Sunday 30 January 2011

Most People Don't Suck


The summer  heat has become oppressive, and the whole of next week is going to be a scorcher – relentless heat in the mid to high 30s every day.  I thought yesterday was going to be my last chance to go for a decent ride in bearable weather for a little while, so headed out to lovely Wyangala Dam for a look at it in sunny weather. It was supposed to be an easy 450km round trip, just me and the Crow and the big wide world.
I had a fabulous ride, cutting a swathe through clouds of white butterflies. The Crow handled beautifully, hugging the road like a best friend and chewing up the kilometres. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, the sky was blue, the landscape beautiful through a bit of heat haze. Life doesn’t get much better. 

The dam was awesome at 92% full. I was surprised by the number of people who, just like me, travel out there just to look  at the water levels and shake their heads in delighted disbelief. 
 
 Then I stopped to refuel at Cowra on the way home. Put $12 of fuel in the Crow. Took everything out of my tail-bag three times before having to admit MY WALLET WAS NOT THERE!

My heart fell through the bottom of my Rossi boots. My entire life was in that bloody wallet – credit card, drivers licence, Medicare card, a little cash, and membership cards galore – Health fund, Ulysses Club, Garden Club… . My brain raced faster than the Crow on a straight road and gave me a memory of carefully placing the wallet on top of the loo paper dispenser in the ladies loo at – get this – the massive, ludicrously busy Service Centre just outside Yass.  2 or 3 hours earlier.  Senior moment? Rank stupidity? Bloody disaster!

Just when you’re at that point in your life when the daily news is so depressing, so hate- and crime-filled, that your faith in human nature is approaching rock bottom, something like this happens. 

Pete, the bloke behind the counter at the Mobil servo in Cowra, went through a long and involved process to find the phone number of the Yass service centre (the Cowra phone directory doesn’t extend to Yass), and paid for my petrol out of his own pocket while I spoke to the people at Yass.

Pete, you’re a star – thank you!

Also a star is the very honest stranger who found my wallet where I left it and handed it in at the counter in Yass. Thank you so much! My battered faith in human nature is now restored – it’s true that some people suck, but most people just don’t. Most people are lovely, and that is easily forgotten in the day-to-day bad news world we live in. Thank goodness for the occasional reminder, cunningly disguised as a disaster.

I made an unscheduled trip back to Cowra today to pay Pete back and to thank him again for having helped me out.  My mate, Mrs Humble, accompanied me as far as Boorowa, and we rode home together as well, in 35 degree heat, pouring huge volumes of cold water inside our jackets, only to have the home-made ‘evaporative cooling’ system evaporate within ten kilometres. Crikey, it was hot! It’s a sad fact of motorcycling that one simply cannot get cool, riding at the speed limit – so we arrived back at my house exhausted and dry-roasted in our bike gear.

What a day. I think I need a little nap.

6 comments:

Nev said...

Don't worry, we've all done it. (no we haven't, but you might feel better if we say we have) :)

I can't believe all taht water in the dam. This is how it looked last time I was through there 18 months ago. http://www.thisstupidurl.com/2009/Cairns/slides/IMG_0605.html

Sue said...

What's really phenomenal, Nev, is that it was only 40% full on 1 December 2010 - and the rain that fell in the first few days of December pushed it up to 90% - hard to imagine!

See the graph at: http://waterinfo.nsw.gov.au/water.shtml?ppbm=412010&da&1&dalf_org

Anonymous said...

Riding at the speed limit? Are you sure that isn't contributing to the problem? Eh?

Geoff James said...

That's wonderful news Sue. Yeah, despite all the doom and gloom in the news (that's what they love printing of course), most of humanity goes out of their way to help someone in need.

Great stuff!

Nikos said...

That "lost wallet" feeling is horrible!

I lost my wallet whilst riding a quad bike on a Greek island - the first I discovered this when my mobile rang...a German lady had found my wallet and contact details inside. We were there for only 5 hours on a cruise.Mrs Nikos always says that I throw money out - she was correct as usual.
I gave the saviour of our holiday €50 reward - it was worth it!

N

Roger said...

Losing your wallet is just a nightmare, would hate to do it on a bike trip. There are good people out there and it is excellent one found it for you. Looked like a great ride. Has been to hot to tide here some days also, tempertutres are dropping a it now. Autumn is great motorcycling weather.