"Got Slushed"

I asked Michael the other day if he had ever considered doing his about town commuting on a bicycle.  His response; "sadly Dad, London is not Copenhagen."  Having spent some time there Michael can attest to the bike friendly nature of Denmark, and in contrast the unfriendliness of most Canadian cities.

Most recently a group of interested parties got together to try to make St Thomas and Elgin county an easier and safer place for 2 wheels, and while I admire their efforts I can attest to their failure.

You can put up all the signs you like, paint a million lines and instructions on the pavement, and not a thing is gonna change until you change the culture.  We are about 50 years away!

Much to my disappointment, it was a very crappy day for riding.  I thought with the rising temperatures it would be okay, but not so such so.  There were simply not many snow or ice free patches of gravel or pavement anywhere, and to top that off the air was filled with a fine, bone chilling sleet.  Really crappy!

I should have stayed home, and certainly many of the motorists out there agreed with me.  I should know better by now but I was really discouraged by the idiots today.  I got several annoyed honks, and even one person just leaning on it.  It so makes you wish that you could just have 5 seconds to look them straight in the eye and ask them why they have to take their misery out on others.  My favourite was the guy who seemed to purposely drive through the row of slush such that I just got plastered.  Nice!

As always however the joy of exercise outweighed the stupidity.  It was pretty hairy but I survived 24 kms without anything worse than a few close calls.  Unfortunately the video blog I recorded for you didn't work out, and in hindsight I was glad for it, as it was really pretty lame.

I'm kinda nervous tonite because tomorrow I go to see the psychiatrist, and I am not looking forward to it in any way.  I'm gonna do the best I can to tell my story, but to anyone who hasn't been there it's hard to understand.  I'm even gonna ask about the possibility of brain injury even though I don't think that's really their area of expertise or interest.  I'm gonna ask about my dreams as well.  I'll tell you as much about it as I'm comfortable doing so.

And that's it for today.  Life goes on.

"Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle."---Helen Keller

An interesting quote, mainly because I've never heard that word before.  It's meaning is slightly different than tolerance, but I'll let you look it up yourself.  We could use more of both in this world.

Love
Peter