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Sunday 1st 48F/9C [8.50] A grey day with possible light rain or showers. Temperatures hovering just below 10C/50F all day. Light SW winds.
Up at 8.10 after earlier practice sessions. More weird dreams. 23C/73F in the room.
It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't looked at my blog stats [views] for [literally] years. I type away at my "cycling" blog every day without ever questioning why. Or whether anybody actually reads my nonsense. I check and recheck my spelling and grammar as I go along. Constantly updating without worrying about the consequences. Standards have to be maintained.
I try to be interesting without a clue if my inane ramblings hold the slightest interest for others. I now see my cycling blog as a sort of diary. Yet only rarely look back. Except perhaps to find a picture. When Google Pictures can't find it. [As usual] I've had lots of blogs over the years. Covering a few of my interests and lifelong obsessions.
Each has fallen into abandonment as my interest waned or expired. My late wife called me a butterfly. It was perfectly apt. I could so easily become obsessed in a new subject and be taking thousands of pictures, doing research. Buying books, new toys and/or tools. Or raiding the local reference library for more information. Now suddenly it's all on the Internet. The information itself. Not necessarily my own minimal contributions. To any particular subject matter.
I had the advantage of multiple, manual skills built up over the long years. A lifetime collection of tools. So varied in nature that was usually something I could use. I always preferred to a buy a necessary tool. Rather than pay somebody else to do a job. Other people always seemed to need to make a profit at my expense. They had to live. I only needed something doing. So I would do my homework in the library and get on with whatever it was.
Photography has been another lifetime interest. Which encompassed landscapes, architecture, astronomy, bird watching, clocks, DIY and cycling of course. I'll stop here. I need a walk. Listing my interests could easily cover several pages. As would listing my endless creations. Which would seem like bragging. Rather than an attempt to explain my lifelong behavior.
I was born with just enough intelligence to be dangerous. Sadly somebody left out the memory chips. When I was assembled. Hence my several thousand, non-fiction, book collection. Which I now find I simply cannot give away.
My mastery of maths does not even extend to adding up a short shopping list and getting the same answer twice. Yet I used maths extensively for many of my technical hobbies and interests. Including writing BBC Basic, Trigonometrical, ray tracing, optical design software for apochromatic telescope objectives. That was nearly 40 years ago. Just as Apos began to become available to amateur astronomers.
11.00 Back from my walk. It is cool but almost still. Heavily overcast but dry so far. No guard dog again. Though "Fluffy" the long haired Alsatian nodded as I passed. The Husqvarna robot mower was doing a great job again. Achieving perfect lines on a steeply, lateral sloping bank. With rises and falls along the length of hundreds of meters.
Today, from the advantage of the embankment. I could see more of the fallen branch of my huge willow through my binoculars. The fall had broken large branches high up on an adjoining plum tree. I'll let nature take its course. Too risky to get involved. Unless the neighbour forms an HOA and elects himself as chairman.
Will I go for a ride today? The stillness is encouraging. The very dark skies anything but!
I just climbed a stepladder. To trim a branch. Which was dancing in front of one of my security cameras.
Moving onto a second camera. Which stopped working during the recent storm. Despite facing north in southerly gales. The plug had pulled out. So I tied a knot in the cable. To stop the cable's weight from dragging the connection back through the wall. Problem solved.
I brought the indoor recycling tubs out and loaded them into their matching wheelie bins. Then delivered the relevant bin to the end of the drive. For emptying early tomorrow morning. The neighbour's cat in the drive was in a bit of a huff. Walking away when I spoke to it. Anybody would think I wanted to kidnap the silly thing.
Sunday Dinner was chicken, peas, mashed potatoes and gravy. I washed up while it cooked.
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