Most recent close call

I posted this in the Twin Cities Motorcycle Club blog back in October. Reprinted here by permission of the author - well, me.

I watched the purple horizon turn orange and then blue this morning, bummed that I wasn't going to school and playing hooky from work with the folks escorting Keith's niece. Got pneumonia, Virago half disassembled waiting for its new stator, Venture on its center stand with the cover off waiting for me to figure out why it was misfiring on the last ride, and an experiment to run at work. Weather wasn't that cold, either. I haven't ridden in two weeks, and I imagine like a lot of you I get a little moody when I don't ride.
Anyway, get home from work, it's so warm out, I decide to button up the Venture and ride it to my doctor appointment. Seems to run OK, it's getting dark but still warm. After the doctor (stay out of the cold, avoid dust and smoke), I figure why not take a little ride and check out the mis-fire problem? After all, it's not cold out, so I'm staying out of the cold, right? So I get on the on-ramp to 694, and try to open it up in 3rd gear, and WHOOSH, it's up to 60 by the end of the ramp! 6000 rpm, no problem! It's cured! I guess those folks on the Venturerider.org forum (and our senior rider Tony) who suggested it was a wet ignition (TCI box) were right. I can't believe it, zipping along the highway, downshifting to check it at high RPM, just as good as ever.So where to go - maybe east on 36 where I can still ride fast, and I take the exit and everthing is still great. Well how to go home? I'll turn south on Lake Elmo ave, west onto MN 5,ride back to 694 and head south to home. I don't like to ride at night on back roads this time of year because it's bambi season, so I have only about a 2 mile stretch of 17 and the rest is pretty busy. So, I turn at the light from 36 onto 17 and of course I have to open it up all the way in 2nd and 3rd gears just to check it out again. Yup, my big powerful baby is back! Shift into 4th, turn on the high beams and...
Two deer leap out of the field on the left onto the road and....start walking. One's in my lane, one's in the oncoming lane, and I'm on the linked brakes and the front brake and I'm not going to stop in time. Off the brakes, I swerve just to the rear of the first deer hoping to pass between them, and in my head the second one has to get spooked and is either going to T-bone me or run back to the left - the deer in my lane will probably leap off the road. I split the two deer and I can't believe it, neither one of them stopped walking. I could have reached out and touched either of them, and the 1000lb+ of bike and rider just zipped between them and they didn't even care. I looked in the mirror and they both just walked off the road, didn't even look at me.Well, I guess I'm to the stage of riding where the adrenaline of a near miss goes away in only about two minutes. I pat my chest and look at the stars and think it's great to be alive, and I make it home safely.
So now I'm home, and thinking, does the corn in Lake Elmo contain valium?