First off, something more about yesterday’s post about how randonneuring was really not a fit for me. I was talking with Daegan today about it and he had a number of interesting things to say about it having experienced more hours riding with me than anyone else in the world. He truly understands why I ride a bike and he said: “If you are riding with all of those rules about where you can stop/resupply and rules for how fast you have to do it, you take all of the stories out of the experience. The stories happen when and where you stop.” And that is so true. We stopped at all kinds of restaurants and stores for every kind of food. We have wandered into the room for an washroom break only to find 200 year old charcoal kilns. We’ve swum in swimming holes in Vermont on the advice of 80 year old cyclists we ran into along the way. We’ve stopped at more than one sculpture garden. We’ve eaten fresh strawberries from a farm stand outside Quebec City, and homemade habanero-raspberry popsicles at a farm stand in Vermont. We’ve come across a butter tart stand on a mostly deserted road on the eastern edge of Toronto, just around the corner from where we stopped to watch an otter cross the road.
So yeah, I’m actually feeling pretty good about yesterday’s experience.
Today my plan was to fetch my commuter/touring bike from the shop and pick up a few things while I was out. I grabbed cold medicine for Sage (she has a head cold, poor thing!) and vitamins for us all before heading to the shop. I got there, picked up the bike and rode it about 200 metres before realizing they didn’t do a good job of some of the adjustments. I turned it back around and left it for them to finish hopefully tomorrow. With a little extra time I took one more detour for kottu roti from a Sri Lankan restaurant not too far from home. I’m definitely not in my top cycling shape yet and the idea of cooking dinner seemed overwhelming as I am still a bit sleepy. Kottu roti, a mixture of some curry (veg, chicken or mutton, usually) with chopped up roti/paratha, and fried with more veggies, spices, eggs and curry leaves. It’s usually served with lemon/lime wedges and chopped red onion – and it’s one of the cheaper takeout deals you can find. The place I went charged $25 for three and I intend to have half for lunch tomorrow.
Meanwhile, as promised, here are some of the good things happening in the world (I mean, aside from the trees starting to bud and flowers and greenery finally coming out!):
First off, way to go, Australia! You also managed to keep your right wing party out of office and vote out their party leader as well. It’s like we’re election siblings! Apparently it was a landslide!
If you’ve been reading a while, particularly on the old version of this blog, you know I love the “Improv Everywhere” style interventions. This one from Australia is a lovely take on the idea of people offering “Free Hugs”
Meanwhile in Fredricton, New Brunswick, a Canadian tech millionaire built a community of 99 tiny homes for unhoused people in the area. You can see a video about the initiative here:
That’s this week’s update – a mere fraction of the good that’s happening in the world. What good things do you know of happening in the world, your community or in your life? Let everyone know in the comments..
I love the bonus activities in addition to biking you both did, after all it’s all about the journey not the destination.
Same. It is beginning to seem that the bonus activities are the goal and the bike is just a means to an end.