Potty Mouth Blues

Talk about some bad luck this week.  A double bike puncture Friday week ago saw me having to replace both tyres, and the day after picking up the newly shod unit, one of the buggers was already flat.  With that sorted, I lasted 2 days before blowing one of ‘em, and on the first ride after that fixing, the other blew.

“Just bad luck” says the funky technician with the tied-back dreads and low-waisted hipsters.  “You would have been better off buying the more expensive tyres”.  No shit, Sherlock!

To add insult to injury, about 10 minutes before learning of this most recent flat, I nearly came a cropper of a rather aggressive, 8ft tall pedestrian who executed a hazardous runner through some stationery traffic and forced me up against the curb.  This was around midday on Saturday, through the central shopping district, and this dude hadn’t been the first during that hairy, downhill traverse to cause poor old Donkey’s adrenal gland to vamp into hyperdrive, so I gave him all six barrels of abuse, to which he responded by stretching to full height and offering his own a colourful serve of rhetoric, accompanied by a furious red face and shaking fists.

Perhaps I need to calm down a little and hold-off on disparaging remarks calling into question the sexual orientation of peoples’ mothers.

Time for Donkey to take a chill pill before jumping in the saddle.  Pic: http://bmxroots.com/?author=3

Fines fail to deter cyclists running red lights

From today's Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/fines-fail-to-deter-cyclists-running-red-lights-20110410-1d9fb.html


Isn't it great to have such a wonderful, informed, slightly left-leaning daily broadsheet to keep the news on the straight and narrow - Geezus, The Age!  Why not just give Andrew Bolt the Editor in Chief possie and be done with it - far better to incite already alarming driver hatred for cyclists, than to offer the balanced view that we two-wheelers face every day, such as being regularly cut off while in designated bike space, rammed from behind on roundabouts, literally knocked sideways from indicator-shy taxis, having to swerve into traffic to avoid pedestrians walking off curbs without looking while on mobile phones, or watching-out for people making a run for the tram despite the last flash of the 'red man' having been well and truly rested.


Why aren't there covert police operations investigating these, daily events?  And while I'm at it, how about tackling all the ridiculously fast, loud, hotted-up, hoon mobiles and motorbikes, all over the roads in the day and night - perhaps that might be a better use of the law enforcement dollar?


But thanks The Age - this is great stuff.  All I need now is a few more angry Commodore, taxi and 4WD drivers giving me the forks while swerving across bike lanes 'for fun', abusing me for assuming my designated place in front of them at the lights, or pulling-up and opening car doors in no-standing, designated bike zones.


How 'bout some reflection of where we'd all be if the the tens of thousands of cyclists traversing the inner city each day decided to add a couple of wheels and a V8 engine?  How 'bout some balanced perspective? - my elbows, knuckles, knees and nerves depend on it.

Never mind the stabbings and arm robberies.  Criminals; every one of 'em.  
Pic: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/fines-fail-to-deter-cyclists-running-red-lights-20110410-1d9fb.html