High-Vis

- it's not moving, is it?

 

- no, it isn't. Or wait, maybe it moved a little bit. No probably not, just my imagination.

 

- yes, now I'm sure, it is moving. What is it?

 

I was standing with my Uncle Jack on the roadside outside his house gazing at something at the far end of a field.

 

- a small fluorescent yellow spot, moving slowly along the road", Uncle Jack ventured. "Then it's an old guy on a rusty bicycle in a headwind. I have seen this before, in the summer.

 

And he was right. The spot turned on to the road where we were standing. And as the spot approached we could see that it was indeed an old man on a rusty bicycle, and not just any old man - it was my dad.

 

I now remembered that my Mum gave him a high visibility bicycling vest for his birthday some years ago. She had for several years been after him for not taking care of his health. She had urged him to take up bicycling as he did when he was younger. He had maintained that it was not safe with the traffic these days. Too may drivers not paying attention on the roads. It was safer to sit inside the Pub. That's why she had bought him a fluorescent, yellow bicycling vest, which had been highly visible in his closet for years, but he had pretended not to see it.

 

- you've become sporty, Jack said. Who are you trying to impress?

 

- I'm not trying to impress anybody, he answered. I've been invited to Bill's anniversary. Bill's the stingy sort of person, and John said I had better bring my bicycle as there would be far between the drinks.

 

Motivation is important if you want to get fit. And I suppose that one kind of motivation can be as good as any other kind.