17.09.2023 Care in the community?

 ~o~

 Sunday 17th. Rather cloudy. The sun hasn't shown itself yet. [7.40am]  Up at 6.30 after a quiet night. Aching all over. Cycling? Gardening? Carpet fitting. Rescuing "suicidal" stairs? All of the above?

The new [recycled] rug/carpet is still there and looking much smarter. Than any of the variations over the last 27 years. The newly cleared space, under the stairs, would look worse. If I "imported" anything to fill it. The expanse of clear floor continues to astonish. Making the room seem twice its past size.

 My "new" [recycled] bed and its situation in the lounge, are almost entirely positive. There was no reduction in comfort. I find sleeping and living downstairs almost normal now. 

 Though I do need to arrange a nearby switch to a dim, night light. As I am still using a small torch. To avoid being blinded by any of the three, table lamps. When I have to get up in the dark to pee. Which can mean between three to six excursions per night. Every night. My need for sleep means I must minimise disruption to an absolute minium.

 Clothes storage remains rather chaotic and fluid. I find myself searching for clothes after my shower. The large, chest of drawers contains far too many winter jumpers for one person. When it should really house essential clothing in this highly accessible situation. The jumpers can go back upstairs. And now have. It took only five minutes to move the entire contents of the tallboy downstairs. The volume of the chest of drawers is huge! I have twenty T-shirts full of holes. Absolute rags! Why?

 It will be interesting to see how things change. As I begin to light the wood stove every morning. Which will be quite soon now. My recent visitor commented on it being cooler than any of the other houses she visits. It was 70F in the lounge at the time. After a lifetime, of living in energy poverty, I must have adapted to lower temperatures. The new stove completely eclipses the old one for heat output. At the cost of no "free" hot water.

 I have surprisingly little experience of living downstairs in summer or winter. It was somewhere I visited occasionally but went largely ignored. There were no chairs to sit on. It was rather dim and packed with excess furniture. Access to most of the room was largely impossible. The battered, old, three seater settee, a prize from our youth, was anything but comfortable. Just reaching it was a challenge! So we lived upstairs in the attic year round. No doubt the exercise, of climbing the steep stairs so often, was highly beneficial.

 Curtaining off the stairs, in winter, should reduce heat loss to the attic. Without causing it to freeze up there. Which would only cause increased heat loss through the ceiling. The roof is well insulated. A curtain should help to maintain a more comfortable and even temperature in the lounge. While an L-shaped curtain rail will allow easy access to the bottom of the stairs when needed. 

 8.15.  I have to shop again. Having missed some important items yesterday.  I should have gone for a walk half an hour ago!

 8.30 Golden sunshine briefly reached from one end of the house to the other. I have just realised that I now get the full benefit of all the ground floor space available to me. My computer desk is against the east wall. Giving me a clear, unobstructed view. Along the lounge, across the entrance hall, to the bathroom and its far, western wall beyond. All of 10m [33'] away. Now I really must go for a walk!

 9.30 I'm back! I had a chat with a neighbour on the next, shared drive, along the road. She was delighted with the progress on the earthworks. She will soon enjoy a clear view of a level grass field. Probably with beautiful horses grazing. Instead of an undulating and sloping mass of weeds. 

 However, the "problem neighbour," next door, cannot be so easily rid of. His evil and insane behaviour [IMO] is [seemingly] completely untouchable. He will even bring in a large and heavy load transporter lorry. And a large crane. Just to dump huge objects against unhappy and complaining neighbour's boundaries! Those objects remain there 10 years later.

 The law allows this lunatic [IMO] to hoard anything and everything on his land. Including large, dilapidated boats and numerous halves of scrap, building site offices and several shipping containers.

 The law allows him to leave houses, in numerous villages, half demolished or half rebuilt. Their land or gardens full of anything and everything he chooses. Thereby, single handedly, massively reducing the value of many adjoining properties. No doubt lowering the standards of whole villages. Making many of their nearby houses completely unsaleable. 

 The council and his victims' solicitors cannot make him change his insanely, antisocial behaviour. He buys up properties for very little money on forced auctions. Often for no more than the price of a half decent carport or garage. Then he treats his new "neighbours" with total and utter contempt! His "properties" remain a complete eyesore for well over a decade in some cases without change. Merely accumulating more weeds and more junk. No doubt he can borrow against the "value" of all "his" eyesores? He claims to rent out some of his properties.

 It was his refusal to clear, or sell a half demolished/half rebuilt, uninhabitable, local property. Which caused the neighbour to our north to build their massive, 200m long, new drive. Across their field and up to the road. The expense must have been colossal! All this because of one, evil man. IMO. Who no longer lives in the hovel of his own making of 12 years ago! The one he would not sell. His nearest neighbours report a drop of 300,000kr on their home's value. About £30k. As well as it being completely impossible to sell. Being surrounded in oversized junk.

 Their "neighbour from hell" parked a huge, rusting old boat on a slowly collapsing trailer. So near to the drive that it was hard to drive past. Halved building site sheds, all filled with junk, adorn the other side of the drive. Narrowing access even further.  A previous boat, parked in the same spot had fallen over. So he simply set fire to it! That boat was made of fibreglass and the stench and smoke were particularly memorable. He stacked roofing sheets beside the road. Which lifted in a gale and lay across the busy road for several days.

 The law protects this man's right to privacy. So if I were to share images of his hideous eyesores online, it is I who would very probably be prosecuted. Yet it is HE who is protected by the law. His countless victims have no such protection at all!

 9.50. Much more sunshine now. As it increasingly breaks through the cloud cover.

11.00  Going shopping.  

15.00 Returned from visiting my English friend. 52km in 1h57m at 26 km/hr. Late lunch.

16.36 Bosch Connect App has updated.

 19.00 I am going to make chicken and mushroom curry for dinner. Just for a change. 

 22.00. I have just taken two, heavy, wheely bins the 120m along the drive in the pitch dark. It was raining heavily earlier. When I first remembered them. So I parked the waste bin in the middle of the hall. To be sure I did not forget to take the bins along before bedtime. This worked and it was dry, with even a few stars showing, just now.

 ~o~