On Past Rides and Recovery

I am going to donate blood today so I will be off the saddle for the next couple days, except of course for the commute to and from the office. This is probably a good thing, I need to recover from the Saturday ride. Except I really will miss the freedom that comes with the saddle.

This Saturday (Sept. 27) I have to go to my Aunt and Uncle's cottage to help them prepare it for the Winter, Lesley said I should ride there. The cottage is in Rosseau, about 220km from home, I don't think I can do it. For one thing I would need to find a safe route, for another, the roads near there are not exactly well paved. (That fact that I will have just donated blood makes it even more foolish for me to even consider riding there.) And then by the time I arrived I would be ready to crash, I'd be in no shape to cut wood or whatever else they need help with.

I read the following in Today's Globe And Mail, in the context of Georg's anonymous posts it seems relevant (yes I am still on that crap, but I am getting over it).

Our modern culture, come to think of it, is one long string of attack ads – through YouTube videos, satirical Web pages and gotcha e-mails, we are constantly holding up our public figures, and even each other, to scathing ridicule and scorn.

Most times on the Internet we hide behind anonymity to do so. (Will the reader, for instance, who called me “patriarchy's handmaiden” please step forward? Just for a little chat.)

The truth is, even if we're not the ones on the attack, we're all complicit, quickly forwarding the best nasty e-mails or hurrying to YouTube to witness the next takedown. It doesn't say much for our collective humanity, does it, when during elections the political ads that work the best are the most vicious ones?

Anyway I have an appointment at the clinic, time for me to give up a pint of AB+. If I have time later I'll post some more YouTube videos of the ride from Saturday. Aaron's a good photographer.