Snow Thrower, Leaf Blower, and a Three-Wheeled Scooter

Those of you who are old enough to remember Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show will remember the Carnac bit that he used to do. For you youngsters, Ed McMahon would read "answers" and Carnac [Johnny] would come up with the question. It was often quite funny.

Well, if the answer had been; "A snow thrower, a leaf blower, and a three-wheeled scooter", my question would have been: "Name three things that I never thought would be in my garage." And yet, they are.

Garages are sacred places to gear heads. They are the cathedrals in which we keep the icons of our beliefs. They are not simply places to park our cars at night. They are not the final resting place for no-longer-used sporting equipment. And they are certainly not place where all the fun things with motors are shoved into a corner to make room for large bags of Scott's Weed and Feed.

A two-car garage is a place where, maybe, you keep one car. Well, one car that you drive on a regular basis. It's a place where you keep things like tools and battery chargers and extra oil and a can of gas. It's a place where you make room for everything in your life that has an engine.

In the course of my life I've had many garages from a tiny dirt-floored building with no door to an oversized building built initially to keep snowmobiles. I've filled those buildings with the motorized objects of my affection. I've had motorcycles in every state of repair or disrepair. I've had complete bikes and pieces-parts of bikes. I've had bikes that ran and bikes that would never run again. That's what makes a garage such a special place.

Now my garage contains not only my toys but the implements of my life. We've been in the house nearly a year so we're seen 4 seasons. Each season has required new equipment. Each season has meant finding a place for the equipment required for home ownership among the motorcycles.

There's also a new kid in the garage, the Piaggio MP3. As the leaves fall and the seasons change the garage shuffle begins. Like an elaborate Rubik's Cube everything has to be in it's place. The big bikes are moved to the front of the garage, safe for the winter. The lawn mower goes along the wall, run dry of fuel.

But the Piaggio stays near the back ready to be ridden. For the first time in my life I'm actually hoping that we get an early snow. I am convinced that the MP3 is going to extend my riding season.

And if it can do that it will earn a place of honor in my garage.

Waddle on,