The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

(...)

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 3rd, 2015, 12:47 pm

Night ride last night - moon, stars, road clear, & a bit on the cool side - I wore a long sleeve shirt.

a traveler carries
what will make him
ready for the road

I saw two deer crossing a large field at a run. In the moonlight & at speed they move like some form of fur covered water creatures. I stopped to watch their run - in the light of the moon they looked as if they almost were not there but an afterthought of my eyes.

I don't like riding the state highways. Too much traffic traveling too fast, even at night though it's quieter then. I head for the nearest country road as soon as I leave the longhouse and there are plenty of these around here. I hung a right at the first road to T-bone with the state road. Almost immediately, at the bottom of a hill, a steel deck bridge crosses the river there. Have to be careful how you come on to this bridge riding a bike - you have to hit it straight on - no angles or you & your bike will go horizontal real quick. I usually stop on this bridge anyway to listen to the water in the river. You can look down through the open deckwork & see the river passing beneath your feet. The trees of the forest crowd close along the banks of the river - they make a sonic canyon of sorts and hold the sound of the river in. The sound of the river there holds me in also as I listen.

Beyond the river the road rises in steps as it passes into the forest. Then the view opens up with wide fields to either side - the land here has been farmed for generations and it's still going on though much reduced from former times.
In the moonlight all this appears no different than a dream.

moonlit fields
eyes of forest creatures, silent,
watch the single rider pass by
_________________________________________________________
With every pilgrimage one encounters the temporality of life. To die along the road is destiny. Or so I told myself. The Narrow Road to the Interior - Basho
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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WIREMAN
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by WIREMAN » July 3rd, 2015, 7:54 pm

bikin basho style
watchin the river flow
i feel the turn of
existence as the tires
roll and the mysterious
white tails glide by..... 8)
me I feel like I'm becoming some kinda Kung fu t.v. Priest.....

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 4th, 2015, 11:18 pm

bikin basho style
- hell yeah, Mongolia ! 8)
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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whoaisme
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by whoaisme » July 9th, 2015, 12:25 am

pops used to tell me
of his days ridin'
his bike round good ol Lake Tahoe

but ain't ever told me
how to write a haiku
with yr pedals

but the moon don't go zoom zoom
just zzzzzzz

:roll:
"From the sudden invasion of a mind not my own in the world. This I will record. For whom? For m y s e l f, beyond denial and beyond indifference." - Philip Lamantia

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 9th, 2015, 5:05 am

whoaisme - I envy your father, the landscape around Tahoe is stunning, so much so ya can't even talk about it - I've been but never on a bike and the thought of biking it after reading your post had me in Fantasy Island land for the past several minutes - 8)
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 9th, 2015, 6:07 am

Haiku dispenses with everything except as pure a distillation of essence as possible - in this way it leaves the reader's imagination free to roam in wonder.

Fixed gear bikes are the haiku of the bike world. A bike stripped to its essence - wheels, handlebars, pedals, saddle, just one gear & that fixed - no coasting, no derailleurs, no cables, no messing about, no gear changes. Your legs are your gear. Folks who love fixed gear bikes describe the experience of riding such a beast in one word - "connected" - connected to the bike, connected to the wind.

Fixed gear machines, same as haiku, leave the rider free to roam in wonder.

Fixed gear bikes, around since the beginning of cycling, are often referred to these days by a buzzword. That buzzword is "urban" - a bike of cityscapes. If you go on Youtube under the search term of "fixie" or "fixed gear" every vid will be of large metro areas, the flatter the better - now, here I am in an upland rural landscape with grades, inclines, slopes & hills, but I have this desire to try a fixed gear bike out here & up here. So, I'm keeping an eye on the local craigslist. People buy fixed gear then find it ain't their cup of tea & up goes the bike on the list where cash deals are to be had.

Yeah, I know, but I've always been a bit of a surrealist - no sense & no fear & warp speed, Mr. Zulu! Might end up with the only fixed gear bike on Tug Hill Plateau - & maybe a curse for my stupidity. Hell yeah, Mongolia !

wheels turning
wind leading the way
or trying to catch up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usHL0C7Ddis
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 13th, 2015, 10:26 am

I ride a lot at night now because of the heat - got blinky lights on my bike not so much that I may see but that others may see me - sort of a reverse zen thing going on there -

old photograph
of people traveling in wagon trains
made small by huge space

- also have a mesh vest like the road crews wear, bright orange and covered with highly reflective yellow tape - not being able to see myself going down the road I know all these things work because when a car approaches from behind me I can hear them slowing down as they try to identify the vision I present - which is good - folks here not used to seeing anyone biking these roads at night -

the blinky lights must make me look to them like a convention of manic fireflies rolling down the road

one of those lights is about 5 inches long with four settings from steady to fast strobe - on it's fastest setting you can't look at it too long because it will hypnotize you.
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 14th, 2015, 11:36 am

Mounted up & took off at dusk yesterday for a roll - it's great circle sailing I do here, there are so many backroads that it's a cinch to have a different route every day and you can work it mix & match that you never have to travel the same ground twice over the course of the week. Thoreau observed how quickly a path was worn to his front door when he was living in that cabin in the woods.

here's to places & people
the paths to which
are long gone

Yesterday evening I wanted a new road, found it too. A decent stretch, an Amish farm along the way. They set themselves a hard task the Amish do. Road I took crosses the state road a few miles down. The mirror on my bike fell off just as I turned at that crossroads - cheap ass shit, the Amish wouldn't have it. I'm told this kind of thing saves weight, plastic held together with plastic - I guess it does because when it falls apart and falls to the ground it's that much less weight you're carrying on your bike.

If so-called western civilization is a house it comes complete with rats & a whole host of other vermin or, as my long gone uncle was given to observe, "damn varmints" -
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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WIREMAN
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by WIREMAN » July 14th, 2015, 7:42 pm

pesky critters.....ride to edg the of dawn mingo 8)
me I feel like I'm becoming some kinda Kung fu t.v. Priest.....

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 15th, 2015, 9:31 am

ride to the edge of dawn
I certainly agree with the spirit of what you said but I can't find that on any map 8) 8)
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 15th, 2015, 10:09 am

Rode last night - low thick clouds, humid, no wind, not a sound anywhere -
dark, I mean just black times black, the kind of darkness just swallows up your lights - going along one stretch of road with open field on one side - the other side forest growing right to the edge of the road with branches that hung out over the road - underside of those leaves reflected my lights here & there freaking me out because looking up at the flash of that reflection as I was rolling along I thought something was coming to get me from the sky -
-
it's amazing what you can find working in the dark
-
backcountry bridge at midnight
it's only audience
me
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 17th, 2015, 1:20 pm

Youngest son 's birthday yesterday. Went to see him & while there tried out a bike he had converted - originally a fixed gear bike, he has converted it by swapping out the fixed gear for a two-speed kickback hub - took it for a spin - the two gears are t-a-l-l - very tall - if I had to ride that bike up here on the slopes of the Tug by the end of riding season my legs would be big around as tree trunks - I liked the bike but if I did something like that I would also have to swap out the gear sprocket on the hub for something larger to lower the ratio -

Summer days summer days -

tyrannosaurus rex had
a simple agenda -
hunt / eat / live
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 18th, 2015, 9:57 am

Methinks I have too much of seriousness, sweet Ophelia - rain all night the river is up today I say Hello River as I cross the bridge me and the Ghost of the Susquehanna rolling on rolling on -

coyote sings the rosary
every night but he's still
a rude bastard anyway

the sky still damn grey all over but I love it love the blue too take it however it comes my wheels singing a wind song - didn't that used to be the name of a perfume? I never wear perfume. Aftershave is about as hinky as I get these days. If they came out with a cologne that captured the scent of a pine forest waiting the approach of continental ice sheets I might wear that. For special occasions.
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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WIREMAN
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by WIREMAN » July 18th, 2015, 6:45 pm

beware the age of ice! 8)
me I feel like I'm becoming some kinda Kung fu t.v. Priest.....

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the mingo
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Re: The Pumpkin Man Rides His Bike

Post by the mingo » July 22nd, 2015, 8:26 am

8)
Doll, you may have found a place of rest but I'm still on the trail.

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