How priorities change, a task turns to a mountain (fixing a bicycle)
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Wed 27 Jan 2010 04:47
Warren Dunkin said you watch how simplified your life will come, speaking
with Dan Fitzpatrick (he cruised for 6 years ) he stated the same, but it is
ramp to simplifying your life. It takes time to let go of things, I did well
on the way down but now the family has arrived and we are on a dock for a
couple of days, the complexity has gone up (actually excess stuff, typical
of people living on a dock), I expect over the next 2 months this ramp of
simplification of life will continue.
But an example today we started off to ride into town but Tracy's bike had a
flat, I expected that it would take 20 minutes and all fixed (how wrong can
you be) the job has turned into a whole day effort and a story. Initially I
swapped the tube and sure enough the new one had leaks as well, that was my
last tube so I checked for the patch kit and the glue was old. So I found
out where the bike shops were in town and took off on my bike, bought 3 new
kits, and asked could I get a tube of course we have a special wheel, but
the sports store pointed me in a direction 30 blocks away, so I off I went
(as you can see from the photos I need toe exercise I lost 25 lbs last year
and we will do another 25 this year), uphill but good exploring. I arrived
at this old store just for bikes and the guy running it was also out of the
"ark" and when he saw my folding bike he nearly fell out of chair. So I
started to explaining my challenge(in broken Spanish) in finding a tube for
my size (16 x 1 3/8) wheel, he had a 16 but it was wider, but we thought
let's have a go, so he and I communicating by pointing and drawing I pulled
my back wheel off to check, sure enough it was too small, (I think their 16"
is different from ours or the UK). So by this time the owner and I had
developed a relationship and he went back and got two beers and he continued
to ask questions and point to the bike on how it folds it fascinated him. So
I was back to fixing the punctures, no issue I had done this a lot as a kid,
but to my amazement I was not fixing one hole but 6 in each tube, so I am
still testing and looking for sharp edges in the wheel.
But a simple job has just got significantly bigger and a whole day, yet the
bikes are a major part of our life, it is a primary land transport, but I
should have got more spares before I left, it was only 3 weeks ago I was
multi tasking over 12 meetings a day, that ramp to simplification is
happening.
Today was Australia Day ( which is also my birthday) so while I was riding
around town Tracy and Boys cooked me a cake representing GIJIMA (our boat)
as you can see the photos. You can also see in the photos the new lounge
(thanks Mike Burke) which was only completed with covers once we arrived
here but this was the major project in a redesign of the dinette to a lounge
room prior to leaving as we now eat basically up stairs in the large
enclosed cockpit. So for those whole lived through that transformation you
can now see the results.
Cheers Happy birthday Australia, another year older but feeling younger
everyday!
