3.02.2024 House MD on prescription from Netflix.

 ~o~

 Saturday 3rd 43F/6C. Sunshine but windy again. Will he get out on his e-bike today? Up at 7.40 after another restless night. I keep waking up from highly realistic dreams with unrealistic content. I blame the scriptwriter!

 I have given up drinking anything after 5.30. I am also taking vitamin D in the morning. I keep having lower back pain after a long stretch without. Too many hours on the computer? Too little exercise? Do I need a doctor?

9.00 62F/17C in the room. It doesn't feel too uncomfortable.  I'll light the stove when I get back from my walk.

 9.40 Back again. The wind made it feel colder than it really is. Though not strong enough to make cycling impossible. I thought I heard a skylark but it was off into the sun. Or rather the brightly lit clouds. I didn't have to go far before the back pain was gone. 

 I must overcome my lethargy. To avoid completely wasting another day. I can't even make up my mind where to site the wall lights in the greenhouse. The windows aren't evenly spaced. Should I have a light above each pillar of bricks between them? That will reflect and scatter more light. Than having one light above each window. 

 10.00 Morning coffee over. The sun is cutting through the clouds. The house is full of light instead of perpetually dark. With the greenhouse slowly creeping up in temperature. I won't bother with lighting the stove if I am going out. Let the greenhouse provide some warmth. 

  10.30 Variable cloud. E-bike ready and I am dressed for a modest ride. Padded shorts and layers. Showerproof Endura jacket. A variety of gloves will give me a chance to compare them. I'll probably go into town. A round trip of 20 miles plus any unnecessary meandering. I have wiped the Proofide grease off the Brooks B67 saddle. It didn't seem to have sunk in after several days. Merely remained shiny on the surface of the rock hard leather. 

 13.15 Back from a ride into town. 31.5km/19miles. Cool and windy. Mostly cloudy. Saw lots of birds of prey. The saddle was okay. I was just beginning to notice it as I reached home. Thinnest gloves fine. The room is at 61F/16C. The greenhouse at 73F/23C. I bought some small, square electrical junction boxes with plain closure plates.

 14.00 The greenhouse reached the high 78F/26C. So I opened the greenhouse doors to the room and kitchen. Both rooms remain stubbornly at 62F/17C. The sun is repeatedly hidden by cloud. I hung up a common bin bag in the sunshine in the hall and it quickly reached 40C. 

 The exterior of the southern house wall in the greenhouse is painted white. Layers of it. It is reading only 20C in full sunshine. Which isn't going to warm the house by very much. The interior of the same wall is only reading 14C/57F at waist height.

 14.45 The room and kitchen have crept up to 63F/17C. It needs a black absorber panel to gain the temperature required to warm the house with the sun.

 Dinner was a salad. With two poached eggs, tomatoes, sliced heart lettuce, cucumber, grated mature cheddar, grated carrots and tuna. Not necessarily in that order. 

Netflix is being boring. Now I have to watch 8 seasons of House MD. 8x22 = A lot! Wish me luck!

 ~o~

2.02.2024 Fumbling in the dark.

 ~o~

 Friday 2nd 40F/4C. Dark grey and misty. Wind, light rain or showers are forecast. Up at 7.30 after earlier awakenings during another restless night. 60F/16C in the room.

9.00 I have lit the stove. Brought in a three baskets of logs. Considering a walk. 

10.00 Returned from my usual short walk looping around the new and old drives. It rained lightly and the westerly wind blew throughout. Now I need an indoor plan for today!

 11.30 I have started on the cabling for the greenhouse lights again. It needs an installation cable to reach from the existing, outside junction box. Through the wall  to a junction box at the top corner near the ceiling via a 12mm hole. Hole already drilled. Thence to each outside light unit via a new hole in the wall fed from indoors. 

 Running two cables out to each light would need two holes. If I use a junction box indoors, for each exit hole, I can run a single cable out to each light. With only a single cable running across just below the ceiling from box to box. An alternative is to run multiple cables from the corner box to each exit hole. Only a few metres are involved.

 The internal work will all be covered by a decorative/concealing board. Which I have always intended to fit. Just to hide the untidy and twisted wall plate. Which consists of laminated timbers, resting on the brick wall and only visible indoors. 

 I spent hours cutting these timbers back to match the inner wall surface two decades ago. Later rendering has left a useful step below the wall plate for housing and concealing the cables. It would be difficult to use trunking to house the cables out in the greenhouse. Because the wall light have a rear entry only.

 I don't have any shallow junction boxes. So will need to drive into town to buy some if I need them. The local builder's merchants has a very poor stock of electrical installation items. It is almost as far away as the trip into town anyway. Where the big shed DIY chains have huge stocks in every variety.

 Dinner was chicken, mushrooms with pasta and tinned tomatoes.

~o~

1st February 2024 Peel those spuds!

 ~o~

 Friday 1st 39F/4C. Another windy day is promised. With rain or showers this morning. So I had better go to the cooking class in the Morris. The e-bike can wait for better weather. Up at 6am after several failures to lift off. 

 7.00 60F/15C in the room. Stove lit.     

 14.00 Returning from cooking class. Where I peeled 3kg of potatoes and made mashed potatoes mixed with broccoli. Shopping on the way home. The stove has gone out. The room is at 63F/17C.

 No dinner as I ate [too well] at the cooking class.

~o~