Friday, May 1, 2015

At Least I Didn't Just Sneak Out the Back Door


Lurker At the Threshold

I keep coming here and typing an opening sentence then deleting it and going back to looking at pictures of Surly bicycles that maybe I can afford but am too cheap to purchase. Plus Little Miss Dangerous is just sitting here in the stand, painted, ready; last week I got the new Shimano bar-end shifters and the crazy NOS Sachs front derailleur that I hope will Solve Everything but I'm afraid to find out.

Still Half Homeless
Today I spent a lot of time using free library internet (and air-conditioning) and converted every single post of the Trailer Park Cyclist Blog into PDF's. As I was doing it, I realized what I was up to...That's it, guys, I know my own subconscious self and I'm pretty sure that's all she wrote for the News From the Whispering Pines. But there is some pretty good stuff in those hundred-plus pieces and I made myself laugh (alot) and I dunno...maybe I thought I would break the news here, if indeed such a belated announcement can even qualify as news...I haven't typed up a post in almost a year and I noticed just recently that a most of my friends have quietly removed me from their Blog Rolls.

To Be Or Whatever
So what's it all about? Well, working long days out of town and being away from the bike for so long at a time has a whole bunch to do with it, I suppose. Most of my writing (the good stuff, anyway) takes place late at night after I have crossed a magic threshold (Okay, when I'm drunk). Nowadays out there on the road I am sleeping in the wee hours, resting...

Plus, let's face it: every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. It all has to end, sooner or later. There has to be an ending. A good story always does, anyway. End, I mean. Otherwise, what are we to think? Did everything work out? Did the hero triumph? Did Good win out over Evil?

Not that I ever tackled much in the way of Big Thoughts. I tried, but what can I say? I have always been more of the Jester than the Sage, which is fine with me. I once said that there is nothing that happens in our lives that sooner or later we can't laugh about. I'm not sure if I was right about that, but while Sooner is always here Later has yet to come, so who knows? God, I guess, and...wait for it...the Storyteller. He knows how it ends. He ends it. All the good storytellers do, anyway. End it, I mean.

But Sequels Are Never As Good
But hey! There are sequels (and prequels) and god knows how many other ways to only pretend to quit. Me, I'm just glad I finally got off my ass and PDF'd those posts. Now I have to scrounge up the money for some printer ink and I'll print them all out. I will sort and red-line and make notes and then pull it all together as best I can with maybe a dramatic and touching backstory or who knows, maybe I'll just tell the simple truth (which is never simple) and I don't know...

But this is it...this is true and about a year ago something changed for me and the Trailer Park Cyclist wasn't who I was anymore. Trust me, nothing changed but my mind. I still live in the trailer park and I still ride my bicycle (sometimes) and I still suffer through budget (and heart) breaking repairs and Little Miss has been in the stand for a year now...

I just ain't the ol' TPC anymore. I jumped back into the workaday world and it was a kind of suicide. There are reasons and family (of a sort) obligations and there are people who count on me, again. I had to go back to being a grown up and I don't like it. But I was always doomed to be a Do the Right Thing kind of guy and here I am, doing it. I hope.

So Just Go Already
I don't know how to pull the plug, exactly. While I was figuring out the PDF thing today at the Library I saw a Delete Your Blog button. That certainly sent a shiver down my spine and it would take a whole lot of beer and rum for that button to get pushed. And they frown on weeping drunks fooling with the computers at our local branch and even have a cop there (not too sober-looking himself) to make sure it doesn't happen. But I owe it to all my thousands and thousands of loyal readers (tee hee) to at least say goodbye.

But this isn't goodbye. I will still get all boozed up and come by your Blogs and leave long rambling comments that are related to your post by the merest thread...I'll still go to Drunk Cyclist about once every three months and start trouble and then disappear. I have ridden (rode, rided?) a bicycle since I was about three years old and that will never change. I just am going to set aside my Trailer Park Cyclist gig, (for what it's worth) for now and see what happens.

As endings and farewells go this one ain't so hot but I had to try. I can't explain what I don't understand myself so, well, this is what you get.

Yer old buddy,

TJC

Whispering Pines Trailer Park and Trails End

May 1, 2015