Living Contentedly

10Mar: After setting out to my local Parkrun Venue and discovering it was No Dogs site I pivoted.  U turn to a large old rural estate with old school mansions on beautifully landscaped grounds. To the sounds of hedgetrimmers, Cuddy dog and I made our way over about 4k.  Unfortunately, distracted by the No Dogs surprise, and being distracted by the estates I forgot to jog until near the end. I jogged only 1k! Oh well.I did 50x with the kettle bell earlier. HIGHLIGHT on the road's edge passed tocsl college I saw a wedgetailed eagle. It had just cleared the tarmac as I approached and it's size caught my eye.  There was roadkill nearby which it was interested in, but may expose the raptor to car strike. I found a safe place to turn around and headed back to remove the carcas. As I approached, it was clear the eagle had left. The roadkill was a fox and I moved it clear of the road.

4mar: After fitting my clipless pedals and headed to Paterson.  My speed was immediately faster and the body load was distributed more through my body more. At Pato I collected cycling glasses and a candle lantern and was disappointed to see I had only 6k on the Dura. The ride back was enjoyable within more speed on hills with no more physical stress.  Back at the forestation I realised the metering issue, was reading miles in place of kilometres. Total 20k.

For today's ride I parked up at Bunnings Heathbrae and got ready. While I was there a fellow, looking rough and driving a Lexus hit me up. I sussedthat he had a drug problem rather than a "left my credit card at home and need pertrol" problem. So I suggested he go to the pertrol station across the road and make an arrangement. Tellingly he said " no they won't help you". This tipped me off  to  a body on the outer of society. So I made my excuses. Soon after, a guy walking towards Bunnings with his girlfriend fell for it. As D&O thanked a guy in a nearby campervan tipped off the Donor that he'd just for had. This pissed Mr Downandout and he Camperman, calling him an "effing dog"  before going over and slapping him around. They went at it for a while, but it was mostly verbal with the odd slap, until they parted noisily. Mr D&O then drove off still yelling abuse at Camperman. A small group of onlookers, including myself, went over to off...

I chose the ghostgum bike shop because of a previous positive experience and because it was tiny and all about bikes.  The owner, who I later learned was John or Maizy was a bike but, a Sydney refugee of some standing and who owned most bikes on the shop. An on-trend "shopping bike" was prominently displayed. Steel framed, Brooks, swept bars and front rack, mudguards and tan sidewall city tyres. What I call a shopping bike, one you often see European bike nerds zipping along congested city streets to visit their favorite cafe or catch up with a mate. It was all new components and John said "too good to ride". Alpngaide, slightly lower on the stand, also with pedals removed for security reasons, was a Surly. It was a similar spec to the shopping bike though tougher looking. It could handle a trail, but only for a short run in dry conditions. Most components had been spec'ed up, Cube rear set, flashy rims and hot pink head bearing housings and swept ba...

OK, I'm officially fed up with this crap about T Rump. Yeah, I know that's what he wants, by creating a smorgasboard of side issues he hopes people will lose their focus on Epstein.  I just listened to a guy that describes himself as an "independent thinker". He describes these unprovoked attacks by US-Israel upon the civilians of Tehran as a suicide mission. His words: " Trump is casting America into meat grinder with no way out". He's predicting the biggest war ever. My fear all along was that as T Rump got forced into a corner he would turn on massive stink leading to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. A retaliation? Or is he makng the statement,, that right never wins over might driven by evil bastards?  

Today's route was Taylors Beach, One Mile, Zenith, Soldiers Point then back to Taylors Beach.  Shortest distance 40k, add detours to Fingal Head and Tomaree Trail passed Box and Zenith Beaches.  Corps worked OK for only a few k, then maybe due to me poking it to maximise the nav screen, it went into some kind of lockout mode. This evening I downloaded a QR Code app and it seems to like this rather than via Google. Here's hoping. So 40-40k all up for about 3hrs out, including stops to eat, take in the sights or drink a coke and coffee. My goal was to just put time into the saddle, carrying kitchen, tools and wet gear. So this was achieved, happily. I can't recall having a bike that I enjoyed racking up the miles on, than this Krampus.  I had some bike hiking on the Tomaree NP, but coming off hills she scoots. I hardly felt the weight. Totally besotted! No photos, cos I just wanted to ride. Beautiful views of the water; Fingal, Shoal Bay, Nelson Bay, Dutchies, and sections ...