9 Aug 2025

9.08.2025 Tidying on all fronts.

 ~o~

  Saturday 9th 61F/16C [8.40] A pleasant, sunny day is offered. Peaking at about 22C/71F. 

 Up at 7.20 after several failures to lift off. 

 Plans for a longer ride are on hold pending spare battery recharge. I had better stay at home and continue with tidying. 

 10.30 No walk. I have been boxing up loose books from unwanted bookshelves. Still two bookshelves to clear. All of them random text books, reference and non-fiction. Mostly purchased from secondhand bookshops and charity shops. Collected for over half a century. 

 Now almost, completely worthless. Particularly being written in English while living in Denmark. I literally can't give them away. No charity shop wants them. Nor the secondhand book stores. Not the libraries or international literacy charities. 

 They can't be burnt in the wood stove either. Poor fuel, with the potential for toxins. Perhaps a winter bonfire? Or three, or five. Just getting them all back downstairs, in their 30-odd, large boxes will be a nightmare!   

12.30 Still tidying and rearranging furniture and plants.   

 14.30 Still at it! I have moved into the balcony room. To try to bring some order to the chaos. I have a another steel shelving unit but it may be limited in usefulness. By the attic's, sloping ceilings. 

 17.00 I decided to rotate the aquarium. From against the end wall. To the same corner, but standing along the north wall. You would not believe how heavy it is on its stand/cupboard. Even with the water drained and using levers, wedges and trolleys. I was still dripping with sweat. By the time I was finished.  

 Dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce on toast with tomatoes. 

 

  ~o~

8 Aug 2025

8.08.2025 Pony lawnmower.

 ~o~

  Friday 8th 63F/17.2C [9.00] Bright, sunny start but has clouded over. A blob of cloud is crossing. With the risk of thundery showers. Brighter later. 

 Up at 6.50 after a reasonable night.

 Happy Birthday Darling. Wherever you are. 

 8.45 Back from my usual walk in sunshine. Perfectly comfortable in only a t-shirt. [And trousers! I don't want to start any rumours!] 

 11.00 Back indoors for a rest from tidying the garden. A lot of junk from the demolished observatory was dumped out on the western lawn. The time it took the gravel layers to complete their task gave the grass time to grow waist high! It's not a day for the local recycling yard to be open. So I have filled the recycling bins instead. 

 The sun came out. So I spent some time looking through my repaired, solar telescope. 

 16.30 The tidying continued. Just back from collecting a load of removal boxes in the car. 

 The lady from the village turned up and stayed several hours. 

 The nice neighbours came next. With their spotted pony and their cat which wants to adopt me. The pony made a Makita lawnmower look like a complete amateur. I may have to borrow it.

 Dinner was a plate full of salad.  

 

  ~o~

7 Aug 2025

7.08.2025 Lezyne "Digital Shock Drive."

 ~o~

 

 Thursday 7th 58F/14.4C. Bright overcast. Expected to remain cloudy all day.

 Up at 7.15 after a quite night followed by dozing.

 I must try to stay at home to keep on tidying. I am expecting a visitor next week.

 Lezyne, small bore, "Digital Shock Drive" pump.

 9.00 Having a break to cool down after doing some tidying upstairs. The "removal" boxes I used are too large for books. Making them far too heavy to manage easily. They can't be lifted without falling apart. Fortunately they can be slid along on the carpets. I'll invest in a stack of smaller boxes when I am near a builders merchant. I might even mark them as to contents. Smaller boxes would take up less room under the sloping, attic ceilings.

 I have just heard from the carrier. That the package containing my new suspension pump. Is available for collection at the local parcel pickup point. SMS, email and their own App all sent notification to my phone. What did we do before the Internet? Home delivery I suppose. 

 9.45 Returned with a load of groceries, my parcel and an appointment for a haircut. The latter is just before lunch this morning. Now at a different salon from previous attempts. 

 The Lezyne "Digital Shock Drive" is so pretty it hardly qualifies as a humble pump. More like exquisite jewellery than a common tool. The digits are very easy to read compared to the Topeak analogue gauge. Nor is there any air lost during fitting and removal to the valve. Which is precisely why I invested in this rather expensive digital pump. A single LBS suspension adjustment might cost more. With no guarantee of longer term satisfaction. 

 Digital pressure scale on the Lezyne pump. Far easier to read than a dial!

There is a sensible, rubber covered switch. Which requires some pressure for a few seconds to respond. This avoids the battery going flat if the pump should be carried in a well stuffed bag. The initial pressure in the forks showed a reading of 52PSI. Which I experimentally raised to 70PSI to match my weight. Having read the Moustache instructions for setting the pressures for the suspension. 

 The handlebars lifted as I pumped. Though the forks still sank when I leaned on the bars. Pumping is easy and rose about 1PSI per stroke. Thanks to the small bore and narrow hose. I shall enjoy experimenting with different pressures. Though I have yet to play with the rear suspension strut. Moustache suggested double the rider's weight at the back, as a first trial. Both systems will be affected by the loads being carried in addition to the rider. Not to mention personal taste and riding style. 

 12.30 Back from the village, newly shorn. The young lady hairdresser was excellent. She was attentive, gentle, skilled and did a good job. Though I now smell like the proverbial "tart's handbag." I went to the garden centre and a charity shop afterwards. Looking, in vain, for more ceramic pots for my dark foliage collection. Several plants have blown over in the gales. I added a very dark grass to balance out the group. 

 The sun came out through speckled, high cloud. So I brought out the solar telescope for another trial. Not ideal conditions but the telescope is now performing as expected. The cloud soon became too dense to continue.

 Dinner was sausage, mushrooms and boiled potatoes. 

  

 ~o~