1 Oct 2018

1st October 2018 Their cosmetic needs.

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Monday 1st October. 40-54F, sunny and calm but showers possible. There was a sprinkle of light rain as I walked to the village. Though it soon passed over.

As did a ragged chevron of noisy geese. My presumption was that the chatter was discussing what danger I presented to their progress. They veered away from me and only recovered their original westerly route after passing over the village. There were several rehearsals in reforming their chevron before they settled into a pattern.

A young man in a heavily tinted, black car nearly ran me over as he tried to reach something on the passenger's side of the dashboard. It is nice to know that he values human lives so little. Yet values an illegally darkened windscreen and his ephemeral needs, far more than [my] mere flesh and blood.

Just another sociopath by definition. They used to call them psychopaths but Holie-wood gave them a bad name. Nobody knows what a sociopath is. So that doesn't interfere with their basic human rights to be complete a-holes.

A council worker was walking beside a rather loud, remote controlled, tracked lawnmower on the steep grass below the church mound. My attempts at photography were hampered by the passing traffic.

The garden trees were full of dashing blackbirds on my return. Rumours of my imminent funeral were, yet again, fake news. Talking of which: I see that well-worn rumour, that driving nose-to-tail will shorten commuting times, is still doing the rounds.

Tuesday 2nd 46F, very heavy overcast with rain. Sheets of it falling nearly horizontally by 11am. A very wet and windy day. Shopping ride postponed until tomorrow.

There was a strange story in the Danish media on the loudness of vehicles and motorcycles and a call for traffic noise reduction and fines. The Ferrari [whatever] topped the scale at 115dB. The Tesla S was rated at a lowly 0dB. Which is complete nonsense. Even a quiet room is 50dB.

On rural roads governed by 50mph speed limits the Tesla is just as loud due to tyre noise as any other vehicle. Arguably worse than many due to the sheer size of its tyres. Tyre volume seem to escalate road noise on roads with a coarse gravel finish.

It's a big car by European standards but makes late model Audis and BMWs look like early Soviet tanks! A Tesla always puts a smile on my face. The body design is wonderfully sleek but may have been kept deliberately conservative to avoid frightening off early adopters. I noticed as soon as they arrived that they use a lot of car parking space. Particularly on length.

How do I know about Tesla road noise without owning one? There are several different coloured Tesla cars using the local roads. They pass me regularly when I'm walking or cycling. If every car on the local motorway was a Tesla the noise would still be completely intolerable to unfortunate neighbours! A chain of commuters passed me yesterday with a Tesla on the back. It's road noise was noticeably higher and lower in tone than the normal Euroboxes ahead of it. More reminiscent of the big rubber of 4x4s which produce a much deeper roar.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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