Netfoot

So, today's plans never came to fruition. Well, I suppose that makes it a normal day then! I had a bad bout of spinny-head and wobble-foot this evening as I headed for the kitchen to fetch Mo his dinner. I had to hold on to the wall for a longer-than-usual time before I felt it was OK to continue. Normally, these spells happen when I stand from a seated or lying position and start moving around. It usually takes 20-30 seconds before the fuzzy vision starts to come normal and the light-headed feeling starts to fade. But this evening when I stood and headed to the kitchen, it was almost two full minutes before things returned to normal. Worse, during that period I experienced a degree of mental confusion, and recognized that I was experiencing mental confusion. I was saying to myself, "I am going to get Mo's dinner. How exactly do I do that?" I had his bowl in my hand at the time and I kept looking at it and telling myself it was for his dinner but I couldn't figure out that I had to put his dinner in it! Anyway, for lunch I made up a curried mince stew with red beans & onion and added boiled potatoes & carrots. I had a portion of that for lunch, and I added a boiled plantain, and some diced raw cucumber. It went down rather well. Now, Mo doesn't particularly like curry, so I ate my lunch first and left his tax in the bowl to see if he would eat it. He did but gingerly. So I gave him chow with a little curry gravy over the top. He ate this up, leaving the curry for last. For dinner, I had basically the same as for lunch and Mo had chow (when I remembered how to put food in his bowl). I gave him a larger than usual portion so he got a generous meal, despite there not being any gravy on it. I watched episode #1 of a show called Lincoln which was all about Benjamin Franklin. (Go figure!) Tomorrow I may look for a show called Stalin which will (obviously) be all about Roosevelt. This all makes me sad. I love the cinematic arts, but the industry seems to be determined to self-destruct with the loudest possible detonation they can arrange. Some of the biggest seem hell bent on losing gigabucks in the process. Well, I've never liked the super-hero, comic-book movies. Probably because I've never really liked the super-hero, comic-books themselves. (Except Batman. Batman is cool! But then, Batman is not endowed with super-powers, godhood, or any of that crap.) Listening to Sister Rose by Monkey Boy Ian Brown, formerly of The Stone Roses. I read an article by a critic long ago who said that "...he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket." I think that's a bit unfair. I mean, he is admittedly no Jeff Buckley but his voice isn't that bad. Voices come in all shapes and sizes. Mo is lying down on top of my left foot. He got his botty swatted on Garden Patrol when I found a tee shirt from the bedroom lying on the ground, out by the gate. He practically laughed in my face as he skipped out of the way of the swat. I am too nice to that damned pup! I let him get away with murder! Got stuck into my book (The Peace War) last night and it was going well when I stopped for the night. I've also located the sequel (Marooned In Realtime) which is described as a time-traveling, sci-fi murder mystery. Sci-fi is best when it doesn't ask you to accept too many new concepts on faith. Best if they introduce one piece of new technology and let all other new developments stem logically from that. In The Peace War the existence of the "bobble" drives the plot. A bobble is an impenetrable, spherical stasis field, like a silvery ball of whatever required size, that encloses time space and matter and preserves it perfectly until the bobble is opened, perhaps years after being generated. The landscape is littered with them, from 10m to 20Km in size, left over from the war. Plot complication: due to the after-effects of said war, nobody remains who knows how to create new bobbles or how to open existing ones. In the sequel, the technology of bobbles is relearned and novel new uses for bobbling becomes commonplace. My naughty son is now curled up and leaning against my back. For once he is not demanding tummy rubs but that could change at any moment and he could begin with his usual two-footed, butt kicking demands. He is already ideally positioned. So, I will forestall any chance of this. I will post now, then depart for the shower. Locking up on the way back, I will resume my enjoyment of Mr. Vinge's excellent literary works! You know, of all that I'd hoped would happen today, the thing I'm most sorry did not materialize was results from the PT/INR. I'm not sure if it will be crazy high or not, because I stopped taking the warfarin for two days prior to the blood-draw. So the results might be perfectly normal, despite the dark red pee, the scratches that wouldn't stop bleeding for 36 hours, the subcutaneous bruises, and all the rest! Shower time!

The caller said she was ill and would not be holding her usual Friday clinic. As for when it will be rescheduled to, Dr. Jacinto has in the past insisted on scheduling her own appointments. So I can't get an appointment from QEH itself. I have to wait until she decides when I will see her, then she (or more likely, someone else) will call me and give me the date/time. Hopefully, next Friday. Of course, the cancellation is inconvenient. I was to collect a form from her today for the Welfare department, but obviously, that didn't happen. Also, I was hoping to get a change to dosages, and a prescription to suit, but that didn't happen either. I'm going to run out of certain meds before next Friday. So I will have to go and get a month's supply at the old dosage and then a few says later on Friday (maybe) get new dosage recommendations, and a new script to suit. I never got the results for the PT/INR today, so as I thought might be the case, I will probably get that info early next week.

My van has an automatic transmission. I'm not condemning automatics. But there are definitely pros & cons to both types of gearbox. I did say relatively! And it will vary from car to car. Just checked. The price for a clutch kit for the manual version of my car is between $200 and $250. A torque converter for the automatic version would be $850 for a rebuilt one or $1,220 for new.

She didn't know a bolt from a nut. In case anyone else is unsure, the long, skinny things aren't the nuts. The round things are the nuts.

Transmissions generally are notoriously difficult to work on, and expensive to replace. In my experience, manual transmissions are sturdier (less likely to break), more efficient (lower fuel consumption), higher performance (deliver more power to the wheels), allow greater control (negotiating sand, snow, mud, gravel, etc) and cheaper to buy in the first place and to fix if they do fail, than automatic transmissions. The clutch is not strictly part of the transmission, but but yes, it can fail if there are issues with the transmission itself. But clutches are cheap and relatively easy to replace. In most cases the clutch doesn't actually break, the clutch lining wears out and has to be replaced, like brake pads. Your experience may be different, but in my experience automatic cars are more expensive to buy, or even rent, where you have that option. Manual transmissions can withstand much more harsh punishment; call it "cruel mistreatment " or "unskilled misuse" if it helps. And should they fail, they can be repaired or replaced far less expensively than automatic. (My 27 year old Suzuki had a bad automatic transmission. A reconditioned replacement was around $4,000. Just the parts needed to repair the existing transmission were more than the $800 the car was valued at, and the labour charge for doing the job was more than the parts. It would have cost me $1,800 to fix the car with parts & labour and it would have taken at least a week. I could have bought a reconditioned manual transmission for $200 and had it fitted for an additional $200 in the space of about 2 hours.)

Cancelled. To be rescheduled. 😕

In bed, listening to I Dream Of Wires by Gary Numan. I also have this track covered by Robert Palmer. Both versions are worthy, if dissimilar. I'm drinking a 250ml fizzy drink. Flavour: "Purple Power" which means "Grape but without any responsibility to provide an atom of anything remotely related to actual grapes." I have a Coke in the fridge but it's twice the size and I'm thinking RA! Mo had chow for dinner, after heavily taxing my dinner. I had sausage & egg (fried) with some cheese and a bit of bread. I watched a movie tonight, called Wicked Little Letters. A true story, apparently. Quite amusing. I must admit I had no clue who was guilty until it was revealed by the show. I also tried to watch something else whose name I've already forgotten, but I had to give up after 15 minutes. The cast was a handful of unknown actors whose acting abilities were so bad I suspect they will remain unknown actors for quite some time! I've selected a new book. It's by Vernor Vinge, so no chance of it having an annoyingly bad ending like the last. I suspect that book was completed and submitted to the publisher who sent it back with a note that said "It needs lengthening by two chapters and the addition of some sex!" and the author followed instructions. VV's book (The Peace War) is a sci-fi classic of sorts. Set in the near future, after civilization falls into a semi-feudal state, run by the "Peace Authority". I have had my shower and locked up the house. Unfortunately, as soon as I locked up, Mo woke, leapt out of bed and demanded I reopen the door. So I will read for a while and give him a chance to run in and out for a while. Then I will have to get up and lock the house again.... Dr. Jacinto tomorrow at 1:00 PM. I don't know what she can do other than increase the drugs to alleviate the MG symptoms, thereby increasing the side effects experienced from taking said drugs. But she'll is supposed to be the smart one, so maybe she can come up with a plan. Hope to hear from Dr. Kristi before 1:00 with the results of the PT/INR. The Monster is outside barking up a storm! I will end here and read awhile, while he raises Cain outside. He will come in again eventually. Bajans say Cain killed Abel under a breadfruit tree. The proof of this is that if you slice through the stem of a breadfruit leaf, you will notice the letter "C" concealed in the stem. Damn! The rain has just started lashing down and I've had to close the window to stop it falling on the bed. But in a minute, a wet puppy will come dashing in to dry off on me and my bedclothes.... Yep! Here he is, wet and wrigley.... Thankfully, he isn't completely drenched.

In the failing light, I looked out the window and saw a "Mad Bull" kite in the sky. I've heard the characteristic roar of a kite these last 2-3 nights on Garden Patrol but nothing is visible in the dark. But this afternoon I saw one. Tried to grab a shot but no matter how I tried, I could not get the camera to find and focus on it. I could see it perfectly well with the naked eye but even at max zoom, the camera would not find and focus on it. I did get a shot showing the mysterious, red light that hangs on the wire near a utility pole not far from the house. This light has been there for months, and I've reported it to BL&P but they have neither acknowledged my report nor removed it. I assume it is not an atomic bomb because if it were, I'm sure they would be out there building a bonfire under it. The light flashes or blinks. Sometimes it blinks slowly and sometimes it blinks fast. This evening it is blinking so fast that it appears to just be on. The blinks are so fast they blur into a solidly "on" red light. I'm curious, though - how is it I can see the kite in the sky directly above the utility pole, but there is not even a smudge on the "film" when I try to take a photo of it? Is google sensoring reality? Why would they do that? I don't think the kite really cares one way or the other about the outcome of the election..... ETA: Forgot to add photo of the "flashing" light... 😕

I know we've had many a proposal on the race. But have we ever had a divorce? Because Rod needs to dump Leticia NOW! Not after the race. Before the next episode. And make sure to get custody of the children to protect them from any more exposure to the attitude and the stupid. Also, Danny, if you're not going to race and prefer to just help everyone to beat you, why did you drag your poor mother along on this thing? I bet she agreed in the belief you would actually try...

Saw Dr. Kristi. (She look fine! But she usually does.) Seems the only thing in the urine was blood. I was initially concerned that it was a kidney issue, and so was she. But it seems like it is simply a warfarin issue. The PT/INR today should confirm. Dr. K. says that the two-day hiatus in the warfarin was fine but I should go back on again and we will tweak the dosage as needed. Bought some groceries including chow for Mo. A 2kg bag is $19 so two bags for less than the price of the PT/INR. Also bought bread, cheese, sugar, pasta, milk, pasta, beans, etc. And four plantains. Maybe I can have a plantain with my lunch. I can boil some potatoes and make a curry sauce. Finished my book last night. The book was about religious politics in a region where assassination plays a significant part in the selection of political leaders. And then, the end of the book is all about a totally unbelievable couple and sex and marriage and living happily ever after. I could have ripped the last two chapters off the back of the book and it would have been an improvement. Grrrr! ETA: Seems I bought pasta twice...

Been staggering around all evening, trying not to fall over. (I haven't.) Finally into bed and not much walking to do before lights out. Mo & I had sausage with egg for dinner. Mo had two sausages and three eggs. I had two and two. I could have eaten more but I had a mug of tea instead. Mo doesn't drink tea. Old Dotty used to - I was sat in the floor sorting out my CD collection once with a mug on the floor beside me. I suddenly heard "lap, lap, lap..." Dotty was drinking my tea! Mo likes to stick his nose in when I'm drinking a glass of milk. I'm surprised he doesn't drink tea. He has a sweet tooth and I sugar my tea, so... Anyway, a simple meal for the both of us. I have to go to the grocery tomorrow, so I can investigate chow for Mo. He's right behind me now, making free with my pillows. As usual. Mo pretty much makes himself free with anything he fancies. The little thief that he is! He only occasionally gets called to account. Right now he is complaining because I'm not giving him any tummy rubs. Pretty soon... Yep! Patented two-legged butt kicks. OK, he had moved, so I can now rub his side with my feet. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues by Elton. I've been listening to this guy since they made fun of him for dying his hair green and then playing cricket. Gotta admit that my favourite albums are what get referred to as "Classic Elton", IOW, the old stuff. But then, that's essentially true for all the music I like. Most of my favourite bands have not even existed for 25 years. I was waiting for some news these last few days and I didn't hear anything until ten to five this evening. On Saturday, I went for a pee and it was deep red in colour. Caught some in a phial and went round to Dr. Kristi's clinic. Dr. K. wasn't there so Clauder tested it with strips and said "That's a whole lot of blood...." Dr. Gabby insisted on sending the sample to the lab, so I've been waiting on the results. You know where this is going, don't you? Got a message from Dr. Kristi this lunchtime about biopsy needles. (No useful news, alas.) I asked if there was any results on the urine test and she didn't know what I was talking about. I guess she had not heard about it from Clauder or Dr. Gabby. Got the call from Clauder this evening and I still don't know what the results of the urine test are but predictably: "You've got to come in and do a PT/INR!" Well yes, if you're on warfarin and you are peeing blood, a PT/INR might be a thing to do. Pity the shithead at Enmore wouldn't do one the day before the bloody pee incident! Now I have to go and do another blood draw (hopefully in the other elbow because the first one is still purple) and find the $45 to pay. And it's doubtful the results will reach me in time for my appointment with Dr. Jacinto on Friday! But at least when I go to Dr. K. for the test tomorrow, I can buy Mo some chow. Of course the PT/INR will cost about the same as two 2kg bags of Purina..... I hope I get to talk to Dr. Kristi tomorrow. Maybe we can stop the warfarin for a couple of weeks or a month. I have not taken any for the last two days so my scratches can dry up. I don't want blood clots to start forming in my lungs again, but I can prolly give the warfarin a miss for a couple weeks to let my various bleedy spots heal up a bit, before hopping back on the warfarin bandwagon. I'm not sure if that'd be OK, but I have a very good doctor who will hopefully advise me. My book is almost at its conclusion. It wasn't too bad for the most part, but I really don't like it when the incredibly handsome and talented male protagonist falls head over heels for the ugly female with BO and armpit hair like two tribbles. It's worse than a Mills & Boone bodice-ripper. At least in those, when The Governess takes off her glasses and let's down her hair she turns out to be a stunner. But in this, they have been at pains to point out the woman's complete loathsomeness while letting you know in no uncertain terms that the guy is the absolute pinnacle of male hunkiness and desirability. And seeing as it had nothing to do with the plot in any way, couldn't we have concluded this book without the need for any sort of shagging at all? Not to mention that there has been no sign of developing appreciation, one for the other, in the forgoing chapters of the book. I suppose it's unrealistic to expect a modern novel not to have the protagonists engage in some recreational shagging, but could we get that section of the book printed in red ink so it can be easily skipped over? Or printed on perforated pages so the entire section can simply be removed and discarded? This would be particularly useful in the case where the pairing is jarringly unbelievable and poorly executed by the author. Anyway, I've got to go have a shower and then actually finish the concluding few pages of this book. Then it can join the other packs of cards in the bin here by the bed. Oh! Apparently Mo sneaked out earlier and I never noticed. I've only just caught him sneaking back in! He is a light-footed little bandit! Anyway, shower and book. The phone is at 9% anyway, so I suppose this is a good time/place to draw a line.

Is she on Insta?

Mo and I had a good lunch. Rice with tuna fish and veggies. Carrot, cucumber, corn & channa. Ever since then my hands have been twisted with cramp. A squirt of mustard on the tongue did absolutely nothing to help. (I don't think there is any connection between lunch and the cramps.) Baby woke me at 4:03 this morning by puking on the bed. Not sure why, but once he'd got it out of his system he appeared to be fine. Here he is last night, making himself comfortable before the lights went out:

Well, let's see! BadGuy was killed by Scola before any usefull info could be extracted by interrogation. So yeah, someone got killed. CarJack lady was hugely endangered. BadGuy discharging a firearm in a packed club/bar endangered literally dozens of completely innocent/uninvolved people. And Scola, Maggie and OA were needlessly forced into positions of danger. So, well done, Tiffany! We aren't going to throw you out of The Bureau and take steps to make sure you never work in law enforcement ever again. You aren't even going to receive a reprimand. Instead, that useless waste of actor's salary Jubal will come in and drop a remark to justify your entire, day-long fuckup! Because after all, no criticism must ever stick to the worst member of the team!

Why do I hate Bailey more and more with each passing episode?

Mo was not particularly interested in our Garden Patrol tonight. Maybe because of the escaped pupper from next door who was right outside our gate. So I patrolled pretty much on my own, except under the watchful eye of Mozie, who stayed by the gate the entire time but kept a keen eye on the proceedings. He is here soaking up some of the coolth from the tiles by the bed. I swear, I will do likewise, should we get any intense heat, later in the year. Except, if you are on the floor, you don't get any breeze from the window. So maybe in that case I will bed down on the veranda? Your Gold Teeth by Steely Dan. From Countdown To Ecstacy. Been sitting around, waiting for some news I was pretty sure would arrive today. Nix. If I don't hear something by tomorrow I will start to get worried. Had chips for lunch. English chips, not American ones. Chips are one of the simple things that you can end up craving when your diet is very simplified. I like chips but I'm not good at cooking them because I don't cook them often. Cooking chips requires the use of quite a lot of oil, and oil is a scarce resource in my kitchen. One pan of chips can use as much oil as a week of other meals, even when shallow frying! Deep frying is just impossible. But this morning I catch a vapse for chips so I cooked some chips. With the oil hot and half the potatoes in the pan, I realized I needed a bigger pan. I fired up my biggest pan and transferred the chips over, trying to figure out what I was going to do with them all! (Spoiler: I figured it out.) So with a mountain of chips and some toppings (ketchup, mayo, pepper sauce, salt) had an early lunch. Not egg & chips or sausage & chips. Not chips & beans or even a chip butty. Just chips. As the last one went down I regretted not cooking up a couple more spuds while I was at it. No dinner for me. Mo had chow today. He scoffed the last (large) portion from the bag for dinner. We will look into getting more tomorrow. Friday, I see Dr. Jacinto. I don't know what to expect. I am suffering from some of the effects of the MG (fluttery eyelids, for example; more later), despite the medication. We are obviously trying to titrate the meds down to the lowest level, but this indicates we need to put the dosages up. Fluttery eyelids. Doesn't sound that bad. And I guess it isn't, given all what MG can bring to the table. You blink every 4-5 seconds. A blink lasts about 1/10th of a second. You don't even realize you're doing it. But when I blink, my eyelids don't always return to the open position as expected. The left one can spend 2-3 seconds fluttering up and down, gradually returning to the fully open position. Meanwhile, my right eyelid opens smoothly (no fluttering) but slowly, taking 2-3 seconds to complete the journey. Eventually, they are both fully open and appear normal. By which time it's almost time to blink again.... So, not as debilitating as your feet refusing to walk or your hands knocking your tea over instead of picking it up or your diaphragm declining to breathe and forcing you to spend your life in a ventilator. But sort of annoying all the same. Mo came and went. He roused me at 5:09 this morning, so I wandered out to open the door... and found it wide open. Since he broke the bolt, I had been using the old deadlock to prevent him opening up the locked door in the middle of the night. But I stopped using the deadlock because he gave up trying the door. Now, he will occasionally open the door at night and let himself out (and burglars in). But for some reason, he insists on waking me up, even when he has already opened the door! Later on, when I'm getting out of bed to take meds and daydream about eating chips, he is snoozing in bed with his head on the pillow. Or laying in the cool dimness of the passage, with his tail giving a tiny twitch when I tiptoe past or carefully step over to go to the bathroom! There was a song done years ago by The Tradewinds, called I Want To Be A Puppy. (Hey, google found it!) Humorous lyrics but 100% true. (The Tradewinds were a fun band from my youth. Not strictly a Calypso band, but their song lyrics like most calypsos, had a habit of being studded with risque double entendres.) So I only had a cup of tea for dinner and I was sorely tempted to have two. But I restrained myself in the name of RA (Reflux Avoidance). Don't want too much sloshing around in there when heading off to bed. But now, I'm thirsty. A glass of lime squash is probably counter-indicated. What about a glass of milk? Or (damn the torpedoes) a mug of tea? I will go for a shower and decide on the way back what, if anything, to drink. Eyes are fluttering again....

Awful day here. Lots of bleeding today. Tiny scratches on my arms and legs opening up and letting the red stuff out. Bad tummy ache late ln the afternoon (thankfully gone now) and when I tried swallowing my dinner meds they came back up again along with some battery acid. Not exactly reflux, and I was able to get everything to go back down, but it doesn't bode well for tonight. Mo came to assist with the scratches. He finds scratches that are partially or fully dried up and he licks and licks until they are all bleeding freely again. It takes some stern talk to get him to stop helping. Oh, he's off! Don't usually have this much trouble with the warfarin, but these last few days have been exceptional. Wish that guy had run the PT/INR for me - viscosity may be way out of line! I recall a few weeks ago I had to stop warfarin for 2-3 days to get a couple scratches to dry up. I had the last of the meat sauce today for lunch, on Eclipse biscuits with cheese. Not too bad. I got a bowl of chow for Mo and when I was taking it out to his feeding station I noticed he was lying on the tiles in the passage. So I put the bowl in the passage, right next to him. Later this evening he was acting hungry so I went to collect the empty bowl to get him his dinner. The bowl was still full! He hadn't touched the lunch. I just relocated the bowl to the feeding station and he immediately began Hoovering. My own dinner was scrambled eggs. Or maybe a poorly executed omelette, depending on your point of view. Omelette or scrambled, it was very plain. No sausage, no cheese, nothing. But I didn't feel like exerting myself any more than I did. It would have been good on toast, especially with some additions but my toaster, after being resurrected more than once, finally gave up the ghost. Not that I had any bread, but then, if I had a toaster I prolly would have some bread. Listening to Dexy's Midnight Runners (Come On, Eileen). While they did a have some commercial success, I think it's fair to say this is a relatively obscure band. But they did produce two #1 UK Singles Chart songs (this one and Geno), which I just love. Just had a WhatsApp chat with Heidi. She always knows exactly what I did wrong and what I should do instead. Why don't I just go to QEH and get them to do a test? I was just there on Friday and they wouldn't do the damned test! A QEH doctor has to order the test. I could walk in to Accident & Emergency.... Then I would have to sit in the waiting room for a day because I don't have a knife sticking out of my chest. I have sat in A&E for 15 plus hours waiting to see a doctor. And I've seen a guy sitting in the waiting area for 7 hours with a knife literally sticking out of his chest and blood slowly pooling on the floor under his seat. Have I mentioned before what you should say when next you hear some fool advocating for "Universal Healthcare?" Mo has crept in again and is curled up against my back. He is such a sweet boy. Super loving and extra affectionate. But his expressions of affection often involves using his teeth. He doesn't hurt when he chomps. But he has been chompy since he was a little pup and while I'm accustomed to it, I do worry about him being affectionate with others. (Jealous Daddy Syndrome.) Dotty was such a gentle soul, you could literally let a 2 year old child feed him a biscuit. He would take it so gently the child would be in absolutely no danger. Buddy would not hurt the child in any normal sense but in his enthusiasm over the bikky he might bump the babe over. Mo would grip the child's arm and the parents would rush to save the youngster from being eaten! Mo also expresses his affection by giving big, slobbery kisses. On your upper lip & nose, as a rule. A sensation that has to be experienced to be understood. Mo's kisses are fuzzy as well as being slobbery. Whups! He's moved down and is lying with his feet in the air, against my lower legs. Now he's giving me the two-legged butt-kick, because I'm not rubbing his tummy. But I can't actually reach his tummy from here. And I'm not rubbing his nuts, which is about all I can reach.... Right, he's given up and gone. And I'm gone too. I'm going to read.

Wow! Guys in the group say we had two eclipses here today:

Bood draw site from three days ago: Meanwhile, blood drips from inconsequential scratches elsewhere on my body to pool on the floor or stain my sheets. If you are on warfarin I recommend you buy a styptic pencil. They are cheap, last for ever and stop bleeding from minor scraped scrapes & scratches. I bought a 2-pack in April, 2020 for less than $9 and I've only used about half of one pencil so far.

Only two colours remain to be un-snarled: Coincidentally, pink and pink! All ten colours were tangled together in a huge, multicoloured bird's nest, but I'm gradually sorting it all out. The hardest part of the process is isolating a colour from the remainder so I can begin the untangling process. But as each colour is completed and the number of remaining colours diminishes, this gets easiest. So for example, when I separate one of the pinks, the other pink won't be hard to separate in its turn - it will actually be already separated. Just FYI, here is the trick from ABOK 141:

Blood glucose 6.2 mmol/L this morning. Can't think why - The highest it's been for the last 30 days is 5.6 mmol/L. All but that one reading being under 5.0, and at least half the time it's under 4.5! I didn't even have a mug of sweet tea before bed!

Not a bad day, all things considered. Quiet morning. Caught up with some computer stuff that needed doing. Untangled some fine, coloured cords I use for knotting. A few weeks ago I discovered a brief note in The Ashley Book of Knots on how to untangle string. I've been doing it wrong for ever! Had a good lunch: macaroni with meat sauce. Mince, diced tomato, onion, red beans, diced cucumber, cilantro, garlic. Tasted pretty good. Spaghetti would probably have been better but Mo has trouble with spaghetti unless I hand-feed it to him, a couple strands at a time. Right after lunch the internet went on vacation. Annoying. So I took a nap. When I got up it was back. For dinner, I cooked a pot of plain, white rice. The only thing in the rice was salt and some seasoning. A couple ladles of the sauce over the rice and I was set to go. Mo had chow with the same sauce on top. And then along came the termites. When I was a lad in Trinidad, we would sometimes get hit by a swarm of termites with black wings. They would fly into the house in truly huge numbers and drop their wings. The entire floor of pale ceramic tiles (as well as everything else in the house) would be completely covered in a carpet of black wings. There is no way you can visualize this without seeing it for yourself. I distinctly recall someone using a broom to sweep aside a patch of wings to reveal the pale tiles underneath. In no more than two seconds, the tiles were invisible again. Anyway, the solution is plain: turn off the lights. You can use diversionary lights away from the area you are in, with or without pans of water to reflect the lights and catch/kill the bugs. But tonight I just turned off all lights in the house for an hour. The bugs were not attacking in great numbers (nothing like those days in Trinidad) and after an hour in the dark, there was no sign of them anywhere. The living room in our house at Saddle Valley had the entire north wall made of "wrought iron" (actually made from mild steel) from about 2' high to the ceiling and maybe 40' long. Even the front door was wrought iron. So there was no keeping the termites out. We would shut the door through to the dining room and the rest of the house, but that living space could not be closed off. One Hundred Ways by Quincy Jones. Not a huge fan of his, but this is a romantic ballad with a clever lyric and I have always liked it. As above, I will from time to time add a paragraph to my post mentioning the track currently playing and (sometimes) a little of what I know about the song itself or the artist performing it. I often wonder if anyone reading the post thinks "I know that song and like/hate it!" Or "Never heard of that one. Let me see if I can find it on YT and give it a listen!" Or maybe "Right, I can just skip this paragraph..." Despite my nap this afternoon, I am tired again. I didn't even brew up a mug for post-Patrol consumption. Mo came back from Patrol in fine form then aggressively defended his right to accessorize in bed. I finally got most of it off and thrown out the window. But there was one burr under his right, front paw, in between the paddies. He was obviously having a problem with the paw but fought like a dragoon when I intervened. Finally, I removed the burr and he pounced on it, and ate it up in an instant, spikes and all. He is much more handsome than his dad, but maybe not quite as smart. I really want a shower, yet I can hardly face the idea of dragging myself out of bed and getting wet. But I have to get up to lock up the house, so I will do both of those at the same time. Meanwhile, I will read a bit. My book is not proving to be a rip-snorter, but it isn't all that bad! It's developing a bit slowly, but presumably everything will come to a head at some point.

This is today: And this is tonight:

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.....