This is for William... cuz he like excavators.

HI Little guy... I know you can't read yet, maybe another month, but when I was out riding my motorbike I came across the huge machines, on the brakes and out with the camera.

What are they?

Maybe pretty soon we can visit at my place, I even have a bed now for a young man like yourself!

You know you're getting old when...

                                                                                                     

 You can feel it when you push around the C 70.

A twin seems like a lot.

Changing the knobby on your dirt bike takes all day.

You can use two liter oil containers as part of your fitness routine.

or... twin containers of chocolate muffins.

If you're feeling really energetic, put muffins in the containers.

If you feel really energetic, washing your bike is on option.

A long ride is from the Island to Moncton. ..and you wished the ferry still ran.

Your trail bike falls over and you wonder if you can still manage to get it up.

You find the keys to the house, that you lost yesterday.

Once you have your keys, you can't remember where you live.

When you have more than 2 dozen cylinders but can't remember what they were.

After moving through the ranks of your many bikes, of the five registered... five are under 300 cc!

You see a fox or a deer and say "Awe"

You don't know if you loved the good old days, but you can't remember what they were.

After a dozen laps on your grass track, you have to sleep 12 hours.

You sleep more than your awake.

The "TON" is now only 100 km per hour.

You go for a walk in your woods, and can't find you way back.

You've gotten over your fear of dogs you got at age 4.

People you sold bikes to when in your twenties, now call you "pop."

Instead of Paris to Dakar, it's long enough to get to Toronto.  That's Toronto PEI !

The "TON" is only a hundred "k"

You find you're repeating yourself.

Keep on truckin' ... you only live once :) 

   

Friends

I was outdoors this afternoon, enjoying some cool weather (just kidding, I'd rather it was warm) when good friend Chris Smith came round.  I was in my garage doing some minor maintenance and planning how I am going to spend my summer beginning with catching up on finding some way to get the best of whatever Summer we have and how I will deal with my two cats both of which are approaching middle age, them not I.

Willy, of course is like the million $$ cat, he was adopted from the Charlottetown Humane Society shortly after our move to the Island.  His timing was spectacular, we met the day before his "execution".

Luck? or Fate? Don't know, don't care.  I only had one cat prior to the cross Canada drive.  That was Phx, a kitten that made himself at home on one of my then frequents trips to Arizona, while I lived west.

After Willy we adopted Abby, a older female than desperately needed a new home. Since then, we've had some come and go but currently there is Willy, still kicking even those he has a myriad of medical issues (hence the $$ cat) and Coco a starving adult hiding under the tarp covering my Honda Ascot some years back.  Whether deliberate or accidental (not likely) she was in desperate shape, starving, fearful, and as I found out some time later, she has brain damage likely caused by a kick to the head (her jaw had been broken at some point) 

A more gentle kitty you'd be hard pressed to find... maybe Abby?

While working on the bike and tending to the pusses... I hear the sound of a well muffled four stroke single puttering into the drive.  I was pretty sure it was a Honda 300 because I have one.  Sure enough, even though weather was coolish, good friend Chris Smith, had rolled in on his wife's bike.  I've watched over both him and her as they began their motorcycle careers. 

If I had a pair of students, working on the art of riding and staying alive, I could use the two of them as poster children!

How do I know?  Well I was a Chief Instructor for a very long time. 

Chris reminds me of myself somewhat, he is a fine expert guitarist while I am strum a pretty dang good air guitar!  

With the restrictions across the country and in fact globally, imposed by the Corona virus, there hasn't been much socializing.  Taking a half hour off to "talk" bike was a well accepted break from my normal bleak days while keeping my distance. 

After Chris's departure, I hooked the booster cable up to the Triumph Thunderbird... it fired up after a few revolutions.  Unfortunately despite my efforts to trickle charge it through the winter, the newly purchased (last year May)  battery wouldn't hold a charge.  Until things are normal here, I deal with the battery replacement when it happens.