Sunday, November 6, 2011

i named my motorcycle Josie

slept surprisingly well for hardwood floor, woke up with tasks to accomplish and goodbyes to say, each one stepped out of the way and nodded its acquiescence, It was disheartening to leave Nol behind, today was a traumatic day for that creature  but she's always been stalwart and steady and I have no reason to believe her response to her new situation will be any otherwise, after the house was empty, and all of the farewellers were outside, I went in each room and shed a few tears, told J. that I wish she was doing all of this with me, and to please follow me wherever I go. Hugs shared with everyone, Ill miss them all. I gassed up at the Valero, 13 bucks, turned the ipod on and headed down semmes towards 95, Clarke pulled up beside me at the light (his yamaha was stolen last night! FUCK!) and said something about racing, I thought it was funny that we had just said I love you's and goodbyes and here we were sitting patiently beside each other at a light, not going to see each other for months. I tried to roll forward and turn my head slowly to look at him without smiling, as we have done in the past simultaneously, but he didnt see it. Fail. The light changed and I began heading down 95 shortly thereafter. I had mentioned to Joe stopping and getting some straps and ropes and what not in case the bike broke down, but never felt so inclined. After 50 miles or so, I had gotten pretty well situated. Had my sleeves to the right length, helmet on comfortably, and was beginning to wiggle a little bit in my seat to the music. The spring before Josie and I were married, I was wild for her. Absolutely head over heels.I walked, talked and breathed Josie Varnier. There were multiple nights where I would have drinks after work and get her phone number off the list in the back, and torture myself over texting her until I would finally delete her number. I fantasized about her day and night. She never suspected at the time. I remember seeing her attend to various tasks at work and admiring her form and shape. Always trying to come up with a way to seem interesting to her. I was reading some Horatio Alger novel, probably about some fiery young chap rubbing two pennies together and getting a dollar, and was so thrilled that she had read it. She just seemed so neat, so cute, so friendly, so funny, and so fucking sexy. I had a crush. I'd never had a crush before Josie. I'd always just ended up with the girl, more or less. I'd never pined from afar. and pine for Josie I did. I would usually leave Penny Lane drunk before she did. I'd roll out around 2, and be sure to casually invite her to Monroe Park to ride about the fountain with me. I knew she lived right there in Monroe Park Towers, so thought that she might be apt to walk over one night. My bike had pegs on the back. And I thought if she ever walked over, she could hop on the back and rest her arms on my shoulders, and I would be in Nirvana. She never did. I'd circle that fountain in the park for hours, waiting for her. Counting the circles on my bike, leaving when I reached 230. The only person that was aware of the tenacity of my feelings for young Varnier was Wayne. I worked during the day with him, ostensibly pruning or raking,  but actually just dicking around rich folks yards, I told him all about her, how the night before I'd caught a glimpse of the top of her tight, way up those perfect thighs, or how she'd touched my arm when she was talking to me, and how I knew that she always touched people, but it drove me crazy, and made me feel so lucky. That whole spring was delicously frustrating. Halfway to Myrtle Beach, the bike starting having a bit of a lurch/power issue, began popping more frequently, and the power would come and go in spurts, but never had full loss of power akin to the problem a few weeks back. I pulled over and began pulling all the tools out of my bookbag, I need to organize them before I hit the road to Atlanta, I found the ratchet and right socket and pulled out the rear jug plug, it was black, but not wet as it had been in the past with power problems, I cleaned it up as well as I could, and began looking for the plug that I had thought I packed, I also had an eye out for the plug gapper, just to doublecheck, but could find neither. I gotta organize this bag. Its gotta happen. Joe got out of his truck, and suggested I look up parts stores on the phone. It pointed me in the direction of Mighty Auto Parts, a couple miles out into the country. We rode off looking for it, but just came upon the tiny town of Sims, NC. A place that no one ever needs to go, especially because there was no parts store. We turned around. The bike was running better now. No popping, no issue with lurching/power. I decided to just hit the road, figuring the problem would start up once again when I got up to speed, and I could pay attention to what kind of symptoms lead up to it. It never happened again. I got a new gremlin and this little bastards gonna get me when I least expect it. The ride through NC was uneventful. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Riding fast, listening to some music. I had deliberated over naming my bike for the last 11 months. I always would talk to it, tell it that it's pretty and I love it, but had never come up with something adequate. The thought crossed my mind to name it Josie and I laughed and laughed. I began petting her immediately and telling her that we were going across the country together. We hit the SC line and I stopped at the 38 exit to remove my helmet. Id never ridden helmetless and at first I didn't really like it. Much colder, louder, and I had to use my mouth muscles to keep my cheeks from flopping around. I also can hear way more noises coming off of the bike, which made me suspect a bearing in the front end. I'm going to investigate it tomorrow. Bike needs a little love before we hit the road again. Think I'm going to try and fix the oil leak, change out the neutral switch, change the oil, get 2 sets of new platinum plugs, and call around to see if anybody's got a set of tires I can get put on before Wednesday. I stopped by my folks house when we got to town. My dad met me on the porch with a wonderful hug. It was such a good hug it made me sleepy. My mom had one for me too, along with a bunch of "praise jesus"'s I hung out there for a bit and then came her to Joe's house. Erica was being a beautiful mom and the kids were being beautiful kids. Erica made some of the best chili that I can remember eating. I took a shower and retired here, to Elliott's race car bed to cry a little, write, and hopefully sleep. I miss you Josie. I miss having your body next to mine when it's time to sleep. Today was the closest thing Ive felt to normal in the last 9 days.

No comments:

Post a Comment