Primer Timers talk

Thursday noon I spoke about my bicycle touring at a Prime Timers get together. The Primer Timers are a group of people who get together once a month for a meal and a talk. It is held at the church Joyce attends and is non-denominational. Peter, a retired pastor who I know from hiking, leads the meeting.

Peter got the idea of having a talk by me and another person after seeing the article about my bicycling. The other person invited to speak was Gene, who I hike with in the other hiking group I am a member of. Gene has done lots of bicycling touring since he retired some years ago. Among his many long distance tours, Gene has traveled cross-country in the U.S. and was part of a group that bicycled around much of the world.

Gene brought his bicycle fully loaded with much of his equipment to the meeting. He discussed his bicycle and what he carries and how he travels. I held onto his bicycle while he spoke first.

Gene prepared and had notes for an outline on what he wanted to discuss. Me? I winged it.

For a person who doesn't care for the limelight and public speaking, and has little to no experience doing so, I didn't prepare an outline or speech. I spent only a few minutes before the meeting thinking about what I would talk about and I decided I would talk of how I got into bicycling and then go from there about bicycle tours I did and talk about whatever came to mind. I've had lots of adventures so I have stuff to talk about - I just didn't know how rambling my talk would be or exactly what I would talk about.

It is my understanding that one prepares and practices before giving a speech in order to do it right. But I didn't want to rehearse anything. I want to keep my talk fresh. I also didn't want to spend time preparing. So... no experience, no preparation, but also no worries about doing so. Odd. Ok... maybe I was briefly concerned when at the meal prior to our talk I saw Gene's crib sheet of notes and looked around and saw the audience. Maybe I should have prepared? Nah. Besides it was too late now and I went back to eating.

I did suggest Gene go first. We had 15 to 20 minutes for our talk and I imagined the first speaker would get going and use most of the time. I was right. Gene must have talked for 15 to 20 minutes and then I talked for 10 or so minutes. Or it seemed that quick as my time speaking ended as I was just getting going.

The meal was very good. They had a delicious soup, corn bread and a pineapple upside down cake for desert. All home made. Joyce and her daughter Kendra were part of the cooking crew. So naturally the food was excellent. Joyce is a fantastic cook and makes everything homemade and from scratch. I mean everything. Just ask Joyce what she thinks of store bought whipped topping like Cool Whip and you'll get an earful. Even her whipped topping is home made. They had some food left and Joyce send some home with me.

Also at the meeting were a vocal choir from the Stillwater Christian School. They sang two songs. The first was a madrigal from the Italian Renaissance. The choir director said the first stanza of the song was about two young lovers and the last three stanzas were the guy singing about how unhappy he was that the girl broke up with him.

The second song was vocalizations. Something based on the music for an Argentine Tango.

Both songs were excellently done and a surprise. I was expecting religious hymns to be sung.

The choir was made up of 10 girls and 7 boys. No one in a uniform. They all dressed like they just came from class. They were nicely dressed and nothing outrageous as they are attending a Christian school. But you could get a hint of their personality from their clothing choices.

The other thing I noticed was teenagers are getting younger as I get older. Man, they looked young. Like kids.

Also announced at the meeting was that a church member had fallen on some ice a few nights ago and hit his head while he was out walking his dog. He died last night as the doctors couldn't operate to save him. Natasha Richardson dieing from a head injury from her skiing accident, this fellow, Bill getting seriously injured. Kind of scary.

Peter brought to show everyone a pair of yak-trax one can slip over their shoes to have traction on the ice. I know some people feel everyone should wear a helmet when bicycling. If so it would appear everyone should wear a helmet when there is snow or ice on the ground. I know more people with serious head injures this way than from bicycling.