Small Talk: The Welcome Mat

[Netfoot]

Mo came and asked for his dinner. Several times. And I refused to give it to him. Because he'd already had his dinner. I'm quite happy to give him extra food, but only when we have extra food that I can give him! Tomorrow, I have to cook some more food that he and I can eat. I've got plenty of potatoes & carrots but we're short on rice. So I think a veggie stew with spuds, carrots & cucumber will have to do for at least one day. 

I'd like to go to see Dr. Kristi tomorrow because I've got a few aches and pains I'd like her to comment on but I know what she will say. "You need to go and have X test!" which I can't. So there is no point asking for medical advice which you have no intention of following. 

I'd also like to complain that I can no longer send her photos of her Godson. She did something with her phone a few weeks ago and ever since then, when I send her anything on WhatsApp, I get wonky results. To tell truth, I dunno how I got her personal phone number in the first place. She doesn't hand that out to every patient. And I've never abused the privilege. I've never called her, and I send her maybe 1-2 baby photos a week and perhaps an occasional joke every 2-3 weeks.

Mo is curled up at my shoulder. Oh, wait, he's gone to the window. No doubt he will go racing off momentarily.

I'm listening to That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be, by Carly Simon. I'm not a huge fan but her songwriting is good and her voice is pleasant enough. She has a number of popular hits, the most popular or at least best known probably being You're So Vain, but this one is quite a good number, if not really considered one of her top hits.

Mo is back, curled up on my shoulder again. 

I had more tummy pains this afternoon. Low abdomen. These seems to be pretty frequent these days. I hope it isn't some sort of cancer brought on by QEH ignoring the kidney. And speaking of QEH, I have to go see Dr. Jacinto on the 26th (why I don't know - they aren't going to do anything except write me a new prescription). And on the 15th (Friday), seeing as I need to replenish meds by the weekend I guess I will be spending a day at QEH and Edgar Cochrane Polyclinic. Last time it took no less than 6 hours and time before was 5 hours so by extrapolation Friday should take 7 hours. Or, I might just get lucky and and get done in 20 minutes... 

And I also gotta cash a welfare cheque and pay the Telco. Hopefully I will have got my hands on some sofa-foot money by then and some groceries can be acquired. Like chicken from Chicken Galore across the road from Edgar Cochrane...

Watched a movie. Cliffhanger with Sylvester Stallone in the lead role. I imagine most people will at least know the basic storyline, even if they haven't seen the show. Enjoyed it. It isn't deep, and the acting is not stellar, but easily entertaining enough to help pass a couple hours.

Mo is on the tiles. I have one last 1½ oz. bag of peanuts here and I'm pretty sure I won't get that opened before he is in the bed, front & center, waiting for his share!  Hey, wait! This bag of nuts are honey roasted! I bought three bags with a band around them and I thought I'd picked up honey roasted. Which is what I originally thought I'd bought. The first two bags were lightly salted.l so I assumed I'd screwed up somehow. I know lightly salted are better for you than honey roasted but since I buy nuts so rarely these days I thought I'd treat myself. Now I see the crooks put one honey roasted bag at the front and two lightly salted behind.

OK, I will feed him the nuts now. We share them. I get all the whole ones and he gets all the halves. That way he gets "more" in terms of numbers. I think on par he gets more in terms of weight too, but I'm not going to weigh the nuts to find out. These are my nuts and if I choose to eat the majority he will have to accept that. In fact, I am thinking that in the case of honey roasted, the policy going forward will be he gets one nut and I scoff all the rest!

After nuts comes shower, door, read, lights, sleep.

Edited November 11 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Because my landlord is a idiot, half the light fittings in this house are bayonet and the other half are screw. I usually keep a box of each in the house for when a bulb blows and needs replacing. Unfortunately, I'm out of replacement bayonet bulbs and have only screw.

I've been wingeing about the bulb in the bedroom being blown and wisecracking about saving up for one. Well, the bulb in the shower blew tonight and as chance would have it, it too is bayonet. So once again I can't simply fit one of the spare screw bulbs I have.

Bulbs vary in price from $10 for two to $20 each. And anyway, the bayonet bulbs are increasingly difficult to find. I may have to replace the entire light fittings(s) and switch them from the sturdy, reliable bayonet type to the nasty, unreliable screw type. The cheapest of fittings will be about the same price as a bulb, but this job will require an electrician. Who I'm sure will work for cheap...

Edited November 11 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I boiled some potatoes and created a bully beef & onion sauce. I ended up with three portions. Mo and I had one each for lunch. He can have the last one for dinner. I will skip.

At first he was suspicious of the potatoes but after I persuaded him to taste them, he quickly saw them off. As he was taking his first taste, I looked away to check something in the computer and when I looked back, he was gone and the bowl was empty.

No sofa feet so far....

[Netfoot]

Entire lengthy post swallowed up by software. 

😐

Be satisfied with this:

Edited November 12 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Woke just before the alarm to hear the fan spinning down.

No electricity.

When this happens, it never fails to put the wind up me! But I quickly discovered that the neighbor had lost power too..... The power came back after about 50 minutes. 

My toe hurts. I tried to give details yesterday but the post got eaten. Sufficient to say I've destroyed my right little toe. The nail came loose and the floor was covered in red stuff. Hobbling around the house with a paper towel & masking tape bandage on my foot...

[Netfoot]

I was just reading, after lunch (bully beef rice with field peas, carrot & onion). The phone rang and I rolled over to pick it up.

At that very moment, Mo came hurrying in with an urgent need to look out the window. This is usually accomplished by him putting his two front feet on the bedside table, with his two rear still on the bed. I was directly in his way! But, urgent is urgent...

I wonder what the man on the telephone thought when I suddenly went "Ooooooff!"

[Netfoot]

Off to bed! Uh-oh... Pillows already in use. 

(My blue-eyed boy!) Simple solution: wait until he moves. He is pretty mobile on an evening. In and out, window, behind me, in front... He will vacate my pillows before long. I hope.

Cooked up a pretty good pot of rice today. Only two cups, so enough for two of us, for two meals. Corned beef, carrot, onion and field peas. Although most Bajans will tell you that traditional Bajan peas'n'rice are made with pigeon peas, my mother always swore by field peas.

It tasted good at lunchtime, with two portions left for Mo and I to enjoy for dinner. I could have added some pumpkin but I forgot. I don't think the rice needed anything else, so no biggie.

Only a very small amount of rice remains. Not even a ¼ cup. It's much too little to cook. I will save it and add it to the first batch I make out of the next bag of rice. Which I won't be able to buy until I get a few bucks to spend. (No sofa feet as yet.)

Spent the afternoon reading and when I wandered out of the bedroom I noticed a delicious smell of rice wafting through the house. Suspicious, I looked in the kitchen. The stove was on under the rice pot! There was only a millimeter of flame, but that was enough to burn the remaining rice at the bottom of the pot. I was able to rescue a good portion for Mo's dinner, but after that I was only able to get about half a scoop of rice for my dinner, and it was dry, hard and crunchy. There was more, deeper in the pot, but it was almost black. Hungry West Indians are accustomed to eating "bun-bun" and I've done so many times. But there are limits. So very little dinner for daddy.

Listening to Put Your Arms Around Me by Scottish band Texas. 

< Six paragraphs eaten at this point. >

I read somewhere that lead singer Sharleen Spiterie describes herself as a bit of a tomboy. She has broken her nose several times in the past and suffers some minor sinus issues as a result. Apparently her doctors have told her the sinus issues could be resolved once and for all by clinically re-breaking and properly setting her nose. She has refused for fear that her singing voice might be affected. I hope her sinuses do not cause her much distress and I pray she does nothing to risk her voice. This track is from my favourite album by the band: White on Blonde, from sometime around the turn of the century. Their next album The Hush was also a good one!

So, no sofa feet. I have run out of sneaky ways to jog his memory and get him to bring me the work he promised. When he says "later this week or next Monday at the latest," I'm sure he is sincere but sometimes Mo and I need food and can't wait for him to remember. I must remember in future to say "I will jog your memory if I don't hear from you by Monday!"

Current funds stand at $4.28 and when pension drops on Thursday I will be able to squeeze an additional $26.02 out of it. Friday is welfare cheque day and I have a Telco bill of $97.02 to pay so unless they suddenly charge me extra that will be another $22.98 to spend. That comes to $53.28 unless my arithmetic is bad (which it frequently is). $50 won't buy a lot of groceries but some rice, milk, corned beef, stock cubes and hopefully some veggies to go in the rice. If I can stretch it that far. 

Mo has departed and I can hear him out by the gate barking at the universe. He will be back before long. 

< Four more paragraphs lost to the machine. Nearly lost everything! >

Mo returned while I fought to recover the post, but by time I got most of it back, he was gone again.

Watched latest episode of Tulsa King today. Don't usually like shows that glorify serious criminals but....

Ok, going to read my book. About 60 pages more to go so I won't be finishing it tonight. Unless sleep proves impossible. Which it does more nights recently than I am happy with.

Edited November 13 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

After three. No sleep. Finished The spoilers after all. Next: Running Blind. A retired British agent is persuaded to take a job for the secret service: deliver a small package to an active British agent in Iceland. As he is a frequent visitor to that country, is fluent in the language, has a local girlfriend and even has his own car and flat there, it should be simple. But that does not take account of a Russian agent with a grudge from before he retired. Or the bent British agent who needs to shut him up about something he knows. Or the CIA who are interested in the package...

This was made into a mini-series by the BBC yonks ago. I went searching without much hope, but I found it (on YT of all places) the day before yesterday! Watched it last night. Video quality low, and plot slightly simplified for production reasons. But enjoyable. I'm now eager to read the book!

But it's very late and I will douse the lights and try for sleep again rather than start in on the book. I've been ignoring the urge to go into the kitchen and start cooking potatoes because I'm hungry. If I am always so hungry, why am I still fat?

Mo is here next to me, catspraddled (dogspraddled?), with all four feet in the air. 

Edited November 13 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

In bed with belly-cuttings and a fuzzy puppy. No, he has just left after being denied permission to steal my toe-bandage which fell off while I was getting into bed.

Just ate boiled potatoes, carrots and field peas, dressed with bully & onion and a splash of tomato sauce.

Went out with $4.28 on my bank balance. Checked just before I left home. Got to the shop and picked up a tin of PHD condensed milk for $3.19 and went to the cashier. Transaction declined: NSF. Twice. Drove to the bank and got in line to speak to one of the three cashiers. Lots of senseless gobbledy-gook reasoning as to why a $4.28 balance is NSF to pay off a $3.19 tin of milk. Eventually, I just said, "All right, let's forget it." OK, Sir! Is there anything else I can do for you today? "Yes. I want to withdraw $4 from my account." She tried to charge me $5 for making the withdrawal. However, the fee is not applicable to those classified as "Seniors" and that's what it says, right there on the ID card.

I had my first mug of tea in what? Three days? Very good.

Sent a "Don't forget me!" message to my guy who replied "Will update after lunch." Well, it's almost 3:00 PM and nothing yet. But technically, all of time from now and forever more is "after lunch".

Why is it that when ever I eat these days, I get some issue with my guts? I hope the cancer (untreated for 19 months now) has not spread to my stomach.

I wish Mo would come back and cuddle.....

[Netfoot]

No sign of my guy, but tomorrow will also be "after lunch," so I'm not worried.

He did say I would get around $600 a week for 3-5 weeks but this is the middle of week #3 and so far I've had a total of $450 from him. The $450 was very welcome but the promised $1,800 would have been even better, allowing me to clear a backlog of bills, stock up on some groceries and maybe even get the bandsaw working again.

Cooked half a pack of macaroni and beat two eggs into a bowl. When the macaroni was cooked, I tossed it in the raw egg and slung it into a pan of hot oil. Split the meal with Mo. He liked it. I thought it was OK but could have used some spicing up. No garlic powder, black pepper, pepper sauce, or much of anything in the house right now.

Tomorrow? Who knows. Very little bully left but pension should drop, which after rent leaves me with $26. Got spaghetti, some minced beef, onions, and diced tomatoes in a tin. Mo does not really like spaghetti (too fine for his canines) but he will happily go to town on the mince. 

Spatula has disappeared. I must give the kitchen a good search. It could have fallen behind the stove or something. It's pretty chewed up already so if I had to replace... Don't think at this stage that Mo is responsible for it's disappearance. We will see where it is when it shows up. If it shows up. The original one has never resurfaced.

Mo just came and asked for permission to get into the bed. I naturally called him up, so he jumped in and stuck his butt in my face....

Listening to Got My Mind Set In You by George Harrison. I always did like the Fab Four. Especially in the later years as their music matured. And for the most part, they produced some worthy tunes in the post-Beatles era as well.

Tired tonight. Toe is unbandaged. Not sure if that's the right thing to do or not. Think I will leave the door open tonight so I don't have to get out of bed to lock up or to open again in the 'fore-day morning when Mo wants to go out. He is curled up next to me now, attending to his feet. 

Got fluttery eyelids tonight. Had foot cramps this afternoon. Think I will get to sleep early tonight. If at all. It's already eleven. 

Mo is now vigorously scratching himself which, because he is leant up against me, had me wobbling all over the bed. 

Ok, will save and try for sleep now. 

[Netfoot]

Woke in the middle of the night to pee. Noticed one of my Crocs was missing. Went looking first thing I got up:

My guy came around to tell me he had work guaranteed for me next week. He paid me in advance, so I have some grocery money. But I don't like being paid before I've done the work. Not in a position to refuse, but what if I have an issue and can't do the work I've already been paid for?

Diced and boiled some potatoes and served them with a ladle of sauce made from onion, minced beef, diced tomato from a tin and tomato paste. The sauce was pretty nice and elevated the plain potatoes.

I dished out for myself and Mo at the same time but I didn't give Mo his immediately. He was asleep in the passage. I put his to cool a bit while I ate mine. When I was done, I put my bowl noisily on the floor. Within 15 seconds Mo was there, licking that bowl so hard I won't need to wash it to have my dinner in it tonight! When he was done that, I put his bowl of lunch on the floor and he started vacuuming it up!

Re-bandaged my toe. Toenail looks ugly. That prolly ain't gonna change. Moderate pain lower left abdomen. I have had issues in that area before. I have diverticula in that area and occasionally I've had to go to Dr. Kristi and get some antibiotics, which would clear up the problem. No money for antibiotics these days, so...

Pains started earlier. Long before lunch, so not related to my eating my own cooking!

Tomorrow: Post Office / welfare cheque; bank / deposit; QEH / Edgar Cochrane; PriceLo / Popular.

Got to buy a new spatula and I may buy a new tin opener if I can find one I can afford. The P-38 tin opener works perfectly but It's slow. Come to think of it, if it works perfectly, why buy a replacement? I can live with slow. But a spatula I do need and extensive search has failed to turn up the one which puppy already chewed off significant portions of. So maybe I can stretch to an essential $3 spatula and skip an inessential $28 tin opener.

Going to go lie down and see if I can get a snuggle. When I get up I will brew some tea.....

[Netfoot]

Gonna make this quick; it's already 1:36 AM and I have to be up earlier than usual, come the morning. Mo is right beside me. We're listening to Breakin' Away by Al Jarreau. 

13 hours ago, Netfoot said:

Tomorrow: Post Office / welfare cheque; bank / deposit; QEH / Edgar Cochrane; PriceLo / Popular.

I think tomorrow I will try something different. I will go and get a number for the pharmacy at QEH then go directly to Edgar Cochrane. Hopefully I can get done at the polyclinic and get back to QEH before my QEH number is called. 

If I get back to QEH to find that my number has already been called and discarded I will have to go and get a new number and start over. If not, I've won the gamble 

But if I just go to the polyclinic then to QEH, I would have to get a new number when I get to QEH anyway. If I get a number at QEH then go to Edgar Cochrane and try to get back before that number is called, I might get lucky in which case I save time, or I might not in which I don't actually lose anything other than the time it took me to get the number at QEH (10 minutes including travel time?).

I could do the opposite. I could get a number at the polyclinic and go to QEH, trying to get back to Edgar Cochrane before that number is called. But the polyclinic usually takes less time than QEH so I think things are more likely to go in my favour if I get the QEH number, go to the polyclinic, and go back to QEH. 

Anyway, I will try it tomorrow. It will:

1. Be a successful manoeuver.
2. Make no real difference.
3. Be a horrible mistake (somehow).

Mo had the lion's share of the remaining potatoes with a scoop of mince & tomato sauce for his dinner. There was very little potato left after he got his so I diced up half a cucumber and mixed that with my potatoes before adding my scoop. It would have been better with some mayo to make the cucumber into a "salad". If it's green and it has mayo or some sort of dressing on it, it's a "salad".

Mo has gone down onto the tiles, by the way.

Anyway, I'm not going to talk anymore. Instead I will....

Read my book!

ETA: It's now 3:25 and I'm still wide awake. I'd get out of bed and make myself a mug of tea, if I had any milk. Just wanted to say that I am now 68 years old. Please don't bother to send congratulations or well-wishes. 

Mo has moved to the foot of the bed. 

Edited November 15 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

I've made a mess of the morning so far....

It's 9:15 and I'm at Edgar Cochrane with ticket #638 and they are serving #620. I have #114 I just collected from QEH. It took me exactly 10 minutes (8:59 to 9:09) to get here from there. If I can get my meds and get out of here in time to get back to QEH before #114 is called, I'm golden. Otherwise I just get another number and wait, but that's what I'd be doing anyway. 

Left home this morning without my phone. Went to the post office and because I'd left home especially early, I parked in the post office yard and waited 22 minutes. As the post office opened up I realized that I'd been parked two doors down from the gas station for 22 minutes and had not taken the opportunity to buy the $20 in gas I wanted to get. Time wasted. More time wasted when I had to detour back home for my phone on my way to QEH to get #114. 

Now serving #622 at 9:23....

Edited November 15 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

9:39, #627. Just went over to locate Chicken Galore and see what price it would be for two small chickens. Chicken Galore has no chickens. There is a shortage. I can get two birds cut into 9 pieces each for $22 the pair. This is about what I'd expected to be charged for two whole birds. Of course, I will fry the parts rather than bake them... But first I have to buy them. Didn't want them in the car in the baking sun for hours while I wait on pharmacists plural. So I have to remember to stop on my way home and buy the two birds and take them with me.

Now at #628, only 10 more to go. Been 44 minutes since I left QEH...

Edited November 15 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

10:35 and pharmacist working on my meds now. It's taken long enough to get to this point that I M not at all sure about #114 from QEH still being valid, especially considering traffic between here and there.

How long will it be before I can get away from here? Battery now at 37%. My fault for playing silly games on my ancient phone with a soft battery. Got  battery bank (and book) in the car.

Now 1:40 since I left QEH. I don't think they have ever been faster than 2:30 and more often than not, slower than that. If I can get my meds and be on my way and the traffic isn't too bad.....

10:42 and in my way!

[Netfoot]

Back at QEH. It took me 19.10 minutes to get here and another 5 minutes to walk in from the car. They were processing #151.

🙁

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. So I drew another number, #190 and the time is 11:05 so hopefully the 39 numbers in between won't take too long. Meanwhile, my book... And honestly, I need to get a drink of some sort because I'm parched!

11:25 and we are at #178 already! Hopefully, this pace will continue so I can get home with a bag off chow in time to give Mo his lunch at a normal time!

Edited November 15 by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

11:42 and they called #190 (my number). Before I could reach the window they skipped past and called #191 but I slammed down my number and yelled "One Ninety!" so they took it. Very wise of them.

I can see her counting out my meds...

11:46 and I'm oudda here!

[Spunkygal]

:said in my teeniest little mouse voice before I scurry to hide: 

Happy Birthday! 🍗🍲🍰🍜🎂Hope you enjoy a yummy supper!

[Netfoot]

Home by 12:50. With the van in thru the gate and Mo not AWOL.

Remembered to buy the chickens cut in nines.

Remembered to stop and buy a bag pf Nutri-Pet chow for Mo's lunch. Also bought a tin of condensed milk.

Remembered to drop the deposit off at the bank.

Remembered to go pay the Telco. 

Decided that all further shopping shall be done tomorrow, because I'm tired. Don't remember getting any sleep last night so despite getting home early (no thanks to my devilishly clever plan), I'm knackered.

Notes:

1. I think the reason QEH was moving so fast was because all five pharmacists windows were "manned". By women, as it happens, but..
2. The chow cost $42.59 but that was for a 5 Kg bag. That's $8.52 per Kg. I normally buy the 2 Kg bag for $18.99 which is $9.60 per Kg. So definitely cheaper in the big bag. But I don't usually have $40 to spare and usually buy the smallest bag. (There is an even bigger bag but I definitely don't have that much cash to spare, nor anywhere to store that much chow once I bring it home.)
3. I forgot to buy a spatula.
4. I'm falling asleep at my desk but prolly won't be able to in bed.
5. I don't want to sleep now, because if I do I won't sleep tonight. 

 

55 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

:said in my teeniest little mouse voice before I scurry to hide: 

Happy Birthday! 🍗🍲🍰🍜🎂Hope you enjoy a yummy supper!

Harumph!

Thanks... Nobody in the family has remembered, but I expect my niece Robyn (firstborn of my brother Hamish) in Canada will. She usually does, if sometimes a day or so late.

Edited Friday at 07:54 PM by Netfoot

[Mr. Sparkle]

[andidante]

1 hour ago, Spunkygal said:

:said in my teeniest little mouse voice before I scurry to hide: 

Happy Birthday! 🍗🍲🍰🍜🎂Hope you enjoy a yummy supper!

Right there with you! I do not want the wrath of Netfoot upon me! LOL

[Spunkygal]

21 minutes ago, andidante said:

Right there with you! I do not want the wrath of Netfoot upon me! LOL

Hey, we can run faster than he can cause Mo has his crocs! 

[Netfoot]

2 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Hey, we can run faster than he can cause Mo has his crocs!

Not to mention my painful little toe!

Just heard from my niece Robyn. She bought a kitten. I thought it was a meal for her pupper, but apparently they intend to keep it!

[b4pjoe]

Well happy birthday youngster! (I will be 70 soon so I can call you that)

[Netfoot]

8:30 and I'm in bed. Skipped my post-Patrol mug of tea. Mo had chow for dinner and I had spaghetti and the balance of the meat sauce. You know, a little Worcester or a little soy or a little balsamic...  There are so many ways that could have been improved! I left some for Mo. He had no complaints. 

Mo himself is outside barking away. Maybe it's at the moon which is 100% illuminated (full moon) tonight. Couldn't tell you. 

Listening to Get Done by Fiona Apple. I think the first album of hers I heard was Tidal. I hated it. But someone in the net said "Spend 15 minutes a day listening to music you hate!" So I did, and I became very fond of her music. Now, I've heard she has what we will call "issues". Don't know if that's true or not. And really, none of my business. I've come to like her music - the early stuff at least. This track is not from Tidal but from When The Pawn... Which is a shortened name. Apparently the formal album title is 103 words long. (I did tell you she may have "issues", right?) Nobody ever bothers with the full, formal name. I also heard once that she could only eat food that colour-coordinated with her outfit.... What colour coordinates with pizza?

Don't think I will do much reading tonight. Took the book with me today but never got a chance to use it. Never even took it out of the bag. 

Very pleased that I got finished so early. QEH was much faster than expected due to having five pharmacists working rather than the usual two. I'm thinking there must be layoffs coming up. Nothing like possible loss of their job to make every slacker in the book suddenly become very conscientious workers!

Just fell asleep and dropped the phone over the side of the bed onto the tiles. Mo picked that very moment to show up and snuggle up.... No, he's back down again.... Sleeping in the tiles for now. But I got a brief snuggle.

Anyway, I'm not going to risk dropping this again. I'm going to out de lite now and get some sleep! Shopping tomorrow.

Just fell asleep and dropped the phone again. It can't take much more of that - it's busted to hell up already!

Gone!

[Netfoot]

Slept solidly for six hours, got awoken in the middle of the night to find Mo barking and clawing at me. No reason given - the door was wide open already. Enjoyed/endured an hour of knee to toe cramps in both legs, eventually giving up and rising to walk it off.

Pottered around for another hour in the dead of night then went back to bed and slept solidly for another 3½ hours. Breakfast meds, glucose test (4.1 mmol/L), went back to bed. 30 minutes reading and 30 minutes napping.

Got in the car with my son to do a bout of shopping. Had a problem with the seatbelt. Been having it for a while now, getting gradually worse all the time.

I pull the tongue on the belt down & across and push it into the clasp near my hip. Click! Except, it doesn't click. I thump it with the heel of my hand. Still no click. I thump it 10 more times. Still no click. I thump it 180 times and finally it clicks but the heel of my hand hurts like hell. 

First stop: PriceLo. Corned beef. Not buying Triple-J from Popular. Back to the car.  240 thumps and click!

Next stop: Carter's. 120 watt bayonet bulb is $12 and change. Bayonet to screw converter is $14 and change. No dice. Back to the car. First try: click!

Sheraton mall. Found M4 x 30mm screws but couldn't find suitable washers. Assistant: "Have you found everything you were looking for?" Me, holding a handful of screws in my hand: "No, I ...." Assistant: turns and walks away. Me, considering 21" steel bar in my pocket, designed to dash out someone's brains with efficiency: Flings screws on floor and says "Maybe Kooyman will have an assistant who will help me find what I need!" (Too long on too much steroids). Assistant with shit-eating grin on face: "Have a nice day!" Me: Exit stage left, contemplating whether 21" steel bar would remove teeth from mouth more easily than brains from skull. Conclusion: The level of efficiency of the tool is so high, it would be difficult to determine which was easier. 

No $3 spatulas in the $$$ store. Not even going to check on the $93 spatulas in another store, so priced as a result of the thin wafer of petrified, Antarctic walrus penis-bone decoratively embedded in the plastic handle. Back to the car. Pulled the tongue across my body and tucked it under my butt. Hand hurts too much to do any more thumping today. Unfastened belt not only unsafe in the event of an accident, but illegal! Hence faking it by tucking the tongue under my butt to fool Babylon if they glance at me in the car.

Next stop: Popular. Bought bread, cooking oil, rice, cheese, carrots, tinned corn, tuna fish, sugar, condensed milk, pepper sauce, garlic powder, mayo, potatoes, onions and an 89¢ Chubby drink for my lunch. $38.46 left. Back to the car. Tongue under butt.

And home. But first, a vehicular accident, causing a traffic jam in the road and a delay as  a result.

Funny thing: yesterday there were two vehicular accidents with accompanying traffic snarl and delays, between home and QEH.

The first (SUV hits car) was located right where I had to enjoy it three times as I returned home to collect my forgotten phone and set out again. (When I passed the scene for the third time, over an hour after the first, Babylon had not yet put in an appearance. But the passengers from both vehicles were sitting together on the roots of a tree and seemed to be having a grand old time in the shade.)

The second accident (car hits backhoe on trailer being towed by truck, in a roundabout) was particularly snarly. 

Had wanted to pick up bouillon cubes at Popular but they only had Vegetable flavour. Sorry, I know you can never find the Beef variety (to the degree that I'm not sure if they even manufacture them any more) but I hold out for at least Chicken. So now I have to go shopping again, elsewhere.

But not today.

Oh, BTW! Popular had whole chickens! Large sign says: "Max Two Per Customer". This is significant. Bajans love chicken. Barbados has one of the highest (if not the highest) rate of consumption of chicken per capita in the world. A chicken shortage is very significant.

 

Quote

Not quoting anything but the empty quote-block showed up unexpectedly and the forum (browser?) won't let me delete it. If I remember later, I will do it from the desktop environment.

 

Edited Saturday at 07:21 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

How about this busted fruit?

Yes, that is my poor toe! With what remains of the toenail.

If you think it isn't pretty, I agree. And take my word for it: it's even more painful than it is ugly! But at least it's reached the stage where the bandage is off and I can take a proper shower!

Watched Patriot Games with Harrison Ford (1992, I think). It's a Tom Clancy story. I used to read his stuff; he always sounded like he knew what hecesd he was talking about. Until I read one of his that had a subject matter that I personally knew about. That's when I found out that he didn't know a fart and just made cool sounding crap up. So I stopped reading his stuff. But this is one from before then, so I can live with the story. Also got I think it's Clear & Present Danger to watch tomorrow, unless I end up spending too much time with:

I fear I'm going to have to do some work on the seatbelt system of my car. I had this problem once before, with the old Suzuki. The tongue of the belt slots into a buckle with a spring-loaded catch. You push the tongue in and it clicks into place and you have to press the button to get it out again. With use and age, the parts inside the buckle that catch the tongue, wear a little. Eventually, when you push the tongue in, it doesn't catch. No click, and it drops out with minimal persuasion. But in my case, since the passenger seatbelt never gets used, the passenger side buckle is not worn. The click/latch mechanism is still 100% functional. And by swapping the buckles between left & right, I get a working right-side seatbelt. You could swap the belt & tongue as well, but given that the belt includes the mechanism of the inertial brake and is all embedded in the door pillar, that's a much more difficult job. And usually unnecessary. I stretched my belt out to the left-side buckle and Click! Loud and clear, it works 100% perfectly. 

Now the only problem with the TownAce that I didn't have with the beat-up old Suzuki, is that the TownAce has a plastic shield around the bottom of the seats which covers the mounting point of the buckle. They will both need to be removed to swap buckles around. Whether they will be put back on again will depend on how difficult they are to get off in one piece.

It's after midnight and I don't want to be up half the night and sleepy all day tomorrow. So I will stop now. But first let me say this: when you buy a nine-cut chicken, you don't get to check that the chicken is/was normal to start with. I defrosted and ate some chicken from one of the two birds I bought yesterday. Apparently, that particular chicken only had one breast! This must logically mean that it has either three legs, three wings, three thighs or possibly two backs. I will let you know when I discover which.

Yawning bigly. Best douse the lights now.....

Edited Sunday at 01:27 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Just finished lunch, and brewed a mug of tea. Here is the small saucepan I boil my water in, ever since my kettle died:

It's a deep blue, stone-patterned enamelled pot.  And here it is again after I boiled enough water for my tea. 

The inside of the pot quickly dried due to its heat from being on the stove. You can see a white ring just below the halfway mark, and a general whitening of the lower half of the pot.

With a finger, I wiped a stripe on the side, to enhance the contrast.

This is a coral island. Not volcanic. Our water comes from limestone beds. It is hard water. Kidney stones are the norm.

Now, tea!

[Netfoot]

Late to bed. Watched Clear & Present Danger. 

Remember my one-breasted chicken? It had two backs. Which is unfortunate because the back is my least favourite part of the chicken and the breast is my favourite. And recommend by my favorite physician. Here's hoping the other chicken has three breasts and no back!

Set out to make a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. Don't own a grill so decided to do it in a pan. Advice: don't try to make a grilled cheese sandwich in a pan when you don't have a spatula! 😠

Can't remember if I mentioned but I finished Running Blind and have started The Freedom Trap. A gang known as The Scarperers specializes in getting long-term inmates out of prison for a heavy price. Rearden, jailed for stealing £180,000 in diamonds is liberated, along with jailed Russian double-agent.....

As I've said, these books are two per volume. 16 books in 8 volumes. For the first time, two chronologically consecutive books are also consecutive in the same volume. Running Blind (#7) was the first book in this volume and The Freedom Trap (#8) is the second. 

This book was made into a movie called The Macintosh Man (1973) starring Paul Newman. I may acquire and watch it after I've finished the book. 

Mo is asleep on the tiles. He had been for a while now. He may join me later when the light goes out. He usually does. But no guarantees. And while he sometimes curls up against my back and stays there for the entire night, he more often moves around all night, from one spot to another. 

Listening to Child In Time by Deep Purple from their ...In Rock album. This is a top track from a must-have album. It starts mildly but by the end of it's 10 minute play-time it's pretty wild, with Gillan's notorious wide ranging, high octave/octane voice shrieking at you while Richie Blackmore makes his guitar essentially do the same. There are no bad tracks on ...In Rock but this is a standout.

Tomorrow is Monday and I expect (or at least hope) that my guy comes and tells me what type of sofa feet - or what ever - he wants made. He has paid in advance and I'd like to fulfill the obligation without delay. I only hope he doesn't come and ask for something I can't do. (Which is why I really don't like advanced payment.) If he wants something with curves in it, for example, I will find it very difficult to do with the bandsaw non-functional. 

It's late and I will try to get some sleep now. First, I have to sweep out the bed. Earlier, I heard rain falling outside. I wandered into the bedroom to check that the window was closed. I discovered Mo standing in the middle of a damp, muddy spot in the middle of the bed... Now, the bed is full of gravel which (I'm pretty sure) came in stuck to his muddy feet. It has happened before, on many occasions.

It doesn't take a very large rock under your hip/butt/spine to be quite uncomfortable.

[Spunkygal]

Hope your toe is better!

[Netfoot]

4 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Hope your toe is better!

I can touch it and manipulate it without any real discomfort, so long as I don't go poking around at the point where some of the nail is missing. Obviously, a solid whack (like if I stumped it again) would be double-ouch! So I'm being careful to avoid exposing it to any danger.

But yes, I think it's fair to day that for all intents and purposes, it is quite better.

[Netfoot]

Mo has been a PITA all day, refusing to eat his lunch - and then the same with his dinner - but constantly telling me that he is hungry. Puppets Puppers can get too accustomed to cooked food and I think he might have had a little too much sweet rice for his own good. 

And I almost forgot to go on Garden Patrol with him this evening! Well, not really. I will generally brew up some tea and while it draws, we will go on Patrol. Tonight I brewed up as normal and then sat there stupidly while it was drawing and even started to drink it before I realized. So I left it and out we went. The moon, waning but near full, was hiding behind a big cloud but it was just too bright to hide properly.

The reason I nearly forgot about Garden Patrol is, if I'm honest, I've been feeling sick all day. And tired, too. I have this thing about sleeping now. My tummy seems to hurt at every opportunity these days and it makes it difficult to drift off to sleep. I have to wait until I'm exhausted to fall asleep. So I've been tired and feeling sickly all day. 

Oh, I don't remember if I mentioned I was having issues with my eyesight? A lot of symptoms but the problematic one being that it is as if I am looking through a thin fog or mist, or I'm in a room full of smoke. Everything is whited-out. Spoke to Unka Rudy today (he passed by and brought me a hand of figs!) and mentioned it to him. Yinger, his wife, said "Cataracts!" So I looked up cataracts on Google and got a list of symptoms. Looks like she might be right. I'm experiencing most of the symptoms listed to one degree or another, including

• Seeing "halos" around lights
• Double vision in one eye
• Cloudy vision

First two of these I've mentioned before. Mostly noticed when on Garden Patrol, all lights have a big rainbow halo around them. And especially when looking at pinpoints of light, like the stars in the sky at night, I see double-stars. Now, double vision is generally caused because your two eyes present you with two images and your brain isn't aligning them properly. But I still get the double-stars even with one eye shut! These are pretty specific symptoms.

So maybe it is cataracts. Which I believe can be 100% cured. I wonder how long it would take QEH to get around to achieving that?

Fat-Bottomed Girls by Queen. When Freddie Mercury went into the clinic early one evening, he paused outside to answer questions posed by reporters. He assured them that he was just going for a check-up because he had been feeling a little run down. I watched that on TV that evening. (I don't remember for sure if it was live or not, but I don't think it was.) Next day came the news of his death. If you like the band and it's music, Rami Malek's portrayal in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody can't be recommended highly enough.

Mo is lying on the tiles right beside the bed. I need a shower but I really don't feel like taking one. But I still have to get up to lock up so I will prolly scrub up at the same time.

No sign of my guy. I'd really like to get the job I owe him done. It preys on my mind. The faster I can clear the board as far as that job is concerned, the faster the next job might come along.

YT is really getting bad. I refresh the home page and it displays a number of thumbnails of recommend videos. As I scroll down, more thumbnails appear at the bottom. Keep scrolling and you might get to see 200+ thumbnails before you get to the bottom of the page. And they are all about Post-Election meltdowns. Every single one.

Now, YT generates new recommendations based on what you've been watching. But if every single recommendation is an IMD video (Idiots Melting Down), then it's a vicious cycle. They only reccomend recommend IMD, so you watch a few of the recommend IMD, which reinforces the algorithm recommending more IMD.

Tomorrow I will try to think of specific subjects I want to look at (chassis design, suspension design, aerobatic slope-soaring, tilting wheel tadpole trikes...). I will search for and watch exclusively those. And see if I can force the algorithm to reset itself. I know there is a way to tell the algorithm to erase all it's historical basis for recommendations, so it has to relearn your preferences from scratch. I've done it before. I may do that if I can remember how it's done. 

Anyway, I will see if I can get the door locked without Mo running out and making me wait. Or maybe I just lock his ass out for the night? No, because I like him coming and curling up against my back. Once the door is locked I can grab a shower. Then a bit of reading. My tummy is starting to hurt.

Book: Rearden (diamond thief) and Slade (Russian spy & villain from the last book, Running Blind) have been sprung from prison by The Scarperers gang and are now at an undisclosed location while their documents, etc, are being prepared for their final departure from Britain.

You prolly know already that in British informal language, "scarper" means "run away". So the gang who (for a fee) helps prisoners run away from prison is essentially called "The Run Away-ers". 

Ok. Sneak out without alerting the pupper (impossible), lock the door, have a shower, return to bed, read, sleep. 

Gangsta's Paradise by  Coolio...

Edited Tuesday at 02:33 PM by Netfoot

[andidante]

27 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

Oh, I don't remember if I mentioned I was having issues with my eyesight? A lot of symptoms but the problematic one being that it is as if I am looking through a thin fog or mist, or I'm in a room full of smoke. Everything is whited-out. Spoke to Unka Rudy today (he passed by and brought me a hand of figs!) and mentioned it to him. Yinger, his wife, said "Cataracts!" So I looked up cataracts on Google and got a list of symptoms. Looks like she might be right. I'm experiencing most of the symptoms listed to one degree or another, including

• Seeing "halos" around lights
• Double vision in one eye
• Cloudy vision

First two of these I've mentioned before. Mostly noticed when on Garden Patrol, all lights have a big rainbow halo around them. And especially when looking at pinpoints of light, like the stars in the sky at night, I see double-stars. Now, double vision is generally caused because your two eyes present you with two images and your brain isn't aligning them properly. But I still get the double-stars even with one eye shut! These are pretty specific symptoms.

So maybe it is cataracts. Which I believe can be 100% cured. I wonder how long it would take QEH to get around to achieving that?

 

My eye doctor informed me that I have mild cataracts so we are keeping an eye (no pun intended) on them for now. I have heard the cure is surgery and it is not too bad, but I don't know how the QEH is over there about getting that sort of thing done for you?

[b4pjoe]

27 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

So maybe it is cataracts. Which I believe can be 100% cured. I wonder how long it would take QEH to get around to achieving that?

I had cataracts surgery in both eyes about 10-12 years ago. Surgery was done on one at a time and the second one was about 3 weeks after the first. Didn’t spend anytime in the hospital. Went home the same day. Pretty routine procedure these days. I am a veteran so it was done at a VA hospital.

[Netfoot]

10 hours ago, b4pjoe said:

Pretty routine procedure these days.

I understand it is pretty straightforward these days. Not checked but I think it can be done here without issues. Gotta talk with Dr. Kristi and see what she says.

10 hours ago, andidante said:

I don't know how the QEH is over there about getting that sort of thing done for you?

I think that in theory at least, it would not present any problem.

But then, in theory, neither would a biopsy. Yet it's been 19 months and QEH have not been able to perform one...

[Netfoot]

I've said for years: you don't get to buy what you want. You have to settle for what ever junk they will sell you.

Went out today to buy bouillon cubes. Can't remember when last I saw beef cubes, but that's OK because chicken is fine. Only last time I was in the shop I couldn't find any chicken. Only Vegetable cubes were available. So today, with a pot of rice in mind, I deliberately left home to go to another, better stocked store in search of Chicken cubes. They didn't have any. They didn't have any Vegetable cubes either. All they had was Garlic & Onion. At a price ⅓ higher than Chicken.

It seems that more and more, simple items that I think should be widely available (because they have been for years) simply are not to be had. Like evaporated milk. Or Spam. When was the last time I saw Spam for sale? I can't remember that far back. Oh, I can get a tin of some Spam-esque stuff at an unbelievably inflated price, but what happened to legitimate Spam? It's like this every time I go shopping, no matter what I'm shopping for, from groceries to car parts.

Listening to Love Games by Level 42.

Of course, as I loaded Mo into the van to go buy bouillon cubes, I realized I'd never done anything about the seatbelt. So I tucked the tongue under my butt and went off to the shops. No cubes. Thought about buying a pack of dried channa but why would the packs of dried channa be $5.50 when all other types of dried peas & beans were in the $2.50 region? No channa. 

(Mo just jumped into bed, stole a Choco-Mint that was lying next to my pillow, and ran off!)

So when I got home, I started the process of removing the seatbelt buckles from the two front seats so I could swap them over. The left side seat shroud came away easily but the drivers seat shroud incorporates a storage cubby that also covers the hand brake mechanism. I realized that to get that off I would need a bigger screwdriver. So I set off to get a larger screwdriver.

The rice turned out to be pretty good. It would have been better with a couple of those little cubes in it, but what could I do? So rice, bully, pumpkin, carrots, cucumber and kernel corn. Mo was glad to eat it for lunch and again for dinner. Me too, for that matter. 

Watched the SpaceX StarShip #6 launch. Yes, another catch by the chopsticks would have been very cool, but if their telemetry advises then that something is not nominal, I think it makes more sense to abort the catch and go for a water landing than to risk a RUD on the OLM/Stage #0. The telemetry will allow them to improve things for the next flight, hopefully pushing the reliability up and reducing the number of catch aborts.

As for StarShip itself, I know they did test (successfully) restart of the Raptor engines in space/vaccuum, but I wish they'd push the testing on stage #2 a bit. They could have extended the flight by one (or more) full orbits and taken the time to try a few other things, such as maybe some maneuvering tests, and so forth. I know they did run several tests on maneuvering fin design and heat shield tile placement. And I keep hearing about The Banana? Didn't catch on to what that and all was. Anyone know?

Set off on Garden Patrol and immediately noticed the car was wide open. Just as it was when I walked away hours before, looking for a screwdriver. After Patrol, with the torch in my mouth, I got the screwdriver and removed the handbrake shroud followed by the seat shrouds. The buckles are held in by a single bolt. Quick guess: M14 14mm or thereabouts. Got my ½" drive metric sockets and a breaker bar. But at that point I decided not to proceed in the dark. So I hope to make the change-over tomorrow. Will take some photos. It looks like it will all be quite straightforward.

I looked at the actual buckles. Could not see how they come apart. The plastic shell could possibly be prized off but I don't know that it would go back on again. So rather than look inside the buckle to see if there is any way to fix the issue, I will just go for a buckle swap. That may leave the passenger side belt with the problem, but Mo never uses it anyway.

Got about 80 pages to go in my book. Rearden, now revealed to be a British agent all along, is in pursuit of Slade, now in Malta, being spirited away to Albania. Slade believes he is to be repatriated to Russia but in fact he is being sold to the Chinese...

Feeling drowsy. Puppy has not shown his face since he pilfered my Choco-Mint. I suspect if I go out and find him, he will hang his head low until I pat him and tell him I forgive him. He will then immediately start looking for more Choco-Mints to steal...

Edited Yest. at 12:23 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

After a while, a completely unrepentant Choco-Mint bandit returned to bed. He insisted on playing a particularly vigorous game of Tummy Trampoline, digging his little elbows into every soft and delicate spot he could find. I love playing games with him!

I finished my book and have selected the next one in chronological order: #9, The Tightrope Men. An Englishman wakes up in a hotel room in Oslo to discover that he has completely lost his memory and that the face he sees in the mirror is not his own!

Looking forward to this one, but not now. 

[Netfoot]

On 11/18/2024 at 7:52 PM, Netfoot said:

But yes, I think it's fair to day that for all intents and purposes, it is quite better.

Just stumped the same toe again. 

When I regained consciousness I checked to see what damage had occurred.

None. It only felt like I'd lost the entire foot below the knee...

Edited Yest. at 02:15 PM by Netfoot

[Netfoot]

Went at the seatbelts again. Here are the two buckles. Passenger:

And driver:

(Please excuse the dirt and general rubbish which had accumulated in the bottom of the vehicle.)

Notice a difference in the buckles? The driver side buckle is wired. This allows a warning light in the dash to illuminate if you don't engage the seatbelt. Here is a better look at it:

The trouble is, I can't get the connector (under the seat) to disengaged. It is a small, plastic shell and I could brute-force it but I don't want to bust it.

As it is, I won't have a functioning warning light, because the passenger buckle, once it becomes the driver's buckle, won't have a switch. I looked at dismantling the actual buckles (to maybe move the switch?) but they are even more sealed up than I originally thought.

Anyway, I will put this back together with the passenger buckle in the driver's side, but the driver's buckle will just have to live under the seat until I can get that connector to open. Which will probably be never.

[Netfoot]

A sweet, little hand of figs!

I knew a guy from Grenada who called these "bluggers", but I've never heard anyone else refer to them by that name.

These are actually my favourite type of bananas. Thank you, Unka Rudy!

[Spunkygal]

Stupid question…have you googled your make and model to see if anyone has a video of getting the connector open? I’m sure you have but that’s all I got! 😂

[Browncoat]

I'm just impressed you even thought of doing that, and more impressed that you have the ability to do it!

[Netfoot]

39 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

Stupid question…have you googled your make and model to see if anyone has a video of getting the connector open?

Not yet. I will put the passenger side buckle in place on the driver's side so I can drive safely and avoid a fine for not wearing a belt. The driver's side buckle, still attached to the wire, will live under the seat until I figure out how to get it free. I am hoping I can either get it working again or find a replacement in a junk yard. But finances being as tight as they are, I don't know I could afford a 2nd-hand replacement anyway...

19 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I'm just impressed you even thought of doing that, and more impressed that you have the ability to do it!

I did it before with the old Suzuki that Buddy liked to climb on top of. And I was able to stretch the driver's side tongue over and test it in the passenger side buckle without doing any dismantling or anything. 

Unfortunately, the passenger side belt will inherit the problem now, but I hardly ever run a passenger other than Mo, who doesn't use the belt anyway.

It's actually quite easy. The buckles are held in by a single bolt:

So the right spanner (or <baarf!> an adjustable), and the buckles are off in 10 seconds. 

The hard part is the shrouds that cover up the mechanical gubbins around the bottom of the seat(s). They can be tricky to get off and sometimes they can be held in place with clips that just can't wait to break, forcing you to go buy replacements. I was lucky that my shrouds were held in place with a couple Phillips head screws, so they were easy to come off too.

Under normal circumstances I would definitely acquire a new buckle, even if I had to go to the agent and or a new one. But things have not been normal for a few years, now...

[Netfoot]

I run several clocks. My computer, my phone... Some are 12-hour clocks. Some are 24-hour clocks. Some give the time in local time (23:50 Lima) and some give international time (03:50 Zulu). Ham radio operators are expected to log their contacts in 24-hour time. Satellite data is in international time (Z or UTC). I used to be active in amateur satellite communications.

(First ever high altitude, satellite communications using VHF/UHF bands. 3rd April, 1993 at 21:41Z, Mode-B uplink on 435.472 MHz, Single Side-band with Bob, W9EXR, 100 miles NE of Atlanta. 5/5 sent, 5/5 received. And another 61 contacts in the next 78 minutes before AO-13 went "over the hill" a.k.a. fell behind the curvature of the earth. But three of those contacts were made by my mate Derek, using my station. And another 136 contacts the next day, 4th April, with 38 of these made by Derek. One of these days I will itemize a list of the countries contacted during those first days. But for sure, USA, Germany, Great Britain, Turkey, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, Zimbabwe, Grenada, Sweden & Switzerland. Lots of USA because they occupied the majority of the coverage circle until the bird moved towards Europe.)

I once used to wear two watches. Now, I easily translate between one system and the others in my head without thinking about it too much. And I don't wear any watches at all.

So when I glanced at the clock and it said 23:35 I wasn't concerned. I just thought "Pushing eight o'clock. I'll brew some tea and take Mo out on Garden Patrol." But for some reason, my automatic time translation service had failed me. It was really pushing midnight!

Which it is.... now!

There is no light bulb in the shower. And no shower rose either. 

Mo was eating grass on Patrol. When I came out of the shower there was a little puddle of puke with grass in it, on the floor. Why does he wait until I come out of the shower to present me with these little gifts? Why not before I go in to the shower? At least he didn't leave it in the bed for me to find....

Taking the sensible advice of @Spunkygal, I searched for instructions on replacing the buckle on my Toyota van. I found a video. It wasn't the exact same van as mine, but the process was identical. The bolt was even a 14mm! Alas, the advice is that to separate that connector the seat should be removed from the van entirely, or at very least unbolted and tilted right forward so the connector on the underside can be accessed.

<sigh> This is a relatively straightforward task. And now the seat has to be unbolted and come out? 

I worked on a Jensen Interceptor once. Metallic blue. My mate did the work. I was just the gofer. To replace the spark plugs, the exhaust manifolds had to come off. To remove the manifolds you could either a) remove the wheels, brakes and front suspension struts on both sides of the car, or b) lift the entire engine (Mopar 383 cu. In. V8) completely out of the vehicle. This seatbelt buckle is starting to remind me of that job. Mind you, I don't blame Jensen, not really. Squeezing that ugly old V8 into such a small body shell, I'm surprised the motor could come out. If that V8 had been one inch uglier, they'd have had to weld the shell together around it! (Rough cast combustion chambers in the heads. Good ghodd!)

Mo is sleeping on the tiles. I hope he feels better. Some say when a dog feel poorly he will cleverly eat grass to medicate himself. Or, as I can't help but think, if he stupidly eats grass, he will soon feel poorly. Who knows which is right? Mo is a sweet boy and sometimes he shows true brilliance. So maybe he is also a talented herbalist after all. In the true Bajan tradition, if he could light a fire, he would boil his own bush-tea! Which would make him an Obeah-dog.

Listen to Summer Breeze by Seals & Crofts. A sweet ballad. Always loved it, despite not being a huge Seals & Crofts fan particularly.

Look, I talk too much. I have a puppy here inventing games to play with my toes and I'm going to go play with him. Dunno if I will do any reading tonight. Ow! He's kicking my butt! With both feet at once!