Bobbing up from Down Under

[John Watt]

This is very nice, but I'd be hyperventilating if that was me.
The recreational trail around the Niagara Peninsula is very flat.
It goes beside canals and rivers, if you don't want to go into fields.
What makes it really nice is taking off my shoes and walking along the Lake Erie shore.
The racers at the bike shop say I take my bike for walks,
and use it as a ladder to get up into trees, all true.
I was more off-road at the start, going where I never went before,
but I'm sixty-three now, trying to preserve myself.
Besides, the biggest views and available edibles are along the canals and rivers.

 

[JHC]

Lance Armstrong

I think it is just terrible and disgusting
how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong,
especially after what he achieved,
winning 7 Tour de France races, whilst on drugs.
When I was on drugs, I couldn't even find my f-ing bike.

 

[bob32116]

I thought this was a thread for me to introduce myself.

 

[JHC]

I thought this was a thread for me to introduce myself.

What ever gave you that idea Bob??? threads on MIMF tend to have a life of their own.....you'll get used to us...heck we even discuss music at times

 

[John Watt]

Seeing that Lance Armstrong bit was keeping me from posting any more,
not knowing how I could top that. However,
JHC's mention of ladies while I'm out there bike-hiking has finally given me the impetus to add,
a poke in the spokes, as it were.
I get asked for sex at least once a month in the summer, so I thought I'd share some quick stories.
Not that I'm easy or have sex with strangers, no, not at all.

But now that I've seen bob32116 with his sincere concern for his thread, I'll mute myself.
Only because if bob is up to 32116, he doesn't need to hear my born-again virgin vasectitudes.

 

[JHC]

A mate of mine in the UK had the name of Bob Down now you can guess the shame and humiliation the poor sod went through!

 

[John Watt]

I climbed up the Niagara Escarpment past St. Catharines, during the night, not on a path, a little muddy,
because I had a bent rim and couldn't ride it any more, and it looked exciting in the moonlight.
When I got up on the country road the sun was coming up,
and this good-looking woman, maybe late thirties, was walking a huge dog on the other side of the road,
coming at me. I let air out of my back tire so it would turn, pushing on the handlebars.
As we passed she turned and said "Would you like me to go down on you? I live right there."
The first thing I thought was sure, as soon as I approach you'll let your dog attack me,
or your husband will after I'm in the door.
I looked back as I walked away, and she was caressing her breasts at me, saying "Don't you want to?"
At least that made me feel she was serious.
All that did was motivate me to keep going, looking for a local garage to uh, straighten my rim.

I could smell a big bar-b-que down the road one evening, on the edge of another city,
and could see a lot of cars down a farmer's driveway with people behind the house.
As I was passing by I heard "That's John Watt", and a man started running towards me,
along the driveway, across the lawn and through a big ditch. I just stopped, a little worried.
This man introduced himself as the mayor of that city, and asked if he could question me.
I told him about what he was interested in, and he said, I was going to vote for him,
but now I won't.
The former mayor seeking appointment without an election lost the regional vote by one.
I don't mind getting scruffy when I'm huffing and puffing my way around the peninsula,
but it's surprising who calls me over sometimes in broad daylight, about business.

Hey! Krummhorn encouraged me to post more.

 

[JHC]

Don't you carry a spare wheel?

 

[John Watt]

That's when I started bike-hiking because I saw an old 3-speed like my high school bike.
I was getting bent rims sometimes twice a week, with lots of flats, only able to buy inexpensive rubber.
However, only twice did I call my father to come and get me, when the wheel was too jammed up.

This was embarrassing. I was coming back with two three liter bottles of diet Faygo in one hand, yes, I know.
People from my apartment building were standing on the corner with dogs, some waiting for a bus.
In broad daylight, on new pavement, I swung around saying hi to everyone and the back wheel collapsed to the axle.
That convinced me to look for a better bike.

 

[JHC]

I am a dab hand at building wheels, true! you have to lace the spokes (behind one infront of two) :trp:

 

[John Watt]

Hey! I never got into building wheels, a nice thing to do.
I wove enough broken spokes to get them out of the way.
A local bike store owner invited me in, saying he had a solution to my bent rims and flats.
A customer wanted to trade in a mint condition Velosport 12-speed,
but it was a franchise bike from the other bike store across in the mall.
When the customer said he didn't care and would be happy with a $25 discount, he took it for me.
He showed me how I could put Norco tour and trecking 700 mm rims on this non-metric bike,
even if I have to have no air in the back tire to take it off or put it on.
I went from $10 tires and $4 tubes to Continental slicks, $42, and thorn-proof tubes, $14.
Now, for over ten years, no bent rims or flat tires.
Sometimes I miss the bad old days.
Coming up for air always led to some good times inshore.
I even got a favorite residential sign gig, new numbers for a rebuilt house,
after a little boy took me back to his house to see his bicycle and use his pump.
It's hard to quit being a popaholic when children are offering you some.

 

[John Watt]

Bob32116! Hey! Your thread is doing better than okay.
You just tied my "changed member has returned" with views and more pages.
I knew you could do it.

 

[JHC]

Steady on John....don't overdo it :up:

 

[John Watt]

Overdoing it is now the mood of the day, every day in every way, acting out loud.
I'm in a band with some heavy hitters, really nice guys, talented pros.
They like my name, "gigsters", so I'm not only coming up from down under,
I'm surfacing with all my new clothes and dance and guitar moves.
I was concerned about being white haired, but it's so easy now to freak everybody out in real life.
Yeah!

 

[JHC]

You could colour your hair or go for the heman "Bald" look and of course add a few tattoos perhaps a 'Can ger roo' or a bottle fly, I never regret having my Tats it makes me look like a killer so everyone is very careful when approaching my space, it kind of breaks the spell when I get my Flute out.

 

[John Watt]

The bassist, who I worked with in my first bar band in Fort Erie in 1970, and haven't seen since,
has tattoos up both arms, mostly to commemorate his first wife who died of cancer.
I'm looking at him as the hat wearing, tattooed guy in our band.
Now that I know that about you, I'll be more careful about my comments.

This bassist is deceptive, being 67. As a life-long non-smoker, non-drug user,
he's very energetic and his vocals are very emotional, a good blend with me.
When we first worked together, after the gig he invited me to his house,
and showed me how he was putting together his own basses,
encouraging me to put together a lefty for myself.

I was sitting in Central Music, where I almost lived after dropping out of high school.
A country recording artist came in, Skip Neilson and The Blue Creek Band,
saying he was looking for someone that Saturday afternoon for a matinee,
and if that worked out, playing in the evening for the guitarists' pay.
He also thought not having the number of musicians he contracted for could cost him big time.
Yes, this bar still had signs for the division of coloured and white, lots of American tourists,
when the race wars were burning up downtown Buffalo, a few football field lengths across the Niagara River.
I said I'm not a country player, the Allman Brothers being country for me,
but he said if I can play like Jimi Hendrix I can play anything. He was right.
Not only did that work out for quite a while, he got a local music store owner
to put an electric guitar neck on a banjo body so I could play a six string banjo,
not being able to play the beautiful right-handed five string he wanted me to borrow.
After that, I just folded cigarette pack foil and wound it around the strings by the bridge,
getting the same sound, now able to use my tremolo to bend notes and chords.
Sometimes, oh those good old days, audience members waved foil so I'd pick theirs.

JHC! To honour your pictorial self, thinking after I logged out,
I took a photo of the blue bar guitar headstock, with a background prop.
Part of that is the lettering, done to tweak the drummer's brain.
As you can see, the competition is more than fierce here.