March 4, 2011 by Jim Hale
The year Twenty Eleven has been in full swing for a couple months now, but I still write the wrong year on checks. I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions–I never do–but I made a list of things I’m thankful for. This list is for anyone who likes motorcycles as much as I do. I’m sure you can relate to some or all of it.
1) We should all be thankful for those winding, twisty, well paved two lane roads (we all have our favorites) that make us smile and remind us that we are not quite the riders we’d like to think we are.
2) We should all be thankful that that bald rear tire we have been meaning to replace has held out for another several hundred miles.
3) We should all be thankful for the states that have passed laws prohibiting drivers from text messaging while driving. How many of us have been cut off or nearly run off the road by someone speeding down the road in their SUV, while they were typing a message to someone else speeding down the same road two cars back?
4) We should all be thankful for the little kids stuck in car seats or strapped in by seat belts that wave at us when we pass by or stop at traffic lights.
5) We should all be thankful that most of us are considerate, polite riders, who would stop to help someone broken down along the side of the road, or offer help in any way we can to someone experiencing some bad luck. Except when the car broken down along the side of the road is the same text messaging idiot who cut us off five miles back.
6) We should all be thankful for our spouses or partners who understand that sometimes Sunday mornings are the best time to take a short spin around the countryside to check out how that new back tire–having replaced the bald one that was the second thing to be thankful for–is going to respond as we whip around one of those roads discussed in the first thing to be thankful for.
7) We should all be thankful for those short–and I mean short–summer rain showers that cool us off when the temperature has been in triple digits all day.
8) We should all be thankful that the deer that jumped out in front of us the other day was the last one in a herd of five or six and not the first one.
9) We should all be thankful that when we pulled in to our favorite Wednesday night spot for some camaraderie with fellow riders no one saw us almost drop the bike, because we were in such a hurry to get inside we didn’t put the kickstand all the way down.
10) We should all be thankful for electric vests and gloves that provide us with the added warmth required so we can extend our riding season another several weeks, or start the new riding season early.
11) We should all be thankful for those large dogs whose only reaction is to rise up and look at us as we motor past their homes, unlike their fellow canines who feel the need to try and nip at our heels.
12) We should all be thankful for the old man at that out of the way gas station in Where-Am-I, South Carolina, who talked to us for an hour about the 1942 Indian he owned in 1948 and that ran like a “scalded cat,” as he admires our bike with a long lost look of lust in his eyes.
13) We should all be thankful, even as we get older, for those pretty young girls who wave at us as we rumble past public swimming pools during the dog days of summer.
There’s a lot more I’m thankful for, too. I’m thankful for my family, especially my long suffering wife, who for the past 30-plus years has put up with me. I’m thankful for my children, who both abide by the credo “be happy first, wealth will follow.” And as always, I’m thankful that I can still get up everyday and ride