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
