Musings from “Life Is a Road” author–Daniel Meyer
Archive for May, 2008
Back, burnt, the sun was set on “deep fat fry”
May 28th
That west Texas slog was as hot as ever. Every time I take it in the day, I remember exactly why I usually run it at night.
I’m burnt all crispy and have aches in places I’d forgotten there were muscles from the VERY intense crosswinds. At one point I burned 5 gallons of fuel in under 80 miles. That’s a hell of a headwind and it wasn’t even on the nose! A night run would have saved me some fuel and a bunch of pain (I’m rubbing burn cream on my nose even now).
Tucumcari was a blast…good friends can absolutely make a weekend. I’d a revelation or two on this trip…as seems is my custom. One moment of unusual clarity was a real “WTH?” moment. More on that later…I’m not quite sure how to act on it yet.
The Blue Swallow is now carrying my books. These are friendly folks that go to all lengths to make your stay a great one. Stop by and see them!
Gas is high. Out of the big cities the roads are much less crowded. Now’s the time. Scrounge a few bucks…Grab your bike and go. It gets good mileage anyway.
Take a road trip. Get off the interstate. If it says “Business Loop” or such, take it. Why do you need your subway sandwich, gasoline, pizza, and chicken all under one massive roof stop anyway?
See the towns. Make “mom and pop” businesses your staple. It’s well worth it and you’ll learn things about this country and its people…and about yourself.
Y’all get out there and ride…get out there and live!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Tucumcari
May 21st
I’ll be in Tucumcari, New Mexico this weekend (May 23, 24, 25, 2008) for the 2nd annual VRCC Tucumcari gathering. Ground zero for this gathering is the historic Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66, although I think my motel room is actually across the street (the Blue Swallow is full). There are plenty of rooms in town though, even on Memorial Day weekend.
A weekend of riding, relaxing, food, and friends. It promisies to be a heck of an event!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
The Shadows of the Night
May 18th
I, I live among the creatures of the night
I haven’t got the will to try and fight
Against a new tomorrow
So I guess I’ll just believe it and tomorrow never comes…
-Laura Branigan “Self Control”
Saturday around noon I realized the headache and shoulder pain was tension built up from a completely fried work week.
I have just the thing for that. I told the wife, “I think I’ll go ride a bit.” and took off.
Somewhat later I remembered the Oklahoma VRCC guys were at Robber’s Cave State park this weekend so I headed up into the mountains of Oklahoma for barbeque. Ate, socialized, and around O-dark-thirty I headed home.
Well, I headed somewhere anyway.
See, the short way was broken.
Several hours ride…a two-hundred mile ride turned to 300, then 400, then 600. What an absolutely glorious night! Full moon and all alone on the back-roads of Oklahoma.
Stories were found…
One interesting road had turned to dirt 20 miles past and THEN I found the sign that said, “Pavement Ends”. It got even more interesting after that.
Eyes in the night kept me company…seen and unseen things paced my journey…met me at my stops…crept closer to me when I paused at some dark crossroads, pondering the next turn. The full moon (or so near full as to make no difference) revealed things in the night. Guardians, and ghosts…and less noble spirits were encountered. The night is my friend, but even to me it does not reveal all its secrets. Some things there threaten even me.
But that’s okay…the wounds will heal and sometimes we need a fight.
Yes, stories were found.
Ooooo boy….I needed that.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Gummit…
May 12th
And they wonder why I have little respect for our various governments and their agencies.
So, let’s talk water and droughts and knee-jerk ignorance induced overreactions.
First know this…there is NO shortage of fresh water in the world. There ARE localized shortages, but that’s just an engineering and delivery problem. Politics and government used to be about solving these problems, now they are just obstructionist. What it boils down to is that it’s all about money.
So, anyway, two years ago, we were having lower than average rainfall in our area. Since we’ve had unprecidented growth, and our leaders have not bothered to keep up with the infrastructure, we had “shortages”. What this really means is they couldn’t pump enough.
Anyway, they declared “unprecedented drought” (forgetting of course, there are people that have lived here all thier lives and know better) and instituted draconian water rationing…wierd hours for watering, penalties for “high” use, and hired a fleet of informants to drive around in the fleet of new trucks they bought for them and spy on customers.
Get the picture? What they really needed to do was pump water from up north…the pipelines/etc are in place but the water costs more and would have cut into thier profit…or they could have pumped from a series of reservoirs and pipelines planned for our growth…well, except they are a couple decades behind on the projects. Sad to get 20 years behind on a 3 year project. See, they have this “North Texas Munciple Water District” that “manages” all water and projects for all the cities in North Texas. They are to water like the mafia is to trash and vehicle towing “franchises” in the north east. The money goes in, there’s no accountability, and nothing productive comes out. Oh, and did I mention they manage the trash for the area too?
So, massive rationing and a snitch network. And now, our reward for all this? Well, seems our city did not buy enough water from the mafia water district over the last two years…so we’re getting hit with a massive rate increase. Massive as in close to 30% PLUS a retroactive $150 per household or so. See, we have to pay for the water we didn’t use as well as a higher “per 1000 gallons” rate so the NTWD makes the same or more money as they did before we cut back.
Sigh.
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
Happy Mother’s Day!
May 11th
To all you Mothers out there…well, happy Mother’s Day!
To mine, well, thanks for putting up with me. I know where some ‘O those white hairs came from…Heh…and that’s just the stuff you know about…
Love ya Mom!
CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer
The Dogs and the Bees
May 8th
Okay, it’s supposed to be “the birds and the bees”, and it’s really only 1 dog anyway so perhaps it should be “The Dog and the Bees”.
Well…so? The title is not nearly as clever as I thought it might be…
Yeah. Clever eludes me occasionally. My excuse is I spent a LOT of money yesterday. Gad.
Yesterday was a busy day. Seems last week a swarm of bees found a small crack in the trim of one of my eaves and moved in to set up housekeeping. More >