this is a long distance call

My next door neighbours irritate me.  It's not that they do anything particularly awful, but I resent their existence when I am outside and trying to pretend that I do not have neighbours. Because my yard is large this is an easy thing to pretend if the neighbours will cooperate by being quiet.  However, they are not usually quiet in the mornings which is when I most like to be outside.  They bicker incessantly.  The mother has an incredibly shrill voice that makes me want to cross through the fence and tap on her kitchen window and tell her that the reason no one in her family listens to her when she tells them to eat the cereal in the containers first is that her voice is is too high.  If she could drop it an octave I am certain her entire life would change.  I would also like to have a conversation about whether they really need a cuckoo clock.


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Shawn and I went road biking yesterday afternoon.  It was 34 degrees Celcius, which although unpleasantly hot when standing still did not feel particulary hot when cycling.

There are some sports that my body likes, that feel natural, and others that do not.  My body likes jogging for example, but does not like sprinting.  My body likes road biking but does not like mountain biking.  My body likes lying in the sun in a bathing suit on the dock of a boat drinking tequila, but yet it does not like swimming in cold water.

But although I like road biking I have been resisting clipless pedals for a long time.  I fear being unable to get my foot off the pedal quickly enough to catch myself if something happens.  I envision myself stuck fast to the bike as it crashes to the asphalt.

I finally let Shawn swap out my regular pedals for clipless ones this week, and practiced on the trainer clipping in and out as fast as possible.  I also practiced tapping around the house in my bike shoes that sound like tap shoes, and I got my first bruise in the living room when my foot slipped off the pedal and the chain ring gouged my calf muscle.  I include, for your entertainment, an unflattering photograph of my bruisy chicken leg.  (The bruise shows disappointingly poorly on my cheap camera.)

When we cycled yesterday, I managed not to sustain any further injuries, and I did find that there was some benefit, speedwise, to being able to both pull and push simultaneously.  I did feel ridiculous in the tap shoes, but it was worth it.  I hope there will be no more injuries to document, but I am not really one of the most coordinated people around.  So there will probably be more.

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