18th March 2019 Send them all to Mexico? 😎

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Monday 18th 41-46F, early cloud clearing to sunshine. A windy day blowing from the north west. Sunshine depending on which of the two daily opposites in weather forecasting you trust.

Nothing [at all] to do with cycling but what about bussing all the US drug addicts to Mexico? Think of the savings on border patrols and building fictitious border walls and Home Security.

The drop in crime to pay for their disgusting habit and the endless battles to defend drug dealer's sales patches would be worth countless billions in savings on policing and prisons. The savings in health costs, from not having to treat the addicts and support their broken families, would be incalculable.

Think of the CO2 savings by the drug dealers on transport costs and security issues crossing the border? The cartels just need to open shops on every Mexican high street to provide easy access for their customers. Then, perhaps, we could have some more interesting news about something else. Like [say] cycling?

A walk to the lanes under grey skies and in a stiff westerly wind. Two blackbirds fought in mid air as a car bore down on them at 50mph. Ten yards further on it was the turn of the skylarks to be aerial scrapping. What has got into them? The sun came out in the last few yards before home and then disappeared for the next hour. The emphasis was mostly on cloud, rather than sunshine, for much of the day.

Tuesday 19th 32-46F, bright sunshine and sparkling frost. It should be sunny for most of the day on both forecasts. Which makes a change. A walk to the lanes then busy all day. Full sun from morning to evening.

Wednesday 20th 41F, dark grey and misty with a little wind at times. Walked along the marsh to disturb a pair of geese and a pair of cormorants. Four Mallards dashed off across the water followed by two coots. It's absolute mayhem on my walks!

The latest health [?] news is that consuming two sugar bomb "soft" drinks, per day, shortens life expectancy by 30%. I'm still waiting for the class action against the genocidal sugar companies. Round-up is being dragged through the courts on appeal against a conviction for causing cancer.

The Danish politicooze are discussing raising the price of cigarettes by 8 Kroner a pack. That's about 80p in Ol£e Money. The bleeding hearts are claiming it is a direct tax on the poor because only they are daft enough to still smoke. Somebody isn't considering the effect on the young who are vulnerable to societal pressures to begin the filthy habit and ruin their health.

Let's give the kids a nice big <cough> fat discount! Then the politicooze won't lose out on tax income from smokers to pay for another ten x $1Billion US fighter jets. Of course smokers don't last long enough to claim their pensions which they have paid for all their miserable lives. So there are savings to be made there.

I was allowed out for a shopping ride in the afternoon and cheated. I detoured over a hilly route through the forest on the way back. Still only 10 miles in total but every little counts.

Thursday 21st 44-46F, grey, breezy and misty. Two days of this are promised. Heavy shopping in the car.

Friday 22nd 43-46F grey and almost calm. The mist has gone and then came back again. A brown rat ran across from hedge to hedge in front of me as I walked to the lanes.

Saturday 23rd 43-48F, dark grey and misty. Some sunny periods promised by both weather forecasts. There was a bit of weak sunshine on my walk but it has turned uniform grey again. I checked my emails via webmail and discovered a spam box full of official, bank and business mails. Weird. I had to drag each one back into the inbox because there was no other way. No buttons to de-flag mails as not spam. How can the spam bot learn if there is no corrective action? Quite a sunny day but mostly cloudy with few gaps.

Sunday 24th 37F, calm and grey. Some sunny periods promised, again. Stolid grey throughout my 3 mile walk around the block. Hooper swans, geese and a woodpecker put on a show. As well as loads of others birds near and far.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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16th March 2019 A bit of ride! [But not a whole one.]

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Saturday 16th 38-42F, looks more promising this morning. With lighter winds and thinner cloud. A walk to the lanes in quiet traffic. A buff coloured falcon landed in a roadside tree for a rest and was instantly mobbed by hooded crows. It flew across the prairie in only a few seconds followed by its fearless tormentors. They dropped back as they approached the forest. Just in time for another mob of crows to take over. I'm hopeless at identifying these birds but it had the distinctive bent and tapered wings and was probably twice the size of a kestrel.

A buzzard was circling over our house as I walked back. Soaring for a few moments as it searched for breakfast. Then turning and moving rapidly across the wind to pause for another for another scan. A speeding White Van Man, flooring contractor and sociopath, obviously valued my life as zero. As he brushed just past me. I had to jump onto the the grass verge to avoid certain death on a blind corner. He continued with his foot flat on the floor. Obviously late for a brain surgery appointment. The sun has come out now that I'm back but was very short lived. I wonder if I can escape on the trike?

And was! A lack of vital stock at local outlets found me on a hilly shopping trip. At ten miles it was time to return home directly into a 20mph headwind. Lots of cyclists out training in groups and singly. Many of them called out "God tur" and waved.[Pronounced "go' tour!" Good ride! Note the silent "d"]  Not going too badly considering my recent, almost complete lack of miles. 20 miles and back just in time for lunch.

It rained at 3pm. That should help the obvious roadside damage from two months of rain in the first week of March. Lots of large puddles in the fields and on the farm tracks. Not much on the roads.
I passed right under a mottled, grey and white, bird of prey roosting just above the road. Perhaps it was too tired and hungry to move? I shall have to be careful about building to longer journeys. Today was fine but a ride of double the length wouldn't have been much fun against the wind. Quite a number of old, rural houses had been bought up and used as an excuse to demolish and build something boring from scratch. Usually ending up as soulless bungalows.

Sunday 17th 41F, grey and breezy. And so it was, with some early sunshine between the clouds and hail and rain. March is officially the wettest ever despite it being only just half submerged [100.4mm by the 17th] so far. The average rainfall for the whole of March is usually 40mm.

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11th March 2019 Make every day count.

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Monday 11th 32F, dark grey, overnight frost. The forecast is for sunshine all day. Or no sunshine. Eeny meany miney mo. Walked to the village and back.

The Olympic silver medallist, track cyclist, Kelly Catlin is reported to have died aged 23. Cause as yet unknown.

Make every day count. You never know which of them might be your last. I can think of several moments when I might have died at other's hands. Despite the seeming odds against survival I am still here at 71 and still making an effort in my own, unique way.

Reasons to be cheerful still outweigh all else. If you are one of those fuckwits carrying a knife to use as an offensive weapon then you probably don't deserve to live for much longer. You are part of the problem. I was threatened by a coward with a knife at the age of 17. I was fortunate that I had a "useful" cycling friend with me who safely disarmed him.

My skills at self defence against such, or any attacks, have not improved. My near-death threat was over nothing at all. Probably just another a "village mentality" moron defending "his patch." I was just another cyclist buying chips at his local "chipper" on an evening cycle ride.

His "chip on his shoulder" nearly cost me my life and he a life sentence for a senseless murder. It was just one of many threats to my existence in my youth and later. Most of them were tribal. Always against a complete innocent who just happened to be in the wrong place. It was completely routine to be invited to fight if you went to a dance [i.e. A rock band playing in a village hall without much sign of any dancing going on] in Wiltshire. Get a life, of your own. Don't take one you don't own.

Tuesday 12th 37-40F, dark grey and windy with light rain. Walked to the lanes and back. Eyes watering in the cold wind. It is reported that Kelly Catlin took her own life after months of depression. She had suffered a concussion and broken arm which had prevented her training as she used to. A tragic loss of a truly, multi-talented, highly intelligent, young person.

Wednesday 13th 38F, dark grey, gales and all day rain forecast. I nipped outside to check and it was driving rain. No walk today.

Thursday 14th 41F, grey, walked to the lanes. Rain and wind.

Friday 15th 41F, grey, anticlockwise walk up to the woods. Saw a hovering kestrel. A 7 mile errand on the trike. Going quite well with a crosswind. More rain and gales later.

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