Zuihitsu

[the mingo]

I have three pumpkins here in a stack being tickled by the sun they are dancing and making a sound like a ticking clock - I know what I'd do if I had some money - I'd buy a recumbent trike and see if I could pedal my ass to the mountains of North Carolina before the next snowstorm hit -

someone is singing 'bout ladies dressed in white
but I can't answer the call, got shit to straighten up,
a door that needs closing,
and a cat to locate -
things like this
eat up the day

You watch, it's way below freezing now but the temps will get up to the high 30's or low 40's and it will rain before I can get my wood under cover - I ain't shitting, that's exactly how it will go -

[sasha]

can't ride my bike - trying to be satisfied with watching bike porn on Youtube - the fuck -
February, the crazy month - crazy snow crazy cold crazy in-the-house-too-much

Meant to reply to this when you 1st posted it, but didn't. Now I am. Bike porn shot right here in Fitzwilliam NH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1-uE2HKClk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PghYTuoOKVg

The 2nd vid goes right by my house (not visible, but Mr Dog & I hike there often)

This guy hikes, not bikes, but talks a bit about the history, and has a cool dog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Jcr1pI_OE

[the mingo]

Wow, Sasha, thank you very much for such an excellent dose of prime bike porn - fucking righteous shit! Almost blew my February blues away - those vids gave me a righteous bike stiffie - always wanted to move to Vermont but maybe it should be New Hampshire - Damn ! there are some rail trails here in the Great State of Yew Nork but they are far off from me - I love bike trails - eliminates traffic altogether - thank you twice for the vids

[sasha]

Happy to oblige. I took this photo at the same spot shown at 4:37-4:45 in the 2nd video (Fitz Depot to state line). It's not as inviting as it was in the video - looks kind of like this now, too.
 

 
For more porn, any of the bike videos YT recommends with the keywords Cheshire, Monadnock, Ashuelot, Peterboro, Keene, were filmed around here - I've hiked most of them.

[still.trucking]

I wish I had a helmet camera I could have posted one for you
in a thousand words or less a picture
I was making good time hammer down the interstate
when I cam upon a drunk on a bicycle . . .

what was it Santayana said about the chastity of the intellect? I been drinking and riding,
take it easy
just don't take much to thrill old men

[the mingo]

For more porn, any of the bike videos YT recommends with the keywords Cheshire, Monadnock, Ashuelot, Peterboro, Keene, were filmed around here - I've hiked most of them.

Checked most of them out, Thx, Sasha - enjoyed them all - you're lucky even if you don't ride a bike to have trails like this in your vicinity. Man, I would be having a ball.

[the mingo]

I was making good time hammer down the interstate
when I came upon a drunk on a bicycle . . .

I've never ridden a bike drunk, maintaining your balance must be wild

[the mingo]

Anyways, I was told it would be 60 degrees today - s-h-i-t my ass - 46 degrees is all it made and it's foggy as hell - can't even see the tops of the telephone poles but it ain't stopping me - I'm ready - my bike is ready - got all my blink-blink lights going - my headlight like a samurai sword for cutting thru the shit -
I'm a long gone Daddy in the USA -

[stilltrucking]

it is a struggle to get to ride two days a week on a good week
I got three days last week
weather good it is a sin not to be ridding when I can

I don't get drunk, just high, One minature and I am good
proverbs 31:6
I am perishable these days

[the mingo]

it is a struggle to get to ride two days a week on a good week

got a ride in today even with the rain and fog - longest time I been out since winter began back in November - still have about 3 feet of snow and it was strange riding through it with the fog so thick on everything - it was a slow roll - passed thru the village south to north - took a turn through the village graveyard - then past where the depot used to be - funny thing a rail car on the siding there from a long defunct circus -

ghost performers
ghost elephants
ghost summers

river flooding with melt water
hearing the water beneath the snow
running running
away

Then back to camp and all the things I didn't do because I took a bike ride waiting for me ...

[stilltrucking]

all watched over by mighty mamals of love and grace
had the time today
but I did not have in me to ride today
my health not up to a cold damp cloudy day

I will ride a bicycle when i am buzzed
but I would not dare to drive a car in that condition
or fly a broom

waiting for baby sister to come over and bring me a broom,
so I can run some errands and come back and taste that Texas made vodka I got.
Life will be good then
because I got good cigar to smoke with my vodka and orange

[the mingo]

the title of
this poem is
" Naked Man Makes Coffee "

... I'll write about anything in any way - advice to myself: Stay clean, Pookie.

I have a book of haiku on the windowsill here. Don't know how long it has occupied that spot, a long time I think - sometimes as I head to the bathroom I grab it for reading material. I place it back in its spot when I return.
The haiku I read this morning is:

Dead my old fine hopes
and dry my dreaming but still,
iris, blue each spring
- - - - - - - Shushiki

This morning I notice the front of the dust jacket is faded from laying in the sun. The book was given me by a woman long ago.

Signs of spring come to tease this week. Temps in the high forties. Ice broke up on the river, things melting underneath. Rain instead of snow but I won't listen to any of it. It's February. I've been out on my bike a couple of times but the wind on my face is still cold coming from the north.

[sasha]

Foggy days are great opportunities for photography - the background fades away mysteriously into the mist, leaving foreground objects without context, revealing them only as they are and nothing else. I love foggy days.

I often drive by a marsh down in Royalston MA in which a lone clump of trees rises up out of the middle, and it has often struck me that it might make for an interesting picture on a foggy day. Tuesday was one such, so I ventured out along the road to the place, a road now soft and mucky and punishingly rutted. Even at 10 mph, I was afraid of jarring my fillings loose.

But I got too late a start, and the fog had lifted by the time I got there. I drove around a little, searching out the few lingering low-hanging clouds, but the shoot was, for the most part, a bust.

Yesterday started out even murkier, so as soon as Kane & I returned from our morning walk, we headed back out, without even stopping for breakfast and coffee. I grabbed the camera bag, tossed it into the car, and returned. The scene was just as I'd envisioned it. I'd have to bushwhack through about 100 feet of woods to get the edge of the marsh, but the warm spell has melted most of the snow and ice, so this would not pose a problem.

What did was that, except for a 50mm lens and other small accessories, the bag was empty. The camera itself was still tethered by a USB cable to my computer, 5 miles away along this miserable road which I had no desire to traverse 3 more times. I uttered an indelicacy best not repeated, and repeated it numerous times in self-flagellation.

We took a roundabout route back home (along paved roads) that passed by magnificent photo opportunities. I was, shall we say, sorely vexed.

Here are the results of some earlier shoots..... viewtopic.php?f=152&t=31514#p202722

[the mingo]

Thx, sasha - enjoyed

[the mingo]

Left the dishes in the sink last night - surprise, they were still there this morning. I'll get them done then go for a bike ride. It's just above freezing out there but I'm tired of waiting - watched too many bike vids on YouTube and I'm done waiting - gonna grab that "free bike" I picked up late last autumn & go for a roll - for a bike that was cheap when it was brand new and the fact that the gearing is completely wrong for a bike billed as a mountain bike it's not bad - everything works well, it has decent Shimano derailers on it and new (cheap) tires - I don't think it was ridden too much, probably some at first and then ended up sitting in a cellar or garage for decades - it could do with a better seat but is not as bad as some I've sat on. Thing that needs attention on it is the wheels, they have some semi-serious rust. I'll go at that when the weather warms -

fog is so thick right now
I can't see the top
of the hill

hell, I can't see
any sky