13 Jul 2026

13.07.2025 Back to work?

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  Monday 13th 62F/17C [6.30] 23C/73F in the room. 17C/ 63F in the greenhouse. Some sunshine promised but thundery showers are likely. Leading to 16mm or 3/4" of rain.

  Up at 5.50 after a quiet night with some sleeplessness and weird dreams. I tried the single bed sheet and quickly went back to the lightweight, down duvet. 

 Still feeling a bit rough. My temperature is 35.6C. I don't think I was exposed to excess heat but I must get away from the screen. Before it triggers dizziness. 

 Dehydration and high temperatures must be taken seriously when one has a weak, heart circulation system. Dizziness is a symptom of overheating. Where the brain is denied blood circulation. I don't believe I have risked myself by overdoing it in hot weather. I usually retreat indoors. Simply because it is unpleasant to be active in what feels like being in an oven.  

  7.15 I have assembled the garden roller. With difficulty. Despite 70 years of experience dealing with mechanical problems. The handlebar tubes were inaccurately bent. So I had to resort to a Stillson wrench to press the overlapping joints together. Just to get the screws through the prepared holes.

 Perhaps it truly was the work of a great designer genius. Hoping the plain nuts would still hold beyond the first use due to tension alone. The threads on the scraper bar were already rusty. Yet were supplied with Nylock nuts. Luxury beyond the dreams of avarice!  

 In practice the nuts were entirely unnecessary. Since the scraper bar was captive between the handlebars. Next, I have to fill the drum with sand. Or water. It's dry [tare] weight would hardly handle pastry. Not with any sense of urgency. That scraper will take ages before it is useful. It needs to rock into contact with the drum.

 My dual computer screens are still playing silly bøgers. Certain apps open on the second screen. Others on the first. Some Windows features and queries open on either screen seemingly at random. Yes, I have clicked the box to say "This is my main display." I even swapped them around to no obvious benefit. 

 10.50 Back from two builders merchants. The first had no large masonry bits [drills.] The second added 20 miles, had lots of drills but were horribly expensive. I wasn't going to pay £90 British pounds
equivalent for a 40cm x 22mm. Just to drill one hole to the great outdoors. I ended up paying £35 for a similar 18mm drill. Big enough for my needs.

 The DeWalt uses the SDS-Plus bayonet system in the chuck. Which made a number of the bigger  masonry drills in my collection obsolete. Though they still fit normal hammer drills of course. The smaller drills lack the torque and brutal hammer effect. Which makes the big drill so incredibly quick and useful. Plus the non-rotating hammer effect for chisel use. Which isn't available on the DIY sized hammer drills. 

 I have discovered, somewhat belatedly, that the Morris Minor has air conditioning. A Tesla in a matching colour parked right next to me. There was a large notice inside. Stating that the car was a comfortable 70F. So no panic should kids or dogs be ensconced therein. I thought to myself: I can do that too! By fully opening the quarterlights a strong, cool wind is blown across the driver's naked arms and legs while underway. Nice! 

 11.45 Drilling the brick wall to 18mm was quick and effortless. Using the big hammer drill. I ran a 40cm x 10mm pilot and then a series of larger drills. 40cm was a good guess. It only just broke through. I had drilled downwards to avoid water finding itself inside. 

 The hammer drill was an excellent investment. I used it to drill through the kitchen floor for the 4" drainpipe for the washing machine. The drill was invaluable for clearing the cement and concrete below the new glazed door using chisel bits. The door is proving much easier to navigate with the telescope tripod. Instead of struggling through the entrance hall. 

 12.45 Running in and out and moving the furniture made me very breathless. My vision was disturbed. Everything was going white! So I had a half hour nap with the heat pump going. It had reached 24C/75F indoors. Already dropped to 22C and still falling. 

 A rather interesting design of 20m draw wire. The handle rotates freely around a peripheral slot. About £10 in a big shed DIY outlet.  

 13.15 78F/26C. It feels like an oven outside. Had lunch. Ready to start again. I need to find a length of tube. To sleeve over a joint midway along the 20mm garden hose. Which I am using as a protective conduit for the POE 20m network cable out of doors.

 An old, tubular curtain rail will do nicely. It will be easier to pull 10m lengths of cable through the conduit than the entire length of 20m. Minus the  naked cable at each end of course. 

 The required conduit length is 18m measured in straight lines with a taut fiberglass tape. 1.5m of bare cable. To have enough length indoors. Including the 40cm thickness of the wall.  There is plenty of room in the hose. So I could try pulling the full length first. I found some very long zip ties to hold the hose firmly to the 3m tall, wooden pole. 

 14.35 Suddenly dark outside.

 14.44 Tidying up outside and the first clap of thunder! Dash around to collect all the tools. Close the car windows.  

 14.55 First rain. 

 15.02 Torrential! The woods have disappeared completely. More thunder. The whole drive is bright with reflective water. 

 Dinner was  salad. I had to wash up for half an hour first. Or there would be no clean plates, pans or cutlery. I forgot to buy cucumber.It didn't seem to matter.

  

 

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12 Jul 2026

12.07.2026 Dizziness without spinning?

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 Sunday 12th 

 Up at 8.10 after a quiet night. Heat pump working and holding it to a comfortable 22C indoors overnight.

 Had breakfast and then a chat online and feeling fine. Talking about going for ride.

Then I suddenly started feeling dizzy as I was reading a news story in text. 

 10.30 Went back to bed for about an hour. Still feeling dizzy. The weird thing is the dizziness is worse with my eyes closed. No visual disturbance or spinning with my eyes open. No morning coffee or a roll. I sat for ages in the computer chair staring out of the window. It seemed to help to avoid looking at closer objects. 

 12.00 Woke feeling wobbly. So I sat outside for a while. I was getting strange effects with my eyes closed. Until my vision went fuzzy when my eyes were open. I felt hot and cold simultaneously. I retreated indoors and sat in an armchair. Constant feeling of mild nauseousness. Kept a bucket handy nearby. I have been sipping tap water to avoid dehydration. 

 13.45 Woke with pins and needles in my arms. Presumably from resting on the wooden arms of the chair. Feeling fuzzy but a bit better. It is 23C in the room after turning off the heat pump. I can use the computer again without causing dizziness. Are the new progressive "screen" glasses responsible?

14.00 I am going to try a cup of tea. Nothing to eat. Now I am struggling to focus on the computer screen again. Trying my 2-year-old screen glasses. Better. The tea did not taste as expected. Yuk! Is it the water?

 No dinner. I had a sub-micro apple juice and a 3nm Corny bar.  Still feeling rough. Chest still clogged. Get very dizzy when I cough. 

 In the meantime I managed to get dual screens working of the Mini-PC. Now I can have the security cameras on the second screen without needing a second PC running. Save the planet. 

 There is talk of thunderstorms overnight. Mostly elsewhere. North and east. It might miss us altogether.

 I dragged a recycling bin along at 20.00. The cat was in the drive but it ran away. 


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11 Jul 2026

11.07.2026 Market.

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  Saturday 11th 57F/14C [6.30]  Full sun again. Peaking at 27C/81F. Light, northerly winds. 22C/71F in the room. 14C/57F in the greenhouse.

 Up at 6am after a quiet night. Though I was awake for an hour 2-3am. Feeling too hot. The neighbours cat was setting off the security lights. It practically lives here day and night. Always hunting. 

 7.50 Back from trenching across the drive. I am a silly Billy. I should have used the big hammer drill with a chisel bit. I was using a heavy mattock. Like a pick but with a wide blade for trenching. Which was very slow going on such heavily compacted gravel. I found a good length of quality [non-kink] hose to use as conduit. For the new camera's POE network cable. Which will cross the drive and then just be lost in the base of the overgrown hedge. The camera only runs on low voltage. So no special safety rules are required. As it certainly would with mains 250C AC. The trench is almost complete.    

 The 12mm garden hose won't work with network cables. The plugs are too big to enter. Grr. That means I have to find an alternative. Flexible installation hose is cheap and readily available. I don't need the highest UV resistance spec for a low voltage cable. This means I have to drive into town. Which I want to do anyway. My new glasses need adjustment and I'd like to buy a cheap garden roller. The optician doesn't open until 10am. I can go there last. 

 Whoops! The 16mm flexible installation hose is only 10mm bore. I have been looking at 20mm garden hose and larger diameter flexible installation hose. The cheapest option is the all too common. Dark green, garden hose but in 20mm. Very prone to flattening and kinking. Manageable for this exercise as it only needs to be laid out once and forgotten. Warm, sunny weather offers ideal conditions.

 12.10 78F/26C. Hot sunshine! Back from town. With a 20mm x 25m garden hose, two draw wires of ten and 20 meters and a baby, garden roller. 

 The town was packed. With the long high street closed for market stalls. I parked in the back yards. While I had my new glasses straightened. Then off to the industrial estate on the edge of town. Where the big shed outlets hang out. Again they were packed. With long queues at the checkouts. The car parks were packed too.

 It was too hot to work outside in direct sunlight. So I spent the afternoon on YouTube. 

 Dinner was a fry-up. Chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and an egg. 

 

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