Page composed using
Seamonkey composer1
home
site map
December 2019
January 2020


Wednesday 22nd January 2020
11:31 GMT
 
  The only thing the weather forecast for yesterday got right was that it was cold. The temperature didn't rise above 5° C. That is what was forecast, and that is what I saw on my thermometers. The light, and then heavy cloud shown on the forecast was so light that it blew away to show a beautiful blue sky and lots of sunshine. Sometime after sunset it did start to cloud over, and then, after a dip of a degree or two the temperature rose again, back to about 5° C by midnight.
dull
   The forecast for today has changed a little since the screenshot above. The big change is that the maximum temperature may only be 8° C today. The forecast for mist at 7am was just about right, but around here it was a very thin mist. It is hard to tell if it was just heavy condensation coming out of the wet air, but it did look like there had been a light shower before I went out at about 10.30am. Today is supposed to be dry, but there are, and will probably continue to be, thick clouds giving the whole day a very gloomy look. Both tomorrow and Friday look like they are going to be very similar to today - not desperately cold, but terribly gloomy.

    Yesterday morning started with a shopping trip to Aldi. My legs felt a bit stiff, but I felt basically OK. I can't remember what time I went out, but it was while there was still just enough misty cloud to make the sunshine slightly diffuse. By the time I had done my shopping the sky was fully blue, and the sun was blindingly bright. It was completely different to what the forecast lead me to believe the day would be like, although as I noted above, it was still very cold.
horizon to
                              horizon blue sky
it was cold
   The picture above shows just how blue the sky was at 12.40 in the afternoon, and the picture on the left shows just how cold it was at 12.47 - just 4.0° C. My new winter coat didn't feel too hot at that temperature !

   Yesterday caused a bit of a paradox. I like walking in bright sunshine. I find walking in the gloom depressing. On the other hand I don't enjoy walking in a heavy coat. On top of that I just didn't feel like walking because I was feeling slightly stiff and aching. Under different circumstances I would have forced myself to walk in the knowledge that the walk itself often cure the reasons not to walk.

  I think I had decided that I probably would not go for a walk before I went to Aldi, and I sent Angela a message to say that I was in the mood to get the hoover out instead of meeting her at lunchtime. She replied that she probably was not going to go anyway. That was sort of convenient in as much as I didn't have to fret about missing a drink with Angela.

  I did actually get the hoover out, and spent maybe a couple of hours doing housework. One important bit of hoovering was under the desk in my bedroom which has my PC on it. There were quite a few crumbs and stuff under the desk. I also spotted some mouse droppings near them. I am hoping that they were from some time ago when I definitely heard some noises in the night. That must have been as long ago as last spring, and I am (probably stupidly) hoping that those droppings were on or behind several boxes that I moved when I started hoovering, and were very old. I haven't heard any noises in the night for ages and ages now, and so there is hope that I don't have an unwanted visitor.

  I didn't do a very thorough job, but I gave the rest of my bedroom a light hoover, and also the short hallway outside my bedroom. Most of my hoovering was in the downstairs back room. I did some clearing up down there, and it really is looking like one day I will finally get that room clean and tidy again. The only trouble is that it is going to mean throwing away stuff that I really hate to throw away, but have nowhere to keep it.

  Almost half a day has passed since writing that last paragraph. It is now 16:50pm. The reason for this may become apparent soon. I continue......

  I was going to write about all the excess food I ate yesterday, but it seems so long ago that I can barely remember all that I ate. I do remember drinking four cans of booze I bought from Aldi in the morning. Three of them were craft IPA style beer, and the other was a craft lager style beer. The latter wasn't bad, but would have been better if I chilled it properly. Of the three IPA styles beers, two were very nice, and the other merely OK. I would probably drink any of the four cans again with no hesitation, and I might even buy more, but next time I'll make sure they are cooled before drinking. Aldi does seem to be a good place to buy weird beers these days.

  I spent some of yesterday evening experimenting with my laptop. On the assumption that the previous version of Linux Mint that I installed seemed to make the internal Broadcom WiFi adapter work, I tried going through all the live CDs I had, including some very new versions, to see if any of them could activate the internal WiFi when booted into live CD mode. None could - which was rather annoying. I might just give up, or I might fit a spare hard drive, and install a few versions to see what happens.

  I think I went to bed moderately early last night - probably no later than 10pm, but I must confess I have no exact recollection of when it was. I do know that I seemed to sleep fairly well last night. It was a very cold night again, and I did my best not to inflame my dodgy ribs by thrashing around too much. I think I might have even succeeded. Today my ribs have occasionally felt a bit tender, but haven't given me much grief. Funnily enough, the same is true of my right shoulder, It has given the occasional twinge, but seems to be mostly OK.

  I didn't dare/couldn't be bothered to check my main health indicators this morning. My blood pressure has been so boringly constant lately that I don't know why I bother checking it so frequently. After knowing I had eaten too much, I didn't care to check my blood glucose or weight.  The problem is that it has been so cold lately that I have invariably opted for a hot lunch as well as a hot dinner. When things were going far better it was not so cold, and I was able to confine most of what I ate to dinner time. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track soon.

  One of the first things I wanted to do this morning was to go to the pharmacy to pick up my repeat prescription. I had ordered it on Monday, and both the assistant, and the pharmacist agreed that it would be ready for collection this morning. It wasn't ! That was annoying, but no a disaster. They said I would have to come back after 4pm today. By that time the one drug they have to order specially would be delivered.

   Just after 4pm today I dutifully went back to the pharmacy. The assistant who said it would be ready for this morning was back on duty (he wasn't there this morning) and started rummaging around trying to find the bag with my stuff in it. He couldn't find it until the pharmacist helped him to see that it was right in front of his face. Once I got it home I found that the drug that has to be ordered specially was not included. The reason why the prescription couldn't be made up on Monday was because that drug had to be ordered. Usually it n next day, and occasionally same day delivery if ordered early enough, but it seems that dumb assistant had not bothered to order it. It was then supposed to have been ordered this morning, and should have been delivered this afternoon. Maybe it was, but it was never included in my bag of stuff. They also forgot my glucose test strips. Tomorrow morning I will possibly be banging on their door trying to find out where these things are.

  As is tradition, I will write about the rest of today tomorrow - hopefully in the morning as is also tradition. Hopefully I'll have good news from the pharmacy by then !