This is a bank Holiday Weekend, you can tell by the 'pitter-patter' of rain on the window. I worry not but the dafties who drive off to the coast or other holiday spot to get away from it all soon join with thousands of others getting away from it all and fail to get away from it all. It is however a change, apart from the rain.
I am going nowhere. The past weeks activities have worn me out. Once you stop work it is very hard to start again. For too long I have sat around on my behind and now I am so unfit that running around for a few days on the trot leaves me very tired at the end. This week has been busy at the museum as so many are off sick, have to look after relatives or have disappeared that I and others have to cover up a wee bit more than normal. Next week I am only down for Tuesday morn so that should make this week easier, unless another decides to run off.
For a start my knees were not keen, the weather too keen and last time I was out all was well however the other day I noted the tyre was flat! How did that happen? Something wee, like a bit of glass from the kiddies beer bottles round by the recreation ground, has got in there again.
So having slept much of yesterday yet still found myself knackered today I eventually got round to finding the bits to remove the wheel. They have disappeared! The one tool that always turned the nut was not to be found. I have a feeling it may have been licked under the skirting board and gone down into the messy depths that lie beneath the flat below, a messy 'Somme' like place that it impenetrable. Nothing in the tool box fits to turn the nut! Nothing! So this afternoon instead of my much needed siesta I went searching for bicycle tools. I obviously went to the cheap shops first to see if any Chinese made equipment was available for less money than they were worth but I was unsuccessful. This meant I had to wander round the two cycle shops in town and search the racks on the wall, this also was unsuccessful. What can be the deal when two shops selling bikes have limited equipment that go with said bikes? Possibly these tools are hidden away behind the profit making things like shorts, saddles, and er, bikes, but in one several items were marked 'SALE' but the label hid what the item on 'SALE' was! How does he survive?
Two cheap Chines supplied shops failed me, Tesco had loads last week all removed to make space for CHRISTMAS stock, and two cycle shops had nothing on show that helped. This means a trip to 'Halford's' where I suspect upstairs plenty of suitable odds and ends will be suitably overpriced but I canny go there until Monday, and as it's a Bank Holiday I suspect it will be chock a block with bargain hunters spending money of overpriced stuff they do not need, just like I sometimes do but will not admit to myself.
I decided on a fruit and healthy pasta lunch, I thought it would keep me on the run, and it did! On Wednesday at work one of the trustees and I compared beer belly's and it was not a nice sight, almost like one of them maternity gatherings most men rightly ignore. The problem is coming home after a day out I am not in the mood to fuss, just eat and sleep I say. It is only with free time a proper diet can be made available. Of course once I get the bike fixed, if I get the tools, and by means of a sensible diet, if I bother, I can exercise, unless the rain comes back, and eat well, if I have time, and then I will lose weight, be healthy and enjoy winter and the cold, wet, rain and snow with eastern winds driving hail into our faces for months.
Sometimes I wish I was not so optimistic.
