First the latest weather news. We have been having a quiet mild summer but yesterday saw the most violent thunderstorm we have had for several years. My house was left undamaged but with 70mm rain in just over 30 minutes all my gutters overflowed and my house was surrounded by a lake. Several trees were hit by lightening in the park and Louis went and hid under the bed.
Not so fortunate was the nearby town of Cooroy which suffered a lot of damage. See the attached link for details and photos. Cooroy
Next my health. I have been having regular monthly check ups and in January I commented on having numb finger tips and feeling more than normally fatigued after exercise. I thought it may be do to my Type 2 diabetes and my GP, C, arranged for a range of blood tests. In general the results were very good and my diabetes in control. However I was suffering from a quite low Vitamin B12 level which among other things causes fatigue and damage to the nervous system ( see B12 Deficiency). Fortunately this is treated by a series of Vitamin B12 injections which is well underway but I will probably be left with numb finger tips and tingling toes from now on.
On to more important things, my bicycle. Last month in installed an Internally Geared Hub (IGH) with 11 speeds in lieu of the previously fitted derailier gears. I had a great deal of e-mails from the Bike Friday mailing list. It was generally agreed that by building the wheel with 3 cross spoke lacing I was putting to much stress on the hub and rims. After buying shorter spokes from a company in Taiwan I rebuilt the wheel. The following photos show the before and after photos.
The original three cross lacing showing how the spokes bend over the hub's flange.
Two cross lacing results in a much more relaxed spoke path.
I have now got couple of hundred kilometres riding the hub including in the hills behind Tewantin. I find it much easier to change gears and the range feels like the original setup so I am happy.
When installing the hub I had difficulty fixing a snap ring to hold the sprocket in place. I now realise that this was made worse having numb finger tips.
On the social side I went to my friend Bill's seventy fifth birthday celebration and met up with other old employees from EMI. We spent most of the time catching up on life.
I have had a busy time at Meals On Wheels making at least one delivery run a week. I am really enjoying it. I have also given a couple of talks at my computer club so life is getting back to normal.
In three weeks time I am driving down to Rutherglen on the River Murray for the Australian Bike Friday Annual Muster. It is a 2000km drive each way which I will spread over four days and I will be away nearly two weeks getting home on the day before Good Friday. I shall try and blog while I am away.
