Quick daily posts

[Mabel Figworthy]

Nothing wrong with badgers, Richard - very distinguished looking creatures !

I see my quarterly visits to the local hairdresser as doing my bit in keeping the local economy running, although at £10 a go (it used to be £7 when I first got here, but inflation has hit) it won't keep the economy running very fast or very far Should retirement be tighter than we hope, I'm sure DH will render me the same service that you render Tracy, with the exception of the fringe bit as I haven't got one.

[rcperryls]

I waited and waited until I could no longer wait any longer. My hairdresser and the salon she works out are wonderfully obsessive about following all the guidelines given by the CDC (Center for Disease Control). More masks seen than any other place, moved stations to make sure social distancing takes place and lots and lots of sanitizing before and after. I felt very safe. Which is saying a lot since my state is one of the ones with crazy soaring rates right now. I did get it cut a bit shorter than usual so I could extend the time between visits. My hair is in general a total loss. Left in its natural state, it pretty much look like I just poked my finger in an electric socket. Much worse when I was younger and before age and some of my meds have thinned it out, but the hairdresser says its the driest hair she's ever worked on. Oh well, don't see that many people anymore anyway

Carole

[Serinde]

Back in the day, I wouldn't have darkened the door of a hairdresser, but my (very) long hair was thinning with age and I took a notion to cut it all off. Much better (unless you are DH) and took about 10 years off me. I'm definitely greying, but that's fine: it's a nice grey. Now. DH has become quite the radical. Decided after retirement he was never going to cut hair or beard (which he's had for most of adult life) Every Again. Working towards the ZZTop look. In fact, he looks like Santa's dissolute younger brother crossed with a lumberjack. I make no comment. His hair; his beard. But we do have a wedding to attend in October...

[Mabel Figworthy]

DH is sporting a 70s look at the moment with his hair creeping ever further down his collar. I've threatened to buy him flares to go with it but if he does manage to get into the barber's on Saturday I won't have to.

[richardandtracy]

Serinde, so long as your DH can play the guitar like ZZTop, the look is entirely forgivable. It only becomes an issue if he can't play...

ZZTop's 'Eliminator' album (along with Evanescence's 'Fallen') was the quiet (must emphasise 'Quiet' because the rest of the family do not much enjoy my musical taste and I didn't want to spoil their evening) sound track to my programming yesterday evening.

Feel as if I am at the point where the cross stitch program is morphing into something really quite useful. The more I do on the programming side at the moment, the more I realise I need to do to make it more functional & easier to use. Think I am going to have to extend the capability of 'Blocks' to include stitching in them, so - for example - an outline can be stored in the same repeatable block as a pattern of cross stitches. This will need an significant change to the save file format, so I might as well add French Knots too, and anything else I can think of at the same time - eg a fast to access thumbnail, and permanently ditch the ASCII file save format in favour of the much, much faster binary format. Then also a way of differentiating between half & full crosses, possibly finding a way of adding partial stitches too.

Once I have been through this phase of programming mods & got them debugged I may well take a copy of all the code and re-jig it so the image editor becomes the main window controlling the rest of the program from there - more like PCStitch. This is seeming to be an increasingly sensible step, because the image editor code length now matches the main program window code length and will probably exceed it before I am done with this round of changes. The code length for the whole program is approaching 100,000 lines, or possibly the same amount of text as a 300 page novel - and every character must be correct, no typographical errors otherwise the program either won't compile or it'll do something stupid.

Finally, I am going to have to do something about High DPI monitors. They are becoming increasingly common and components of the screen are becoming tiny. I may have to have different size menu icons & the like embedded in the program and select which size to display dependent on the DPI. I had started to have such things last year, but the components that came with the programming suite I was using were an early iteration by Embarcadero and didn't seem very stable - and they are taking the 'modern' approach to documentation, ie, don't bother. I had ditch the whole lot at the end of last year. This time I'll have to program all the effects myself. Unfortunately while it's possible to make menu text bigger, it's not possible to make the size of the main menu entry text at the top (eg 'File', 'Edit', 'View', 'Help') any bigger. But it is possible to replace the top menu line with a series of buttons or a ribbon...

Ah well. Great fun all round.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

Sounds as if getting increasingly useful, Richard. And it keeps you from jumping on your chopper and crashing the raves in Manchester, eh.

[richardandtracy]

How did you know I want a chopper?

I rather like the bike in this image: https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/360657.jpg, but think it'd be highly uncomfortable to sit on for a while. I do like the hubless wheels. I'd love a back support, QUIET engine with effortless power (a Rolls Royce, not a busy/shouty Ferrari type of engine) and a comfortable seating position. I have never seen a chopper with all my requirements. Not sure it's possible, actually.

The second best bike for comfort I ever tried was the bike I still have rotting away in the garden, a Suzuki GSX 550 https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Galle ... 20%202.jpg. It's far, far from a chopper but it was like wearing a comfortable old glove. Costs more to run than our car, and toys like that are now unaffordable for us. The most comfortable bike I ever tried was a Yamaha FJ1200 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... kalina.jpg), but there was no prospect of having one.

I went across Canada & Alaska on a Honda Silver Wing in 1987: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Galle ... r%2083.jpg. Two months travelling 8000 miles was something to remember. Particularly 4" of snow on 31 August in Whitehorse, only having a tent & a motorcycle. Warming up was problematic...

Regards,

Richard

[wendywombat]

D/H's favourite bile of all time was the FJ1200!! We had great fun on that! Camping and touring. Same colour as that photo!
It was about that time I decided that I wanted more than going pillion...took my bike test on a 175 Honda and the day I passed my test D/H sold it and bought me a Triumph Tiger 100A (without the bathtub fairing) He stripped it down and rebuilt it. I never really felt comfortable on it for several long winded reasons! After a Suzuki Trail 125 I progressed to my All Time Favourite...A Moto Guzzi 500. I loved that bike! Made my daughter a leather suit , plonked her on the back (age 7) and took it to the Isle of Man! Rode the TT Course on Mad Sunday. Fantastic!!
Daughter became a Biker in adulthood with a Pink Triumph!
We've had many bikes here and in the UK but now....
Now D/H is hankering after a Royal Enfield Himalayan.

[richardandtracy]

Dear me. The FJ1200 was a rare bird, I have only seen two outside a showroom, and you had one Wendy. Remarkable.
Hmm. Not sure about the Himalayan. Doesn't look terribly comfortable at first glance. A colleague had a Triumph 800 cc Trail bike a couple of years ago. I tried it out, but my knees were never designed to spread that far apart and I got cramp in my hips after 100 yards. Could barely stop the bike safely to get off.

The FJ1200 has far too much power, of course. My 550 at 64 bhp has more power than our car, and the car's 23 years newer with a 426cc bigger engine. Still enjoy playing on my wife's Piaggio 'NRG POWER' 50cc moped. They are not the same, but can be fun. But those things have 8bhp & a top speed of 50 mph (80 kmh) so long as the wind is from behind. Plenty enough speed to hurt a lot if you come off.

I liked the look of the Moto Guzzi's, but their price tag was such that I never tormented myself by trying one. Also saw the Laverda Jota and steered well clear of that too.

I did try one of the most lunatic headbanger bikes of the time, a Suzuki RG 500 Gamma (https://iconicmotorbikeauctions.com/wp- ... t-Side.jpg) Square 4. At the end of my test drive I so wanted to return to my gentle [a rip-snorter with 0-60 in 4.2 secs type gentle], comfortable, mild mannered 550. Had I had the 500, I'd have killed myself. On the test drive I found myself going round a left hand bend at 70 mph in top gear when the steering drifted to full right lock. I was on the rear wheel only and didn't know it... And when I tried to be gentle with it, ticking along at just over idle, the engine stalled when my 550 would have not even noticed the load. Took me 3 attempts to get out of the show room car-park without stalling. Eventually I nerved myself up enough to take sufficient throttle not to stall and left on 1 wheel.

Other bikes I had were a Suzuki GP125 (which spat its big end bearing out through the exhaust 3 days before my test) and a 6Volt Honda CD175 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... dified.JPG which was even worse than it looks. The brakes didn't, there was no damping in any of the shocks and one fork was seized solid. It had metal leg protectors that prevented airflow over the engine so it overheated and the leg protectors hit the ground on corners, clanging and showering 6ft of sparks every second or so as the undamped bike bounced around the corner.

Regards,

Richard.

[wendywombat]

My V50 (500 cc)was just the right size and height for me. We had a Spada too but I couldn't touch the ground on that and at 1200 cc it was a bit too powerful for me. The FJ had more poke and on the pillion I had to hang on when D/H accelerated hard!
I have just been reminded that I did a test ride on a Suzuki GSX 500 and dropped it! We had a Suzuki 550 and I enjoyed riding that though.
Perhaps this should be called the Bikers Cross Stitch Forum!

[Serinde]

Goodness! The things I'm learning!

Richard, all chaps seem drawn to motorbikes. My younger son had to sell his little Kawasaki Ninja recently (bright green!); broke his heart and he's vowed that once he's earning properly he'll buy another bike. DH, in a rare moment of insight, realised in his youth that if he started riding a motorbike, he'd be dead in no time flat. (Have you read Shop class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford? You probably should.)

WW, hold on there, while I redraw my preconceived portrait! How grand.

[richardandtracy]

My V50 (500 cc)was just the right size and height for me. We had a Spada too but I couldn't touch the ground on that and at 1200 cc it was a bit too powerful for me. The FJ had more poke and on the pillion I had to hang on when D/H accelerated hard!
I have just been reminded that I did a test ride on a Suzuki GSX 500 and dropped it! We had a Suzuki 550 and I enjoyed riding that though.
Perhaps this should be called the Bikers Cross Stitch Forum!

The V50 was a nice bike, saw a few & thought they were the sort of thing you'd want to keep for years.
Once while 2 up with my GSX550 on the A358 in Somerset a Porche 911 came up next to me at the traffic lights and wanted a drag race from the lights. I warned my brother and we took off quite fast, leaving the Porche way back, but it took a fair while to disentangle my brother's feet from under my armpits. He had been hanging on to the handrail behind him and rotated around it as we accelerated, only his feet under my armpits had prevented him rolling off the back of the bike.

Maybe it it should be the 'Moto-Cross Stitch Forum'. OK, I'll stop having any more bad puns today.
Well, the next few hours is all I can guarantee.


Serinde, I wouldn't say quite 'All Chaps' are interested in bikes. My brother was actually militantly uninterested in having his own transport until about 5 years ago when he finally learnt to drive a car. And I have actually come across as many lady riders as I have gentlemen riders. While at Plymouth Polytechnic half the bike club there was female, with one delicate & slender 5'2" tall lady with a 1000cc Suzuki. The rear tyre on that bike was as wide as her waist, and due to how light she was, her rocketship was even quicker than it would have been with a male rider. She did ruefully admit that she needed help getting it upright when she dropped it, though.

Regards,

Richard

[wendywombat]

I know what you mean about 'drag racers'!
I was at traffic lights in the centre of Bristol and 2 bikes came along side...looked at the V50 badge on the side panel and said that I wouldn't be able to catch them on my 50cc bike! THEY ATE MY DUST!
I was a member of W.I.M.A for may years (Women's International Motorcycle Association) and some of the bikes the members rode were much more powerful than mine and they traveled far and wide on them. The Club secretary from that time had a motorcycle and sidecar.

I haven't ridden for many years now but Old Bikers never lose that yearn to get back on two wheels. Hence my D/H wanting to have another bike!
Between us we have had about 15 bikes over the years!

[richardandtracy]

Wendy: Love that Brisle story, seems about right.

I had another, very silly, drag racer want to race me.

This time it was on the A2 2 lane each way section in Gillingham in Kent. Heavy congestion, busy road. I was on my way to my FIL's place with him in the back along with Tracy & MIL. FIL had just been released from hospital after a heart attack, and we were in our Citroen 2CV. It's worth pointing out that a 2CV can do 0-60; provided it has a long enough run up and the wind is behind it. The engine is 29 bhp and with 4 in the car, I'd need a mile or so of flat road to approach 60. Maybe more.

Anyway at a set of traffic lights, a silly boy in a rorty and heavily modified Vauxhall Cavalier came up beside me & blipped his throttle.
So I did too, wondering how silly he would be. A drag race against the slowest car on the road by miles? Oh yeah.
He the blipped his throttle again.
As did I.
He raced the engine of his car.
I moved forward 4".
He dropped the clutch and burnt rubber as he blasted through the red lights like a gangbuster, pouring blue smoke from his front wheel drive tyres. And came to a screeching, smoking, wavy black line halt to avoid T-boning a car perfectly legitimately crossing in front of us. He came to within inches of the other car and got hooted and shouted at by almost every other driver in the vicinity. The near miss victim, a burly, gap toothed, bald headed and tatooed man, stopped in the middle of the road and started screaming at the silly boy through his window and waved his meaty paws about very expressively.
We gave the boy a little wave as we pottered past when the lights went green.

Regards,

Richard.

[rcperryls]

I have absolutely loved this discussion, though most of it went over my head. I was only on a motorcycle one time, way back in college and it was grand fun! Unfortunately, or fortunately, I didn't date that boy very long. I think I missed the opportunity to bike, more than I missed him.

My DH was a fisherman and boats were more of interest to him than bikes. We had three different ones, though the last was a canoe, which was my favorite. My son took it after my DH died for he and his sons to enjoy. Each one had special canoe outings with their Grampa when they were younger.

Still and all, I loved that discussion and I will admit that I am not surprised that Richard has that much knowledge about bikes, but wasn't expecting it from Wendy You go girl!!!!

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Think I would concur with Wendy's statement earlier, 'Old Bikers never lose that yearn to get back on two wheels.'

There is a freedom about being on a bike that isn't possible in a car. You need to be totally aware of the road conditions and environment around you at all time. And bigger bikes are responsive to every last thought (good or bad) in a way that a car cannot duplicate. Hardly decide to be doing 60mph & you are doing that on a bike. It's an immense responsibility as well as freedom. Great fun.

Regards,

Richard

[wendywombat]

I loved the freedom of being on a bike, both pillion and 'in charge'.
Also there's a great camaraderie amongst Bikers! Even now as a greying Grandma if I stop to admire a bike rarely do I go away without a few words with the owner. D/H usually has to drag me away. although he's as nostalgic as me about our Biking years!

You are right about being more Road Aware, Richard. I think it made me a better car driver!

[Mabel Figworthy]

DH is off to a see a friend today who has a unit/barn somewhere in the middle of nowhere so they can work on their cars together (each on his own car, at a suitable distance, but at least they can swap car talk ) This means that after the church service (still online for us) I will try and have a good long go at the goldwork racehorse!

[wendywombat]

Sensible to keep a good distance still I think, Mabel.
I was looking at the BBC website this morning and was shocked at the crowds reveling! Yes, I know that life has to go on but there also have to be sensible precautions taken.
Yesterday in the Market fewer people were wearing masks and now there's a sprinkling of 'Visitor' voices to be heard as the travel restrictions are lifted. Also we are now seeing the vapour trails of planes overhead...the skies have been so much quieter.
When we went to bed last night we could hear music! There's a campsite in the village (which is 4kms away) and we could hear the music from that! D/H , who has much better hearing than I have, said it went on until 4am!

Sadly life for everyone has changed and we just have to cope and get on with it!

Also we met up with the Agent who is selling our house here. Nothing happening on that front unsurprisingly but we weren't pleased to hear what he said about houses selling well in Other Areas and How Difficult it was for Them to to sell in our area!!!
Do we really want to know his problems???

Rant over!! Sorry!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Oh, we're still keeping our distance, don't worry! (Not from each other, I hasten to add ) But although lots of people, probably the majority, are sensible, unfortunately a large minority are not. DH went for a haircut yesterday and the barber was wearing his mask under his chin. DH said "they are more effective when worn over the nose and mouth, you know..." and he replied it got so hot and uncomfortable while he was talkign to customers so he pulled it down. DH requested in a friendly way that he put it up while cutting his (DH's) hair, which he was happy to do. But even so, it makes me shudder to think how many of the "plus" measures are actually put in place correctly...

Hope the housing situation soon looks up, Wendy!