Easy As Falling Off A Bike pt 3009

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The Daily Dormouse.
(aka Bike, est. 2007)
Part 3009
by Angharad

Copyright© 2016 Angharad

  
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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
*****

One of the emails I checked was from Dan, the manager of the nature reserve who asked me if I’d seen the article in Nature, a comment piece mainly by a professor from Queensland in Australia, called, ‘The Ravages of Guns, Nets and Bulldozers’. In it the authors suggest that while, quite rightly, attention should be focused on loss of biodiversity through climate change, over 8000 species were at risk from over exploitation, farming, hunting and continuing loss of habitat due to human need for housing, roads or agriculture and which at the current rate of progress will have more direct effect than pure global temperature rise on its own. Put the two together and we are going to lose huge numbers of animals and plants through extinction. A major cause of this is overpopulation and human greed.

I’ve said before that human beings are probably the most disastrous stage natural selection has ever made, who in small numbers were innocuous but once they became established and developed technology became dangerous to every other species on the planet. We still are. In fact we are destroying the planet or the biodiversity on it by elevating global warming as well as other more direct forms of destruction such as logging and deforestation then have the gall to suggest the temperature of the earth hasn’t risen since 1998. It has and temperatures of the oceans are rising at an alarming rate. July 2016 is the warmest month on record globally.

I saw the article was mentioned in the Guardian as well.

Returning to collect the children who were chatting with Sally, I overheard Danielle describing her bikini and saying that I would probably make her wear her other one if we went to the beach. As I didn’t see her wearing the one we bought, I began to wonder if I should have insisted on it like I did with the younger ones. It would probably have given rise to teenage tantrum number three, so in the interests of world peace, I said nothing and decided whatever it looked like, providing she only wears it around the villa and the pool, I won’t say anything negative—I hope.

Goodness, I must appear to be like a nineteenth century puritan. These days kids are allowed to do exactly what they want. It seems the current trend is to let them do dangerous things and when they come to grief as they will, you sue whoever you can possibly blame but yourself. What’s crazy is the law often seems to back them. That it becomes obvious to common sense, that if you climb trees you are at risk of falling off or out of them, in which case you sue the owner of the tree because they should have stopped you climbing them. Why doesn’t the law embrace self responsibility. Most of the misfortunes we suffer are self inflicted, often because we didn’t listen to advice based upon the personal experiences of others.

As the adage says, ‘good advice is often offered but rarely taken.’

I wonder which is worse, allowing children to run roughshod over everything and everybody or letting them waste away in front of computer or smart phone screens, when the latest research tends to suggest they need five or six times the exercise previously recommended, in fact we all do if we are to avoid heart disease, diabetes, obesity and so on.

Sounds like everyone except perhaps Danielle needs to do more running about. If it wasn’t quite so dangerous, I’d love to see the girls cycling to school. It’s probably just a little too far to walk in a reasonable time but it may not be impossible, whereas the traffic congestion is getting worse on a daily basis. If there’s something special going on, then the traffic is ridiculous, given Portsmouth is an island, there’s nowhere really for traffic to go.

If life is to become better, we need to reduce the numbers of cars by half, especially in towns and cities, encourage children to cycle or walk to school and disincentivise the use of cars wherever possible. To do so will probably need an attachment of guilt or shame so that driving anywhere in a town is a non-U activity. It won’t happen but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong or a bad idea but because we are all so lazy and politicians are all scaredy cats. First though we need to improve public transport and make walking and cycling safer.

People in rural areas often have no choice but to drive everywhere as buses are either rare objects or extinct. It shouldn’t preclude cycling as an alternative but once distance appears, people seem to stop cycling.

I took the children back home and they all went to show whoever was at home their new swimsuits. I nudged Danni and we went off to change and take the bikes out. Once we were out of the drive we cycled straight to the convent. About two and half miles. Even in the holiday season traffic, it only took us fifteen minutes which today might well have been quicker than the car. However, it was too dangerous for young riders and even if those down to Meems could cycle, I’d still have to take Cate and eventually Lizzie by car for a number of years, they’re too small to ride.

Tom arrived home followed by Simon and Sammi who said the new passport should arrive within six working days. Our holiday was due to start in five. I thanked her and she went up to change before we served dinner. David had braised some steak, which was delicious and fell apart as you ate it. He said it had been in the slow oven of the Aga for the past day and a half.

Braising shouldn’t be beyond the wit of anyone but at times it appears to be so. Are many of the youngsters not taught how to cook inexpensive but nutritious food? The problem with cheaper cuts of meat is sometimes the meat is chewy unless cooked for long enough. But throw in some onion, carrot and garlic and the flavour is one to savour except you know people won’t do it because they can pop to MacDonalds and grab a burger almost any time of the day or night and there’s no washing up if you chuck the wrappers out of the car window. We sat behind one such imagination all the way home, a smallish, elderly man obviously tending to suggest he would be better off walking, except he didn’t and we all lived in hope that his sloth would be the death of him but more quickly than usual. He trundled along at ridiculously low speeds probably never had an accident in his life but had probably caused dozens through impatient drivers wanting to overtake.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/10/agricult...

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Comments

On your bike!

Back in the dark ages,well almost 60 years ago, I cycled six miles to school. However, would not like to do that with the traffic that is now on the roads. The bus service was not good where I lived, half mile walk to nearest stop and no evening service during week.
As for elderly drivers, I do see some and wonder if they should still be driving, but being country dwellers they have no other means of getting around.

I think we call that a Yankee

I think we call that a Yankee Pot Roast !
If people took responsibility for their own actions, the world would be a friendlier place. Why does a family of three need a 3000sf house ?
And don't forget the child predator factor for having the girls bike to school. I never was driven to school, except in a Monsoon, today, every child is driven. Think of the idling motors!

Karen

Phew!

Maddy Bell's picture

I think I can safely say that i've avoided the wrath of Cathy!
I don't drive so I have to either a) walk - up to about 5km, b) cycle - well I only did 95km today or c) use public transport - where bulky/heavy loads or distance/time are important. The few times I travel in a car it's for leisure trips usually with two pensioners and then not that often.

And as for Maccy D's - well i've not used one in about a decade but I may have to now, the mighty G had one as preparation for his time trial ride today! I actually do quite a lot of cooking from the simple to quite fancy but it's not very economical when it's for one!


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Madeline Anafrid Bell

Cathy could always ...

... get a trailer bike or kiddyback tandem (or both) to take the little ones to school :)

Another way for we humans to cause less harm to the planet would be either to cut out eating meat altogether or, at least, to limit meat consumption greatly. I think I've been in a Micky D's a total of four times and 3 of those were because it was the only cafe open and it was just for a coffee and a non-meat snack.

We're lucky to have a decent bus service through our village but we usually walk the 2.5 miles into one of the nearby small market towns unless we're in a hurry when we use the bikes.

Robi

For a woman who talks a lot

For a woman who talks a lot about global warming,her carbon footprint seem very large to me.
Does she has solar collectors on the roofs or or a wind turbine?
Flying to Spain when she could holday in the UK?
Using a helicopter?
The family cars seem to be gas guzzlers.
I think she need to look at ways to reduce her own carbon foot print and maybe reduce the meat the family is eating or go vegetarian or better yet grow all her own fruit and veg.

She likes to complain a lot

She likes to complain a lot yet does very little to actually help the environment directly. She likes to think that she is better than everyone else but is just as bad.

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

There is an abundance.....

D. Eden's picture

Of drivers just like the old man you described pretty much everywhere I have ever been. They seem to be in absolutely no hurry to get anywhere, and what's more they feel it is their God given right to hold everyone else up.

The one's that truly piss me off are the left lane bandits - a phrase those of you on the east side of the pond won't understand. On an expressway or Interstate highway in the US, the left lane is known as the passing lane or the high speed lane - by law, slower traffic is required to keep right. Unfortunately, there seems to be a large portion of the motoring public who are too stupid to understand that. They will plant themselves in that lane and drive slower than the other traffic, forcing everyone else to pass them on the right. They refuse to move over, and when you flash your headlights at them to do so (the accepted and taught method for doing this), they get angry like you have insulted them. Hence the name "Left Lane Bandit".

How they ever passed a driving test is beyond me.

Dallas

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Depends on where they slow down and time of day

If that old duffer pulled something like that on a two lane road (one lane of traffic in each direction) and during rush hour then the police can (and have) pull you over for obstructing traffic. As a consequence, I think they only pull that kind of shenanigans on multi-lane roads.

We all slow down as we get older.

I used to regularly tootle along at eighty or ninety mph but several factors have slowed me down recently.

1 Electronic surveillance (Speed cameras.)
2 Exponential increase in traffic (caused partly by population density and partly by increased car-ownership).
3 The onset of my own dotage, we do slow down as we get older and at seventy I notice this..
4 A serious deterioration in good road manners.
5 Rail travel isn't an option for the fares are exorbitant.

The trouble is the car has become an evil necessity to support my life-style running a business. I just cant win.

(Moan, moan, moan, moan, moan!)

But I'm still lovin' Bike.

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It has taken years in coming

It has taken years in coming to America; where it comes to people riding bikes to work or school or where ever else. As they were never as popular here as in GB or Europe or Japan; it has taken some time for people to get used to sharing the road with the bike riders. Sadly, there are also some bike riders who believe they have the right to ride as they see fit and NOT follow the "rules of the road". This means USING hand signals to let auto drivers know what you are going to be doing, Riding WITH traffic, rather than against it as I have seen so many do lately??? Having the proper items on you bike, such as flashers, lights, tools and the like, wearing reflective clothing or items especially when you are riding out at dusk or even in the dark. Realizing that in many cases you have the right away, but fail to understand that a car/SUV/Van/Truck is way, way more larger than you and your bike, and can cause you much more serious harm, so in the right or not, you need to give way for your own safety sake at times.
Cathy wondering about the girls riding to school; when I was growing up 40's, 50's and 60's, if you lived ONE mile or less from the school, you walked to the school. No school bus at all; IF the roads were not too bad, you could ride a bike IF the school allowed it, as there were not too many places to park them for safety and proper storage.
Still think that is the case today in many places.

We could end up like the film

We could end up like the film slient running where all natural life on earth was gone except for space craft and want to blow up the habs to get back to commercal space flight. Or Soylant Green where the only food was people every one thing else was gone.In that film only the rich had good lifes every one else lived in old cars or on the streets

My mate 1952 E93A will only

My mate 1952 E93A will only do about 50 60 so she could get stuck behind that . My dad had a Ford E93A theyare slow.I once had a mk4 Zepher 2.0 v4 it was a huge tank but o to 60 in 3 days.Some old people own cars that are so old that they cant go fast.

I wish I could

walk, ride or use public transport, with blown out knees, I struggle to walk to my front yard sidewalk so riding or walking is no longer possible, and with the nearest public transportation station over a half mile away, neither is that. However, if I am traveling outside my own city, I drive to the public transport and then use public transportation - provided that the destination is near a station.