Netfoot

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.

Entire post eaten by this SHITTY FORUM SOFTWARE. AGAIN! Made it into the bedroom without falling over. I did walk up the passage without turning the light on, but I should be able to walk a dozen steps in the semi-dark without hurting myself. Mo had chow for lunch and I had overcooked veggies & corned beef. (Talking with the telco on the cell while cooking: not a good idea.) For dinner, he (Mo, not telco guy) had the balance of my lunch and really seemed to enjoy it. I had eggy toast and sausage. The eggy toast was not a success. When I tried to flip it with my new spatula, the toast stuck down to the pan and tore into several pieces. Meanwhile, the egg smashed up into essentially scrambled. It still tasted fine but I think I have to try less fire so the egg can cook a bit more before the toast had to be flipped. And think of a way of preventing the bread from sticking to the pan. I was using plenty of oil, so it can't be that. Again, maybe less fire. My right hand and arm are hurting. It seems to be steming from the injured (cracked/broken?) finger bone in my right hand. The ache has spread almost up to the shoulder. I can use my finger to tap on the phone but if I try to even just pick up the phone (or anything else) the hand hurts a lot and the pains shoot up the arm towards the biceps. Wriggling the thumb is similarly unpleasant. I generally avoid taking unnecessary meds but tonight I've taken two Panadol. And the arm still hurts. Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd. All eight parts. On the way back from Garden Patrol this evening I gave Mo the once-over. He had 11 sweethearts on just one side of his face and his feet were covered as well. The sweethearts aren't as unpleasant as an actual burr. They have a sticky rather than spiky surface. Fortunately, we get only a tenth the number of burrs as sweethearts. But one burr concealed amongst the sweethearts can make for an uncomfortable night! Mo doesn't particularly like bring deburred. He will stand still for it for a little while, but he will revolt if it goes on too long. Which depends on how burry he is to start with. Today was tiring and really, I did nothing to tire me. Still had to take a late nap, from about 5:30 to 7:30 this evening, rising in the dark to try the eggy-toast and take my dinner meds. Found Mo sleeping in the dark of the passage, perhaps seeking the coolth of the tiles. Note that even with the lights off, it is still bright enough to make out a stygian spot on the floor that is my panther-puppy. So again, not sure why I nearly fell over trying to make it back up the passage again just now. But then, I nearly fell over when I tried to slip on the Crocs for Garden Patrol. Because for the two seconds you are slipping your foot into a Croc, you are standing on one foot (the other one). I make sure I hold on to a door frame or a shelf or something, with both hands to avoid an incident. I've put a gas cylinder out by the van. I'm pretty sure the one in use is near empty and the spare is also empty. I really need to get it filled do when the one currently in use finally runs out, I can swap in the other And have my pasta (or what ever) continue cooking without me having to go out and find a full cylinder at that point, so with the cylinder sitting there, I will actually remember to take it with me, unlike the last two excursions, when it was left home. Look back at that last sentence and note the word "and" is capitalized. For some reason the spell check on this device has decided that capitalization is now the norm for that word, no matter what the circumstances. No explanation of why or how, and definitely no way to rectify. Sometimes new technology really makes you want to go back to a kerosene lantern for lighting and a fire in a circle of stones for cooking. Sod the internet. Just get some carrier pigeons for your comms needs! We can refer to them as Google Pigeons. My thoughts seem to be all over the place this evening. Maybe I'm just tired. I'm trying reduced Pyridostigmine with my dinner meds. It helps with the production of neurotransmitters. Or reduces consumption of same, not sure which. The idea is I shouldn't need as much at night because I'm sleeping rather than running around burning them off. Maybe I should do the opposite? Try to generate more while sleeping, so as to wake with plenty to get me through the next day? Would really like to have a nice, warm shower followed by a cool sluice and a deep sleep. But don't fancy getting out of the bed right now. Course, I still have to lock up so I guess I can shower then. Maybe I can grab a little snooze before locking the door? Jeez, it's only minutes to midnight already! Better not count on taking a nap, then getting up to lock the house, then taking a shower. So I'd better go and do it now...

It's great to be online again. Still no landline, but I only use that once and a while. But otherwise it's been a tough day. Bank holiday, sominhsve so I have not seen nor heard another human for the day, other than the guy who called to say they would try a different 99¢ box to see if the landline could be made to work. And nothing more from him since then either. Today has been a day typical of weakness and wooly-headedness. I can't do anything without this "ready to faint" feeling in my head. Vision goes grey, find myself toppling in one direction or another and have to grab on to something or extend my arms on both sides like a tightrope walker to balance. Even getting out of bed or standing up from out of the chair is proving hard. Ok so no secret - I have medical issues I am dealing with. And the medication brings a host of nasty side effects. But I take the same medication each day. At essentially the same time of day. How come I feel fine some days and other days I feel like I want to lie in bed and sleep until tomorrow? Same condition, same meds... shouldn't my day to day experiences be at least similar? Anyway, I'm lying in bed and it's nice to know that 1) I don't have to halfway hang out the window to get connectivity, 2) there isn't a stupid "sign-in" procedure to be followed which can take 10 minutes and is not guaranteed to succeed, 3) I won't be kicked off again in anything from 3 seconds time. Mind you, I have lots of news to catch up with. Collapsing bridges, politically motivated lawsuits, sub-orbital rocket launches.... And there is a girl in Ghana who wants to marry me, and the wife of the ex president of Nigeria wants to give me FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS to spend on "good works" as I see fit. So I will go for the $14M and then marry that Ghanaian girl. But first, I got to get some sleep. And it isn't even nightfall yet. And Mozie won't come and cuddle for some reason. And anything I drink out of my red cup tastes like burnt plastic.

INTERNET !!! Landline phone still out. Nobody knows why. Guy says they will try replacing the modem/box and see if that helps. But INTERNET !!!

Mo, peering out the window in the early morning Notice two "sweethearts" on his shoulder. There are also a couple clinging to his moustache. And this is where they end up: All over the bed in vast numbers because he keeps going out and fetching more! At least the sweethearts aren't as uncomfortable as the occasional burr he brings in.....

I should have had sausage & egg for dinner. It wouldn't have been hard or taken long. Or even try the eggy-toast again, now that I have a spatula. With or without sausage. Mo would have been happy to tax sausage & egg or eggy-toast or any combination thereof. I have a modem/box with fiber from the ISP/telco coming in to it from the local exchange. From this I have RJ-11 coming out to a landline phone and RJ-45 (CAT5 UTP) coming out to a small gigabit switch. More CAT5 runs from there to my desktop. Sometimes additional CAT5 runs to RPi or other machines I might be playing with (none at present). The modem/box also provides wifi which covers the house and yard. I can currently connect cell to wifi and talk between the desktop & cell without issues. With the system now not functioning, I periodically power off the modem/box and the gigabit switch (both on the same switch) and let it come back up again to see if it heals itself. Thanks to Microsoft everybody expects equipment to crap the bed on a regular basis and manufacturers are happy to make gear to this standard. I think the ISP buys these boxes in bulk for about 99¢ per unit. There is also a reset switch in a hole on the box. I will occasionally poke a toothpick in there and reset the box rather than power cycle it. I can clearly feel the switch actuate and observe the status lights respond to the reset. The box reports that I am connected to the ISP but that there is no connection on the IPv4 interface. I am drawing a conclusion from this that the box & ISP are connecting just fine but that the services (landline phone, internet) are not enabled by the ISP. You'd think this would be easy to check and rectify if it proved to be so. But apparently nobody has a clue what is going on nor any idea how to fix it

Just gone eight and I'm lying in bed to get connectivity. Mo is on the floor next to the bed. He had chow today and I think he is a little ticked off it wasn't some pork or turkey fried up in a nice gravy. I had cheese cutters fot lunch. They weren't all that great for some reason. Dinner, I just couldn't bring myself to cook. So I peered into the fridge to see what I might eat. I bought a six-pack of Eclipse biscuits today, but there was a 7th pack attached as a promotion. Tri-grain Eclipse. Ok, I'll have that with cheese as my dinner. Not very good. What's with this cheese anyway? I looked at the label. English? I prefer NZ cheddar, as a rule. What's it say? "New Zealand Veg Cheese" Ugh! Gak! Some sort of synth-food, not even worthy of the name "Cheddar". No wonder everything with it tastes like crap! I finished the Tri-grain with PB&J. Prefer regular, artery-hardening Eclipse just like I prefer artery-hardening cheddar, preferably from NZ! <sigh> Now what am I to do with the rest of the "Veg Cheese?" Melt it down, stir in some pepper sauce, add flour & milk, pour over boiled macaroni and bake? Godnoze. Speaking of baking, I was to get a new gas cylinder for the stove today, And forgot. Four day weekend. Might be able to get one despite the holidays but we will see. The one I'm using is long overdue to run out. Party Weirdo by Moloko. Off their debut album Do You Like My Tight Sweater? I like this album a lot. Several unconventional and interesting tracks. Telco calmed me at 4:33 to say they were still working in my issue. Obvious lie, calling just before departing for the day, on the eve of the 4-day weekend. I could hear him jingling his car keys. Either way, no connectivity. My router days it is connected to the WAN but there is no IPv4 internet being provided by the ISP. So putting me on the "Royal Plan" automatically disconnected me from provision of service and putting me on "Fiber Lite" failed to do the opposite. And nobody seems able to make it happen. And I'm not even sure they switched me to "Fibre Lite" yet. Every timi I ask the direct question: "What plan am I currently on?" I get some mealy-mouthed, gobbledy-speak non-answer. Got to get up and boil water. So I can brew a mug of tea. Then Garden Patrol, drink the tea, shower, build myself a huge pile of cushions/pillows in case the reflux returns (no sign so far today) and sleep. It's not even nine o'clock and I'm contemplating sleep. Because I'm old, I guess. But there was a very pretty girl in the line in front of me at Popular this afternoon. So I'm not dead yet...

Still no connectivity. Went to the telco. Again. "We are looking into it and hope to have it resolved today or tomorrow." But tomorrow is Good Friday and this office will be closed. So if it isn't resolved today, nothing will happen until Tuesday morning. And I can't even contact anyone for updates! "We are doing everything we can!" He wasn't pleased when I said "See you Tuesday!" And walked out. Last night the reflux went from bad to worse. Even after taking the Nexium, it continued to worsen. I eventually had to go and get two large cushions out of the van and combine them with four pillows so I could get some sleep sitting virtually upright in the bed. Once I wedged myself into that position, I was able to get some shut-eye. More due to my level of tiredness than to anything else. 5Kg of penne pasta for $18.99 as opposed $1.85 for 400 gr. Of penne. The bulk price is $1.52 for 400 gr. Savings $4.15 over all. Short pasta is easiest to cook up a batch of for Mo and I to share. Bears thinking about. Ok, got to go home now. Left Mo with a bowl of chow but he didn't seem too interested. And I need to eat something too. IV Deli is right there and open for business and a nice, fat roti would go down a treat! So I'm oudda here before temptation takes over my soul!

It's the "Royal Plan". "Royal" as in "We screwed up but now we call it an opportunity, not a problem!" As in "You are scum but we call you something much more palatable so we can squeeze more ca$h out of you." And "Plan" as in the name they have given to the bundle of services they are offering. Like the "Media Madness Plan" for people who want to stream video & music all day. Or the "Royal Plan" for those who don't want their phone number reassigned to a different customer and their physical connection to the network taken away and given to someone else because there are a shortage of lines in the local exchange and a shortage of funds in the bank. I don't know what plan I was on before, but I paid $149.64 per month for one landline and 60MBit internet. This was a plan I signed up for years ago. It's no longer available, but I was on it, sort of grandfathered in. So they switched me to the Royal Plan to preserve my account and my line to the local exchange. It was $10 each to preserve the landline and the internet link. Hence $20 per month. And no, you don't get any actual service for that. The landline has no dial tone and the internet connection is not, uh, connected. So, after confirming all this (which I pretty much assumed from the start) I asked why my internet wasn't back on again. Well, seems there is something that is amis, but nobody is sure what exactly. Everyone seems quite sure a technician won't have to calls. But they are talking about "raising the incident" so as to get it sorted out ASAP. Well. It's been 11+ hours since I "raised" it with them, but still no dialtone, still no internet. Oh, and you remember my grandfathered plan which was 60MBit internet for $149.64? Well, that won't be an option when switching back out of the"Royal Plan". I'll have to accept one of the new plans on offer. Like "Fiber Lite". But lucky for me, "Fiber Lite" is $145, or actuallty $4.64 per month less than I have been paying. And the bandwidth goes up to 100MBit or 66⅔% increase over the plan I had before. Sold one book at the Book Den ($3) but the shop down in Batt's Rock was not interested. So I took the books to the RSPCA. They sell books upstairs. All their books for $2 each. I don't go often because they are on the other side of town. And these days I'm not buying books anyway. I stood around for 45 minutes waiting for someone to come and get the books but nobody gave a shit. Eventually someone told me to take the boxes of books up the stairs and leave them. I told them I was not lugging five boxes of books up the stairs without help. They then said that "Eventually, someone will come snd help you." So, once again, we accept your generous offer of $400 in books for free but entirely at our convenience and no consideration for yours. I considered scattering the books all over the parking lot and leaving for home. But I cooled a bit after two very nice kisses from Mozie, and carried the boxes of books onto the veranda, where I piled them up in front of the stairs. They can move them elsewhere, carry them up the stairs themselves or spend the rest of their lives jumping over them to use the staircase. I don't give a shit what choice they make. I hate the idea of throwing books out, because I'd much rather they went to some reader somewhere, who might extract some value from them by reading. But the RSPCA will never see another book of mine. And the Book Tent won't either, they already having inconvenienced me on the one time I tried to give them books. And the Batt's Rock guy won't see my face either. I called him this morning to find out if he was interested, but he took my call, told me he couldn't take my call and hung up. Forcing me to drive to Batt's Rock to have him tell me what he could have told me over the phone. No, from now on, if the old guy from the Book Den is not interested, they are going in the bin. The Magician's Birthday by Uriah Heep. I am suffering from reflux. Must go and swallow a Nexium before sleep. Got to shut the door anyway. Mo and I skipped lunch because we were getting dicked around by book shops and the RSPCA. For dinner, my little trooper had some pork scraps cut up and fried to give some crust, then stewed in a thin gravy. One of the scraps turned out to be a world record holder. For "World's Smallest Pork Chop, Ever". It's literally the size of the ball of my thumb. I set that aside for my own pleasure another day. My dinner was cheese & cucumber cutters. Mo is lying on the floor beside the bed. Wonder why he isn't snuggling with me? The tiles are cool, I guess. It is a bit warm, despite a light breeze in the window. Maybe I will fetch a glass of iced water when I take the Nexium. Maybe that would only provide a home for the acid. Most torches and batteries charged. Found the charger that does 4 cells at a time and the last four are in there charging now. One torch uncharged. It's my black Preon P1. It's around here somewhere, hidden amongst the desk clutter. I used it a few days ago on Garden Patrol. Here is a photo of my green Preon P1 with my black Preon P2. (The black P1 is missing.) The only difference between the P1 and P2 torches is the size of the body/battery tube. Head and tail switch are identical. The P2 carries 2x AAA cells for 3v of power. The P1 is supposed to carry only a single, 1.5v AAA but instead I use a single 10440 lithium cell for 3.7v of power. The maker states that the head of the torch is "not guaranteed" for use with a lithium cell, but I spoke with the designer who said that everyone in the factory uses a P1 with a lithium cell and they have had no issues. Naturally a P2 with 2x 10440 cells will burn prettily, the moment you switch it on. So don't do that. Meantime, my P1 Preons are more compact but more powerful than the larger P2 Preons and can be run at reduced (i.e. normal) power on a single AAA if necessary. By the way, I use the Panasonic Eneloops AAA and AA batteries because they have very low rates of self-discharge. The early ones offered 75% charge retention after 3 years on the shelf without recharging. I think the latest ones are 10 years, but I'm not sure what level of charge retention. Must google it and see. The reflux is getting annoying now, so I will go take that Nexium, lock the door and call it quits for the night. Of course, the moment I move towards the door the sleepy puppy at my feet will become a dynamo that simply must go outside for a prowl. So the locking up process might take half an hour or more.....

I play sudoku. Usually sitting on a bench at Water Authority or standing in a line at BL&P. I'm not particularly good, but it helps pass the time. I only play games that can be solved by pure logic alone. Guessing shouldn't be allowed, IMHO! Well, you can't stop a guy from guessing, but I won't play if you are required to guess. I recently realized my OS on my desktop came with a Sudoku game. It can handle lots of different types of sudoku including Sudoku 16 and Sudoku 25. A 16x16 (or 25x25) board using letters rather than the digits found on the popular Sudoku 10. I tried the bigger boards and I was doing OK but I discovered that I was pencil marking the whole board and then deducing from the pencil marks what letters went to solve what cells. It was taking me an hour or more to do the pencil marks, which was a simple task but rote and tedious. Once that was done the real puzzle solving could begin. So I decided to write a program that would interrogate the game "behind the scenes" so to speak, to read the initial layout of the board, analyze & compute the pencil marks for each cell and push those pencil marks back "behind the scenes" again, to have the pencil marks appear automatically in the game. It was lots of fun figuring out how to fetch game info out of the game and into my own, home-baked program and write the computed pencil marks back again. And to figure out the valid pencil marks for each cell so I could save an hour doing it by hand every time. Took me a couple days before I could read the board from the game, run a routine to analyze the board and generate a list of pencil marks to be written back to the game. I noticed that by looking through the generated pencil marks, I would inevitably find some that indicated there was only one legitimate choice for a particular cell. This meant I could not only generate pencil marks but fill in the solution to those cells for which pencil marking indicated only one logical choice for the cell. This resulted in a new board with the initial cell values plus the ones I could now compute, along with the pencil marks. But the newly computed cell values would eliminate some of the pencil marks. No problem, I just run the board back through the analysis routines to produce new, improved pencil marks. Which indicated more cells with only one possible logical solution. Which required the pencil marks be recomputed again. Which produced results for more cells. Which..... ......means I generate a new puzzle, then run my program which completely solves the puzzle in under a second. So my efforts in auto-pencil marking make the game pointless to play. Once my software starts to help with the pencil marking, it doesn't stop until the entire game is solved. Sos all I'm doing is starting s new game and then I get to watch it solve itself. Pity. I had loads of fun writing the program. There were clever data structures and sophisticated algorithms and elegant passages of code. Oh well.

Charging continues. All of the torches charged. That includes all the CR123, 10440 and 14500 lithium cells and quite a few of the AA and AAA NiMh cells. Only these spare NiMh remain. Unfortunately, I've misplaced my bulk chargers that can do 4 cells at a time. I'm charging using two chargers that do a single lithium or NiMh (or NiCd, for that matter) at a time. Out of the house now, trying to discover more about "Royal" telephone service. Sitting in the belly of the beast right now - the main telco headquarters building. Mo is in the car outside. If I'm never seen again, hopefully he can make his escape!

More burrs & sweethearts in the bed this morning. Thankfully, there are more of the latter and less of the former growing in the yard. And will someone tell the landlord to get his ass in gear and cut the yard?

Woken at five to let a little boy out. Returned to near pristine sheets. Gradually became aware of uncomfortable spikey things sticking into my skin. By time I finally got out of bed, Mo had transferred well over a hundred burrs and sweethearts from the lengthening grass outside, into the bedroom and on to the bed itself. I frequently have to grab him and pick sweethearts out of his wire hair. And (like Buddy before him) if you pick something off him, he demands you give it back. He eats the sweethearts (yuk!) but spits the burrs out onto the floor. Or your pillows. Some days I have what I call "metal-mouth". Whatever I put in my mouth, from an egg to a sip of tea, tastes metallic. Chemical. In fact, I don't have to put anything in my mouth; my mouth itself tasted metallic/chemical. Today was one of those days. I've sat around all day waiting for the telco technician to visit. No show. No call either, seeing as the reason for him visiting is to get the phone working. Nobody I've spoken to knows about their "Royal" programme and google can't find a single reference. I don't want to call the telco and ask because their caller ID will tell them who I am and may precipitate action on their part. I don't want any action taken before I understand how it works. Cut up a hunk of pork and cooked it in a brown gravy. Meanwhile, I made rice with carrot & cucumber. Mo and I split it down the middle for lunch. Dinner was ribs. Found a rack of 10 ribs starting with small and tapering off with each successive one smaller than the last. I took the largest three but Mo got the remaining seven which massed more than my share. Plus, I cut the skin/fat from mine and he got that too. I cooked some spaghetti to go with mine but that was a bad idea. Spaghetti & ribs is not a good combination and metal-mouth didn't help.tgevbones were more cartilage than anything else so I deemed them safe for puppy consumption. Watched the old Disney classic Jungle Book today. My problem with a lot of these old classics is that they are presented as musicals. Which I can rarely bring myself to enjoy. (If the story itself is about music, that is different.) So when bears burst into song, I tend to reach for the >FF> button. Trapped in the house, I've been charging all day. Battery bank is at four solid blue, and I've been charging all my torches (a dozen or more) plus all the spare batteries. The job is well in hand but not complete yet. Jingo by Santana, from their eponymous album (their first), frequently and erroneously called "Lion Face". The album's correct name is "Santana". But "Lion Face" is so commonly used everyone will know exactly what you mean if you call it that. Phone down to 12% so I won't dally. Garden Patrol completed, shower taken, cup of metallic tea consumed and book waiting. I'm speaking of A Man Called Intrepid which is a pack of cards and due to be regretfully thrown out, but not before I give it one more read. May finish it tonight but maybe not because I'm tired. Found a big tin of diced tomatoes in a cupboard. Unfortunately, it's blown. So I just went and dropped it from about shoulder height directly onto my right instep. The injured finger bone in my right hand now had a matching injury in my right foot. And, yesterday I managed to crick my back so now I'm hobbling about like Quasimodo, grimacing at every step, and howling with paIn if I forget and try to use my right hand, or foot, or twist, turn, bend or flex my back in any way. So. Done for today. Will pursue second hand bookshop in Batt's Rock tomorrow. May go to the telco main office, give my name as Fred Bloggs, and ask about Royalty.

It is a tremendous weight off my mind and life is certainly much better than it had been this last week! But it is not the end of our travails. The next light bill drops in two days. Phone on the 21st, thankfully nearly a month away. Water who knows when. The gas cylinder for the stove must be pretty empty too. And the van could use a liter or two. So things are hugely improved, but challenges continue to surface. It's just great to have this breathing space before it all goes critical again. Re phone: I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with it other than that I need to be removed from "Royal Status". But the guy was very insistent that full service is part of that, so perhaps he is correct? On the off chance he is, I'm not going to insist they discontinue me. $20 is a much more comfortable amount than the $149.64 that I was paying before. I will let them diagnose the issue and if I'm right, well, the bill will return to normal and the service will be restored. If I'm in fact he is right, then I will let them solve the technical problem and restore the service. And I will happily pay them $20 per month until the entropic death of the universe, or until they decide to remove my Royal Status. Hurt by Johnny Cash. Not a fan, but this is a powerful song. Also have the Nine Inch Nails version, which is a very different sound. Should have bought eggs, bread. Now I have a spatula again, I could revisit eggy-toast!

It's been a long day. This morning, my friend arrived at my house and handed over some cash that he and his wife have been urging me to take. I was conflicted about this as I've said previously. But I accepted with thanks because frankly, things were getting pretty grim around here. He also brought a gallon of gas, @Spunkygal ! So with cash in hand and gas in car, I did some arithmetic, then, scooted over and paid the phone bill at the mall. Then, the Book Den where I sold 11 books ($25). Next, Barbados Light & Power to pay the electricity and get juice back in the house. The supermarket next, because I'd lost my rewards card and that's where I remember seeing it last. They had found it and I now have it back. (I asked what is the procedure for requesting a replacement for a lost card. "Just dial the number on the back of the card..." Sort of difficult, if you've lost the card!) While in that supermarket I bought about 4½ Kg of "scraps". More later. Next stop, the Water Authority where I paid that bill. Water never did get cut off, but was convinced I was only a day or two away from that particular disaster. Finally Popular supermarket, which is cheaper than the one I visited earlier but don't (as far as I know) sell "scraps". Bought a few items, potatoes, onions, sausages, cheese, carrots, cucumbers, milk, etc. Returned home to find the power on, the water (still) on, and the phone off! Now that was very unexpected because their computer usually reconnects you instantly, upon receipt of payment. And it had been 5 hours, so... ?!?? Back over to the mall where the telco office is. "Did you try switching it off and back on again?" Well, it was off for almost a full week, then BL&P switched it back on for me. So a technician has to come and see what's wrong. Godnozewhen. But I don't think there is anything wrong. See, they switched me to "Royal Status". The guy in the office said this reduces my rate from $150 a month to $20 a month. "Surely," I said, "that's just a holding fee. To preserve my account. They're not going to provide actual service for 7½% of their normal charge?" Well, he insisted they would, and congratulated me on my good fortune for achieving Royal Status. But still not connected. So I'm pretty sure he has misunderstood, and that while I remain in Royal Status the service will not be reconnected. Let's hope the technician comes soon and we can clear this up because I'm still hanging out the bedroom window for connectivity. One thing. In each case, electricity, phone, water, the balance has been considerably less than I expected. It's true that I've been making small payments on account when ever a few bucks came along. I guess even small payments add up and bring down the overall balance. Obviously. I just wasn't expecting that the payments I'd made would have brought the balances down that much. In each case I went in, hoping to pay some of the arrears but found the balance low enough that I was able to clear all arrears and the current balance. History by The Verve. This is off A Northern Soul, a highly regarded album of theirs but not my favourite (which is Urban Hymns). Yes, with light comes song and a fan blowing on me in bed. Mo accompanied me upon my journey today. He returned home after hours in the car, hot and thirsty. We got back way too late for lunch so we had cheese on Eclipse for tea, switching to PB&J halfway through the pack of biscuits. Later, I gave him an enormous ostrich drumstick for his dinner. Well, it's supposed to be turkey but believe me, only an ostrich could have produced that! I flensed the meat off the bone and fried it up in a pan. When it was ready I deglazed the pan to make a little gravy and poured it over the meat in his bowl. I'd originally planned to cook it in rice and share it with him, but in the end I decided to give him the whole thing, unadulterated by any carbs or veggies. He was a trooper today and I thought he deserved the treat. I had a glass of iced water. Mo demanded his tax: he crunched up half the ice.... I will pop out shortly and brew up. While it draws we will do our Garden Patrol. I had to throw away another half liter of spoilt milk this morning, but I bought two fresh liters today, and with the fridge running again spoilage should not be a problem. Ok, it's nearly eleven so time for the boys to Patrol! BTW, while carefully spending money today, I did go and splurge a whole $3 at the mall: The old one will no doubt surface tomorrow. Tuckered out pupper takes afternoon nap. And hogs the pillows, of course!

The adventure continues.....

Oh, man. I think I've broken a bone in my wrist. You may recall a few weeks ago I hurt my right hand. I was saying my thumb, but it's actually the index finger but way back where it meets the thumb. (Checks Google...) Metacarpus? Of the right index finger? Just near where the thumb joins on. I don't know what caused it; I must have whacked it on something. Well, over the past several weeks the pain has slowly diminished but never gone away. Until this afternoon. I managed to whack it again in exactly the same spot. I saw stars. It felt like Wiley Coyote had dropped an Acme safe on it from a great height. It's now hurting more than ever before. And that's if I don't use it for anything. If I try to use that thumb (and what is a hand without a thumb other than an ape's appendage?) it gets even worse. So maybe a tiny crack in that bone? It doesn't feel tiny. But them I'm in a frail frame of mind today because my back has been giving me all sorts of trouble since last night as well. So it looks like tonight will be a Panadol night. Mo and I enjoyed rice & channa with tuna. We split it equally. I finished mine, all bar a spoonful for Mo to tax and he was right there waiting. After he'd polished off my leftovers I glanced at his bowl and there were several spoons left in it! Which he went back to when my bowl was gleaming. This was three plus hours ago so we may get hungry again before bed time. All I can think of is oatmeal which Mo is iffy on, or the last pack of Eclipse biscuits with PB&J again. My torch just went out. Don't need it for the phone and besides I have two more right here. Phone is at 94% and charging but this is from the battery bank which is obviously discharging. I'm gradually draining the life out of everything. (Same as the life is draining out of me.) I need to find a place I can put the bank and a bunch of torchlight batteries to charge. Just gone eight. Time for dinner meds, shower and sleep. Mo: Indefatigable.

Maybe.... Will see who is receptive to that idea.