Saturday, May 4
May. 5th, 2024 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Very nice weather today.
My Sweetie took the truck full of cut saplings to the dump, and presumably some other stuff too.
I painted the bird houses one more time to cover whatever red paint was showing through, and sanded the holes where there was some red paint (I had painted them red, found out that red attracted predators, so was repainting them blue, and am now done painting).
They were a lot more trouble than I thought they'd be. Now we have to hang them.
Then I used the same blue to repaint some wooden outdoor chairs.
Then, since we weren't going to the city today, I figured we should go ride our bikes at the park down the road.
I was kind of frustrated that my rear brake still does not work on my bike. My husband actually did take it to be fixed about a month ago (very thoughtful of him to do so). It's a hydraulic brake, he said they refilled it, but I guess they must not have actually done any trouble shooting as to why it all leaked out in the first place, because it's all gone again and I still have no rear brake.
This is a bike that was brand new only a couple of years ago, and I've barely been able to use it because we're always working on the house, and then whenever we DO go biking, I have to be careful because the rear brake doesn't work. It's pretty frustrating to have a new bike that doesn't do what it's meant to do.
Our ride at least was nice. We went all the way to the edge of the park's official roads to a trail that is not officially for public use (ahem) because it is meant for in case they need to fight a forest fire within the park. I don't know that anyone MINDS if you bike on it, but it's not maintained like the usual park trails are (which is fine if you have a mountain bike).
Then we still went on some of the paved trails around the camp ground, where I might normally walk or bike if I was on my own (I wouldn't use the fire access road if I was alone because if anything happened there, I would be REALLY alone out there).
It was a pretty good bike ride for me, especially the first one of the year.
For my husband, it's likely so easy it's laughable. He probably should have been a competitive biker. It was his first bike ride of the year too, but still just a stroll for him.
My husband is a whippy little guy, and biking is perfect for his frame.
Anyhow, we came home and watched a couple of episodes of "Boardwalk Empire".
Gambia is the smallest nation in Africa, and is surrounded by Senagal. It is more or less a strip on either side of the Gambia River, and extends to the Atlantic Ocean.
For not being very large, it still has about 2.5 million people living there, and urban regions.
"Arab Muslim merchants traded with native West Africans in The Gambia throughout the 9th and 10th centuries. In 1455, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter The Gambia, although they never established significant trade there.[12] The region was made a part of the British Empire by establishment of a colony in 1765,[13] and exactly 200 years later, in 1965, The Gambia gained independence".
The official language is English, though many regional languages are commonly spoken.
It is a fairly poor country, with about half of the population living in poverty. Agriculture and fishing are still the main source of income, with tourism becoming more important.
At one time, the country exported slaves (again, sold by the people who lived there; they sold people captured in inter tribal wars) and ivory.
I can't find anything about it's involvement in WWI, but in WWII, the Gambia contributed soldiers for the Burmese campaign (for the Allies, since it would have been a British Protectorate) and was used as an air-staging post.
Today Gambia does have an elected president, and has rejoined The Commonwealth (after being an Islamic Republic for awhile).
"On 28 February 2018, Jaha Dukureh, a women's rights activist was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in combating female genital mutilation.[54]". Most women and girls living in The Gambia have been subjected to female genital mutilation.
LGBTQ activity is illegal and punishable by prison.
Overall, not great for human rights as there are also restrictions on the media and journalists, and people are not safe/free to criticize the government.
As I mentioned, The Gambia is only 50 km wide at it's widest point, and because so much of it's area is covered by the Gambia River, there in not much actual land. It's total area is about the size of Jamaica.
It has mostly a Tropical Savannah climate, fairly green and moist. There are also mangroves towards the coast.
There are lots of animals there, and particularly birds, and migratory birds because of the water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambia
https://youtu.be/Vd7z3GignNU?si=NuV-EV9TAxJoN3XC
Very nice weather today.
My Sweetie took the truck full of cut saplings to the dump, and presumably some other stuff too.
I painted the bird houses one more time to cover whatever red paint was showing through, and sanded the holes where there was some red paint (I had painted them red, found out that red attracted predators, so was repainting them blue, and am now done painting).
They were a lot more trouble than I thought they'd be. Now we have to hang them.
Then I used the same blue to repaint some wooden outdoor chairs.
Then, since we weren't going to the city today, I figured we should go ride our bikes at the park down the road.
I was kind of frustrated that my rear brake still does not work on my bike. My husband actually did take it to be fixed about a month ago (very thoughtful of him to do so). It's a hydraulic brake, he said they refilled it, but I guess they must not have actually done any trouble shooting as to why it all leaked out in the first place, because it's all gone again and I still have no rear brake.
This is a bike that was brand new only a couple of years ago, and I've barely been able to use it because we're always working on the house, and then whenever we DO go biking, I have to be careful because the rear brake doesn't work. It's pretty frustrating to have a new bike that doesn't do what it's meant to do.
Our ride at least was nice. We went all the way to the edge of the park's official roads to a trail that is not officially for public use (ahem) because it is meant for in case they need to fight a forest fire within the park. I don't know that anyone MINDS if you bike on it, but it's not maintained like the usual park trails are (which is fine if you have a mountain bike).
Then we still went on some of the paved trails around the camp ground, where I might normally walk or bike if I was on my own (I wouldn't use the fire access road if I was alone because if anything happened there, I would be REALLY alone out there).
It was a pretty good bike ride for me, especially the first one of the year.
For my husband, it's likely so easy it's laughable. He probably should have been a competitive biker. It was his first bike ride of the year too, but still just a stroll for him.
My husband is a whippy little guy, and biking is perfect for his frame.
Anyhow, we came home and watched a couple of episodes of "Boardwalk Empire".
Gambia is the smallest nation in Africa, and is surrounded by Senagal. It is more or less a strip on either side of the Gambia River, and extends to the Atlantic Ocean.
For not being very large, it still has about 2.5 million people living there, and urban regions.
"Arab Muslim merchants traded with native West Africans in The Gambia throughout the 9th and 10th centuries. In 1455, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to enter The Gambia, although they never established significant trade there.[12] The region was made a part of the British Empire by establishment of a colony in 1765,[13] and exactly 200 years later, in 1965, The Gambia gained independence".
The official language is English, though many regional languages are commonly spoken.
It is a fairly poor country, with about half of the population living in poverty. Agriculture and fishing are still the main source of income, with tourism becoming more important.
At one time, the country exported slaves (again, sold by the people who lived there; they sold people captured in inter tribal wars) and ivory.
I can't find anything about it's involvement in WWI, but in WWII, the Gambia contributed soldiers for the Burmese campaign (for the Allies, since it would have been a British Protectorate) and was used as an air-staging post.
Today Gambia does have an elected president, and has rejoined The Commonwealth (after being an Islamic Republic for awhile).
"On 28 February 2018, Jaha Dukureh, a women's rights activist was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in combating female genital mutilation.[54]". Most women and girls living in The Gambia have been subjected to female genital mutilation.
LGBTQ activity is illegal and punishable by prison.
Overall, not great for human rights as there are also restrictions on the media and journalists, and people are not safe/free to criticize the government.
As I mentioned, The Gambia is only 50 km wide at it's widest point, and because so much of it's area is covered by the Gambia River, there in not much actual land. It's total area is about the size of Jamaica.
It has mostly a Tropical Savannah climate, fairly green and moist. There are also mangroves towards the coast.
There are lots of animals there, and particularly birds, and migratory birds because of the water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambia
https://youtu.be/Vd7z3GignNU?si=NuV-EV9TAxJoN3XC
