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Sunday 1st 48F/9C [8.50] A grey day with possible light rain or showers. Temperatures hovering just below 10C/50F all day. Light SW winds.
Up at 8.10 after earlier practice sessions. More weird dreams. 23C/73F in the room.
It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't looked at my blog stats [views] for [literally] years. I type away at my "cycling" blog every day without ever questioning why. Or whether anybody actually reads my nonsense. I check and recheck my spelling and grammar as I go along. Constantly updating without worrying about the consequences. Standards have to be maintained.
I try to be interesting without a clue if my insane ramblings hold the slightest interest for others. I now see my cycling blog as a sort of diary. Yet only rarely look back. Except perhaps to find a picture. When Google Pictures can't find it. [As usual] I've had lots of blogs over the years. Covering all my interests and lifelong obsessions.
Each has fallen into abandonment as my interest waned or expired. My late wife called me a butterfly. It was perfectly apt. I could so easily become obsessed in a new subject and be taking thousands of pictures, doing research, buying books. New toys or tools. Or raiding the local library for more information. Now it's all on the Internet. The information itself. Not necessarily my own minimal contributions. To any particular subject matter.
I had the advantage of multiple, manual skills built up over the long years. A lifetime collection of tools. So varied in nature that was usually something I could use. I always preferred to a buy a necessary tool. Rather than pay somebody else to do a job. Other people always seemed to need to make a profit at my expense. They had to live. I only needed something doing. So I would do my homework in the library and get on with whatever it was.
I couldn't afford so many nice things. That I was determined to learn how to achieve something at the lowest possible expense. I have probably saved millions over the years but spent quite a bit in the process. A list of things I have created would be tedious. Hundreds of seemingly unconnected items. Guitars, electric and acoustic. Every imaginable kind of model. Each type requiring thorough research and new skill building. I built model hot air balloons and built kites and reels.
Learning how to be a safe a competent bicycle mechanic was rather useful. It taught me a lot about gear ratios, cables, geometry, handling tools, cleanliness and lubrication. Secondhand books accumulated. I built a long wheelbase recumbent from scratch in the 1980s. Just as they began to be mentioned in the magazines. Much later I discovered trikes and rode many tens of of thousands of miles in exploration. While constantly trying to improve on what I had or could achieve. All to be recorded and shared in my blogs.
I became a competent clock repairer by building my own clocks over decades. Going on to amass quite a collection and running a small antique clock, restoration business. Which brought more tools. Including making them myself as required. A decent [secondhand] lathe entered my armory. The library and my skills grew and grew.
A lifetime obsession with Hi-Fi and audio. I was excused soldering electronics but could manage cables. I built ever larger loudspeakers and subwoofers. Until I probably had the largest in the country. Importing multiple large drivers from the USA. Researching and building everything. I also built turntables, pickup arms and weld stands and furniture. Blogging, testing endlessly and joining online forums to share my progress.
All the while I was improving my DIY and building skills. Plumbing, concrete, block laying, carpentry, roofing, insulation, glazing, drainage, landscaping, heating, alternative energy, wind power, excavation. It kept me fit as well as saving an absolute fortune. I set very high standards for everything I do. I have mentioned a few projects on this blog but never had a dedicated DIY or building blog.
Astronomy can be hideously expensive. Even if you make everything yourself. So I built grinding and polishing machines. To make my own lenses, mirrors and prisms. The lathe gave me the ability to make stuff that would otherwise add several noughts to the final bill. I could make complete telescopes, mountings, build observatories, capture images and videos. It ought to have a blog and did. Forum contributions. Share the knowledge.
Photography has been another lifetime interest. Which encompassed landscapes, architecture, astronomy, bird watching, clocks, DIY and cycling of course. I'll stop here. I need a walk.
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