Netfoot

Listening to the title track from the album Protection by Massive Attack. This is one of two songs on the album featuring the unmistakeable voice of Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl. EBTG consist of Thorn and Ben Watt, from Leeds, I think. The name came from a failed and abandoned dress shop in the high street. Thorn & Watt eventually married years later (after a relationship of nearly 30 years). Watt is credited on the other song featuring Thorn. For the record, I have six albums by Massive Attack, my favourite of which is Teardrop. And I have twelve albums by EBTG, my favourite of which is Walking Wounded. So this collaboration is entirely to my liking. Mozie is here with me now, washing my feet. I intend to shower in a while, so I will wash them again then. He had chow and bully for his dinner. I had no dinner, just a mug of tea. I'm hungry but couldn't muster the effort necessary to even burn more oatmeal. Or make a PB&J cutter. Tomorrow, I will cook mince and onion and red beans and diced tomato and have it with pasta. There should be enough sauce for at least two meals and hopefully three. It should work well with rice or pasta. I predict that it will have little taste. Hopefully, what little it has will be good. I want to reserve half the mince to cook as a curry. Maybe the powerful flavour of the curry will be less insipid than most other meals I cook. Curry goes well with potatoes, which I have. While I've eaten it so, curry is not ideal with pasta. But having said that, I've had some delicious pasta salads that had a mild curry flavouring. But I don't think 'mild' will do anything for me at this point. Wups! Mo has left the building. I was just wondering why it is so hot tonight when I realized I had not opened the window! There is now a light but slightly cooler breeze in the window, being assisted by the fan. Annnnnd Mo is back in the building! But he has decided to take his repose on the tiles next to the bed. Mo had an annoying habit which he demonstrates each night. He will come in and begin snoozing. In the bed or on the floor... last night he was on his back with four feet in the air getting tummy rubs for at least an hour while I read my book. But the second I make a move to get up and lock the house, he turns on his afterburners and rockets out of the house. So I have to lock him out or wait until he decided to come back in. The first option means he will be barking under the bedroom window to get me to open up for him. Option two means I can't go to sleep for a while. Admittedly, if I give him a whistle, he might come a-running and I can get the door locked and the lights off. But this doesn't always work. Getting some unusual pains in my neck. I shouldn't say pains; it's more of a soreness. Not sure what's causing it. Hopefully it will go away soon. FYI the pain in my right hand is still there but seems to be fading slowly. Going to stop here and turn to my book. I didn't get far yesterday so I can't say much about it. It is near sci-fi and involves "fabricants" (bio-robots) and religious politics. Not what I'd say was a guarantee of a high quality or enjoyable plot The fact that the protagonist is also presented as someone whose company I would not enjoy IRL doesn't help in that regard. But I will stick with it unless it collapses into complete garbage. Sometimes what seems all set to be a terrible book (or movie, or album) turns out to be far better than anticipated. And really, the book doesn't appear to be a bad one. So.....

I'd bet the phrase was selected by TPTB.

Ya, don't watch this video:

Oh great! New development. But it isn't ripe yet. Will let it soak for a while and fill you in later. Maybe Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully more info will be available then. Meanwhile, had "sausage burgers" for early lunch. (I don't like hot dogs. It's the bread that is not to my liking. Hot dog rolls with that spungy texture are awful. If you must make hot dogs, cut baguettes to the desired length. Proper bread!) Mo had rice & veggies with corned beef. But he ate quite a bit of my of my sausage burgers. Because if it is on my plate, it is obviously his to eat... Think I will read/nap this afternoon. Or watch a movie. Or do something stressful like that.

There is that... Thankfully mild reflux last night. Didn't even have to resort to the Pillow Pyramid to alleviate it. Not sure where this reflux is coming from all of a sudden. I do suffer periodic bouts but mild, plus few and far between. Now, its frequent (2-3 times a week) and fierce! Slept well until 4:15 when the door had to be opened and the puppy began alternating from observing from the window and complaining in the yard. At least he pauses from time to time on his back-and-forth travels to give me kisses...

You get up in the morning. You test your blood sugar (4.3mmol/L) and avoid breaking your fast. You go out and return later happy with all you have accomplished for the day. Then you reflect. You drove 5 km. Had blood drawn. Drove back again, stopping on the way to spend $100 on groceries. And that's it. So, you have not actually accomplished much, have you? Mo was asleep on the floor of the bedroom when I came in, but by time I returned from my shower he had relocated. He is on the top step by the door. When the lights start to go out he may relocate. I've got the remote right here so I could start turning them off without even having to move but then I'd have to go out and lock the door in the dark. Or turn the lights back on... Listening to So Young by Suede. Quite fond of this band. They came apart because of creative differences between the two main members of the band. Later, the two of them tried a collaborative reunion and did manage to produce an album, but the pairing didn't last. Ok, so the test results are to be sent directly to Dr. Jacinto, who I see next Friday. I will probably need to replenish my meds. If I recall, I visited three pharmacies last month. Winston Scott at Jemmot's Lane, Edgar Cochrane in Wildey (the one I normally use), plus the one at QEH that is apparently the only one that can provide me with Pyridostigmine. I won't go playing pharmacy-scotch until after I see Dr. Jacinto on Friday because I've no idea if she is likely to alter the prescription or not. I just hope I don't have to go pester Dr. Kristi for another prescription. I am always pleased to spend a minute or two chatting with Dr. K, but I don't like to waste her time unnecessarily. After all, she has actual sick people who need her attention. Anyway, I am going to stop here and read awhile before locking up. Starting a new book. Finished and (sadly) disposed of the last, which was more of a pack of cards when I was done than when I started. This new one is another pack of cards, but perhaps not so bad. I can't remember the storyline and the blurb is one of those which tells you how impressed the reviewers were and how talented the author is without giving you one iota of a clue as to what the book is about. Very helpful, I'm sure!

This is the site of the blood draw. For the record, the guy was very gentle/delicate, I felt nothing and it was all over in a minute. So the bruising is not a result of rough handling in any way. It's just the warfarin at work. That they refused to do the PT/INR test for. 😕

Well, that was pleasantly painless! It took me no more than 20-25 minutes and that included finding out where to park (way over to the west) and where to go (way over to the east). Of course, they refused to do the PT/INR fpr me. On the way back PriceLo seemed to be open for business as usual so I went in and bought some bread. Then I moved on to Popular where I bought some groceries (eggs, cucumbers, cheese, etc) including 750cc of pepper sauce.

Sitting in "Enmore Compound", eighth in a queue to get blood drawn. Progress seems slow, but time will tell. Was planning to stop at PriceLo on the way back to buy bread and a bottle of pepper sauce. But as I went past on the way here, I saw that the entrance gate was padlocked and the parking lot was full of people standing around. Many of them appeared to be wearing staff uniforms. Not sure what is going on. Some sort of fire drill? A strike? Company going out of business? I don't know. Just hope that it's all sorted when I go back the other way. They are the closest grocery to my house, their bread is pretty good and while the place has little else to recommend it (except that Dr. Kristi's clinic is located on their compound, which has to be worth something), I'd hate for it to shut down even temporarily. Meanwhile there were eight people ahead of me and since I've been here three have been called already. This sounds good, but there is no system to determine who goes next. So I will wait for five more people to go in and then it will be my turn. Anybody who wants to argue will get the argument they want. Mozie is in the van and I don't want to leave him there for too long. The last time I was in this place I was 15 years old and sniffing around behind a girl calked Ann. Her father (mother?) worked for the hospital back then and they were quartered on the compound. It's quite big, really, but I doubt people are still housed here. The space seems to be mostly in use for offices and parking. The door right next to the one I'm in is marked "Infectious Diseases" and I'm sure if I searched I could find a door with a label that said anything I could imagine. "Ingrowing Toenails" and "Dropped Arches" and so forth. People are flooding in now, but five of the original eight have already gone in. They have one of those machines that contains a roll of paper tape. You pull on the end and get a number. But they are deliberately not using it. The Minister of Health has probably raped the budget so bad they can't afford any more paper tape numbers to load the machine! Later.....

Which I have not watched yet... 🙁 It's only within the last month or so that I learned what she looked like. So, point taken. But there is much culture and history out there and when an entire generation knows none of it... Well, it's not a good sign for the country.

Left a big sign on my desk which reads "FAST!" Hopefully that will prevent me eating or drinking anything tomorrow. Except my usual breakfast of eight tablets And a sip of water. On the way back home I will stop and try to buy a few things to eat. I need a bottle of pepper sauce. I don't usually use it in arse-scorching quantities but I've been gradually increasing the amount I put in (say) a sandwich by quite a bit. Now, pepper sauce cools with the passage of time. Esp. if it contains little or no preservatives. but the bottle I just finished was the smallest I could find and I didn't buy it all that long ago. Anyway, I will buy some tomorrow. A bigger bottle, maybe. 500cc or so. No, I'm not buying a 2L PET bottle of pepper sauce. An old friend from college who now lives in Brown Town, sent a rare missive to instruct me to listen to an artist called Agnes Obel. I acquired a couple of her albums. I'm listening now, to a track called Dorian from the album Aventine. It isn't entirely my type of music but I quite enjoy some of the tracks. I just can't think who she reminds me of. Maybe because I don't have a lot of similar-sounding music in my collection? As for my old friend, I sent her an e-mail over the weekend on another matter, copying all four of her e-mail addresses. Like a miracle, she replied within 24 hours! Which is much better than the two years it usually takes to elicit a response. Returning from Garden Patrol, I noticed that one of Mo's feet was completely green. I have never seen so many sweethearts in one place at one time. I scraped off as many as I could with my fingers but Mo was not happy.i had to give them back to him and last I saw, he was considering eating them. I didn't stick around to see if he did or not, but he usually does. Only thing that might have given him pause was that normally he eats 3-4, but this was more like 30-40. Ok, so Enmore in the morning. One good thing is they have their own parking area. However, most government facilities have a parking lot with every single space reserved. QEH proper is like that. I doubt Enmore (across the road) will be any different. Will check blood glucose tomorrow. One of the tests tomorrow is an HbA1C which is also blood glucose but I will test anyway and stick my reading in the database as usual. I will leave you with this: He was sleeping on the tiles next to the bed. If he looks annoyed it's because I woke him up and said "Smile!"

Cooked a pot of rice with vegetables. Carrot, channa... Added some corned beef and a stock cube. It was completely tasteless. I did put salt in it - as much as I dared. Along with the stock cube. But it still had no taste. Nothing has any taste any more. Unless I pile in so much sugar that it's probably close to toxic. Tea at least had some taste. I still have to pile in lots of sugar but the tea tastes OK. Maybe the reason I drink so much of it is because it actually tastes of something. I'm going to have to think of something that is high/strong flavoured, and eat some. Just to test the taste buds.

"The world is waiting..." was my initial guess and I'm sorry it wasn't, but I suppose that would have been a little short/easy. Or maybe not. I think I have seen the end of TAR. It will be killed by a lack of suitably smart people to compete. The dumb-ass youth of today are making the race impossible. "TH" plus "E" gives "This". Or "That". Or "Photosynthesis". (Standing in front of a huge map) "Where's the map?" Building right in front of you made from black & white stones is depicted clearly on the map. So, let's call that The Museum, which is actually located way over there! It's the best way to get every single statue wrong, time and time again, until night falls! (From last week) "I don't know who Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor are!" Ever heard of Henry VIII? Mao Zedong? Ludwig van Beethoven? Anyone who doesn't have a Twitter account? This is what you get when your university graduates don't know that a dozen is not ten! I do think that the opening parasailing "just for fun" and not part of the race was pretty cool. And Phil jumping rope was pretty cool as well, but then Phil is a cool guy. I thought Multi-hat guy would hand them out -- not sure why he had them if not for that purpose. Or is multi-hatting an actual thing? The teams are still undifferentiated. No team(s) to love, no team(s) to hate. They're just all the same: Dumb. But I'm sure that in an episode or two when they start to burn out, one or two will show themselves to be dumb and nasty!

As I forgot that I was to be "fasted" for at least some of these tests, I went and drank a mug of tea with milk & sugar. So it will have to be tomorrow. Yes, the van would be far less stressful...

When we return from Garden Patrol, I like to drink my last mug for the day. So, I will brew up a mug and leave it next to my chair to draw as puppy and I go on Patrol. Tonight, we were in the middle of a heavy downpour of rain. But I figured I'd wait until there was a let-up in the downpour so we could go out and only get sprinkled. I put on my Crocs and put the kettle on to boil, so when the let-up came, the water would already be hot, and I could brew up quickly before stepping out with Mo. But as soon as Mo saw me put the Crocs on, he dashed out... and Garden Patrol began. In a howling downpour. We went out and got totally drenched in the first two seconds. Leading the way, Mo ran down to the end of the garden, did a 180° turn and ran back up again, ducking into the garage for cover. With Muggins running after him like a fool. We might as well have strolled because we were soaked to the skin the moment we started. But I guess your head doesn't think that way. You just operate on the Let-Me-Get-Out-Of-This mode or something. Anyway, the shortest Garden Patrol on recorded history. If I had not been a little afraid of slipping on the wet concrete it could have been completed in 10 seconds! In fact, Mo probably did complete the Patrol in 10 seconds. Ye olde farte splishy-splashing along, trying not to slip & fall prolly took closer to 30 seconds. Billy Idol sings Can't Break Me Down. I quite Billy Idol. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but it's true. I guess it is a character flaw. I like things I'm not supposed to. Music, food, books, movies, brunettes, fuzzy mongrel puppies.... What ever. And I guess I'm too old - or stupid - to keep shtoom about it. Speaking of movies, I watched a 2024 movie tonight called No Way Up. It's about a bunch of people trapped in an air bubble in the fuselage of an airliner that crashed into and sunk under the sea. A bunch of mostly terrible actors and actresses, a plot that involves sharks swimming up and down the aisle, and.... Well, it was a crap movie. Besides, I saw it before. In 1977. Only then, it was the second sequel to box-office smash Airport (from Arthur Hailey's book) and was called Airport '77. Tomorrow, if I feel up to it, I will go down to QEH. Across the road is a facility which used to be called Enmore. That name may have changed. Anyway, I have a paper from Dr. Jacinto to have 10 separate blood tests performed. I see her next week Friday and she said have the tests done the week before. And Enmore (or what ever it's called now) is the place to get them done. I'm not sure if I should do them tomorrow. If I do, the test results will be over a week old when I see her. I don't want to hear that the test results are too old so let's do it again! On the other hand I don't want to go next Monday and find that the results won't be ready by Friday because they don't have any biopsy phlebotomy needles. Also, I want to wheedle them into doing a PT/INR. Not had one done in months. But I forgot to ask her to include one. And they probably won't accommodate me just because I ask nicely. But I will try. Plus, I've got to decide whether to take the van or try the bus again. The bus will take me right there and bring me right back again. It's the hours-long wait for the bus(es) that's the turn-off! Been eating bread all day. Cheese (sometimes with tomato, sometimes egg, sometimes both, sometimes neither) or PB&J. Mo has been eating chow, sweetened with corned beef. He was here a moment ago, the little rascal, peddling his bicycle as I scratched his ridge. But he's gone off, now. I've had my shower but I wouldn't say no to another. Doubt I will, tho. But I might venture into the kitchen and get something to drink. Better not mix up any lime squash. Given the severity of the reflux a couple nights ago (entirely without benefit of lime squash) I doubt I will be drinking any of that as part of my pre-bed routine for a while. But come to think of it, what did I consume just before the reflux hit? Burnt oatmeal with milk! Ok, iced water it is, then... But right now, I'm going to scrape some of the burrs out of the bed. And just FYI, the sweethearts have hard, angular seeds inside. They may not stab you in the butt like a proper burr, but they aren't exactly comfortable to lie on!

Woke up to find something sticking in my back. This is a 12x6 two-blade propeller made by APC. It is a precision made item, carefully balanced so that when rotating at 15,800 RPM it does not introduce any vibration or wobble. It costs US$5.39 to buy from the maker. Don't sound like a lot, but on top of that I have to add the cost of shipping to Florida, shipping again to this place, Excise duty, handling fees, plus the fee to a broker to do the paperwork. The Asycuda fee is an additional $10. (Yes Asucuda is a rip-off but it still has to be paid.) Plus I have to wait two weeks to get it here. Unless I want to go "overnight"which will reduce the wait to maybe three days but probably double if not triple the shipping & handling fees. Only, it isn't an APC prop. It used to be, but now it's a paint stirrer.

Another longish post eaten by the forum. Because I dared to pause in mid-post to grab this image: When I returned from the camera app, the forum reloaded the page which gave me an empty text entry box. 8-10 paragraphs wiped. Well, I can't be bothered to retype any of it.

Went to Kendal Hill station. They sell gas but demanded payment in cash. Why? Don't know. I asked. They don't know. Do they have an ATM? Yes. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Next door to Popular. Bought a few items. Sugar, milk, PB&J, etc. Do they have an ATM? Yes. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Over to PriceLo. Bread. Next, drive allllll the way down to Wildey. They are happy so sell me a 25 lb. cyl. of gas. And so, home. Gas cylinder can stay where it is until the one in use runs out. Or I will hump it out of the van & up the steps when I feel able. Total spend was $43.50 for the gas cylinder, $14.94 for a large, white sandwich loaf and 12 salt breads. Sugar, NZ cheddar, milk, etc from Popular was $46.17 giving $104.61 total. And to rub salt in my wounds, the damned block of Veg "cheese" I bought last time was actually more expensive, ounce for ounce, than real cheese!

Woke up this morning to find myself lying on muddy sheets, with a wet dog lying on top of me, rolling back and forth. Dropped off lying on my pyramid of pillows and slept solidly. Only, forgot to lock the house before dropping off. So Mo was in and out all night long. And it rained. For lunch I boiled potatoes and fried sausage, onion and diced cucumber. When the potatoes were cooked, I added them to the pan and fried everything up together. I don't know what to have for dinner. I have Eclipse biscuits but no cheese, no peanut butter, no jelly. I could make up a tuna & mayo "filling" for the biscuits. Or a corned beef & mayo "filling". May simply settle for sausage & eggs. I could go to the grocery right now and buy some supplies, including bread, cheese, etc. But I just don't feel to get moving. I will do it tomorrow. Or maybe I will feel different in an hour. I can go to PriceLo to get the bread (they have an in-house bakery and their bread is better), then Popular for the rest. Also need a gas cylinder. I think the gas station right next to Popular sells the type of cylinder I use.

Vinegar: By this morning it was green and lumpy. I poured it out and with a finger over the end of the tap I pressure-washed the inside of the rose before reattaching it to the wall pipe. Result? A super spouty and super steamy spray which resulted in a fantastic shower. But I don't think that trick will work again. The innards of the rose are corroded down to paper thin in parts. Next time it will be the baked beans tin. Electricity: Ten minutes to seven and full dark, and the lights go out. You'd think that after almost a full week with no electricity I would be fairly blasé about it, but I sat in the dark for about a half an hour while my composure leaked out and trickled away. Wasn't sat there the entire time, of course. Went out with one of my torches to see if my neighbors were in the same boat. They were for the most part, out with their torches, doing the exact same thing. So seeing as we were outside with a torch anyway, we had our Garden Patrol. Then I went in and sat in the dark. First thing I saw when the lights came back on was a beautiful, fuzzy, black face. Covered in green spots.... Oatmeal: For dinner. My brain must not have rebooted properly. I set the pan over the heat and went outside and sat down. After awhile I'm saying "Why am I smelling burning?" I never thought that the oatmeal would need supervision, despite my having made it dozens of times on the past. Anyway, I burnt the oatmeal but I still decided to eat it. Good thing, because it tasted perfectly fine, despite the scorching. Reflux: No sooner had I finished the oatmeal than the reflux attacked with force. I took a Nexium but it hasn't helped. Built a pyramid of cushions & pillows to sleep on and I'm propped up on it now, but it doesn't look good. Chicago: Wishing You Were Here. Originally on Chicago VII but this came from anunauthorized compilation album. Declared by many as the worst album ever released under the Chicago name and recommend for disposal. I'm keeping mine. It may not be all that good an album but better than no album at all! Not sure if the track is the original from VII or whether it's a rerecording. Must listen to both one after the other some time and find out. Eyelids: All aflutter. Been dealing with it since morning. Been bumping into things all day and nearly fell down twice. From time to time I have to hang on to something solid and just wait for the greyed out vision to return to normal. It's a good thing this doesn't happen when I drive! But when I'm sitting comfortably in the van I have no problems. It's only right after I stand up from sitting (or lying down) that it strikes. So, if I drive somewhere and hop out of the van at destination I may have to grab on to a wing-mirror for a minute so as not to fall over in the parking lot. But I have no problem getting to the parking lot. And if I'm walking around all morning I'm fine with that too. It's transitioning from inactive, sedentary, resting to up & active that the wobblies kick in and I have to take a minute! Baby: I don't know where he is. He appeared and gave me sweet kisses when I came out of the shower. But now he is gone again. I'm sure he will appear again, lying right behind me with his head on the pillow pyramid. Mo can jump into bed, walk around to find the spot he wants, curl up and go to sleep without my noticing his arrival. Neither Buddy nor Dotty had this ability. Dotty was a bigger boy by a little bit, but Bud & Mo are the same weight, pretty much. But while Bud couldn't tippy-toe into bed without me knowing, no matter how he tried... Mo is a real ninja. He can come and go at will and unless you happen to be looking in that direction.... Spotted him departing with a hand-towel, tonight. Read him the Riot Act and he put the towel down and walked away. But when I went to collect it, it was gone.... Reflux: Jeepers! It's bad. Worse than the other night. And that was the worse I've ever experienced up to that point. Don't think two Nexium is recommended..... No. One a day. Gonna have a fun night!

Garden Patrol: Successful. Went out wearing one Croc and came back wearing two. Mozie: Sleeping on the tiles in the passage. Not actually sleeping - he wagged his tail as I went past to the shower. Shower: Lousy water pressure again tonight but I came prepared with a pipe wrench. Took the rose off the pipe and, yep! Corroded to buggery on the inside. Slung it in my last cup of vinegar and hope it can be brought back to life tomorrow. Otherwise I will be using a nail to punch holes in a baked beans tin! Meanwhile, had a good wash under a solid stream of hot water jetting from of the ½" pipe coming out of the wall. Mozie: Joins me in bed for a bit of loving And some tummy rubs. (There is that capitalized "And" again.) Tea: Trying a new brand. Locally packaged by a company called Eve. It's marketed as "Red Label" tea. It is actually black tea from Ceylon. Cheaper than the Liptons I've been drinking, but it brews a darker, stronger brew and I like it! It is a bit cheaper too, but that may be because of a promotion. The 20 bag boxes actually have 5 extra bags in as a promotion. This makes the price very good. I don't know when (or if ever) the 20 bag boxes will return to 20 actual bags. If/when that happens the price per bag will increase a bit but it may still be less per bag than the Liptons. Will do the arithmetic if required but the tea seems to suit my palate better, so... Palate: Nothing - except tea - tastes right. And the tea only if I put way too much sugar in it. I don't taste the tea as overly sweet, just normal. But nothing tastes very tasty, no matter what I do. Cooked macaroni today. Used the giant kitchen salt shaker and shook it over the pot sixty times, but the pasta didn't tasted particularly salty. Bland in fact. Macaroni: Opened an 800 gr. bag and the bottom fell out. Macaroni all over the kitchen floor! Rescued about ⅔ of it, felt it best to dump the remainder. Music: Twiggy Twiggy / Twiggy vs. James Bond by Pizzicato Five. This was a prolific, Japanese synth-pop/jazz band formed late 70s. Their lyrics were in English & Japanese, mostly the latter. Lights: About to go out because I'm beat.

Late to the party! But for what it's worth... The Giggling Twins are out and nobody is surprised. You could look out over the city, see that staircase winding up the side of the hill and just know where you're going even before you get to the clue box! Wow. Just... wow! One guy can't walk down a flight of steps because there is no hand rail. The sooner he's gone the happier I'll be. Cooking: I wanted to eat it. All of it. I am having fried plantain with my lunch as a result of watching this episode. (And no, plantain is not a desert.) But woe! One guy can't fry an egg. The vegarians don't now how to cook meat. Someone can't boil a pot of rice. That foo' can't cut an avocado into four! I guess these are people who have no kitchen and eat fast food three times a day, seven days a week? Damned good episode, I think. Plenty of interesting and diverse tasks and the locale looks lovely. Let's hope they can maintain the great locales they have been giving us so far, in the legs to come. Looking forward to the next episode!

A Song For You by The Carpenters. Karen Carpenter had an acclaimed voice and she wasn't a bad drummer. Died at 33 from heart failure, weighing 90 lbs. dripping wet. Now, go and eat a ham sandwich! Because that's not what killed Mamma Cass. I think I talk too much in here. I should just shut up a bit. Got an email from an old mate from college who I last saw when I was in the UK in 2017. He didn't say much, just wanted to confirm the email address before saying too much. Hope he has more to say when he gets my response. (Wow. Check me out in 1981! Ready for the flight home. We all went to Gatwick and once we were inside, I took the jacket off, checked twice that I'd emptied the pockets, and dropped it in the trash. Boeing 747 home with a stopover in Antigua. No Jacket Required, Mr. Collins....) Hot and sweaty in the humid night. Actually, there is a little breeze in the window and it isn't all that hot but I'm still sweaty. Last two nights there has been a shortage of water pressure. I'm hoping tonight will be different because I could really use a nice, cleansing shower. Mo continues to smuggle the garden into the bedroom. I saw him rooting through the sweethearts and advised him against it, but he insisted. I try to pick them off him but he reacts like you're stealing his prized possessions. The sweethearts he demands back and then he eats them. Can't be good for him. Hoping there will not be any actual burrs tonight because if there are, they will inevitably end up sticking into my butt. Didn't even bother to brew up a mug tonight. Usually I brew one up and let it draw while we are on Patrol. Just didn't feel inclined tonight. Prolly feel different in 45 minutes time, but right now, just want to have that shower and read a little bit of my book. Currently reading a sci-fi book that is another pack of cards. Regret that I'll have to chuck it once I've finished it. It's called The Compleat Bolo. The Bolo is a tank. More correctly, a line of tanks from the most basic to the highly advanced Mark XXX. With increasing amounts of AI capability, the Bolo tanks have a reputation for service with honour and indefatigable spirit. I've found two burrs since. Mo is outside now, rounding up some more, probably. No, here he is now, and he doesn't even need deburring. Right, I'm for a shower.

Black Preon P1 torch with a 10440 lithium cell located amongst desk litter. 10440 on charge. That is the last one. Made a mistake. When telco technician was here I should have asked him to put a connector on a cable for me. The cable returning from the old junction box to the kitchen/bedroom - if he had put a connector on, I could simply plug it directly into the 99¢ box and the house phone wiring - particularly, the bedroom phone - would work again. Today has been rainy and humid. Mo has spent most of the day asleep. I have resisted the call of the bed chamber.

Telco technician came and went; landline now working... sort of. Loooong ago, the house was serviced by a copper line from the exchange. This line came to a junction box fitted on the outside of the house. From there, lines were wired into the house, so phone instruments could be plugged in in the kitchen, in the bedroom, etc. Then came the switch to fiber. The new fiber cable came inside the house to the new, 99¢ box and from there internet via Ethernet and wi-fi made available. But the landline connection was lead back outside to the old copper-based junction box. Since the house (bedroom, kitchen, etc) were already wired in from there, feeding back outside automatically re-enabled all the connections throughout the house. Well, it seems that this external junction box is now faulty. The line from the 99¢ box goes out to that junction box, but the wiring from that box back into the house is faulty. Hence the landline phone(s) are non-functional. So by removing the link going out from the 99¢ box and back to the old copper junction box, then plugging the phone directly into the 99¢ box, the line started working. The old junction is eliminated from the system and no longer affects the functionality of the landline. Cool! Only... Now, just one instrument is functional j the one plugged directly into the 99¢ box. The phone jacks in the kitchen and bedroom which run back to the old junction box are now non-functional. Unfortunately, I like a phone next to the bed. If there is a family (or other) emergency, I want to be roused and to answer the call promptly. While not having to get out of bed and walking through the house to answer the phone... To discover it's a wrong number. I will have to figure a way to get that old wiring functional again. But at least the problems are understood and the service(s) are operational again, even if only partially, as far as the landline is concerned.