The wheels are turning but you're upside down

Today was a relatively long ride, but this is going to be a short blog. Skip has blogged it very eloquently here:

http://www.thecyclingmayor.com/?m=201102

and in any case my head is full of the same old drivel it was last week.

It was very windy, and our route took us out into the face of it for the first half and then back with a (mostly) tailwind on the way back. I am disappointed with myself for losing my rag with a man driving a car. Maybe driving is a kindly interpretation. I probably lost it because of the puncture as we were leaving Glastonbury, quite explosive it was too, on the back tyre with no apparent cause.

My tyres are a bit old as well, which has its benefits. They were a lot easier to get on and off than when I bought them, although their grip in the wet and ice has been a little suspect of late. After as much faff as I could create, involving a dodgy valve on the old and new tyre, my CO2 canister running out of fizz, my pump, Skip's pump, we were inflated and on the road again.

You can look at the route on Charlie, High Ham, Shapwick Hill, Butleigh, they're all there. Very little rain, and great cake and coffee in Glasto.Here's the route from Skip's house back to her house then back to mine.:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/66927257

By a strange quirk of technology, my route down to Skip's house (well nearly) has recorded separately here:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/66927278

I particularly like the almost continual descent for 2 miles on the elevation graph. Sad, but that's me.

I've been musing about philosophy on these pages of late. It's a well-known truism that the English don't hold with such stuff mostly, not unless they can see the practical purpose. Stereotype? Yes of course, but what is the point of having your own blog if I can't throw in the odd generalisation if the fancy takes me.

So philosophy. It is often said by them, that people most regret what they didn't do, rather than what they did. Well last week I looked down the barrel of an opportunity and decided not to pull the trigger, let the rabbit go free. Scuttling into his warren of potential. Time will tell, puddings, proof, eating and all that, but it somehow feels, yes feels, viscerally, that it was a good decision. Morally too, and you know how I love my own moral high ground.

But then today I feel as if I rolled down the hill a bit, and said a few things to that driver which did no good to anyone, and actually could have put Skip as well as myself in a tricky situation. It has to stop, cyclists will not be saved from idiot drivers by my aggressive outbursts. Human reaction it may be, but then humanity is about more than just being reactive.

Which brings me to the picture. Jules may talk about walking the earth till God puts him where he wants him to be. I'm going to stay where I am and wait for further orders. The picture is the badge of Axbridge too, and also adorns our ACG kit. So you see the synchronicity, surely?