Cool and Interesting

I’m going on a long winter bike ride today. My husband would like to be reassured for the next three hours that I am ok. He would like me to take “his” pebble along. This worked great when we wanted to find our luggage in the airport and someone had taken it off the conveyor belt. But I don’t really like being tracked.

The Pebblebee is an excellent product for tracking. The battery is long-lasting and the app easy to use.

When our daughter was on an out-of-country trip she didn’t have to worry about needing to ensure her internet connection in order to keep us up to date. However, when she didn’t seem to be moving after her airplane had landed though … there was nothing much we could do but worry. It turned out that the Uber they had ordered didn’t show up.

Other cyclists also talk about having to let their wives know what they’re up to. I would like to not worry that my husband has fallen and become unconscious on one of his long trail runs up and down the steep mountains too.

But is it a real risk reduction tool?

What could be the reasons for:

• No signal: the battery running out, malfunction, entering neighboring countries’ internet space.
• No movement: the tracker has fallen out of the bag at a break, the rider has fallen asleep on the beach, lunch became a 4-course event.

What can a spouse do and why? In the first place they’d like to be reassured that all is well, so they can phone. If the phone goes unanswered, then at what point do they call search and rescue?

In the happy flow case, the tracking spouse can virtually and vicariously enjoy the trip of the rider/runner. The spouse being tracked doesn’t have to stop as often and take pictures of locations to send to the family chat (though I like to do that anyways).

The cost is that the spouse being tracked is now intrinsically responsible for ensuring that the tracker is sending out the right signal. So instead of taking pictures, I would have to look at my screen, for which I have to take off my sunglasses, deal with an app, and reduce the feeling of untethered enjoyment.

The chances that the tracking spouse would save the life of the tracked spouse is very very small. In case of a serious accident during a bike trip, the ambulance would already have arrived. The unconscious spouse who’s fallen in a steep mountain valley … ?

So it’s about managing how much risk the spouse may take on their own, balancing the responsibility of the away-from-home spouse with the reassurance of the at-home spouse.

How do you resolve this balance? How do you manage the risk appetite of the involved parties?

I have bought many pairs of these wonderful Teva TirraTravelers. They fit great and look fantastic with long pants, shorts, skirts and even a lbd.

They weigh only 440g. You can easily transport them in a

to keep the dirty soles away from the rest of your stuff with no additional weight.

The best strategy is to not need first aid in the first place. Ensure your brakes are in order, don’t overdo things, drink enough.

But you don’t want to drink water with bacteria or protozoa in it! You could add a micropur tablet and wait for an hour or filter your water.

The DayCap in-bottle filter from Platypus fits perfectly on my old and rugged 2-litre MSR Dromedary waterbag. This water bag, by the way, was bought more than 25 years ago, and it is still in perfect shape – no delamination, no odors. Fantastic quality! So that’s really cool.

You can fill the bag up with “dirty” water from, say, the Rhine that you’re cycling along, and squish out a

This way you can fill all kinds of biking or hiking bottles quickly and endlessly for yourself and your friends.

You can also use it the original way and insert it in

as well as:

I prefer to keep my bottles bacteria-free though. I sometimes put electrolyte tablets or maltodextrine in my bottles, which I wouldn’t want to put through the filter.

When you’re done with producing clean water you should

Unlimited clean water freedom!

8 years ago I bought a heavy duty Sailrite sewing machine for boat covers, sails and sun shades.  One of the first things I used it for in 2018 was to fix the sunshade of our house with this Big Blue Beast . I fixed a lot of big heavy boat covers that were difficult to move around.

A lot of fixing work is patching things up. Such as here: Toto’s red boat cover. This requires sewing in circles, which is difficult to do by dragging the cover around. I put the Blue Beast on a set of wheels to make it easier.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of meeting Alex, a professional cobbler who is now retired and selling the equipment in his atelier.

It’s an industrial machine, used for many decades to sew bespoke shoes. I would love to use it but it’s too big for my abilities and needs.

So I took a look at smaller models and saw this review of the best shoe sewing machines.

What is it that cobbler machines can do that others can’t? They can sew in any direction! This is sooooo cool! Just awesome.

I’d love to get something like that. I’ll have to think about it for a bit, which one to get and where. Stay tuned!

from Deuter is always attached to my bike. I never ride anywhere without:

Maybe I need a second patch? And the tools to fix a broken chain? I really don’t want to have to walk my broken bike. This stuff lives in

I also put my phone in here, and worry about it getting scratched. I also worry about the whole bag being stolen, even more so since my phone recently got professionally nicked. I have

I’d like to reduce the ability of someone to steal my tech first aid, in part or the whole bag. Plus keep some serious cash, id and next-of-kin/biking buddy telephone numbers in a safe spot in this nonremovable bag, in case my phone gets stolen again, or I crash myself unconscious.

I’d like to add a bike-specific body first aid kit for non life-threatening scrapes and pains, and my

… in case I am surprised by a sudden local thunderstorm, need to stay warm while waiting somewhere or want to take a nap on a wet lawn. It also reduces decision fatigue “should I bring a raincoat?” And makes getting out of the house faster.

Just putting

warmed my hands up right away, which I noticed when I took them off. Do I need an emergency energy gel? At what point does first aid become just normal bike trip prep?

I’d like my housekey not to get lost in the bottom of the bag, and neither my phone. I don’t want the bag to bulge out and scrape my legs, and I want to get rid of the velcro … so lethal to knitted materials!

The whole thing weighs 700 grams already! So the carbon-based-body first aid better not weigh much. My minimalist bike buddies will be turning over on their saddles, seeing how much “just in case” weight I’m bringing. Otoh my body weight is quite a bit lower than theirs, so I figure it’s ok to compensate for being colder more easily due to a lower bmi, and having less stamina for walking broken bikes.

So what’s the plan?

• Replace the top loops with lots of zip ties

• Sew in a horizontal divider

• Create a first aid kit with a longish shape containing
  • Bandaids
  • Antiseptic cream (Nestosyl)
  • Paracetemol, ibuprofen and aspirin against a, inflammation and headaches
  • Other stuff tbd

I’ll publish this now and update it later.

Update: thief-proof baggy

could also be used in an emergency situation, to replace a failed attachment loop, or to tie someone up, using proper police technique. I’d need to leave them long or they’d scrape my legs. Hmmm, maybe just keep these in the tech first aid kit and use nonreusable zip ties to attach the bag to the bike. The multiple use approach can get a bit over the top.

I love looking at brand new first aid kits and thinking about the things that could happen and how to fix them. But in real life I usually end up repacking it in a hurry just before going on a trip. The last time we went I forgot to restock the things my husband really needs, such as antihistamines. It’s not springtime so it just didn’t occur to me.

We have a well-stocked first aid kit, two, actually, a big l one and a small one.  The big one was last refilled before our most recent international adventure a couple of years ago. We’ve been having local adventures since then and have haphazardly pulled together some emergency bandaids (I don’t like getting blood on things), compeed (I dread blisters) and a couple of aspirins in a smaller container.

Occasionally I’ll add something: oooh, I might fall off my bike or trip on a loose stone so I better bring something bigger than a bandaid …

What about canoeing, kayaking, lake swimming, trail running, city visiting … cooking, suntanning, bicycle tire changing, walking through grassy fields … Do they need specific things?

What about technical first aid? A punctured sleeping mat or tire? How do you ensure that the glue you brought is still viable?

Instead of just grabbing a baggy with random stuff in it I thought it would be worthwhile to think about it systematically. 

I was inspired by Dr. https://mountainmedicineblog.7thwave.io/cgi-bin/renderpost.py?postid=2644

I’ll start this series with cycling first aid and see where it goes from there.

of nano-weight baggies made of Dyneema that make travel so much easier!

in a super light-weight Dyneema baggy. Put a hole through the small bar of soap you got at the last hotel, thread it with the string tying the label to your last clothing acquisition, drip dry it after use and pop it into a 5*7cm nanobaggy, weighing less than a gram. This ensures you have a longterm supply of soap (and shampoo) in your toiletry bag – fewer worries about running out, no need to use and throw away the next hotel soap bar, it won’t get crushed and leak like liquid soap, and it is thin and easy to pack.

Don’t you just hate it when your ear cleaners get all fuzzy in your toiletry kit? I hate the feel of fuzzy tips in my ears, and shudder thinking about all the bottom-of-the-bag lint they’re tranferring to my inner ear. By protecting them with a 2.5*8 cm nannobaggy they stay clean and tidy.

Do you want to keep your minimal travel wallet dry when you stuff it in your waist belt bag and go for a run? Or you want to keep keys and wallet together and dry in your backpack? A 10*10 cm nanobaggy can do this for you! Other sizes are also available.

Reduce worry and increase joy with nanobaggies!

Two days after I finished my corporate job, and with it no longer enjoy a corporate salary, the stockmarket crashed, and the guy who caused it still has a few years to go on with his destruction. So before I start buying yet more cool and interesting raw materials, I’ll start by actually using up the “Oh I need to have that material to make the perfect blue sweater” kind of things that have accumulated in my cupboards over the decades. And before starting new projects, maybe finish a few, especially those that take up a lot of space.

So here goes: a Dutch-sized extra-large duvet brought back from Holland. Making it match the covers we already have and using the extra pockets of down to refill a tired duvet.

But wait, is this really the best thing to do? If this duvet is meant to go with my son when he moves into an apartment in September … wouldn’t he want the longer, wider one?

However, the ikea duvetcover is 20 cm too short … 2m and the duvet is 2.2m. Yep, the dutch ikea sells 200*200cm covers. And 60*70cm pillow cases. What to do?

I could use one pillowcase to lengthen the duvet, and turn the other pillowcase into two smaller ones … Is this the best use of my time?

It’s like a puzzle …

The sighting of a snake brought me into the garden, where I realized what a wonderful spring day it is.

Now that I’ve finished my decades-long corporate career, I’d like to focus on doing cool and interesting stuff. I love to sew, saw, sand and shellac and create useful things that you can’t buy. Such as a tiny baggy made out of dyneema material that holds 5 ear cleaners. I’ve travelled a lot and intend to keep on travelling in a light-weight way, but I don’t like digging the ear cleaners out of the bottom of my toiletry bag, and the perfect tiny plastic bag with 3 ear cleaners in the hospitality kit disintegrated at some point. So I taped one together with a tiny bit of super thin dyneema material.

Just perfect!

You can’t buy such a thing anywhere and it makes me happy every time I use it.

Looking forward to creating more such cool and interesting things, fueled by real and imagined conversations with my real and imagined readers.