This is philosophy.



Recently a friend of mine stopped riding. He was afraid of waking up in a
hospital bed unable to move any part of his body. He sold his motorcycle, and
I have not heard from him since. I wanted to take a long ride through the
southwest with him. Not heard from him since.



I'm on the cusp of biodegradation.



I drink too much wine. I don't excercise enough. I have wife. I have kids (11
yrs and then one that is 9 mos). I have job. I love the job; it pays me for
what I can do with my brain. Sometimes I fly planes. Sometimes I ride --



But I'm on the cusp of biodegradation.



I watched my 72 year old grandfather perish of neglect. He died in a hospital
bed. He couldn't really move any part of his body. He just had to lay there.
His greatest moment (he told me from the hospital bed) was making a touchdown
in a high school football game. That's what he remembered on his death bed. He
told me nothing about his life, his wife, his son -- he told me about a
touchdown in highschool -- a single instant of time -- and then he drifted
back to sleep. That's the last thing he told me ever. Touchdown!



My old lady is a doctor. She regularly sees people in their 40s who are dying.
Sometimes people in their 30s or even 20s. Crap, a couple of weeks ago she had
a 17 year old die inside a ventilator ... complications from flu. Fok man, she
sees death of all kinds of things not related to motorcycles. All the time
people go down not doing what they love. I don't know how I'll feel when I'm
62, but right now I'm thinking I have got to squeeze some in. And I have a
hard time thinking that when I'm 62, and there is that prospect of my
grandfather's demise only 10 years out, and he not being ABLE to ride or do
anything but lie in a hospital bed weakened by age and self-neglect ....



Yes you could be destroyed motorcycling. Some of us will be. But the older we
get, the closer we are to our own bodies destroying themselves through natural
processes, and what good is lying in a hospital bed with a stroke, not being
able to move, and then -- and then its all over and that's when then I think
to myself SQUEEZE IT IN, mang, SQUEEZE IT IN!!!



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