9.03.2024 Reducing the burden.

 ~o~

  Saturday 9th 34F/1C. Cold, overcast and breezy. Up at 6.15 after four visits to the fire bucket. My lower back pain is worse than ever. I had better walk it off!

 Out of the blue I had notifications of activity on Facebook trikes groups. One of the tricycling posters, with an English name, shares lots of pictures of Denmark. Which I don't recognise. Further research suggests south Sjælland. [Sealand] Distinctively flat and rather different from my own highly corrugated scenery. The churches have very different architecture too.

 I was shocked to see the asking prices for trikes being offered for sale online. I came across my Higgins Ultralite [with Trykit 2WD] and the Longstaff trike conversion during my shed tidying. Both are in need of a good clean and repaint now. With some surface rust on bare metal. Neither has been used for quite some time. The daily variations in temperature and humidity in the shed inevitably take their toll. I shall never ride them again. How to part with them as I steadily downsize? I am too far from the specialist UK tricycling market for easy sales at current prices. 

 8.30 Back from a walk to the lanes. It was breezy from the east and quite cold. Though not too bad. My hands were fine in my thinnest GripGrab cycling gloves. I felt no need to close my jacket. It took quite a distance before my back stopped hurting.

 9.30 First sign of the promised sunshine. I have offered my 1954 Higgins Ultralite trike on Facebook trike group. To be taken away free of charge. Strictly collection only. Hopefully somebody will be able to reach me. Or hire a professional courier. 

 The trike owes me nothing more. It carried me safely for many tens of thousands of miles. In all weathers. Being constantly improved with new equipment and ideas. The thousands of pictures and memories I collected over the years remain. 

 I was sad to see how the trike had deteriorated in the shed since I last rode it. Like many others I presume. As their owners grew old and tired. Let somebody else have the pleasure of ownership now. Including a full restoration, repaint and hopefully riding it further. Who cares if it is used to make a quick profit? Better, surely, than it ending up in a skip?  

 10.15 Guess who has been out in the cold wind? Beating a carpet with a proper [willow] carpet beater! I had fetched the smaller mat I bought the other day. Then dropped it onto the kitchen tiles to vacuum it. A great cloud of dust went up! With drifts of dust settling across the floor in undulating dunes. Had it been used in a carpentry workshop? On the beach? I was obviously wasting my time with a domestic vacuum cleaner.

 So I stretched a rope tightly between the shed and a handy tree. Made a V-cut wooden prop and hung the carpet up. Every wallop from the carpet beater produced huge clouds of fawn dust! The wind was safely behind me. So the dust was being carried away. One step forwards and another back. I'll leave the mat on the temporary clothes line to shed more dust. With repeated whacking in between. It doesn't want to be hung up for too long in case it goes out of shape. From the curvature of the line.

10.45 39F/4C and full sunshine. I ought to go shopping. Still carpet beating at intervals. The dust is not reducing by much. Though hopefully the wind will help. Gusting to a steady 14m/s or 30mph. Whoops! I can feel grit in my teeth!

 11.30 I have had a lot of interest in my trike on Facebook. Somebody in Denmark wants to come and pick it up tomorrow. That's a relief! 😊

 12.00 I have just fought my way down the shed to retrieve the trike wheels. Even found the original sprints and tubs which came with the Higgins. Though I quickly obtained the HPs on Trykit alloy hubs, new axles and two wheel drive. [Higgins fit.]

 12.30 Early lunch. Greenhouse pretending to warm the house. Too much cloud. 

 13.00 Time for a ride. It only takes me half an hour to get ready! Only 20 minutes today. I didn't bother to change my clothes.

 14.45 41F/5C. Returned from a much needed shopping ride. 18.5km. Sunny but very windy. Even in the forest. I used Turbo mode for most of the time. 

 I have dragged everything into the greenhouse. For easy inspection and shelter from the weather. There are loads of gear changers, brakes, levers, chainsets, seat posts, stems and handlebars. Some unused. The mudguards in the foreground are very rare. Kindly sent from the UK many years ago. They are original and clamp onto the Higgins axle. Now I am paying it forward. 

 I had a breathless episode and chest pain again! So I used a wheelbarrow to ferry everything from the shed. I brought the mat in and discovered yet more sand was falling out of it. I vacuumed it again but doubt it had much effect.

 I had better think about making dinner. I bought some sausages, chicken and mushrooms. I went with sausage and chips. And, burnt the tomatoes! The chips took much longer than expected. The top element may be giving up on the mini-oven. Burnt chips at the edges. White in the middle.

 ~o~