Life with Rick & his humans

  Rain Watch and Race Day The weather has been all over the place lately — bursts of sunshine one minute, heavy showers and strong winds the next. Rick isn’t keen on getting wet, so we’ve been carefully watching for dry spells to squeeze in our walks. This morning, Rick was on rain watch from his usual lookout: the leopard print chair by the window. From there, he spotted his pal Barney heading out for a walk with Mick. Five minutes later, the heavens opened — poor Barney, that was going to be one soggy dog on return! Rick on watch We held off a bit, waiting for the skies to brighten, and it turned out to be a smart move. The sun came out, and Rick even helped wheel the bins down. At the bottom of the drive, we bumped into Bouncy Charlie — full of beans as always. He wasn’t moving on until he’d said hello to Rick. Luckily, it went smoothly today; Charlie can be a bit overenthusiastic. We took to the lanes for our walk. The wind was still gusty, sending the clouds racing by ove...

Well, Kat and Craig left us on Saturday to head down to Stafford, where they were camping overnight so Craig could ride in the Inter Services Time Trial. Go Craig!! This was after a bit of drama with their car — the electronic boot got stuck, which triggered the alarm sensor. Naturally, we thought, "The manual will tell us what to do." Err… no. "Google will know." Nope. "AI will sort it!" Still nope. After two hours, panic was definitely creeping in. But then — what’s the first rule of IT? “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” A car? Really? Yep — we disconnected the battery and then reconnected it. Everything reset, and bingo, problem solved. Meanwhile, Sarah and Andrew set off to pick up a turbo trainer to complete the pain cave at Andrew’s place. Then they were off to climb the Alpe de Zwift. Good luck, guys — I’m definitely not coming along for that one! Pain Cave picture by Andrew Now that the pack had dispersed, Rick settled happ...

  Rick was not happy this morning. It was raining — proper rain — but he still had to take his human (that’s me) out for our daily walk. Rick had his red coat on, while I sported my blue rain jacket and baseball cap to keep the rain off my glasses. We made our usual check of the beck to see if the water was flowing again. Still not much in there, so no paddling today. In the distance we spotted Bouncy Charlie, the ever-cheerful golden retriever, and gave a wave. No other doggie or human friends were out braving the downpour. Back home, it was time for breakfast. Sue gave Rick a good rub down to get him dry and warm again — he loves that bit of pampering. Later today, Kat and her husband Craig are due for a visit, so we’ve got bedrooms to make up and a bit of tidying to do. The whole family loves riding bikes and racing. I’m into Zwift and today was team time trial day. I joined the crew at 10am for a tough race around virtual London — complete with a huge climb. We did okay, bu...