16°C, clear blue
The hole is finally dug, shaped, measured and levelled. It has liner underlay and awaits the liner itself now. By the time that was all done, I was too tired to start the delicate work of placing the liner in measured amounts and adding water, in measured amounts. Actually, there isn’t that much water about right now. We’ve only had a few days rain in the last month and none is forecast. Can I use tap water?
16°C, confused winds, CK:49 miles
Longer ride today on the Fixed, but less energy from me. Rode for 3 hours with slightly too-thin layers on. the effect is to drain away warmth that takes hours to replenish after getting home. I’m still a little chilly now. The, admittedly light, wind blew from the west today. But looking up at clouds that moved in another direction- is that what wind-shear is?
Have I really have got another 2 days off.
c24°C, clear but anvil clouds building. CK: 40miles
Met office have issued warning of smog over the weekend. they say that the still air and bright sunshine cause gasses in fumes to react and produce ozone. It’s a problem for asthmatics and kids, this is quite interesting. It’s interesting for me on days like this where I have been out on the bike. Sometimes, when I get home I have a little cough, a strange one that feels achey in my lungs. Could this be a hint of the “tightness” that asthmatics complain of?
Riding on the 16t: as the ride wore on, it started to feel right. There were a few difficult hills but I could touch 30mph on the descents so it’s all about compromise. Overall, the average speed should be up on the 17t cog. I bet that winter rides will need that 17t again though, the difficulty is spinning out on fast descents. I never can keep the speed up in the cold weather anyway.
it’s going to be hot 23°C? We’re going to have known nothing like it.
Monday-thursday: a day where the queen gives arms to the poor. Armed, one day the poor will rise up and it will become all Citizen-Smith here. Or something like that.
I have too much of a cold to enjoy the hot weather, dammit, I shall not complain.
Alternative vote: The Tories say that the Politician with the 3rd most votes will get in. They say, according to this leaflet, that there are no wasted votes in FPtP (First past the post). It looks to me as if they have taken all the evidence and drawn the diametrically opposite conclusions. The No voters look to be in the majority in the polls now, I suspect that people simply don’t understand how it works; plus the No-campaigners are lying about its consequences. All they have to do is use the numbers to illustrate advantages (or otherwise) then we could make up our minds. Perhaps the root of the problem is that they’re all afraid of talking numbers; such a fear is widespread. Politicians still haven’t really grasped why we, the public, hate them.
upto 21°C, still & no cloud
Just got back. It was great, but I’ve brought a cold with me. It’s been strange, it came on tentatively on the drive there. But it held back for quite a few days, drawing my strength in the background while I climbed mountains. Now I’m all bunged up and have gone to bed with a roll of tissue paper. No, Wait! that sounds terrible.
Another interesting physical process can be noticed when falling asleep. As you drift away in a campsite, sometimes you snap back. When you do, the first thing that snaps back into focus is the sound of the river (on the opposite edge of the camp). It jumps into your consciousness almost as if someone has thrown a switch. This can happen repeatedly until you finally do fall asleep.
Anyway, where have I been?
18°C, clear. Ck.53 miles
It’s not easy deciding which gear to put on the single-speed bike. In this hilly terrain, it’s useful to have a higher gear to make use of the descents and their higher speed. If it’s too high you can’t get up the climbs though, too low and your pegs# spin uncontrollably. On balance, I am going to revert to the 42×16 that the bike came with when I bought it last new-year.
#”Pegs” is a typo for legs, I decided to keep that one.
up to 20°C later, nice again tomorrow.
Hay fever starts with this holiday, along with fine clear weather. How about taking local honey for some protection from hay-fever. Honey bees collect nectar from flowers (biotic pollinations) but hay-fever is caused by grasses (Abiotic pollination). So how does it work alternative-medicine people? Incidentally, the current April flurry of sneezes is said to be caused by tree spores- maybe Beech/Birches.
Now I’m watching weather forecasts eagerly, I want a clear few days so I can make camp in Wales & trudge up some mountains. That’s what I want.
22°C, clear & still
I usually hope to get 1,000 miles ridden by Easter. This year I am surprised ot see how much over that figure I have accumulated. 1,455 miles since new year: 400 on the Kona fixed-gear, 75 on the race bike and the rest on the Arrow commuter. I know the holiday is as late as it can be this year, but still- not too bad eh? Rode to work yesterday pm the Fixed for the comparison, the time was within a minute of the usual. The bike felt lighter on the climbs, but limited on the descents. If ridden over 25mph, your legs spin in an uncontrollable blur; that knocks back the average some.
Grand-national, a horse race where they race around Aintree and one horse+rider wins while some of the others die or have to be destroyed because of their injuries. Today, two horses died in falls (broken necks), only about 2/3 finished. not impressed.
20°C, westerly but amazingly warm.
-Have cut the steerer-tube of the fixed gear bike. It looks all in-proportion now. Shall I ride it to work tomorrow? I just can’t decide yet. See what I think in the morning. End of term is nigh. The relief, the thought of camping, mountains, walking. The ground is alive and my pond will be done soon.
12°C, windy & grey cloud.
Biggest government spending cuts, blah blah. It turns out that they have cut 0.6% off the total public spending budget according to the Spectator magazine. If the press are ot be believed- the cuts are “savage”, “deep” or “swinging”- we’re told they amount to 10% or more of Govt. expenditure.
Burning books madness: BBC -Afghanis rioting over some loony priest in the US who burned a copy of The Qu’ran. It’s not a rare book, nor was it an expensive one- you can get a copy from Amazon for about £5. So why riot so much that people get killed? That stupid pasteur is only doing it for the publicity, the stupid media are happy to give him just that and now people have died raging about it.
It’s only a book.
Micycle 