It was getting on for almost late yesterday morning before I was washed, dressed, and ready to go out, but I just couldn't seem to raise the enthusiasm to go for a walk. I was prepared for some light rainfall, and almost thought it would be fun to walk with an occasional bit of rain (but not a heavy downpour). I even had my Fuji XP71 waterproof camera charged and ready. This camera even has a setting for underwater photography !

No matter how I tried to convince myself I wanted to go out I just couldn't do it. I felt sort of edgy. My right knee seemed quite sore too. It wasn't until much later that the reason for these things was revealed to be a thunderstorm. I guess my body was reacting to the change in air pressure, and to the changing electrical gradient that was approaching. I ended up staying in feeling bored and a bit miserable again. I also felt a strange mix of fatigue and restlessness. They seem opposites, but somehow both co-existed.

  One thing I had to fight as best I could was a strong desire to eat. Ultimately I probably won the battle, but there were a few falls on the way. I had two packs of cheese ploughmans sandwiches in the fridge that I had bought the previous day, and I had those for brunch. I am not sure when I was saving them for, but it was probably for after a long walk. I am not sure what to call a meal at about 2pm (possibly 3pm). It could have been thought of as a snack that got out of control. It was 4 supermarket beef burgers served with mustard and a splash of tomato sauce - and nothing more.

  Those burgers were tasty, and maybe their high protein content satisfied me more than I realised because after them I was back to eating much more carefully for the rest of the day.  The one thing I wanted to do all afternoon was to sleep, but it never happened. I felt sort of uncomfortable when laying on my bed - sort of mild backache would describe it. I found it hard going trying to read heavy stuff  like New Scientist magazine, and ended up resorting to fiction. Even then I still felt my eyes starting to close, but every time I put the book or magazine down, and fully closed my eyes, nothing happened.

  For most of the afternoon, and probably before that, I felt ill in a very undefined way. That did not start to change until about 6pm. At that time I was sitting at my PC wondering of I wanted any dinner, or even if I should have any dinner. My thoughts were interrupted by a distant boom that sounded like thunder. That didn't seem likely because to the south it was actually looking quite bright. Not actually sunny, but it did seem like the sun could break through.

  I decided to go into the spare room to look north, and the sight I saw there was very different - thick black clouds. I had barely looked out the window for a single minute before I saw my first streak of lightning. A minute later and there was another. I wondered what my chances were of capturing a lightning bolt on camera. Although gloomy outside, there was far too much light for a very long exposure that might catch a lightning bolt at night, but I thought I might stand a chance of video capture. It worked !
  This is one frame from a couple of minutes of video. I'll show the edited version of the video lower down the page. At the time of this bolt of lightning it had only just started to rain, but once it started it was torrential ! There were two torrential downpours, although each was probably no more than 15 minutes long. They certainly absolved me from any need to water the garden. I don't think the storm passed directly overhead, or at least there was no lightning directly overhead. The centre of it  seemed to pass to the east of here.

  Once the storm had passed the remaining clouds were so thin, and broken up, that we had sunny intervals until sunset. More significantly for me was that I started to feel so much better. All my aches and pains seemed to fade away, and the general gloom and despondency lifted. I decided that I definitely wanted some dinner, but only a simple dinner. I had a small ham salad followed by some sugar free vanilla wafers. I was even thinking that maybe I didn't feel that tired.

  Although I didn't rush to bed for an early night, it seems I must have been tired because I slept far more deeply than usual - or so it seemed. It was probably just after 10pm when I fell asleep. I don't know whether to blame it on the several big whiskies I drank during the evening, the chilli sauce I doused the salad in, or if it was actually some sort of fever, but it was evident I had had a period of sweating while in bed. It was sometime in the early hours of the morning when I woke up for a pee, and my bed felt damp at chest height.


  I suppose it could have just been that I fell asleep with the duvet tightly wrapped around me before I realised that it was too warm for me. Later in the morning, with it getting quite chilly outside, I was glad to burrow as deeply as possible under the duvet. Of course the correct reason was Coronavirus. According to New Scientist (excerpt on the left) virtually any ailment is caused by Coronavirus these days. Like many people I have had almost all the symptoms listed here. I think the only one I missed out on was vomiting.

  I think that I have had one or two symptoms, at random, and for random periods, for the last 5 months. The longest one was the runny nose that I attributed to hay fever - something that has only been a very mild affliction in the past. Maybe it was coronavirus, and maybe it wasn't. It is curious that it became far less bad once the weather forecast started reporting high pollen levels, but I suspect they only report grass pollen, and my allergy seems be from tree pollen earlier in the year.

  If it is the case that my series of sporadic minor ailments is because of Coronavirus then it does seem to reinforce the idea that for the majority of people this virus is not the number one killer, but a mild inconvenience. Also from New Scientist was an article that suggested evidence was accumulating that many deaths are the result of patients receiving forced ventilation instead of just supplementary oxygen. If it wasn't the case that in 10 years time it will all be almost forgotten about, it would be interesting to see what the final result of this pandemic was. What treatment worked, and what treatment did more harm. Another thing that would be interesting to see in the not too distant future, is the death toll from 'flu this coming winter. I predict it will be unusually low for two reasons. Many of us will continue social distancing for a long time to come regardless of how much "the (death rate) curve has flattened". The other reason could be that Covid-19 will have already picked off the old, the weak, and the ill before 'flu could do it's annual job.

  This morning I feel good and bad. My blood glucose is a bit high after yesterday's sandwiches and no exercise(probably), but it is not terrible. My weight is better news. It seems to be very slowly going down after a small increase. It could take a few hot days, a few long walks, and dehydration under a hot sun, to get down to some of the lower figures seen on such occasions, but the potential seems there again.

  My original plan was to go out for an early morning walk this morning. I was curious about how the river looks after yesterday's heavy rain. It could take a few more days before the rainwater seeps through the bedrock and soil to really raise the river level, but it would still be interesting to see it this morning. I think I'll go out even if it is a short walk - where short = 2 miles if I turn around and come back after reaching my favourite rocks in the river ! This afternoon may be much duller, even if slightly warm, and I think I can imagine myself doing very doing very little this afternoon - but if I can manage a couple of miles walk I will feel no guilt about laziness after that.