Thistledown: May 2020

Friday, 29 May 2020

Lockdown Blues

As you might imagine there's not really been much going on recently. I only managed a couple of trips on the bike this year before the whole country went into lockdown and my work sent everybody home.

A very wet demo run in January, and a short ride locally to bed in some new tyres as the condition of the old ones in the wet had scared the hell out of me on the earlier run.

I had great plans for this year too, all of which, one by one, either had to be cancelled or postponed or which simply never got off the ground. There's some talk of having me work from home, which will be a bit of a novelty. It will certainly cut down on the commute.

However, I mustn't really grumble. I'm luckier than some, still getting paid, and my job is likely to still be there when this is all over. Not everyone can say the same.

Motorcycling these days seems to consist mainly of late-night sessions on eBay, buying bits and pieces for the bikes to give me something to do in the garage, as well as catching up on a number of small jobs I've been putting off.

While I could probably go out for short trips on the bike it is, after all, the very definition of 'self-isolating', I’ve been resisting. No matter how good a rider I think I am, the possibility remains that should I be involved in an accident it would divert any number of already overworked emergency workers away from more important duties.

It would be a bit hypocritical to laud their efforts on the one hand, while possibly adding to their workload on the other. And, really, who wants to be anywhere near a hospital at the moment? My bikes will be staying put for now.

I guess that it's important to remember that all of this uncertainty and upheaval will pass, eventually. Life will get back to normal, or at least a new normal. In the meantime, take care and stay safe.