27.09.2023 One just can't find the staff!

 ~o~

 Wednesday 27th. A pleasant day is forecast. With temperatures up to 21C this afternoon. Up at 7am. Aching all over after a restless night. I was using the moonlight shining though the greenhouse and lounge windows. To find my way around in the dark. I went badly off course and fell into a chair! Because my eyes were gummed up/dry as usual. 

 I wonder if it is the bedding? Dust mites? I have washed the sheets and pillowcase. It has made no difference. I have to rinse my eyes for a couple of minutes every morning before I can see clearly.

7.45 The sky is presently milky. With the sun yet to break through. While the trees are moving gently to a breeze. The living room dropped from 68F to 65F overnight. Museum day. No more heavy lifting. I shall ride there of course.

 12.00 An early return home. After a morning fixing brackets to support long and heavy ladders. Now mounted on brackets on the inside of the big shed wall. We needed a powerful drill and screwdriver but the available batteries were flat. 

 I was handed a box of chocolates. For donating my recorder collection to a music school. Luckily there were lots to share with the other volunteers during morning coffee.  

 After that we levelled the gravel floor in the workshop to lay down sheets of plywood. Not as a permanent feature. Just to make it less dusty than the old gravel and reduce the trip hazard.

 18.30 I went for a rare afternoon walk earlier. To photograph the earthworks in a better light. The sun is always ahead in the morning. The afternoon light was much more even. The mottled cloud cover helped. These two images were taken from opposite viewpoints. The landscaping looks all but finished now. The soft slopes are really, rather beautiful. The mature, existing trees play their part.

  I have punished myself for not washing up for several days. No toasted roll and the tea was an hour and half late. I scraped and cleaned the ceramic hob while I was there. Which I hadn't been done recently. Then the back-splash tiles. Sprayed and cleaned the stainless steel sink. I am now ploughing through the laundry backlog. There won't be anything left to wear tomorrow. One just can't find the staff these days! 

 Not sure what to do about dinner. Toast? I have chicken and mushrooms in the fridge. And the makings of a salad. Cooking class tomorrow. So I won't need an evening meal. I'd better use up the chicken and mushrooms before they grow old. Can you have hot food with salad? Kill several birds? Let's give that a try! 😋

 Success! It worked well. I pretended the brown sauce was salad cream. Though that was a bit silly. I still find myself wanting salad cream. Even though I like the individual flavours of all the parts that go to make a salad. I forgot to sprinkle the cheese on top. In fact I completely forgot the cheese.

22.00 Is there a proper pecking order to hanging t-shirts on a clothes airer? There I was juggling the space available. To avoid going outside in the dark. To hang the excess out there. I wanted to space them all across two bars. So the wet surfaces weren't in close contact. Hopefully speeding the drying overnight. 

 Not that I particularly needed a clean T-shirt in the morning. The drawer is still bound to house something acceptable for a humble cooking class for old men. There wasn't much room for the airer until I stopped watching TV.  Now I can't reach the switches to turn off the table lamps and computer!

 The other half of the "lounge" is presently housing the Moustache e-bike too. Don't ask me why. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. People in flats in the US have their bikes in their living spaces. They make a feature of them. Why can't I? 

"Newly converted, luxury bedsit. With secure, en-suite cycle garaging and a bucket on a stool for a nightly piss pot."  

"Lounge" sounds so pretentious. It's a one room, living space. In what is basically a rural hovel. Though it does sport a separate bathroom and a roomy kitchen. Dressing it up with a fancy name still won't change the hideous reality of its substance. "The lounge" was simply "downstairs" when my wife was here. Now  it is more than half empty, without her.

 Now I have to reinvent the etiquette for using the bathroom and toilet. While managing my new career as a solo, lifestyle influencer. For well over half a century there was always somebody else to consider. There was no blind on the bathroom window. Not here, until I put one up last week. 

 So there was the endless juggle to have the hall light on, but not the bathroom light. To avoid becoming "a flasher." Though the distance involved and numerous intervening trees. Made it highly unlikely a neighbour could actually see in. It just felt exposed. During showers the windows would quickly become "steamed up." Which was always a relief in winter. After the leaves had fallen.

  10.45. It must surely be bedtime by now? You wouldn't believe the weird dreams I have been having. I was in a war on a battleship the other night. Not an ordinary battleship. A huge steel bowl. With sides that curved upwards instead of walls.

 ~o~