The bottom of my house is fluffy

With some occasional wisps caught on rose bushes in the garden to boot. (We had people come in to install insulation on Thursday.) It's a bit soon to tell how much of a difference it will make, owing to the weather suddenly coming on unseasonally warm...but I notice that I haven't been wanting to turn on the heater as soon as I get home, so there might be something in it.

In other news, today I went for a bike ride for the first time in months, and quite enjoyed it, although getting home was rather a chore. And visited the Affordable Art Show with Ivan and Repton - always a lot of fun.

Amazing Technicolour Dream Bruises. Or Something Like That.

This is the most ghastly looking image. The bruise on my left leg, I think, is from the rail of my bike; the scratches on my right shin are from the pedal.

Also impressive and a bit sorer, this was also from the bike rail (basically got broadsided and got more damage from being tangled in the bike than hitting the ground.)

Least impressive and most sore (although the bruise has developed some since yesterday.) I think this is where I got hit by the van. The sore area is all around the big muscle at the top of my arm (deltoid I think) and has been making raising my arm above a certain point difficult. This has been getting better over the course of the day.

Anyway, if you're going to have a major accident that you lived to talk about, you might as well brag about it, right? Went cycling again today, hopefully will feel less gunshy in a bit. A pox on drivers!

Dear Diary

Today, I got run over.

Collision on the Hutt Rd heading to Kaiwharawhara with an idiot driver coming out a drive who was checking for cars, but not cyclists who might be nefariously cycling along the cyclelane, minding their own business. Suddenly realising that you're lying on the road with your legs tangled in your bike, with oncoming traffic, bleeding, is Not Fun. (Am basically alright, but feeling sore and sorry for myself, with some exciting looking bruises.)

Fortunately, am now at home, showered, pyjamaed, and eating dinner. Pictures of the glorious technicolour bruises and accompanying grazes to follow when I get them off Repton's phone.

Because Drivers Are Dicks

OK, not all of them, but the ones that pass with a bare inch to spare between their wing mirror and cyclists certainly are.

There is a cycling safety petition asking for a 1.5m passing distance written into law here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ridestrong/index.html with a press release here: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0909/S00251.htm

The Sword of my Grandfather

You know that story about someone who fetches down the sword hanging on the wall and says "This is the sword of my grandfather, exactly the one he had. Oh sure, we had to replace the blade a couple of times, and that's the third handle - but it's definitely his sword."

My 2-year old bike is starting to feel that way. I'm now on my second set of brake cables, my third back tire, my 3 1/2 set of brake pads and have been told that I should really change the drive train and chain by the end of winter. Interestingly, I've become familiar enough with it that my response to this last (along with "How much? Ouch.") was "My baby!" I also found out that the bike I got was at a certain 'price point' at which the parts that can be seen on the outside are good quality name brands, and anything internal is a cheap Taiwanese knock off. Hmm.

In other news, I am pleased with the service I've been getting at my Local Friendly Bike Store, Capital Cycles. I switched there from Pennyfarthing after being fed up with the consistently poor service, and found the new place a big improvement, like for instance: being called if the mechanic feels that servicing will require a large cost for replacement parts, staff explaining what they did to my bike and why as a matter of routine, and staff giving me advice on maintenance and care. And they're generally nice people, too.

A Day Out

Repton has once again been hurling himself into the grass, this time at a tournament in Christchurch, and I spent my day pottering around having fun.
- going to dancing practice at the Medieval Guild and being a test audience for the play that they'll be performing at the Harcourt Park Joust in January;
- nice lunch at the Aro St cafe with a couple of members of the aforesaid Guild;
- biking around the bays as far as Cog Park - the eponymous giant cog wheel doesn't seem to be back yet, alas;
- wandering around Te Papa - I thought about looking at the colossal squid they have, but the queue was quite long, so I settled for peering at the display case from the partition;
- gelato on the waterfront.

There were many people out swimming, or paddling, or riding tandem bikes, and just generally enjoying the sun. It's been a nice day.

One of the interesting things - at Te Papa they had a 3d animation display of what they thought Big Squid's life was like, which was neat. Here's the thing, I'm quite amblyopic (posh word for saying my brain ignores the input feed from one eye because it has a very different focal depth) and under normal conditions I don't think about things like depth in what I'm seeing. But in some conditions, like in an Imac cinema, or looking at some pictures with technical tricks giving the illusion of perspective, or today at Te Papa, I get the feeling of knowing that things are nearer or farther just by looking at them, I don't have to work it out from size and movement. Is it like that for most people all the time? Gosh.

Move is just about complete bar hanging pictures and making myself laundry bag. Macca the Cat is now officially Allowed Out, although is having problems getting up the nerve to venture outside anytime she thinks that bouncing around staunchly insisting how brave she is might actually result in being exposed to Other Cats Looking At Her. Right now, she knows where the cat door is, and what it is, but is mostly using it as a toy to bang her paws against. No, wait, she's finally wormed through it now. It's unlikely that she'll be out long. Silly cat.

EDIT: And she just faced off one of the neighbour's cats trying to come in. Might have to think about undisabling the cat door magnet and making her wear a collar.

Total cycling distance: 18.8km, spread over about 6 hours with lots of distractions in between.