more.

Courage

ABOUT COURAGE... (some excerpts from COURAGE... The Joy of Living Dangerously by OSHO)

The word courage comes from the latin root cor, which means heart,so courageous means to live with the heart. The way of the heart is the way of courage.

It is to live in insecurity; it is to live in love, and trust; it is to move in the unknown. It is leaving the past and allowing the future to be.

Courage is to move on dangerous paths. Life is dangerous, and only cowards can avoid the danger--but then, they are already dead.

A person who is alive, really alive, vitally alive, will always move into the unknown. There is danger there, but he will take the risk.

The heart is always ready to the risk, the heart is a gambler. The head is a businessman. The head always calculates--it is cunning. The heart is non calculating.  What is your mind?  It is all that you have known.  It is the past, the dead, that which has gone. Mind is nothing but the accumulated past, the memory.

Heart is the future; heart is always the hope, heart is always somewhere in the future.  Head thinks about the past and heart dreams about the future.  To accept the challenge of the unknown in spite of all fears...is courage.

The fears are there, but if you go on accepting the challenge again and again, slowly those fears disappear. The experience of the joy that is the unknown brings, the great ecstasy that starts happening with the unknown, makes you strong enough, gives you a certain integrity, makes your intelligence sharp.  For the first time you start feeling that life is not just days of boredom, but an adventure. Then slowly slowly fears disappear; then you are always seeking and search for some adventure.

But basically courage is risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar, the comfortable for the uncomfortable, arduous pilgrimage to some unknown destination.
One never knows whether one will be able to make it or not. It is gambling, but only the gamblers know what life is.