7.06.2024 Pardon my chattering teeth! 😧

 ~o~

  Friday 7th 51F/10.5C. Cool and bright. Some sunshine this morning but with showers later. A very wet weekend is promised.  

 The flower garden seems to be hidden behind a wall of Rosebay willowherb! Pretty, in flower, but much too bold.

 Up at 6.15. Our hero was wandering around at 2.30am closing all the windows. They had all been on the catch. For ventilation during the warm weather. It has dropped to a steady 62F/16.7C indoors. Which was below even my tolerance level. For sleeping under the thin, summer, down duvet. I quickly donned a thin jumper to stop my teeth from chattering. 

 The greenhouse should have been helping but hasn't. Due to the cloudy and wet weather. It is currently showing 55F/12.8C out there. My tomato saplings will not be happy! The ogres sheltering in their canopy will be shivering too.

 Plans for today: First I have to turn up at the surgery. To beg for an emergency blood test. Then I have to do some serious shopping. If I can't get out to shop after the procedure. Then one, or more of us, will have to eat the other! And I don't fancy my chances.

 My supposedly healthier diet has me in a bind. I would normally fall back on frozen chips. With something else, but I haven't touched them for days. They and my handful of crisps with lunch. Were described on YouTube. As the most toxic food available to mankind. Other than takeaways from the glistering, Scottish, litter mountains of course. Just to add insult to injury I have frozen my olive oil in the fridge. It has become an opaque, crystalline, solid, super-fluid! Silly old wotsit! That was not what they meant by "keep in a cool place!" Anywhere else in Chez Hovel would do. 

 11.00 Returning from a heavy shopping trip. The supermarkets are slimming down. I had to go two more villages over just to find a Coop. Two nearer branches have closed due to heavy losses by the retail giant. The Coop is always well staffed. While the claimed discount chains employ the bare minimum. Those who are occasionally visible are increasingly often children and immigrants.

 I managed to get an appointment at lunch time for a blood test. The Morris Minor expert and I discussed the intermittent electrical problem. He has offered to replace the fuse holder with an original,  recycled one if the problem continues. Ironically, the indicators stopped working as I drove home again. Only to restart. 

 13.30 I generously gave a four vial donation of blood at the surgery. They were colour coded. So I don't think it was a matter of simple duplication. I shopped heavily both before and after. To ensure the larder is full for next week. When I may not be fully shopping fit. 

 No cycling is allowed following the procedure. Due to its intensive nature one presumes. [The cycling. Not the op.] Rather than a nod to inadequate drivers raising the cyclist's pulse. 

 I really must ask whether marathon washing up sessions qualify for abandonment. I am still waiting for my promised AI all purpose, household robot. It still seems as far away as a Tesla car for the common man.  

 It was too cool for salad. So I went with a fry up. Chicken, mushrooms and eggs. The yolk mopped up with a bread roll.

 

  ~o~

6.06.2024 If it ain't broke..

 ~o~

  Thursday 6th 50F/10C. Very heavy overcast, showers and windy. Up at 6.15 after searching for important legal papers in the middle of the night. I thought I'd lost them but found them all. I have an appointment this morning. I am making a will in case things go badly  at the hospital on Monday. Or shortly thereafter. 

 An image from yesterday. With cloud shadows crossing the ripening fields. Four deer are grazing against the dark hedge in the middle background.

 It is ironic that I should have "heart problems" after my immense mileage on my trike. Not to mention all the physically demanding work over the years. I was shoveling literally tons of compacted gravel only a few short weeks ago. Then all the hard work at the museum. Lifting and moving all those 150kg paving slabs! 

 I have cycled 200km this week alone. It could have been more if the e-bike was available and the weather kinder. My weight/BMI is in the middle of the recommended range. Hardly any belly fat despite my crappy diet. Since I had to learn to cook and fend for myself.

 No walk due to rain.

 11.30 Returned from my appointment and shopping. It rained on and off. The MM electrical fault continues. I did due homework online but can't delve under the bonnet until it stops raining. Best advice is dry or corroded contacts on the fuse holder. I can check the fuse for continuity with my DMM.

 It stopped raining. So I had a look at the car. Just as there was a rumble of thunder!  It proved to be an intermittent fault. No, not the thunder! Fuses okay. No dry fuse clips. So I went around waggling wires and connectors and everything came back to life. A dry or oily joint somewhere. What ain't broke: Don't mend it! 

 Had a call from the hospital. I need a fresh blood test before Monday. So I drove to the surgery in pouring rain with no wipers. Just to see if they could manage a quick test. For some reason they were closed today of all days. I'll have to try my luck again tomorrow. 

 The electrical problem seems to be an aftermarket, inline fuse holder. Outside the surgery I turned on the wipers. Then braved the deluge sheltered only by the bonnet. The moment I touched the white fuse holder the wipers started working again. They kept working all the way home. As did the indicators.

 The hospital contact tried to arrange transport for me to get to the hospital. I could get a 6 o'clock bus locally to reach the city station. That would leave me only 20 minutes to get all the way out to the hospital. Which would be impossible without an intimate knowledge of the city buses. So I told them not to worry. I'd drive there. 

 If they can arrange a drive home on Monday that would be good. Though I'd have to catch a bus back to the city to collect the car later. No driving allowed for at least two days. Four days if certain procedures are required. Their latest letter says that I have three clogged heart arteries according to the previous scans.

 Dinner was fish fingers, pasta and peas. I still need a sauce for the pasta. The tinned tomatoes are awfully wasteful and not nearly spicy enough. Not even with a hefty dose of pepper.

 

  ~o~

5.06.2024 Vegetarian fish food.

 ~o~

  Wednesday 5th 52F/11C. Heavy overcast. Early rain should turn to sunshine. Remaining cool at 15C/59F max.

 Up at 6am. 

 Morning walk. to the lanes. Traffic unusually light.

 13.20 Returning from a drive to the city in the Morris. The petrol gauge has stopped working. 

 I was looking for plants for the fish tank I bought yesterday. Unfortunately goldfish are vegetarians. They will happily chomp many plants. I tried feeding the goldfish with the tiny food balls first but they don't seem interested. One even sucked in the fish food but spat it straight out again. 

 The fish are very active. Exploring their rather small tank. They were initially intimidated after being bombed by four tiny plant pots with attached plants. Back in the dim distant past plants came bare rooted. They were weighed down into the gravel base with strips of lead. 

 The filters are all mechanical these days. No under-gravel [bubble powered] filters were visible. I am not keen on the huge, black, filter boxes taking up so much space in the tanks. They also consume expensive refills. Under-gravel filters don't need such spares. It is suggestive of relying on aids to overcome fish overstocking.

 The fish eventually caught on that the tasty little balls were food. Then it took them only ten minutes of desperate chewing. To be able to swallow one! 

 Dinner was poached eggs on toast. The preheating in the Pyrex cup in the saucepan works well when the time is taken into account. Perfect! Stop laughing at the back of the class!

  ~o~