Most people are terrified of death. This leads them to a life of avoiding death at all costs, therefore never taking risks and not really living life as a result. They just survive day to day, making sure to merely preserve what they already have.

You only need to look at the hysterical response to covid, which you have a 99.95% chance of surviving.

I view death as something that will happen at some point, but there’s no point in worrying about it until it happens.
That doesn’t mean I’m a reckless person, but it does mean I look at risk in a rational way.

I taught this skill to my oldest daughter who is a bookworm by nature. It led to us jumping out of a perfectly good plane at 12,000ft, so we could freefall for 40 seconds before the parachute was opened. It’s hard to describe the experience, but it’s something you never forget.

The battle for my kids to be confident – Uncoffined (wordpress.com)

The only times I’ve confronted death (apart from near misses) is when I’ve gone to funerals..

The first funeral I went to was some guy that held me in his arms when I was three, and apparently was a really good guy. I was about nine yrs old at the time and obviously don’t remember him. I do remember that everyone was sad for some reason and that the club sandwiches on the table with a strange green thing (asparugus) tasted really horrible.

The second funeral was for my father. I wasn’t close to him as my parents had got divorced years earlier and I got kicked out of his house 2 weeks before School C exams (high school) to make room for his new partner.

The third funeral was for a mate who lived life to the full, and was killed in a motorcycle accident. it was a very positive affair and was effectively a celebration of his life. When I die, I would like my funeral to be like that, rather than a sad affair that leaves people unable to move on.

The forth funeral was for my father in law. It was a very sad event. I gave a positive uplifting speech which I think lifted some peoples spirits a bit (but not much). Over time my wife and family have moved on and now he’s a pleasent memory.

In conclusion, you are only here for a limited time, don’t waste it.

It’s not often these days when I have enough spare time to go for a long bike ride because of work and family commitments, but I did have a spare day on Monday.

I started off heading towards a small coastal town, but ended up heading the opposite way initially because the roads are nicer and quieter. It was mostly rolling country side and the wind was non existent, so I was cruising at a good 28 kmhr (17 mph) on the level straights.

It was a good way to clear my head, and it reminded me of all the rides I did all over the countryside when I was a kid.

According to strava it was the longest ride I’ve ever done at 55km (34miles), but more importantly I wasn’t overly tired and my knees still felt good.

(perhaps they get better with age!)

This is one of the hardest concepts to implement. It’s pretty close to “stop caring what other people think” which, unless you are a sociopath you’re not going to be able to achieve. However, other’s expectations is a broad enough category where we can whittle away at this which is the point of this post. […]

How to improve as a man – disconnect from other’s expectations

Shared from ‘A gen X point of view’ -agenxpointofview.home.blog

It’s almost summer here in NZ, so I rode my trusty Giant TCR2 to my favourite cafe today, but took a few detours to make it a bit longer. I was going pretty well until I dropped the chain off the front sprocket when I tried changing both the front and rear sprockets at the same time.

When I got to where I was going, I had a look at the front derailleur and decided it was dropping down too low, allowing the chain to come off. there’s an adjustment screw for setting how far the derailer moves, so I adjusted that by half a turn and all was good again!

The cafe served up breakfast on a proper plate today, because they are getting pissed off with ‘over the top’ regulations with this present lockdown.

I rode a different way home from my usual route to get a few hills in. I used to really attack those hills five years ago, but nowadays I don’t feel I have anything to prove, so I look after my knee’s and simply take it easy and keep the cadence constant.
(It’s been months since I’ve had to go to a physiotherapist and I like it that way)

Strava says I did a mere 27km (16 miles) with an average speed of just over 19km/hr (11.8 mls/hr). it’s a bit slower than 25km/hr (15.6 mls/hr), which is what I used to achieve, but I’m happy with this as any ride is better than none.