The Mild Bunch

 

When I got my 1st bike I was 19 and read Playboy and Easy Rider Magazine

My new bike, it’s the Triumph on the right, and now I read AARP. Go Figure.

A few weeks back a friend of mine went out to go fishing. It was a beautiful day and the water was like glass. The next day they found his boat washed up on shore and no trace of him has yet to be found. There is something empty about that, no way to put an end to it and God only knows when there will be. I drove over to his house to make sure there was some truth to it, maybe not his boat and all that, but it was. Sometimes truth really sucks.

When I got home I started thinking about being a lot more cautious in my own life. No more dumb risk taking and so on. It was during that moment of rational thought it occurred to me that everything in my life was safe and insulated. I had long ago given up skiing, far to easy to break something, I gave up flying, way to claustrophobic. I gave up being a firefighter, someone could get hurt in all that smoke and so on. And finally I gave up my love for motorcycles; all the articles said guys my age get killed on those damned things.

Now I go to the doctor all the time to make sure my diet is good and my heart is working. I visit my dentist and make sure all my affairs are in order. I thought I had it covered. After all 50 is the new 30 or 40. Enjoy your life and don’t let age be an issue.

A friend got a new Bike the other day, it is the biggest bike I have ever seen, this thing could pull an Amtrak Train. I remember saying you need to be really careful and even quoted some things that I had read about older dudes being at risk on these things. When he asked if I still had a bike I assured him I was well beyond that level of crazy, after all people depended on me.

Between both of these events, it occurred to me I was no longer someone who my friends would know. I had become everything I found so vanilla about the older generation. I had given up my true passion for motorcycles and replaced it with an unhealthy fear of them. I had become afraid of the things I loved and replaced them with reality TV, man that sucks.

So in spite of all the rational thoughts in my brain I bough a new bike, it is hopefully a step to getting back a bit of risk in my life, But hey, I have a helmet and will avoid areas of trouble and be cautious, at least till I get this thing all figured out.

So now when I am riding and freezing my smile off, I want to say, “Thanks Robin, this ride is for you my friend.”