Episode 22 - Scattered Recall of Many Things

Daytona Bike Week prompts a rumination. on amost sending myself and my dad to an early grave.

A transcript of this Haiku Life podcast together with photos will be available on the mygreatergood.com website.

You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram - Haiku Life Podcast.

Transcript

0:00

Hello and welcome to the Haiku Live Podcast, where we take a little exploration into some abbreviated moments. Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry. It is traditionally focused on nature and captures a fleeting moment within the space of three lines and a 5-7-5 syllable count. In a world so overwhelmingly immersive, a haiku is a moment of respite. These haiku are mine, moments of life, thoughts in the ether. Welcome to episode twenty two, where we find ourselves in Daytona Beach. At least for a moment. The roar and rumble wave and hog scattered recall Daytona Bike Week. We have spent a few days the past four years in Daytona during Daytona Bike Week. It was because a college golf tournament that our older son Connor played in was always scheduled at that time. We would not have been there otherwise we don't ride. Although I did once. Almost sent my dad and I to an early grave actually on the back of a Yamaha five hundred CC, my small, inexperienced hand revving the accelerator to such an extent we took off on the back wheels and just shot across the road. Too fast and uncontrolled to make the turn. I imagine my dad probably frantically reaching the brake from the back seat and stopped us in the gutter on the other side. I don't remember the technicalities, but I do remember I had no business trying to ride that thing. But that was my dad. Didn't see limitations in my abilities. It was a great gift, actually. My dad did ride. I am not sure how it started, but it could be and probably was a cost saving measure. He was a teacher at a school on the other side of town and the other side of the Buffalo River in East London. He would bicycle to work every day about ten kilometers each way. At some point, a motorbike replaced the bicycle and he rode motorbikes ever since. He even took me to college a two hour drive away on the back of a motorbike. Frankly, it was always a little mortifying for me. We did have a car, but they were always embarrassingly old, not terribly reliable, and tinkered on when needed by some I suspect now old Nazi down the road. My dad always had a small dog, Maggie, and in later years Tessa. Those dogs rode on the motorbike too. One of my dad's daily habits was to run and in later years to walk on the beach. The dog would be stuffed into his shirt, and the two of them would ride the motorbike down to the beach. That's how I remember him and how I remember my old life walking on the beach, swimming through the Nahoon River and walking to Bonza Bay, the tidal pools we would swim in and marvel at life beneath the rocks. I recall the colour of the waves. It is different from American or European beaches, the roar and rumble of the waves and that great man. Thank you for listening to today's Haiku Life Podcast. You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram. A transcript of this podcast can also be found on the mygreatergood.com website. Matane, see you later!