This morning was a little challenging.

I woke up to a flat tyre on my bike. I'd been thinking that something was wrong with my front tyre for the last couple of times I've ridden it. This time, it was dead.

So now, I've been doing this long enough not to have a puncture that causes me any kind of trouble. Within about 5 minutes I'd had the new tube in and the wheel back on the bike.

So far, so good.

However, I've had so many punctures with that tyre and changed the tube so much, the ridge in the tyre had generated a weak spot. So at 120 PSI the tyre just ballooned out. When I tried to ride it, it ballooned even more.

So that needed to be fixed as well. I limped home and went searching through my gear.

Luckily, I had a spare tyre. I have a feeling this tyre is about 8 years old. Bit it works.

So 10 minutes later, I'm back on my bike and on the way to work.

I made pretty good time getting there too.... and (touch wood) so far, so good.

I guess you have to take the good with the bad...

I've been recently trying to get some information out of a company in the U.S.A. I've sent a dozen emails of the last 2 to 3 weeks and I have received 0 replies.

No, that's not a typo... That's a big, round, zero.

I'm sure they could understand my requests. I don't believe that to answer my query would have taken more than a minute or 2. Why did I not get a response?

I would have thought that in this day and age, Customer Service would be more important than ever?

Oh well, time to find another supplier. They've lost me.

I know the old saying of "every day is a new day" and to me it really doesn't make that much sense as a motivational saying. Of course every day is now. You don't get it back. That's really just stating the obvious.

However, the word that I'm taking to heart recently is TODAY.... Today is the day in which things get done. Today is the day in which you can make a difference.

I'm not very big on the use of motivation. I'm trying to get a few things sorted in my mind and some of the motivational things that I've seen and read have not really moved me.

There was, however, one quote ( I believe ) that I really like.

"Sure, it hurts now. But one day it'll be your warm-up"

I love it!!!

One of the reasons I love living here in Anan and Tokushima is that it is a really nice place. We have mountains. We have rivers. We have forests and we don't have really high buildings.