20.11.2024 Y'all couldn't make it up!

 ~o~

 Wednesday 20th 27F/-3C. A thick coat of white frost on everything. Including the car and the greenhouse. Though it's not really a hoar frost. The sky looks fairly clear. With lots of sunshine promised.

 61F/16C in the room this morning. I had a strange night. The new digital clock was great. If you ignore how often I looked at it. I seemed to be awake for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. Though somehow I resisted getting up. Or tormenting myself with memories of my wife. 

 The clock was oddly comforting but is supposed to be wall mounted. It is propped on a box on the untidy bedside table for the moment. I'll think about it before I start drilling more holes.

 My intention is to visit the museum to catch up on their progress. They sent me a nice email suggesting I visit and attend their Xmas lunch. I found some leather bound, Danish farming books and will take those along. I know there are many more hidden in the rows of boxes of books. Which still line the walls of the attic. Accessing them is difficult due to all the storage tubs and clothes rack. I saw much better clothes racks for sale at a big shed, furnishing store in town. I'll have a proper look tomorrow. When I am in town for physio. 

 10.30 32F/0C Bright sunshine. Returning from visiting the museum for morning coffee and a chat. Everybody seemed happy to see me again after a long absence. Shopped on the way home. Snow has fallen elsewhere in Denmark. The stove was still alight. Though only 64F/18C in the room. I have put a large log on to try and boost the temperature a bit more.

It is reported that up to 21cm/9" of snow has fallen in North Sjælland. North Zealand. With wayward lorries causing motorway closures.

  13.00 Overcast. I have been battling with the spin drier. Almost unused for a couple of years. Despite having a stainless steel drum it had rusted at the junction between the side wall and the base. Which stained a fleece garment I spun. I have been scrubbing the drum with a sponge backed, washing up scourer and scouring paste. 

 After numerous attempts it finally seems clean. I have poured gallons/liters of water into the drum to try and rid it of soap. Still it produces suds when spinning without clothes. In winter there is little chance of drying clothes on the outside airer. Spinning and then hanging clothes upstairs makes far more sense. The top loading washing machine does a very poor job of spin drying. The less water I introduce to the atmosphere upstairs the better. Hence the return to spin drying. The Thomas does a great job of spin drying the clothes.

 I had a phone call from the heart department at the city hospital. They want me to do some home, blood pressure tests and forward the results by email.

13.20 32F/0C. Still feeding the stove. Nearly 68F/20C in the room. I had avoided double handling the trailer full of logs. By stacking them loosely in a pile in the middle of the lean-to greenhouse. Having almost completely used up the previous stack. I can start laying the new load neatly against the house wall. Then collect another trailer full from the timber yard.

 13.30 Haircut appointment after lunch. I had better get going. 

  12.45 End of an era. "My" hairdresser is retiring next month. I have been going there for around 25-26 years. Another woman is taking over the salon. 

 I bought myself a new coffee mug in a charity shop. White with a flower painting wrapped right around it.

 Y'all couldn't make it up! <spit> A teacher has told young schoolchildren [6-7 years-old] that Father Christmas and elves don't exist. Just before Christmas too! Yet this <cough>"teacher" <cough> supposedly teaches religion. [Allegedly] 

 I wonder which one of the 4,300 presently recognized and perhaps 10,000 throughout history. This truly tragic person pretends to belong to. Such that Father Christmas goes against their strict, brain washed and freeze dried doctrine? What a very strange world we live in! 🙄

 20.30 29F/-2C. 69F/21C in the room. Dinner was poached eggs on toast. One yolk was already broken in the shell. The other was perfect.

 

 ~o~

19.11.2024 Frost and light snow.

 ~o~

  Tuesday 19th 34F/1C [8.00] Overcast and possible wintry showers. White frost on the grass.

 Up at 7.10 after waking earlier. I need an easier way to see the time. At present I have to switch on a blinding table lamp and stare at a small, shiny clock dial. I have a digital clock with large red digits from my observatory. I'll see if I can find it in the chaos. 

 And did. After searching high and low I finally found it safely stored indoors. The time setting button had stopped working. So I had to open up the case and short out the contacts on the push button switch. It is running a few seconds slow but I can live with that. Anything which demands my attention is likely to wake me far more than a glance. So now I can check whether it is a sensible time to get up.

 The intention is to visit my friend this morning. As the roads are expected to be wet and slippery there will be no ride today. I hope the Morris tires are grippy in the cold. 

 I just checked. The software updated Bosch Nyon computer has been storing my rides for over a month. Without being able to show them on my phone. Or even the Nyon screen itself. Now I can see all the details. My total distance from new is 10,569km.

 13.00 37F/2.8C. Returned from visiting my friend. My voice was going after two hours of chatting. Light rain. Shopped on the way back. The roads were fine. Just a few puddles.

 13.20 Only 59F/15C in the room. I ought to light the stove.

 9.00 32F/0C. There was light snow falling when I went outside to the bins. It can't have lasted for long. Because it looked no thicker than a frost. When I checked again two hours later. 70F/21C in the room.

  Dinner was a salmon pasty. With boiled potatoes and peas. I deliberately overcooked the pasty again to avoid previous greasiness. The mini-oven doesn't get hot enough. So needs a longer duration of cooking for the same effect.

 

 ~o~

 

18.11.2024 85km.

 ~o~

  Monday 18th. Wet start then sunny morning.

 Up at 7.45 after a fairly quiet night. Physio. I had better get moving! 

 10.15 Back from physio and light shopping. Sunshine but breezy. My nose is still trying to bleed but I am avoiding blowing my nose.

 11.20 I have the second battery on charge. Readying for a ride. I'll head north to avoid a westerly headwind on my way home.    

 12.00  Ready to go. Taking lunch rolls with me. 

 17.00 37F/3C. Stove lit. 62F/6.7C in the room. Returning after 85km ride to Middelfart and back. Cold headwind going. Blue-black sky ahead. Ragged showers hanging underneath. The massive dark cloud passed over before it started with stinging hail. Turned to rain, enough to thoroughly wet my trousers. Then went off. 

 It remained cold and miserably windy. I had left my waterproof trousers at home. I did a tour to see what else was available. Nothing in the charity shops or the bike shops. The bike shops are discounting due to changing their stock but had nothing left in my size. M.

 The Contec leather Touring saddle was fine again. Best bibs worn under cargo trousers. Not quite warm enough up top. Thermal vest, racing jersey, medium jumper and Endura rain jacket. Not sure what to add. A thin jumper? Swap to my thickest jumper? Take a medium weight jumper in case I get too warm? 

 My hands were getting cold too in the thick, fingered gloves. So I changed to lobster mitts. Still cold. So went back to the fingered gloves. All by GripGrab.

 The jam rolls worked much better than the previous honey. Which leaked into the poly bag. I enjoyed the rolls much more than stuffing sub-micro Corny bars. Though I didn't drink anything at all despite taking apple juice. It felt too cold for a cold drink. Plenty of room for a flask. If I have one. There should be a stainless steel one somewhere. It hasn't been used for years. 

 Dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce with halved tomatoes. 😋

 

 

 

 

  ~o~