I've moved my blog to http://www.michaelhepher.com

so go here instead --> http://www.michaelhepher.com

Been a while

It has been a while, mostly because the system they use to write these blogs changed over the winter and I had to sign up for a Google account (who knows why) to log in and 'claim' my blogs. I kept on running into snags and just lost interest in trying to navigate the red tape.

But now i'm back.

And I have been riding the scooter. I even hauled an IceCream Cake from Dairy Queen on the back of it. It was quite a sight, you can be sure of that.

Talk to you all soon.

let's be seasonable...

Well, perhaps now that the sun is warmer and the roads are dryer, it is time to fire up the two-stroke in my mind that generates posts. I will start out this year's scooterboy posts with a photo of the cup that i recieved at McD*****d's the other day. You gotta love the way McD's gloms on to cool subcultures and renders them trite and institutional in seconds flat...

Anyways, the caption reads "Riding together keeps us close...i'm lovin' it"



The funny thing is that the chick on the cup (you can't see her in this photo) is wearing this full lenght button-up fitted trench coat that wouldn't let you sit on a park bench, let alone a scooter where you have to put one foot on each side while sitting in the 'buddy seat'.

Speaking of 'buddy seats', isn't that a better term than the motorcycle community has for the extra passenger? They call it a 'Bitch-rack'. I am sure that prevents many women from even wanting to sit on the back of a motorcycle. A 'buddy seat' is much more PC.

shortening days

Just letting you know that a few days ago I added some new poems to the other blog which can be accessed here: hg2gospel.blogspot.com

Getting harder to find a nice warm time of day to ride the scoot. sigh.

post-birth jitters

Well, this is nothing scooter-related, save for the fact that I saw some scooters in Vancouver.

My wife and I (as many of you know) have been expecting a baby in mid October, and on
thanksgiving weekend, our little girl came a few days early! Wren Mirabel May was born at exactly 3 am on Sunday Oct. 8th, weighing exactly 8 lbs.

She is healthy and happy, though her early life was not without drama. She did not breathe very well at first, and was flown (along with me) to Vancouver Children's Hospital. Fortunately, but the time the transport team arrived she had turned a big corner and they really only took us for observation. She was breathing fine without
oxygen but the call was made to make the trip regardless, as a precaution. While there, all the nurses were very delighted at how well she was doing, and I got some good daddy bonding time, having 24 hour access to the nursery.

After 36 hours we were flown back to the Cranbook Hosptial, where mother and child were re-united, and the next day (wednesday) we all went home. Wrenny is doing very well, eating, sleeping, and looking around. We are very excited to have her in our little family, and I will attach a picture or two so you can see.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, I am feeling a bit jittery about the whole thing still, knowing more than I ever have before the fragility of life, and the strength of love. I truly felt God's hand on her as you all bathed her in prayer that sunday morning.

NEWLY BORN WREN



IN THE VANCOUVER CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL



FLIGHT HOME



HOME AT LAST

mittens

Well, it is getting pretty chilly out for riding. I zipped down to HotShots this morn for some banana loaf, and I was wearing mitts for the first time. With the gloves on I was warm enough, but there has been frost on the ground every morning for a week or so... the scooter season is drawing to a close, i can feel. It is time to think about winterizing my scoot.

Last ride?

Well, friends, I have just come back from what might be my last long ride of the summer. The days are getting shorter, and soon our baby #2 will arrive, and I think that I may not get another ride it.

In theory, I shoudn't have taken this ride, there is so much to do around the house. We are finishing our renovations, i have wood to chop, some work to do on the office before it gets to be a deep-freeze, and a load to haul to the dump, but I have been working like a madman to get the kitchen finished and my emotional systems were starting to shut down from strain and stress.

So today i took a Sabbath from my work, and set out with no real goal in mind. I headed out towards wycliffe on King St. which winds trough a beautiful valley and then opens onto rolling ranchland. I pulled off at Wycliffe Park, and sat by the creek and watched some Kokanee (Salmon, not beer) mate and die. A very peaceful fallish thing to do.

After an hour or so, I got back on the scoot and headed towards Kimberley on the same road. There was a 'No through road' sigh that I had always wanted to explore, so I took it this time. It wound through this beautiful ranchland up past Wycliffe, on the way to the mines in Kimberly. I got to thinking about our frined Doug who died up there, and the Salmon spawning and dying, and how life is irrepressible. The rhythm of life has been quite visible to me lately. I see how we all go through these cycles of which our lifespan is simply a macro. It's like a fractal image, you keep zooming in and you keep seeing repeating patterns.

The 'No Through Road' sign didn't lie, though the ride was beautiful. I turned around and retraced my steps to the highway, and took a left out towards the St. Eugene Mission. The road there is again, beautiful, and the winding, partially wooded roads were dotted with birch leaves.

Back in Cranbrook, I had not had enough yet, so I let my impluses guide me up towards Idlewild park, explroing sideroads I had not been on before. My wanderings took me out along Hidding Valley road towards Moyie. I had always wondered why it was called 'hidden valley' road, and today I found out: Again this is rolling, winding road that squirms through the hills outside Cranbrook. There are a couple of cattle guards, a small lake (which used to be called Jap Lake...they changed it now). Eventually you wind around, make a sharp right hand turn down a steep pitch and it levels off suddenly into this little valley, which has about 12 acreages in it. It is a picture-book kind of place that I can see Robert Frost loving and writing about; Stopping by the Hidden Valley on a Snowy Evening or some such thing.

not long out of Hidden Valley the road turned to gravel so I was forced to turn around, but I was getting ready to head home anyways. My hands were numb from vibrations and Couchette had carried me 55 miles without so much as a hiccough.

The last few blocks I took to savouring the 'vibe' of fall. Everyone seemed to be buckling down for the winter, getting things ready, and bundling up for the hibernating season. Fall has never been my favourite season, but I can see why some people love it so much. The colours, the nip in the air, the getting prepared, the woodsmoke starting to filter into the smells of our little town air. It's all good.

Peace to the season,
To the dying rays of the sun
To the valleys
Hidden, lost, and found.

Peace to the forests
To the leaves
To the trees
Sleeping, naked and unashamed

Peace to the neighbours
To the raking
To the woodcutting
Stacking, hauling and shoring up

Peace to the house
To the woodstove
To the beds
Tucking, cozy and warm

Peace to the Autumn
To the colours
To the air
Slumbering, reddish and cool.

+++++

Peace to the scooters, too. I will still be riding some, and I have some plans for improvements over the winter, going over the bike more carefully, cleaning, checking and fixing, so I will continue to post pictures and ideas, though it may not be as often.

Thanks for reading and responding you all.

Cheers, mike