When I was.....

[birddogvet]

a kid in my twenties, I longed for the biker lifestyle. Easy Rider Magazine had just come out and looking at the pictures and reading the stories seemed like only something to be dreamed about.
Being brought up by a single mom in the sixties did not lend itself to the guy things that boys are typically shown under the hood. Any tools in the house were what was available in the kitchen drawer.

When the time came, all my saved money went towards the only bike I could afford, a new Triumph 250 all purpose bike. A kid down the hall took pity on me and got me on the road enough to pass my license exam. I wanted to know all there was involved in maintaining the bike.

A couple of years later with money saved a decision had to be made. Either buy another bike or learn how to fix the one I had. I went to motorcycle mechanics school during the summer. The theory came easy. The real stuff not so much. "Put more torque on that wrench," he said. "I don't want to break it," I thought.

A couple of bikes, a long break to raise a family, and decades later, I am back on a bike. Now an old man, what keeps me going is the dream of the super trip, months of heading south, on a dual purpose bike. Just when obligations and financial obligations are met, Mr. Health rears his ugly head.

Most of us guys get to know our prostate at one time or another. Sometimes in the most unpleasant of ways. The damn thing can get so big that that it blocks off the bladder so that it backs up the kidneys. Who knew? Not good. So, a tube called a catheter is inserted to relieve the pressure until surgery. Most unpleasant. Three weeks without riding is torture when bike and weather beckon. So this one time, no ATTGATT 'cept for a helmet, I saddle up packing with the bag drained. I go for a ride, a short ride.

I never did achieve that bike lifestyle, so dreamed about from the magazine. However, some of that craziness from the magazine might have been contagious. Maybe, maybe not.
Now am I loco enough to actually post this??