Put it in a letter

It's been on the cards for quite a while and all the warning signs were there. They, the signs, have been there for almost all of this year, and no matter how doubtful I was that it would happen, I suppose I should have realised that sooner or later, disaster was going to strike, and the warnings would all have been in vain.

This morning, as I was leaving to go to work, I saw a complete, adult, dead, squashed frog on the road outside my house.

I had treated it as something of a joke, not very seriously making comments like "I toad you there was no danger", "stop amPHIBBian about it", "whoever put the signs up should hop it", I could go on but they just get worse. Of course, I'm sure you knew that there is a cocktail called the squashed frog. It's tasteful, as in bad taste, rather than tasty. Mix together 25ml of advocaat and 25ml midori and put into a shot glass then add a spot of grenadine. The grenadine should sink to the bottom to look like blood. Nice.

What I don't really understand is why when all the warning signs were there, they were so flagrantly ignored. Signs a bit like this one, only cheaper and probably not authorised by the powers that would be.




Our road does see some crazy driving. I've told you about the young lad who fell off his scooter a couple of weeks ago, and there was also the multiple car pile up in the snow two winters ago. One car comes over the brow of the hill, too fast, spins and hits the grass verge and stops in the middle of the road. Within five minutes another five cars have added to the mess because they all came over the hill too quickly.

A bit like the muppet from Environmental Water Systems in Cheddar, driving a white van no less, that totalled my wing mirror last Friday before driving away without stopping. Thank heavens for the chaos that is Banwell at rush hour as I was able to get his details and registration number as he sat in the traffic. Although he claims I was on his side of the road. I just hope the police, the insurance companies and anyone else involved understands cycling, as most people with an untethered £3K carbon fibre bike in their car, driving on their own road, tend to drive conservatively and safely. Oh, and when you are at fault in an accident, you don't tend to follow the other party to get their details, you tend to bolt and hope to get away with it.

I must let it go, it's not healthy.

You want to know about my ride to work? Really? All right then.

In via the usual suspects, Long Lane, Barrow Gurney and Ashton Park, where there was a balloon ascending, which brightened up the morning, although it was quite nice today in an early Autumn leaves off the trees, misty type of way. Apart from the trapped nerve in my lower back, that I got at football on Monday night, and pinches when I get out of the saddle. Also has the added detriment of making  my left quad feel like it's pulled. So I was slow on the way in. And said goodbye a few more times today at work. Only two days left now.

I had to get my car this afternoon, which meant a trip to Weston Super Mare, a delightful 25 miles straight into a block headwind. So I tried to mix it up a bit, and found a new hill, Providence Lane out of Long Ashton, up to Failand. That sounds like one of those race horse pedigrees. Maybe.

Fortunately I didn't encounter any vans from Environmental Water Systems being driven too fast down my hill, on my side of the road, so I got my car home with its wing mirrors intact. You can see this "letting go" business is really working. The thing is, next time he might kill a cyclist or even worse, a frog. So I was probably right to report it to the police and insurers, even if it does cost me in financial terms in the medium term.

Lets face it, cyclists are a fragile breed, so we need to take action against idiot drivers, in a measured, adult way. And those frogs need all the help they can get too, don't they?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/116066415