October sunshine

The brilliant weather continues - we've seldom seen a sunnier week than this one. High pressure in October does mean cooler evenings and mornings, but that's a small price to pay. Deeside has done particularly well - Braemar, not for the first time, was both the hottest and the coldest place in the UK on the same day. It got down to minus 2C overnight but then rose back up to 24C in the afternoon.

I went out to play 16 holes yesterday afternoon with Les Gray and Ken Page and we sat on the balcony at the club for a couple of beers afterwards. I phoned Jo and suggested she come down and join me - and she did, whereupon Ken got in touch with Irene and the four of us had supper together - not at the golf club, however - it was 1st October, meaning winter catering hours - no food on midweek evenings. We walked round to the Douglas and ate there, but, as we left the club, a low mist was already descending on the fairways:

By the time we left the Douglas to walk home, the temperature had crashed - and I was still in shorts.

I have been threatening to buy a new bike for some time now - my old Dawes is nearly 40 years old now - and an opportunity came along yesterday when John Meaden contacted me to say he had bought himself a new bike and would I like to buy his old one? So, this morning, I took a short stroll round to Burnett Park to have a look at it - and, after handing over just £100, I rode home on this:

It's now been adorned with a few of the accessories on my old bike - lights, bell, mudguard and toolkit. I took it for a very short run to get used to the gearing (a lot more than I'm used to) and the disc brakes, which squeal a fair bit. The bike is 7 years old so it's not the very latest technology, but it's bound to be an improvement on what I had. It doesn't have the larger wheels that have become de rigueur in recent times - 29" and, more recently 27.5" - and its tyres are wider than on my Dawes, causing more friction, but the same sized wheels as I'm used to are a bit easier to manoeuvre. I may have to replace the saddle with a gel one however!

I also took delivery of a new set of crossbars for the rails on top of my car and fitted them successfully:

My next job was to try and fit one of the many sets of bike racks I have in the garage to the new crossbars, but none of them would fit - the crossbars were too fat, so it's back to square one.

This afternoon I was back to the dentist to have a filling plus a scale and polish - my mouth is still numb.

We can't yet use our balcony at home and whereas we sat outside downstairs this morning, we can't do that in the afternoons at this time of year as the sun is too low in the sky and the huge trees in front of us shade the ground from the rays.

The new boiler fitting is going to be happening on Monday now. As I suspected, that means me missing another of our cycling group's planned outings. Ho hum.

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 am we're both getting our flu jabs.

The news this morning from Roseburg, Oregon was truly shocking. Far too close for comfort - Roseburg is just one hour up the I-5 from Grants Pass. The old arguments about gun control inevitably resurface at times like this - even the phone-in on Radio Scotland this morning was full of mostly ill-informed comments - and I wouldn't want to pontificate on what the Americans should do about it - not my place - but I did quite like reading Rolling Stone's commentary on it.  Admittedly, it's a left-leaning magazine, so you know where they're coming from, but nonetheless it's worth a look - http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/4-pro-gun-arguments-were-sick-of-hearing-20151001?page=2

Obama only has a year of his presidency left. Politically, he has nothing left to lose now. If he really wants to do something about it, now's the time - although he does need to persuade an awful lot of doubters if he wants to get anything passed.

Thursday frustration

Well, the fitter arrived to install our new boiler - sharp at 8 am. He had driven up from Fife, but there was an immediate problem - he didn't have the correct parts with him. Not his fault of course - the parts were ordered by the surveyor. Whenever you buy anything like this, you always have 3 separate visits - first the salesman, then the surveyor and finally the fitter. They should communicate effectively with each other, but seldom do - in fact, they often "diss" their colleagues. (This could have been a topic for My Pet Hates blog).

The upshot is that he is going to have to come back next week, which means at least one of us has to stay at home again. I could have gone cycling with our group this morning, but missed out. I'm glad I managed a shortish run yesterday - in glorious sunshine again.

We're still waiting for the last coat of the decking oil I put on our balcony to dry fully:

One application of cleaner, then one of preservative, followed by two of decking oil - the first applied by brush and the second sprayed on. Maybe the second coat was unnecessary - but it can't do any harm in the long run. One upshot of the brush application was that some splashes landed on my car below - I don't know what to do about this, but the paintwork has definitely been breached and no doubt it will rust in those places. Oh well.

Another glorious day in store. I could nip down to Carnoustie, St. Andrews or Kingsbarns to watch the Dunhill Cup - or I might go for a solo cycle this afternoon. I feel I should get out whilst the weather's so good (24 C on Deeside!), but I'm a little tired - I had a poor night's sleep - I lay awake from 2:30 am on.

I took my first Rivaroxaban pill yesterday morning and I got an immediate reaction - I felt dizzy and a bit drowsy. The effects wore off a bit in the afternoon, but it made me decide to take the next one at night, rather than the morning. Dizziness is one of the possible side effects listed on the instructions, which also say that new patients normally take two 15 mg pills daily for the first month then move on to one 20 mg pill daily, but I've gone straight in at 20 mg daily. We'll see how I get on tonight after taking my second dose.

Kelly FaceTimed yesterday, so we got lots of kisses from little Miller - that was nice. So it's going to be grandson number 5 then. Some of you aren't trying hard enough.

Busy morning

It was all go this morning - pick up my car from the golf club, then my paper and head for the Doctor's. We discussed my recent visit to the cardiologist. He had recommended coming off aspirin and moving to the new generation of anti-coagulants like Rivaroxaban. This time last year, my GP had persuaded me to give it one more year before changing drugs, so now was the time to change - and he agreed, so I've got a month's trial to do, then back to the GP. If all's well, he'll give me another 2 months' worth of the drug and, at the end of that period we'll decide whether to continue with it permanently or not. Unlike Warfarin, there's no antidote, so, if I bleed, it's serious. I'll have to be even more careful on my cycling trips.

I rushed from the Doctor's to my new Dentist for his initial assessment. Generally OK, but a bit of pus round my implant and a dodgy filling that needs replaced - on Friday.

Next stop was the pharmacist/chemist to pick up my new medicine, then on to Special FX who act as the local UPS depot. (I had to return a part I'd ordered from Apple - incorrectly). Then it was off for a haircut - back down to a bare number 4 again. I think I'll need to buy another head shaver.

The Legion was next - annual renewal time - then it was home again. Good day to wash both cars, I thought. Good idea but it gave our next door neighbour an opportunity to complain about the location of our bins on the driveway - too close to her house apparently.

A bit of bad news - an old friend of mine from Knightswood days died last week. Colin McKay was just 67. I hadn't seen him for decades but we still exchanged Xmas cards. He had type 3 colon cancer and was operated on last Wednesday, but there were complications and he was put on life support before passing away peacefully. Colin and I were pretty close in the 60's and early 70's. He was at our wedding and, before that, at my 21st:

That's Colin lying down at the front of the photo - and his sister Moira is on the far left.

The weekend has passed - and it was a glorious one with fine autumnal sunshine - perfect for our end of season Scotland v. R.o.W. match and lunch yesterday - and again today for the Seniors' season-ending golf and lunch.

We had a slightly shortened FaceTime call from Kelly on Friday morning - Miller spilled some stuff and she had to hang up - then Lucy called last night.

My pensions/financial adviser Alistair Scott called on Friday. I had half promised him a game of golf, but the course was busy and, anyway, I had to wait for the man from Penicuik who was supposed to be here in the morning to fix our front door anyway, and, as usual, he didn't arrive on time, so we decided to forgo the golf and just nip up to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel for a quick soup and sannies lunch.

The blood red "super moon" last night looked interesting, but there was no way we were getting up at 3 am to view it. I took a couple of snaps of the bright full moon on Friday night however:

Nowhere near as impressive as some of the photos on today's TV - I guess you had to be there - it was quite a sight - like a giant light bulb.

End of today's diary entry.