~o~
Wednesday 3rd April 35F/2C. Overcast but dry. Fairly light winds. Up at 5.30. Happy Birthday Dave!
My wife died two years ago today. Much has changed since then. I still miss her all the time and think of her often. Every single day. It is difficult not to when I am constantly reminded of her. The same house. Where we lived together for 26 years. The one she chose as "least frightening" of the available options in our hovel price bracket. The same garden. Minus a few trees and hedges. The same surroundings. The same belongings. The same pretty crockery. The same utensils.
While I can make umpteen changes for my own benefit. I can never undo the past. Losing somebody dear is a serious reminder of our own fragility. And of theirs. Every day might well be our, or their last. For a myriad reasons. Love them if you've got them. While you still have them. While you still can. It is far too late to change anything that really matters. Once they have gone.
7.15. I am going for a walk. I may be some time.
8.45 37F/3C. Mostly overcast with brighter periods but no sunshine. Returning from a longer walk. Not helped by the soggy conditions. The record rainfall has caused minor flooding locally. Though with 40cm/16" of standing water on a Danish motorway yesterday. That caused a few problems.
For a change I walked the "wrong way" down the main road. Then up to the forest by the steep track. Just as I had done so many times before. I saw three large deer in the beech forest. They dashed away. Followed by a solitary, loud, deer bark. In the dense growth off to my right.
I descended the hill by the very muddy edge of the field. Before taking the puddled track to the village. I passed under the solitary ash tree. Where a yellowhammer was singing sweetly on the very top branch. A buzzard came gliding over and disappeared over the treetops. Two geese were standing warily beside a field puddle. Once back at the village I had only to walk briskly against the morning traffic to get home.
No shortness of breath or any other symptoms. Not even on the very steep climb up to the woods. I became too warm by halfway and removed my gloves. Followed by my hat and even my down sweater later on.
I shall check my Danish, car parts vocabulary is in order. Then ride over to see if there is any progress on the Morris Minor.
11.30 39F/4C. Returned from a ride to the Morris Minor workshop. There seems to be a light at the end of the very long tunnel. The car has even had a test drive. Not completely ready yet but hopefully soon.
It was overcast and unpleasantly cold. Even the GripGrab split mitts weren't warm enough. 28km/17 miles. Lots of flooding and puddles everywhere. Though only in one place did it meet on the crown of the road. Many streams across the rural lanes.
It is just below 60F/16C indoors. I ought to light the stove and fetch more logs from the timber yard. The outside temperature is supposed to rise by 2 degrees C every day until it reaches 18C next week!
I should have mentioned that I did not wear the usual padded racing shorts. My thesis being that thin clothing would not disguise. Nor confuse the support offered by the B67 saddle. Or lack thereof. There was some discomfort. Again I found myself pushing myself backwards on the saddle. Though not to the extent when wearing padded shorts.
The B67 is tipped noticeably upwards at the prow. It is also sagging into a baggy version of its former self. This is deliberate to some extent. I wanted it to "mould itself" to my sit bones and other appendages. Without my removing all hope of it ever doing so by constantly retentioning. The aim is to remodel the steel tractor seat of old. With extra shaping. To more evenly support the constantly moving bod.
Despite the snooty, nose-up configuration I am not suffering from local pressure due to the angle. As one might suppose. And this the main selling point of bifurcated and channel formed saddles.
I am increasingly convinced that friction is more of an enemy to comfort. Than direct sit bone pressure. The typical padded shorts have a considerable excess of thickness at the edges. Precisely where the inner thigh meets the crutch. So the foam, plus reinforcing cloth, rucks up and chafes. There is really only need for thick padding at the direct contact areas. Yet the sponge pad extends well beyond its allotted territory.
The B67 flares alarmingly when pressed by the exploratory hand. Imagine how much it flares at the skirt? Under the far greater pressure of the rider's skeletal extremities! I know from long experience that the Brooks B17 is a short lived beast without the skirts being laced. Yet, the lacing itself adds much unwanted firmness. The leather struggles to adapt when the skirts are tied together. The spring mattress effect is suddenly absent. The skirts flaring apart is a large proportion. Of what is smugly described as comfort in a leather, hammock saddle.
How to proceed? Without the B67 becoming over-stiffened by rigid constraint of the undercarriage? Is skirt lacing strictly for the S&M brigade alone? Laces are inherently inflexible. They allow no room for error of tightening. They force a tubular, geometric form on the saddle leather. Which it was never meant or designed to allow.
The extra stiffness is very unforgiving. One might as well buy a cheap plastic saddle. With little or no padding. A Unica Nitor by any other name. Or a Cambium. If you really must overpay for your masochistic tendencies. We are talking about cycling here after all. Which nobody sensible would ever attempt. Not if they knew what excruciating pain they were letting themselves in for.
The next task is to find suitably thin but strong elastic cord. Not too thin or it will cut the leather. Not too stretchy. Or it will have little benefit. I have yards and yards of thicker elastic rope. Which I once used for laminating tubular plywood structures. It is too fat and too ugly for saddle lacing. So the search is on for black in a roughly USB cable sort of diameter. It is readily available in 5mm in black. Sold as bungee or elastic rope.
Diner was mince, mushrooms and chips. I should have added gravy but it was fine without.
~o~
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