Shhhh! Don’t let anybody know that I’m here, doing this, you know typing on my computer.......at home.
The past two months have been a blur of activities; a long list of chores that need to be completed before the snow and cold weather settle in for the season, somewhere in the middle of the frenzy, I had family visit me from New York, leaving very little spare time to do things that are a part of my normal routine. It wasn’t until I leaned over to fire up my computer that I realized how long that I have been away. It has been a while.
I still have quite a bit to do on my punch list, today is all about firewood and an oil change or two, we’ll see about that. I figure that if I can manage to keep a low profile, nobody will know that I am home therefore freeing up the morning to do something that I haven’t had the opportunity to do in a while, sitting idle.
We have been blessed with a perfect autumn around these parts though, I can’t believe that today is the first day of November and the temperature is expected to be around 60 degrees. I have been riding a lot, another blessing, and I have a lot to share. Looking at some of my previous posts, I still have to complete my post about the ride that I took in Idaho back in July, since then I have experienced a lot of other things of the two wheeled nature as well. There is plenty to post about, as things slow down in the coming weeks; I look forward to catching up.
A brief encounter with Captain Obvious
One quick story before I end this post, about an encounter that I had at a gas station in the middle of the night in downtown Spokane (a lot of encounters seem to occur while we refuel, don’t they?).
Friday night, two weeks ago, the company that I work for had our annual inventory. This is always a marathon day. This particular day started at 6:00 Friday morning and ended at 12:30 Saturday morning. My brain was pretty much shattered from the long day and I was in a miserable mood, frowning under my helmet as I left work, longing for my bed. I was about two blocks from the freeway on-ramp when I had to turn the fuel petcock, over to reserve. Crap! All I wanted to do was go straight home and go to bed, now I had to stop for gas.
I usually keep my helmet on when I refuel the bike, but I removed it this time so that I could take a couple of aspirin that I had stowed in my saddle bags, I needed to take something to ease the pounding in my head.
Filling the tank, I noticed a gentleman wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket and Seattle Seahawks hat (must’ve been a Mike Holmgren fan) staggering his way in my general direction. I tried my best to give him my “go away” look but he stopped anyway, staring at the bike from the other side of the fuel pump. Inevitably, he started talking to me in a slurred, drunken speech, great I just want to go home and now I have to deal with a chatterbox drunk!
“What is that an Enduro?” (Enduro? I haven’t heard that description in years)
“Uhhh, yeah you could call it that.”
I continued to give him my “I don’t want to talk to you look”, it wasn’t working, he kept talking.
He announced, “You know, I had a bike once.”
I don’t know why I continued the conversation by asking the question, maybe it’s just because somewhere deep down I have a need to talk about bikes, even if it was with an inebriated Packers-Seahawks fan at a gas station in the middle of the night.
“Oh yeah” I replied trying really hard by now to look stoic and disinterested. I had finished filling the tank and had turned the petcock back to the “on” position and was preparing to put my helmet on.
“Yeah........it was a Harley” he replied.
By this time I didn’t care, I didn’t want to talk to him in the first place, but feeding the conversation along like the glutton I was, I had to ask, “What kind?”
There was a brief pause as he thought hard about the kind of Harley he used to ride.
Then he proclaimed, “Davidson!”
I cracked up, laughing as I finished strapping the helmet and thumbing the starter I said, “Those are the best kind.”
I smiled the rest of the way home, thanks Captain Obvious!
Ride well
E.T.
Winter is Coming… and I’m Riding My Vespa
2 weeks ago
8 comments:
That's a pretty funny encounter - good thing he wasn't riding his HD at the time!
glad to see you back my friend
Thank you for the laugh. I loved your response.
I ride a Harley so it's nice to see our best and brightest are out there promoting the brand.
Funny stuff....thanks for the smile on this Sunday evening before I head off to work in the morning.
You're right, there ARE a lot of "experiences" that occur while filling the bike up.
Not that I have any room to comment but........about damn time. I check frequently to see if you have posted and am dissapointed when you have not. Get on with it man. Anyway hope to see you monday for our first ride together.
Probably a good reason why he "used" to ride, huh?
I can just see the guy drawing himself up and trying to muster some dignity before he delivers his wise answer. Too funny!
You don't hear the term "punch list" much outside of construction these days. Thank goodness I don't have to deal with those now!
Lance: Thankfully, he was hoofing it.
Rick: It's good to be back.
R.G.: He sounded rather proud of his ride.
Sarch: I rarely have conversations with strangers at the gas station when I'm driving the car or truck and when I do, they never seem as colorful.
Charlie: See you there.
Irondad: Some expressions like "Punchlist" are hard to break. I'm glad that I don't have to do real punchlists anymore either, I don't miss them.
E.T.
Today i'm going through your posts and i just landed onto this one. Wow! Captain Obvious actually gave you a smile! Its funny though since you didn't want to talk to him but you finally did and he made you laugh.
Post a Comment