2.10.2025 39km on a motorized, leather stool.

 ~o~

  Thursday 2nd 48F/9C [8.50] Sunny periods? A rather cloudy start.

 Up at 6am after a fairly quiet night.

 9.00 A glimpse of sunshine. Time for a walk. 

 9.20 Back from my walk. Sunny, but rather chilly. Despite no noticeable wind. Lots of vast, 7-axle, tipper trucks going back and forth. The pretty cat was in the drive, complaining again. I don't have the AI app. To be able to converse in fluent Cat. On the meaning of life. Is Cat a universal language? Or do they have local accents?

 I feel the need to visit a builder's merchant some 10 miles away. I'd enjoy the ride but am hesitant to spend so much time on such an errand. Though there is a charity shop nearby. Which often sports exactly what I am looking for. Failure to find the item I need would require an extensive online search. Leaving me at the mercy of Google and Chinese offerings of unknown quality. I had better go in the car. Or not. I had left the lights on and flattened the battery. Time to get the smart charger out.

 13.40 Returned from a 39km ride without having found my quarry. I did some shopping too. Lots of roadworks, excavation and building work. A chilly headwind all the way home. I resorted to Turbo mode.

 The new B17 saddle has no right to be as comfortable as it feels. I gave it a couple of doses of Brooks Proofide at the beginning. This has never achieved much going on past experience. Except to stop it being so slippery. I wore a very old pair of padded cycling shorts under my cargo trousers today. 

 39km isn't really far but it is usually enough to cause pain and misery. Yet I returned home unscathed. My wild guess is that the very wide saddles. Which I have been using on the e-bike. Trap loose folds of aging flesh. Whereas the B17 doesn't provide the large, flat areas. Which cause so much discomfort. I do admit though. That the B17 saddle was beginning to feel rather too hard as I neared home. 

 The lorry movements I had noted earlier seemed to be related. To the continuing drainage and district heating work. At the bottom of a rather hilly village. Two large excavators with huge buckets were digging clay. In the bottom of what I assumed to be a very large, emergency drainage pond. They were passing the clay up to the road level. Where another excavator was loading the waiting lorries. 

 These ponds are being established in many places to cope with potential cloudbursts. As a likely result of climate change. No doubt helping to boost the local wildlife into the bargain.

 I have just lit the stove for the third evening in a row. Dinner was beans on toast.

   

  ~o~