Stuck in the Middle With You

For some reason Gerry Rafferty's odd song Stuck in the Middle With You often plays in my head. For years I haven't been able to find the delete key or escape button that will make it go away.

Well I don't know why I came here tonight
I got the feeling that something ain't right
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

It comes to mind again because I feel like I'm stuck between the cold of last month and the cold of next month. Stuck in the middle, and it's a feeling that definitely ain't right - not when I'd much prefer to be outside soaking in the warm sun on a long and winding road.

I haven't been able to focus on spring and riding these past two months, but I definitely had motorcycling on my mind and at my fingertips.  I have just finished a book about some amazing motorcyclists from back in the day - back when girls were girls and men were men - and all that nonsense.  Except that the 'girls' in the book I've just finished would probably kick most guy's keisters all the way across the continent and back!
The book is about some amazing and very tough women who explored their world on ancient motorcycles way back in the 1910s - when you had to be tough and resourceful to be a rider. No pavement, no push button start, no computerized engine and fuel controls, no nothing, except a very rough ride down muddy trails.  But the women of whom I write had the right stuff - courage, brains, resourcefulness, spirit, and one more thing - man could they ride motorcycles!

The full name of the book is: Grace and Grit: Motorcycle Dispatches From Early Twentieth Century Women Adventurers (Grace & Grit for short)

You can check it out on its very own blog site:  http://graceandgritbymurphy.wordpress.com/

It will be on bookshelves across the nation in March. If you like American history, motorcycling, antique motorcycles, women motorcyclists, stories of daring, danger and conquest - you'll like this book.

I saw an ad for Samuel Adams Spring Beer on TV last evening. It brought a huge smile to my face because it must mean that spring is in the somewhat foreseeable future. Large commercial interests have full faith that spring will arrive eventually and are preparing for it. If it's good enough for Sam Adams it's good enough for me. I'm going to start thinking spring, planning rides, shopping for accessories and clothes at my local dealer, and take the cover off my bike and just sit on it for a few minutes. Hopefully my wife won't open the garage door at that moment and make me look foolish. I do that often enough as it is without even trying.
It's probably all that bad influence from the clowns to the left of me and jokers to the right.