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Winter solstice chill
It's still cold. Cold enough for Perthites to notice; meaning that everybody who catches trains at night or early morning is wearing a hoodie or a beanie. The last few minimum temperatures were down around 2-3^C and maxes in the high teens. And before those in the northern hemisphere start laughing (again) I'll just note that temperatures here can swing up to and past 40^C sometimes. I'd rather be adapted for that!
Our houses are generally not centrally heated, though they will mostly have heaters but it's not the same and I try not to use mine very much because of the expense. It'll get a bit warmer soon but there are more storms forecast for the winter solstice and now, predictions that this will be the wettest June for several years.
I still made it to gaming [Cards Against Humanity] last night but I got a ride home so I would not have a freezing wait for train and walking from train. Riding bike is right out. Wind chill is not my friend.
Yesterday I had an interesting encounter, if that's the word, when on my way with Rocket to grocery shop. The underpass beneath the train line, for pedestrians and bikes, was blocked...by a very large and long mobility scooter whose driver had managed to jam it between the barriers set up to stop bike riders blasting through at warp speed. You have a left hand one as you approach that takes up half the width of the tunnel, you go around that and almost immediately there's another one on the right, also taking up half the width, so you either slow right down or get off, which is what the designers want.
It was like a mobility scooter version of the Bayswater Bridge casualty list, which collects constant victims in the form of big trucks which think they're just low enough to get through it and then find out they aren't. Local residents and shopowners keep a book on the mishaps and how long it's likely to be till the next truck gets stuck. I live about four kilometres from this bridge so I get to enjoy their misfortunes :-)
The person riding the scooter, an elderly woman who looked to be in her late '80s, early '90s, had a carer with her who had called the train station to ask the guards for assistance. She asked if I could do anything but there wasn't much I could do but wait. I could have gotten Rocket under the barrier if I had to, but not easily, so I just waited with them until the guards arrived. One seemed familiar with the controls/manoevering of the scooter, so he reached in to operate those and with the help of the one on the other side, managed to even it up so it could get through the gap. Just.
Another elder had come along on a wheeled walker before the guards got there and with much grumbling, squeezed between scooter and wall to get through, once I'd convinced her to let me lift the walker over the barrier, because no way was that going to squeeze past and she didn't want to wait around, no way. The scooter people were going to have to use Lord Street several streets up to cross back because there really wasn't another way, the scooter being too big to use the station lift.
Today I went out on foot for the sake of the exercise....and found that Rocket is apparently becoming known around here because a lady came up to me while I was checking out the stock of the local book exchange and asked where "the bike" was :-) We worked out that she meant Rocket. So I've now been upstaged by my e-bike. She did kindly comment on the progress of my beard and since she's the first person who's used that word to describe what's present around my chin area, it's quite encouraging.
Our houses are generally not centrally heated, though they will mostly have heaters but it's not the same and I try not to use mine very much because of the expense. It'll get a bit warmer soon but there are more storms forecast for the winter solstice and now, predictions that this will be the wettest June for several years.
I still made it to gaming [Cards Against Humanity] last night but I got a ride home so I would not have a freezing wait for train and walking from train. Riding bike is right out. Wind chill is not my friend.
Yesterday I had an interesting encounter, if that's the word, when on my way with Rocket to grocery shop. The underpass beneath the train line, for pedestrians and bikes, was blocked...by a very large and long mobility scooter whose driver had managed to jam it between the barriers set up to stop bike riders blasting through at warp speed. You have a left hand one as you approach that takes up half the width of the tunnel, you go around that and almost immediately there's another one on the right, also taking up half the width, so you either slow right down or get off, which is what the designers want.
It was like a mobility scooter version of the Bayswater Bridge casualty list, which collects constant victims in the form of big trucks which think they're just low enough to get through it and then find out they aren't. Local residents and shopowners keep a book on the mishaps and how long it's likely to be till the next truck gets stuck. I live about four kilometres from this bridge so I get to enjoy their misfortunes :-)
The person riding the scooter, an elderly woman who looked to be in her late '80s, early '90s, had a carer with her who had called the train station to ask the guards for assistance. She asked if I could do anything but there wasn't much I could do but wait. I could have gotten Rocket under the barrier if I had to, but not easily, so I just waited with them until the guards arrived. One seemed familiar with the controls/manoevering of the scooter, so he reached in to operate those and with the help of the one on the other side, managed to even it up so it could get through the gap. Just.
Another elder had come along on a wheeled walker before the guards got there and with much grumbling, squeezed between scooter and wall to get through, once I'd convinced her to let me lift the walker over the barrier, because no way was that going to squeeze past and she didn't want to wait around, no way. The scooter people were going to have to use Lord Street several streets up to cross back because there really wasn't another way, the scooter being too big to use the station lift.
Today I went out on foot for the sake of the exercise....and found that Rocket is apparently becoming known around here because a lady came up to me while I was checking out the stock of the local book exchange and asked where "the bike" was :-) We worked out that she meant Rocket. So I've now been upstaged by my e-bike. She did kindly comment on the progress of my beard and since she's the first person who's used that word to describe what's present around my chin area, it's quite encouraging.
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That must have been one hefty mobility scooter!