Darker days
The days are starting to get shorter. Time to start getting up earlier :)
This year continues to been filled with many dark days across our society of human beings. Selfishness seems abound, driven by fear created by the few to manipulate the many. The ever increasing propaganda seems to know no end.
When you are put into a position of constant fear of the other, you are loosing a party of your humanity and missing out in the multitude of joys in our world.
It is easy to forget that these hostile views are from a vocal minority who really do not understand the damage they are doing to our society and themselves. Unfortunately they also impact the lives of everyone else.
One regular tonne from those in fear is that they are loosing their identity because of others. How can this be the case when each person's identity is shaped by so many active and passive experiences. Fear shuts down the intricacies of each persons identity. Prolonged fear reduces a person to a mindless savage, capable of unbelievable hate towards others (and themselves).
The movement of people has been the bedrock of human survival and evolution over the last 10,000 years. To think this would ever stop is to deny a significant part of our society. Went people are welcomed into a society, they contribute and become part of a richer society. When we fail to all welcome people into our society then people do not feel they can become a part of our world. When a vocal minority throws hate or even bricks, then not only those on the receiving end feel hurt, our whole society is greatly damaged.
A cold and foggy start to a nice 112 km ride on Monday which brightened up just over half way. I had lots of layers on, including 3 pairs of socks and 3 pairs of gloves. Surprisingly I managed quite a few personal best times along the route. I thought we were going quite steady.
I was quite exhausted on Tuesday though, I seem to have some covid or flu symptoms affecting me and draining my energy. I will start doing deliberate breathing to help keep my lungs clear.
Wednesday was a big organisation and tidy up of the house, as a plumber is coming to service the boiler on Thursday. I gave away the last of the IKEA 365+ food containers I bought a long time ago. The containers always felt a bit top-heavy (they are tapered with a small base). I posted them on Freegle at the weekend and after one person didnt turn up, another came on Wednesday.
Thursday the boiler was serviced and I also arranged a service for my neighbour (who looks after my cats). One of the people I cycle with is a plumber, so its nice to have someone I can trust looking at the boiler. My boiler is in very good condition, which is nice.
Saturday I was helping my neighbour identify the cause of a vibration with their central heating system. After around 45 minutes of heating the radiators, the boiler was creating a very loud vibration. This vibration occurred every 5 minutes or so, for about 30 seconds. I bled the radiators, a couple of which did have a lot of air in. The issue remained. After a bit of a hunt the water pressure