15.10.2025 Ryet saddle update.

 ~o~

  Wednesday 15th 51F/10.6C [8.30] A long, dark, grey day is promised. Peaking at 12C/53F. With a westerly wind. Slightly misty here but thick mist warnings elsewhere. 

 The lower temperatures are reflected in the room. Which has sunk to 64F/17.8C overnight. From 68F/20C at bedtime. The unheated kitchen has dropped to 62F/16.7C. 

 Up at 7.15 after an action replay. Of waking at 5am and then dozing. Meanwhile the dials on the time machine continued to turn.   

 8.45 A late walk. 

 13.25 Back from visiting my friend. It drizzled on the way there.  

 PostDanmark is notifying me. That the Ryet 'Aircode' 3D carbon fiber saddle will be delivered. To a parcel pickup point in the village tomorrow. Not to my home address. That's 10 days since the order was placed. Initial delivery was stated as between the 15th and the 20th. In the meantime I have had fifteen spam [?] sales emails from AliExpress. 

 I have since discovered that the buyer's choice. Lies with the row of pictures below the pricing area on the order page. Initially, I couldn't understand why multiple choices were not provided alongside. Usually in the form of a drop down box. As is the standard on most other, online sales websites. The indicated price changes with each saddle choice by clicking the illustrations in the small boxes. It is only by the greatest of luck that I actually bought the one I wanted. [In optimistic idiot mode.] Carbon rails would need oval rail adapters. Which might not be available for my dropper post. 

 Dinner was a duplicate of the other night. A cheese roll and tomato soup. I try to give my stomach a rest between large meals. Toast is a useful method.

  ~o~

14.10.2025 Window surround.

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  Tuesday 14th 51F/10.6C  [8.00] A grey, but dry day is promised. Possible sunshine later in the afternoon.

 Up at 7.15 after a typically mixed night. 

 8.15 Time for a walk. 

 9.00 Back from a half hour walk. I could hear birds of prey calling at some distance. Only in the last few hundred meters did the black kite show up. Gliding parallel with the road. Then I heard more cries from the top of the hill. Seemingly unconnected with the black kite. 

 The heavy tipper lorries continue their trundling back and forth. Interspersed by several, large, container lorries at intervals. The lorries were easily outnumbering the cars again. 

 Somebody keeps blasting their horn at me. Though I haven't a clue who they are. They were on the opposite side of the road. So it had nothing obvious to do with my presence on the edge of the road. I take to the verge whenever lorries approach. To avoid causing holdups. Or the lorries having to go around me. 

 No visit to my English friend today. He has guests. Perhaps tomorrow instead.

 12.15 I have been working outside. On the bedroom window surround. One side is all but finished. The second not far behind. I decided to carry the sides under the window. With a small rectangle filling the remaining space under the window. This avoids rainfall being directed to the vertical joints. By the outer edges of the windowsill. 

 I avoided having to drag the heavy circular saw out from the shed. By using the jigsaw with a straight edge as a fence. A fine, up-cut blade helped the cause. The slightly ragged edges were easily cleaned up with the orbital sander.

  15.00 Back in for a rest and to cool off. The grooved boards just need to be fixed now. They cover the area which was once a single glazed "picture window." The new, smaller window is triple glazed. It completely blocks the noise. Which once passed straight into the bedroom unhindered. 

 17.30 I managed to find some screws and fixed the new boards in place. I had better tidy up the tools. A small strip above the window still needs to be finished off. 

 Dinner was fish fingers with chips and peas.  

 

  ~o~

13.10.2025 29km Out and about.

 ~o~

  Monday 13th 41F/5C. Slightly misty start to a sunny day. With lighter winds. 

 A perfect day for a ride? This is a far more important question than mere escape form my chores. I have already noticed I am becoming depressed and apathetic. Autumn is already handing over the darker nights and shorter days to winter. Clearly visible in the mess I am leaving both indoors and out. Unfinished projects are backing up. Lethargy is creeping in.

 Getting out on my bike is important therapy. No dark glasses against the blinding, low sun either. This is why my walk is so important to me. Exposure to daylight is vital. I could never get my wife to go for a walk. Her vintage bike hadn't been ridden in decades.  

 Up at 7.15 after a busy night. Saved by dropping off again. After the dustbin lorry lit the room with its blinking, orange lights around 5am.

 I must concentrate on closing off the gap around the bedroom window. The new window was a meter square. Which I inset three years ago into a much larger and wider "picture" window opening. I covered the rockwool around the new window with tar paper. Simply stapled into place but never covered and protected. It slowly became [very] untidy over the passing years. Not helped by birds looking for nesting sites. 

 Now I am determined to finish the job but to do it properly this time. With grooved exterior plywood cladding. To hide and protect the newly fixed paper. I am using my Japanese tripod ladders. To reach the area on the 1st floor of the eastern, gable end. Simply rested against the building. 

 The very wide bases, metal feet and doubled rungs. Provide stability and safety ordinary ladders can only squint at. I have fallen off enough ladders over the years. To know the very real dangers. If I fell off here, on the end of the long, rural drive. Nobody would find me for ages. 

 8.45 Time for my walk. Smoke from a house on the road is drifting low for hundreds of meters. Through the trees and out across the fields in no detectable wind.

 9.10 Back again. It was much chillier today. More lorries than cars. The stink of agricultural, muck spreading hung on the air. A small seaplane went over. I don't think I have ever seen one in flight before today.

 The black kite flew through the trees and quickly out of sight. The neighbours' horses were standing in deep shadow of their vast building. With their heads bowed. They looked up and fidgeted as I approached. I was nearly taken out by a speeding lorry. On the blind bend at the end of the drive. If they drove within their safe braking distance the roads would be much quieter.

 YouTube had a video on government plans to end vintage cars on the UK roads. 

 12.40 Back from a 29km ride. I visited a builder's merchant looking for aluminium profiles. To protect the window from rain running down the facade. The nearby supermarket wasn't offering discounts on my usual marmalade. Far from it! They had raised the price to a ridiculous level. I'll have to find an alternative. I won't encourage their daylight robbery! later I passed two tractors spraying roadside fields. Another field had a stationary shit container and pump. With a huge hose snaking over the brow of the hill. 

 I rode back along the quiet lanes. Then decided to take a short cut through the forest. Where I have walked hundreds of times. I was suddenly struck by nostalgia and melancholy. Because I hadn't been back there since my wife died. It was much later than my habitual morning walks. So the blazing sun was in completely the wrong direction. 

 Lots of areas had been clear felled too. Making the whole excursion a rather strange experience. The gravel and mud track was fine except for one wet sump. Where I had to climb off and detour on the grass. Once clear of the steep undulations and worst roughness of the forest track. I could pick up my speed again. The broad tires and suspension of the Moustache e-bike. Always feel very safe. Regardless of the surface or conditions.

 I had better drive into town. To collect a sheet of cladding plywood. 

 15.20 Returning from town with the plywood in the trailer. 

 Dinner was cheese on toast. No tomatoes again. So I added half a tin of tomato soup. To make a proper meal.

 

  ~o~