I Have Made a Couple of Big Decisions

First let me deal with the aftermath of my fall from my bicycle three weeks ago.  Two days later, on Thursday the 10th of May, I had to visit my GP for a six monthly check up on my Type 2 Diabetes.  I had had the full blood tests the week before.  I was still very sore from my fall and my GP had me remove my shirt while he examined my back.  I had areas of sharp pain on both the front and back of my lower left ribs.  I had no problems with breathing but could have cracked a rib on my lower back.  It was decided that I would live and should carry on as normal except for avoiding activities which caused pain in that area.   As I normally sleep on my left side it has caused some restless nights but the pain has now eased and I am sleeping normally again.

The good thing is that the rest of my check up revealed that my diabetes is still under control with exercise and diet.  My GP's advice was to continue on as normal , continue riding my bike but don't fall off!

I have also had my annual eye tests which last year showed some signs  of a cataract forming on my left eye.  More good news as it has not spread and the full eye examination revealed no other abnormalities I'll probably be all right for a few more years.  With my spectacles I was given 20 20 plus.

I was able to do my Meals on Wheels  deliveries on the 11th but getting in and out of the car and twisting to put on my seat belt did hurt quite a lot. Since then I have done my normal rounds and a couple extra and things are back to normal.

On Saturday the 12th I went on my normal 30Km bike ride with my cycling club.  I had no problems while riding but starting and stopping caused some discomfort.  Since then I have had two more club rides without any problems and I have been shopping on my other bike several times.

As this post's tile says I have also made a couple of decisions about my future.

First I have decided to stay in my house a long as possible and this means that I am about to start "doing it up".  The first thing is a kitchen renovation.  When Margaret and I had our house in Tewantin built in 1998 we were persuaded to have the kitchen cupboards faced with a shrunk on vinyl finish as this allowed for a moulded pattern on their fronts.  What we didn't know that with normal kitchen heat the vinyl would shrink and eventually tear and fall off.

 The front of the pot and pans drawer affected by heat from the oven.

Knives and forks drawers in original condition.

I have arranged for all the drawer fronts and the bench tops to be replaced.  The cupboards will be finished with a flat white melamine surface and the bench tops with a reconstituted granite finish.  It will cost several thousand dollars but it will be worth it.  Next it will be hall and bedroom carpets.

The next decision concerns my cycling.  After my stroke scare last year I worked very hard to go on my bicycle tour of South Australia.  As you may remember I had problems on the first couple of hard days and later took a couple of short cuts.  This year I have decided not to go on the next SA tour.  It is just as long and it has not real loops for me to take short cuts.  After discussions with my GP I now realise that my medication for atrial fibrillation is still limiting my heart  rate and thus on a period of time I begin to suffer fatigue.  I appear to be OK up to four or five hours of riding at my sedate rate which gives me between 50 and 70Km depending on hills.  In future I shall be limiting my rides.

This does not mean that I am giving up riding.  Quite the coronary i have decided to do a series of short five day tours around Queensland.  These will be every month or so on the last week of the month when I have no scheduled MOW rounds.   Louis will have a brief holiday in kennels.

To this end I have bought new pannier bags and racks for my Bike Friday and here it is in it full touring configuration.

I hope to ride the Mary Valley, where Helen and I took the Rattler earlier this year, at the end of June and stay overnight in hotels, motels or cabins.  If I feel fit enough I will start camping as we get into spring.

Finally for Helen some local wild life.

This little Gecko livse behind a picture frame in my kitchen and earns his keep by catching bugs.  The cockroach has come in from the garage.

It Was Such a Lovely Ride 0r Pride Comes Before A Fall

Yesterday was  a beautiful day with a bright cool morning and a bright sunny day forecast.  I decided to have ride to Eumundi for coffee.  This is a hilly 17Km ride and I did it in a leisurely hour.  Coffee and a cream bun were at the Eumundi bakery where there was a group of touring cyclists just moving off.  They were on a charity ride and carrying all their camping gear.  They waved as I cycled up but didn't stop to talk.

After a half an hour break I decided to return via Cooroy and stretch the ride out to 40Km.  The map an elevation profile shows a steep climb between 18 and 19Km and I had to stop for some road works.  It was easier to walk through them than try and remount my bike on the steepest grade.  At the top I sat at the lookout for a while and was joined by another cyclist.  He had a road bike and looked very fit.  We talked for a while and found out that we were both 75 years old.  After about half an hour we went on our separate ways.

I had an enjoyable ride to Cooroy but just before I turned off for Tewantin I had a puncture in my front tyre.  This was my first puncture in over 10 years and I set up in the shade near the Cooroy Station's bus shelter to fix it.  The cause of the puncture looked obvious with a metal  staple sticking in the tyre's tread.  It took sometime to remove the staple as it broke off leaving a bit sticking through the casing on the inside.  After a while I flicked it out using a key and replaced the inner tube with my spare and pumped up the tyre and replaced the wheel.

I was soon pedalling up the hill from Cooroy but just before the drop down into Tewantin I noticed that my tyre was flat again.  In my pride at finding the staple I had overlooked the first rule of fixing flats. "Even if the cause looks obvious check the tyre for other possible problems."

I pumped up the tyre and decided to take the longer twisty route down the escarpment rather than the swift swoop down the main road.

At the bottom the tyre felt soft but I only had a bit over one kilometre to get home.  As I turned left to cross the road from the bike path the soft front tyre allowed the rim to dig in a flip me over the handle bars and and on my back next to the bike.  I sat up and apart from twisting my handlebars the bike was OK.  I had a graze on my leg but my main problem was a very sore back.

I walked the short distance home and had a shower.  My back was not bruised but was very tender as if I had been kicked in the ribs.  I could breath OK and I didn't think that I had cracked a rib.

I was able to walk Louis in the evening and my friend, Betty,  had me lift up my shirt in the park to see if she could see any problems but it looked OK.

I was able to sleep OK but woke up very stiff and sore this morning.  After taking some Paracetamol I was able to fix the two flat tubes and discovered a piece of glass through the tread which caused the only puncture.  The staple had not pierced the tube.

The misquotation in the post's title seems appropriate.  The full biblical quotation is:

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."

Back to Normal

Helen went home last Tuesday and life has returned to normal.  Before she left we took a trip on the Mary Valley Rattler.  The Mary Valley runs from the Hinterland behind Noosa to Maryborough and the sea.  A narrow gauge railway line was established between the little town of Imbil  and the large town of Gympie  over a hundred years ago.  It was closed down about thirty years ago and resurrected by volunteers about twenty years ago as a tourist attraction.

We drove to Gympie for the start at 9.00am and watched the engine being coupled to the old carriages.  The following photos were taken by me and Helen has many more on her Face Book page.

 The first few kilometres were through fairly flat farming land

 before we started the climb up the Mary Valley

 Smoke gets in your eyes!

 Crossing the Little Yabba Creek into Imbil

 Going Home

  

We had lunch in Imbil where the local Historical Society enacted a totally fictitious Bush Ranger attack.  The last Bush Ranger around this area was in the 1800s.

We got back to Gympie about 4.00pm after a fun day.

Margaret and I stayed at Imbil several times in our caravan with our large poodle Pierre.  It was a favourite spot


While Helen was here we made several MOW runs together including one from Noosa Heads down the coast Marcus Beach which I hadn't done before.  It took us three hours because of the distance,  the large number of clients and the fact that I had to look up each address on the map.  I thinks that a GPS is called for.  Over a couple of weeks we stood in several times because of other volunteers being away.

I have had little opportunity for cycling because of the rainy weather but as we enter Autumn it should get drier and I shall be out and about more.

One sad thing is that my good neighbour, Bunty, is moving to a retirement village next weekend.  She was the one who helped me immediately after my stoke and her prompt actions helped minimise it's affects.