Bugs Bugs Bugs

Just a really quick 10 km this evening right on dark, had to breath by snorting in through my nose, it really cut the ride short. The bugs were a massive swarm and I swallowed a few before I wised up. On another note many of the glass shards have gone, thanks to some considerate people?

Slothing

Was just a flowing cruise around the loop today on the Cypress, warm yes but pleasant, wind was slight most of the day with sunny blue sky. The low lying paddocks and drains were still filled with quickly stagnating water after the storms of the last few weeks. The mozzies are going to pretty amazing over the next couple of weeks.... something to look forward to when i get my next puncture! 

The amount of glass shardes from broken bottles has shown a big increase over this weekend, in one 150 meter stretch I counted 5 freshly smashed ones from last night alone. So the ride consisted of a lot of swerving and saying S*#$% as I failed to avoid a new patch, with a holding of breath listening for the tell tail shhhhhhhhh..... but today i was lucky.

So... that's a Tail Wind

Saw Mark on his morning ride this morning, unsure how far he finally got before turning back towards home, but the wind and temp at 7:30am was looking good for a ride, I slacked out and got a lift to work with my Shogun. But I still got some exercise, when myself and a couple of Garbos were going up Sextons Hill. In a stationary traffic jam we jumped out ran up the hill for 50 or so meters and pushed a stranded car, causing the delay, from the left lane of the North bound lanes and then ran back to the car. Quite a workout for this little going grey duck.

Today's afternoon commute was quite amazing. Bright sunny sky, and a strong NNE wind blowing. The ride through South Tweed was as usual through the afternoon traffic but the wind made it a 40km/hr spin just about matching the car/truck traffic... Then the chug up Sextons Hill was nice as it included the cooling effect of the strong tail wind. Ah!

The only bad, if you can call them that, times during the ride was the occasional tree and hill lee sections that appeared every now and then along the freeway where the tail wind was equal in direction and speed to my forward movement. These spots caused the body temperature to rise very rapidly and required a bit of water pouring to get some relief. Thankfully these interludes were gone as fast as they arrived.

Quicki

A quick Commute with a 25km/hr tail wind today got a average for the 23 km of 29km/hr.... on the Shogun. I rode the Coast Rd without incident! Just the but got numb.... I must look at getting a better saddle?

Dry Windy Ride

The ride today was hot and windy. A strong WNW-NW wind was blowing. The humidity was a low as it gets here about 30% and there was no sweat in the eyes at all. The perspiration evaporated before it even came out of your pores.
I used 750ml of water just occasionally tiping some over my head and back through the 35 km spin around Reserve Creek Round Mountain gravel sections... The wind has dropped this evening.

[caption id="attachment_305" align="alignnone" width="159" caption="Dry and Windy "][/caption]

Save Hasting Point -Battle Win

The locals have had a breakthrough! The Tweed Shire Council has voted to create/implement a Development Control Plan (DCP), see the Echo Story, the developers and their council sympathisers were out voted by a slim 4-3 margin.

This may not be the end of the war on every natural and cultural environment destructive development in the area but at least it is a small battle victory.  The general idea that more of anything is better than less is something that I disagree with.

I feel a rant coming on....

The idea of sustainability was summed up in the late 70's when I was undertaking a Business Degree at Ku-ring-gai CAE and the theory of the Steady Sate Economy was presented to me! Ah the light was blinding... but the greed is good promoted to the community during the next 30+ years has lead to the economic crisis we find ourselves as a community fast required to deal with. Many of the precepts of a Growth Economy can easily switch to become that of a Shrinking Economy. The magical multipliers work geometrically just as well in both directions!

Both the Federal and State Parliaments are proving themselves incapable of consensual action, even though the economy ship is on the verge of sinking the powers to be are deciding what colour to paint the frigging lifeboats, even though there is no rescue ship close by to save those that can fit in the limited capacity lifeboats.

Remind you of a story you may have heard? Does the Sinking of the White Star Line's Titanic come to mind, not enough lifeboats, a ship said to be unsinkable, musicians playing to placate the passengers while the ship goes down, water to cold to survive in for long, passengers deciding when is the right time to jump ship, passengers thinking the crew will save them they can sit back and be told what to do, not enough life jackets for those that can't fit into the lifeboats, no practice drills in case of emergency, etc... the list of similarities between the economy and the Titanic sinking goes on, definitely neither are or were a boy scout

... ah that's better

Dry Dawdle

Well I did manage to get on the bike today, just 12km checking both headlands to the South and North, but I was only very gently and sparsely sprinkled on. The weather prognosis is for more rain and a lot heavier, lucky we missed the mess that hit North Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, although I sure noticed it from the passenger seat in the plane on the way home on Sunday!

Today the rear rack worked well as a spray reducer through todays puddles. Although it did nothing to ease my mind as I approached the Coast Road, Round Mountain Intersection. When I was about 100 meters away from the corner this pale blue late model ute suddenly appears turning out of the South bound traffic on the Coast Rd onto Round Mountain. The young male driver decided it was a good place to give himself a bit of an ego boost through the self administering of adrenalin by drifting sideways through the corner taking the whole width of the wet, greasy intersection. I felt luck to watch from a distance rather than be closer and directly involved!