20th May 2016 Rambling without forward progress.

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Friday 20th 57F, 14C, overcast and breezy. Possibly a damp start but clearing later. Though it seems to be brightening at intervals.

Well, I seem to have cured myself of tricycling OCD. I still enjoy my rides but no longer have that gnawing feeling if I miss a single day. My annual mileage has crashed but I am still highly active. Still using the trike to do the shopping instead of taking the car. The poor car is absolutely filthy from standing still in the countryside. It is lucky if it gets an outing once in a month these days. Though I still have to pay road taxes and insurance and keep it roadworthy.

My need to compete with the rest of the cycling world is finally seen for what it was. Delusions of grandeur by an old fart/clown on a shopping-laden tricycle. One willing to suffer repeated and excruciating pain to prove he can still keep up with all and sundry. Where's the sense in that? Probably thanks to cycling I am remarkably fit for my age. I keep lifting heavy objects in pursuit of my many other hobbies. You have to keep active. Use it or lose it. Including exercising the old brain.

I can still use all the positive feedback systems I built up to keep cycling around the entire year. It's not all balmy weather at 55N. I cycle, therefore I blog. I still take loads of photographs and I can still write about my ridiculous exploits. I watch others around me grow stiff in limb and habit. Or even pop their clogs a decade, or more, earlier than I have managed so far.

Life is a gift with lots of conditions in the small print and it's certainly not a free offer. You get one go at it and then that is it. Make your own mistakes but don't blame others for being what you have become. They can't help themselves any more than you can. If they waste their talents then that must be their choice.

Life has consequences. The lessons are presented almost from birth but can we learn from them? Within the limitations of our abilities we can be constructive or have a negative impact on our only world. Builder or thief? Inspire admiration? Or inspire loathing and disgust? Most of us see ourselves as indispensable until life dispenses with us. Sooner or later all the pluses and minuses must be reconciled with harsh reality. Ultimately, what we do with our own lives is often our own fault. 

Showers all day. No walk and no ride. Though I did repair the built in obsolescence of our washing machine. A skinny plastic blade attached to the Start button parted company exactly as designed in by the company which knows all the tricks. Was it Pepys who said; "to employ a white goods manufacturer is to be robbed?" The spare parts company ripped us off too and took several days extra to deliver on a 2-3 days promise.

Rest in peace? No, not a gravestone. An old painted milestone lost in the weeds of the verge. How daft is a painted milestone once the painted numbers have weathered to invisibility? One nanosecond too late and its just a meaningless granite post until the end of the world. And, no, in case you were wondering, the stone is not incised, carved, engraved or anything else.

Talking of white goods and being ripped off: A Millarco lightweight white "tarpaulin" proved to be 180x280cm rather than the claimed 2x3m. So after sweating to reach the roof of our greenhouse, while standing on tip-toe on a stool to replace the shading, I had to replace the disintegrating original. Thank you to all three businesses for your deliberate damage to my psyche today. It all adds up, you know! Now throw in a farmer spraying in a gale just beyond the hedge and its is the end to a perfect day!

Saturday 21st 54F, 12C, heavy overcast and rather breezy. Walked my usual loop up through the woods. Quite windy by the time I left late morning. A crosswind for the first leg, then a long drag straight into the wind, followed by a tailwind coming home. Lots of rally cars about today. Many of them sounded superb if a little edgy at low speed. 25 miles.

A large deer, still glossy wet from overnight rain, was grazing in the gap beside a field  of oil seed rape. It was beautifully framed but at the very limit of my Lumix TZ7's zoom range. When it shook itself like a dog it threw up an arc of  glittering spray in the bright sunshine but this was well beyond the reach of my lens.

Sunday 22nd 60-70F, 16-21C, warming rapidly with a light breeze and bright sunshine. I have joined the walking limping wounded. I had a slight pain in my lower calf as I walked away this morning. I thought it would go off but it suddenly went into agonizing cramp and it took me an hour to hobble home over a distance of only a mile. Thank goodness I wasn't at the far end of the forest as I often am!

Suicidal snail rescued from certain death as it tried to cross the busy road. Despite my hobbling with pain I could not let it continue on its path with destiny.

I'm wondering whether the pain was caused by fetching a parcel in the car the day before yesterday. Pressing the clutch pedal could be classed as a cruel and unnatural exercise for my otherwise very fit legs. Now I can hardly walk a step, let alone cycle or drive. I haven't had an injury for years except for a strained back from foolishly heavy and repeated lifting. To add to the injury my left ear tinnitus has just switched on to a screaming whistle! Poor old sod! A day of complete rest applying cold compresses (to my calf) at regular intervals. The Head Gardner makes an excellent [though strict] nurse! ;-) 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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