19.09.2025 29km ride to Assens.

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Friday 19th 62F/16.7C [8.00] Grey and breezy. Possible early rain. Brightening later. The unsettled and windy weather continues for a few more days. It is very mild today. Even warmer tomorrow! Europe is experiencing a Spanish heat wave!

 Up at 7.10 after early failures to lift off. A fairly quiet night. 

 I feel the need for a ride but the strong SW winds have been demotivating. As are the pains in my hands and wrists. I can't be any more upright on the e-bike. The handlebar stem is as short as they go. Hand and wrist pain on longer rides has been a problem for years. I bought a swept back pair of handlebars to go with the short stem. So I have reduced the load on my hands as much as possible. 

 The well-used [but laced] B17 surprised me with its increased comfort. Over the wider saddles I have been using. I have an unused, dark brown B17 which needs breaking in. It would look much nicer and less obvious. Than the faded honey of the old saddle from the trike. The red tape marks the width of my 110mm sit bone spacing.

 I need a longer, 5m, 4K, HDMI cable for my new telescope set-up. They sell them at the big shed DIY stores in Assens. That would be a nice ride. Not too far. Ride straight into the wind going. Tailwind coming home. Better than going to Odense on a day like this. 

 8.50 I'll have a short walk first. A large tractor with doubled wheels all round was dragging a giant seed drill up and down the prairie. While the tractor doing the ploughing was busy further over. My neighbour was walking her fierce little dog. It chased me for some distance down the drive. Barking madly all the while.

 It have added Proofide to the brown B17. I'll swap the saddles over before leaving for Assens. The difference in length is due to stretch of the honey coloured saddle over the years. As it was repeatedly re-tensioned. The light coloured saddle is easily depressed. With the fingers or thumbs. The brown one feels like it is sculpted in stone, solid wood, or concrete. I had better wear some padded cycling shorts!

 10.30 I have buffed the brown saddle with a cloth. Just to save getting my shorts greasy. Off we go. 

 12.40 Returning from my 29km ride to Assens and back. The headwind was so strong I removed my hearing aids altogether. They amplified the roar of the wind regardless of setting. The phone app was also broken. Showing only a blank white screen. I reset Bluetooth but it didn't help.

 The new B17 saddle was as hard as rocks. Exactly as expected. So I kept stopping when the pain became too much. When I would use a hex key to lift the nose by small increments. 

 This seemed to help. Further aided by the time I spent in each shop. Which gave me time to recover. The return journey was much less painful. Not to mention much more comfortable with a tailwind. 

 I saw several super sports cars. A Bentley and a Porsche were models I had never seen before. Long and low and very, very wide. Very beautiful too to my eyes. I think both were electric. There was no sound as they overtook me. 

 I found the HDMI cable I needed. Then added another doormat to the collection. Most of which are years old and worn out. I wanted a new mat for the front hall out to the greenhouse. Nothing fancy. Just plain coconut bristle on a rubber base. Very inexpensive too. Half the price I paid in the builder's merchants earlier this week. I think they are identical. I'll have to check. 

 Now I am cross! The cheaper one is identical but larger! It fits the full width of the front hall against the battery recharging cupboard. I'll have to get some more of these for the entrance hall. The smaller one looks out of place out there. Winter means stuff sticks to wet shoes and gets dragged indoors.

 Dinner was chicken, mushrooms and cauliflower. With Bisto gravy. Because it looked too naked without. 

 

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18.09.2025 Out and about.

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 Thursday 18th 60F/15.6C [6.15] A rather cloudy day is promised. With wind and showers.

 Up at 5.15 after an unusually quiet night. I was restless after waking earlier. 

 We'll see what the day brings. When it is light enough to see anything. 

 Last night I was experimenting with different software on my solar telescope mounting and astro camera. The move to a smaller instrument. On a relatively tiny mounting. Has required me to discover some new ways. To manage what was once completely routine. In my (now demolished) observatory. 

 The HP keyboard worked perfectly. Allowing me to communicate wirelessly with the mini-PC. Without the hindrance of connecting cables. Where there is/was a severe lack of USB3 ports. I found my 4-way USB3 hub. Previously hidden in the tubs of stuff I'd salvaged from the observatory.

 Being able to play comfortably with my new toys indoors. Without the risk of frequent showers. Was made all the easier. When the monitor screen is not washed out by bright daylight. Allowing me to relax and find my way through unfamiliar software routines and technologies. 

 Ironically Bluetooth worked fine between the mini-PC and the mounting. So the mini-PC is definitely transmitting BT. Why it was not similarly doing so via Wi-Fi is quite another matter. One which will have to be further investigated. 

 For all our reliance on technology and software. There is a remarkable lack of reliability. YouTube is stuffed with videos. Where supposed experts try to rescue us from the bottleneck of our dumb "intelligent technology" toys. Yet  the AI, which now pops up on so many of my searches. Is very useful for solving problems or providing clear definitions of the abstruse. Which no amount of Google's utterly corrupt, hard sell results. Would ever hint at in the past.   

7.15 Grey and breezy. I just asked a chatbot to rewrite this blog post. The result was interesting but felt strangely shallow. Like listening to a spokesperson, businessman, lawyer or politician handed a script. Nor did it sound like anything I'd write. So, you'll just have to put up with me. Grammatical warts and all. 

8.40 Back from a half hour walk. Lots of traffic. A large tractor, pulling a 6x6 flip-over plough, was making steady progress across the prairie. The wide stripes he made were clearly visible from a great distance. Though not in the phone photo above.

 11.40 Back from the shops in the Morris. 

 I spent the afternoon cloud watching outside with my telescope. Just re-learning the routines. 

 Dinner was a sausage and mushroom omelette. The trick is to wear an oven glove. When flipping it onto the plate. 

 

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17.09.2025 Life is too short, for Logitech! ©

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  Wednesday 17th 54F/12.2C [8.00] Bright but cloudy start. With more showers and wind than sunshine.

 Up at 7.15 after a quiet night. I glanced at the clock at 5am. Had a weird dream about competing with a girl for the use of a triangular office. Then it was 7.15. 

 I am off to the city to buy an HP650 Wireless keyboard and mouse. I shan't bother with the HP mouse. I still have at least three, working, Logitech M705 mice. All I needed was a reliable Plug and Play. WIRELESS keyboard for my new Mini-PC. I ordered a "wireless" keyboard online. All I got was Logitech's Bluetooth crap! With the built-in, Guaranteed, Plug and Play, Logitech, hours of time wasting! 

Life is too short, for Logitech!© They can use that in their next advertising campaign. At my expense, of course.

 14.10 Back from the city. Where it was mostly sunny. Except for a shower. While I was in the giant mall. The ground was wet when I exited. 

 The HP 650 keyboard worked the moment I inserted the batteries, the USB receiver and switched on. Just as one would expect in 2025. The keys have a different feel but I like it. Short stroke, crisp action and not too noisy. 

 Dinner was cheese on toast. No tomatoes. I'd run out. No pictures. 

 

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