Slablog

Yeah,well,at 62 I gotta say I don’t see a whole hell of a lot to be “Happy”about being 62 years old. The first 15 years of my life…my childhood,if you will…seemed to take an eternity. The memories of those 15 years could fill a rather good sized book. The last 15 years,adversely,have gone by in the blink of one of my eyes. Those first 15 years ended gloriously in January of 1966. A few months prior to that I acquired my first motorcycle. It was a 1965 Honda 50 Sport like the one below,only white. Or maybe it was a 90. Like Reagan famously said,“I can’t recall.”

It took me places I could never go on foot and it was that little bike that made me fall in love forever with the open road and the wind blowing in my face. It lasted for a while before I wanted a bigger one,and I bequeathed it to my little brother for his paper route. I moved on to a 2 stroke Suzuki 150,and proceeded to burn up that engine,not once,but twice. After the second time,my Dad refused to help me pay for a new engine,so it was sold as scrap so my unemployed Dad could pay the electric bill sometime in 1967 or 68. Once again I invoke the “I don’t recall.”amendment.

Several bikes have come and gone since then. Several years have passed as well.

Today I sit here clicking away on my little laptop keyboard,hoping this birthday ends happily,as everyone wishes,and contemplating tearing out my kitchen lower cabinets and counter top. It’s not a big job,but I don’t think I can do it alone. I could if I wasn’t 62! Ha! But I’m not whining or complaining,mind you. The alternative to getting older is well,I don’t want to mention it but it requires that I would have to be fitted with that old dirt shirt. So,in that regard I AM happy to be 62. Time marches on,and I think it is the only thing that gets faster as one moves along the road of life.

My current motorcycle rests patiently in the garage,newly bedecked with a really nice $235 tank bag which I can’t wait to try out on a tour soon. Yes,Little Chubb,sets in the garage with almost a full tank of gas,fully charged battery,more than “slightly worn”tires,and most of the bugs and crud washed off her from the last little jaunt. She is soon to be rolled into the basement farting room and dismantled to a certain point so I can do the painstaking task of checking and adjusting the valve lash on the two cylinders. Yes,I have almost 24,000 miles on the little girl.

Okay,that’s enough for today. I’ll proceed now to see if I can make my 62nd year on this planet a productive one.