11th Decembrrr 2017 Excused batteries in my sandals.

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Monday 11th 25-32F, -4-0C, mostly clear with light winds. Wintry showers possible. At first I thought it was overcast but it was just struggling to get light. Walked on icy roads to the exit point up to the woods.

Took lots of photographs of the snowy scenes with rather menacing clouds as a backdrop. Birds of prey were sitting about in trees and sometimes moving away. Ten Whooper swans went over noisily.

I gave the traffic plenty of room by wearing my gaiters and taking to the snowy verges each time a vehicle approached. The puddles were iced over but there was not much depth to the fragile crust. The leaf litter in the forest was crunchy underfoot.

Rode to the shops. The roads were still frozen slush in places but there was a mostly clear track. The GripGrab Nordic 'lobster claw' gloves were barely adequate into the wind at 32F/0C. I really do need a nose warmer! Fine coming home at the same temperature. The roads were much clearer in the afternoon when I ran an errand in the car. Only 7 miles.

Tuesday 12th 34F, +1C,  almost uniform grey with light wintry showers. More overnight snow of about 2". Just the miserable side of freezing now. Which means puddles, slippery surfaces, slush, road spray and a cold northerly wind. I walked with my hands behind my back, like royalty, to avoid chilled gloves. Not the best day for shorts, sandals and a t-shirt!

Nor a visit to any Danish supermarket expecting to find the advertised special offers. Even finding the regular stock is a complete lottery these days. Never any shortage of sweets, fags, booze and sugar bomb drinks in supposedly, post-Soviet Denmark.

Wednesday13th 34F, 01C, windy and dark at 8am. Half an hour braving the cold wind in my balaclava.

In a breaking(?) news story, which shocked even me, the electric car detesting government is legalizing electric skateboards, scooters and "hover-boards." They are apparently to be approved for "normal" road going going use next year.

Speeds will be limited to 20kph or about 13mph in Olde Money. [Unlucky for some?] I can only hope that billions of kroner will be invested in [more local] ERs and ambulances to treat the injured and dying. I'm really looking forwards to seeing skateboards on the cobbled high streets. Even with my tall 25x700C wheels I can barely keep things together at a walking pace on my trike! 

Statistics already show that electric bicycle riders hold a disproportionately high place in cyclist's deaths and injuries. The increased speed is the most likely cause where the elderly suddenly enjoy the average pace of hardened, professional road racers. Without ever having trained for countless miles at those higher speeds. Cornering at these raised speeds must invite adhesion and reaction time problems when things go badly wrong. Will hand signals suddenly become a requirement? This may need to be installed as a chip from birth because few Danes have mastered the concept as of this writing.

The general public is hardly expecting a normally dressed pensioner to be approaching at pro Tour racing speeds. The rider is usually sitting bolt upright on a city "garden gate." With few or no signs of "sportiness" to warn the more astute amongst us.

Helmets are still not compulsory. While the average iPed [suicidal, mobile phone wearing pedestrian] is far more interested in reading their [slave produced] iPhoney. Rather than looking out for a road burning granny or grandpa. With the wind in their perm and their eyes watering in abject fear and from the raging headwind wherever they go. And that's only the  blokes.

Perhaps the "battery assisted" should be required to wear E-plates in the absence of registration plates? No doubt the tax obsessed vampires, playing their endless musical chairs on their private, gilded, gravy train, can see an electric license fee in the offing. With umpteen taxes on taxes + VAT on top of everything else of course. We don't want any upstart, Danish electric bicycle manufacturing companies trying their luck against the slave wage, Chinese 'robots,' do we? The [offshore, coal fired] energy companies have just raised the price of electricity. So they must be more far sighted than I give them credit for.

A horribly wet and wintry day was best avoided by staying mostly indoors. I don't have a pair of waders for managing the flooded drive.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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