20.09.2023 Blinded by the light! [No longer.]

 ~o~

 Tuesday 20th. A wet and windy forecast. 24m/s gusts after lunch equals 54mph.

4.30. I am [rather foolishly] drinking a cup of black coffee. Up at 3am after dreaming about the death of my wife and [some years earlier] her mother. I have been getting up, on the hour, every hour, to pee. I have an appointment, at the doctor's today, on this very matter.

 7.45. Went back to bed at 5.30 and slept until 7am. Time for a walk.

 8.30. Talk about bad timing! It was dry when I left for my walk, though windy. The wind soon increased dramatically! Then came the rain as the sky darkened. I was well sheltered by the towering, roadside hedge. So wasn't at immediate risk of a drenching. I walked on with the trees roaring overhead. Then came relatively local claps of thunder! 

 Time to reconsider my folly! I quickly crossed the road and turned back towards home. Increasing my pace against the speeding, commuter traffic. As I weighed the lack of shelter against the higher risk of a lightning strike. Were I to walk under the trees with my back to the traffic. By the time I reached the drive it had stopped raining and the wind had dropped. 

 10.15 Twilight and a 15 minute [and counting] cloudburst! The car needed a wash. The greenhouse too but not at the expense of leaks! I kept nodding off at the computer. Time for a nap.

12.15 Occasional sunshine. I finally completed trimming one of the venetian blinds to window width. The special trimming scissors were fine and made a great job of shaping all the ends precisely to length and shape. There must be 30 strips so that leaves 60 ends lying on the floor. On future blinds I shall cut the louvres first. The steel profiles afterwards. That will help to protect the nearest blades from damage.

 However, sawing the steel profiles at top and bottom was very hard work! I tried numerous ways of holding the profiles still. They twisted much too easily. The profiles were so thin that even the finest hacksaw blade caught repeatedly. None of my power tools really suited the job. 

 Fortunately I have a lifetime collection of hand tools and experience. I used a jeweller's piercing saw. With a fine toothed, metal cutting blade. Working slowly, in long strokes, it eventually cut through. The ends of the profiles are capped. So ragged edges are hidden. Though smoothing off the burrs from sawing was a natural step. 

 I have fitted the first blind above the head of my bed. So I can have my afternoon nap without resorting to the bed upstairs Where the roller blinds provide some gloom. The sun shines on the bed downstairs. Making sleeping rather difficult. Not any more. The closed blind image at the top of the page is not full darkening. Which would have made a boring picture.

 The new blind open. I could get RSI from playing with the adjustment wand!

12.45 I had better make some lunch. Doctor's at 14.00. Then shopping  in two different villages. It will have to be by car. The weather is suppose to be wet with gales. 12 hours of it starting about 14.00.

Doctors at 14.00. The Ultrasound scan confirmed I am not pregnant. I have new appointments for various tests and a follow up consultation. Shopped in the village on the way home. Then another shopping trip in the car to another village. Lots of rain and wind. It was raining hard as I disconnected the negative earth, battery lead.

 The new blind allowed another nap in my own bed downstairs. Now I don't know whether I am catching up. Or overtaking my shortage of sleep. 

 The wind is even stronger. So I closed all the windows. Which have been on ventilation settings for the last few months. I was tempted to light the stove for the first time this autumn. As it was 67F in the lounge I just put on a jumper instead. I'd only overheat in bed if I lit the stove.

Dinner was fish fingers, chips and tomatoes. Back to watching very silly Asian comedies on Netflix.

~o~