Autumn

been a while since i've found my way here--Samhain has passed again, cool weather even in Florida, which means 40's and 50's at night and 20 degrees or so warmer during the day--of course, it will be colder later but i feel for friends and family up north or norther (?)--i guess the years in Florida and places like Australia made my blood thinner---ahhh, life goes on--should be working on old truck or triumph and maybe, just maybe this week, i will find enough energy to do that--it's been way too long since i've roared down the road in or on either---the triumph--well, the megaphones in exhaust pipes i fear are either missing or purposedly destroyed--no, not by me---a kind constable in Australia--where your exhaust can be no louder than 100 db's at 2000 rpms checked it as part of a mandatory "safety" test---since i don't have a tach, he hooked up his own and as i watched the tach approach 2000, the db meter climbed well over 120 and was still climbing when he had me turn off the engine at about 1700 rpm--he had me start it again and then called my attention to something in the distance and before i could look back, he told me to kill the engine--expecting the inevitable, but he smiled, pronounced the dbs were exactly 97, i opened my mouth to say something and he shook my hand and said, "Welcome to Oz, Yank"--no, i didn't flinch, though i never got used to being called a "Yank" --but i managed to return the firm handshake as he said, "Nice bike, that's one thing the Brits knew how to do"--I thanked him, a smile-"No worries, mate"- I offered to buy him something to drink or lunch--he smiled, looked down, finger to side of nose, "Uhh, no mate, I've got (smile became bigger) some real inspections to make--careful riding--bikes don't do too well tangling with roo's or emus."
I like Aussies--if i had a "bucket list," it certainly would include going back to OZ, especially the outback in South Australia and Adelaide--a beautiful city that at least then liked Yanks.
We just shared a Veteran's Day with them, even though it was originally called Armistice Day, and came to be called Remembrance Day in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania.(WWI ended in 1918, "on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"---though true to the way that war was conducted and the "peace accord" was signed, all the guns continued to blast away right up to that "eleventh hour" and in many instances past then).

peace (maybe someday we will find it)
-will-
peace