The latest revision to the forecast adds sunshine for 9am, and takes away a few sunny spells during the day. Apart from the wind, it looks like today will be very similar to yesterday, and I didn't find yesterday a nice day. Tomorrow will also follow a similar pattern except the temperature may only rise to 21° C instead of 22° C. It is looking like summer is over before August is over. That seems a fair reason to be miserable.
 
  I was initially quite keen to go for a walk yesterday morning. I had an approximate route planned that would take me to places I hadn't been to for a very long time, and definitely had not explored them on foot, but by the time I was ready to go out the sky looked like mud, and I found myself losing enthusiasm so fast that before I had got my socks on I had given up. There was an extra reason for this.

  I had left some washing soaking in detergent from the previous morning. I thought I might finish it after that day's walk, but I didn't, and so it was sitting in it's big bucket, blocking the bath, and I had to get it washed, and hang it up to dry before I could have a shower. That delay, and perhaps an added delay when I spent 10 - 15 minutes getting my breath back after doing the washing, was enough to take me to one of the dullest parts of the day - really dull, with lights needed indoors.

  I still had a shower, but afterwards I lay on my bed quietly reading until I got bored with that. It was barely midday when the boredom had me thinking about lunch. Actually I am not sure if "boredom" is really the right description of how I was feeling. It was more like a tug of war between wanting to relax, and yet feeling like I was wasting time. Maybe having some lunch was a time to consider my options. I had a can of Aldi own brand "meatballs in tomato sauce" for lunch.

  They lie in that strange no man's land between nice and not nice. A bit of hot chilli sauce perks them up a bit, but they still have that strange texture of reconstituted mystery meat. In some strange twisted way, eating those meatballs lead me on to making another expensive order on Amazon. The first thing I looked for was hot chilli sauce. They have hundreds of strange and bizarre chilli sauces from small makers, things like "Insantity Sauce" ! I wanted something familar, and something I could buy in bulk.

  I settled on a 6 pack of a chilli sauce I know to be good. I have to admit it was very expensive compared to what I could have got from Tesco, or from many of the small West Indian run shops around here. I next looked for rice crackers. The specific type I wanted I have only ever seen in Poundstretcher, and then only sporadically. I think I found something almost identical (could even be identical but with a different branding), and ordered a 12 pack of assorted flavours. Finally I ordered more beer.

  I had noted that some places selling packs of beer charge a lot for delivery when ordered direct, but via Amazon the delivery can be free if you are prepared to be patient. The economics of this are a mystery to me, but it save me money, and so I thought I would give it a try. I ordered a 24 pack of Mexican beer. It consists of 8 bottles each of three different beers. I suspect most are probably brewed in Faversham by Shepherd Neame, but beer is beer at the end of the day.

  I had to have a lie down after making that order, but after a while I thought I ought to do something useful. It started out as just washing up the plastic, microwaveable saucepan I had heated the meatballs in, and then went on from there. I think I mentioned yesterday, or maybe the day before, that I needed to clean one of the kitchen work surfaces, and specifically behind a big collection of sauce, spice, and other bottles that were 3 or 4 deep in places at the back of the work surface. All sorts of wildlife lived or died behind those bottles - mostly little spiders and dead flies.

  20 minutes work, and it was all disinfected, clean, and sparkling. After that I did some gardening, and by gardening I mean I spent 10 minutes using some string to hold up one of my tomato plants that was almost blown over by the strong wind. I noted that like some other the other tomato plants, it had tomatoes starting to grow on it. It is possibly a shame that I think all my tomato plants are growing from small "baby tomatoes". Next year I must try for some big tomatoes.

  The next thing I did was one of those spur of the moment things. I did another small part of the job of rehabilitating my dining room. It is basically usable now, and has been used, but there are still many things I want to do. That includes painting the walls, and ideally the doors and other woodwork too. In the interim I had already washed and scrubbed the door into the kitchen, and the door into the dining room from the hall.

  What I hadn't done was to wash and scrub the other side of that door into the room. I did that yesterday, but before I could do the wet and soapy work I had to do something with a big hank of cables hanging over the coat hook on the back of the door. Many of those cables were "kettle leads", aka IEC leads. I had a nice strong, ex-beer delivery box to put those in, and the rest I dispersed as best I could. With the back of the door clear I got out the hot water, sponge, cloth, and spray cleaner.

  Like it did on the kitchen door, the strong spray cleaner leaves streaks if you spray it direct. Halfway down the door I found that it was better to spray the cleaner onto the sponge, and apply it like that. Like the kitchen door I will have to give it a second clean to get rid of the streaks, but now it's dry it doesn't look that bad. In reality both doors are ready for painting, but until I can get some white gloss paint it will have to wait.

  I did consider doing a bit more after I finished washing the door, but I think I pulled a muscle when bending over sideways to get at the bottom panels of the door. I was only slightly aware of it then, but more aware of it for a while this morning ! It seemed my cue to go back to my book, and wait until it was dinner time - which was only a couple of hours away. Dinner was "interesting". It was a can of "Chinese style hot pot" bought from Aldi ages ago.

  It was well past it's best before date, but still seemed in good condition. It was "sort of" nice. It was a sort of gravy with a hint of star anise, and one or two other things with rice and some vegetables in it. It included the slimy Chine mushrooms that I don't like, but fortunately they were cut small, and there were not many of them. This morning I can confirm I didn't die of botulism overnight !

  I washed dinner down with a couple of bottles of German beer - both could be called lagers. Predictably enough they made me feel peckish again, and I opened on of the few, very precious, bags of nuts I still have left, but I made sure I used them sparingly. I also scoffed one of the miniature truckles of cheese I had. It was Wensleydale and apricot. It was probably a bit better than the Wensleydale and cranberries I had last time.

  The rest of the evening didn't seem to last long, but thanks to the days now getting a lot shorter, it was dark when I went to bed. The only notable thing about last night was how cool it was this morning. I think it is time I put a duvet in the duvet cover ready for tonight. The temperature is forecast to dip to just 16° C in the early hours of tomorrow morning. In winter that would be luxury, but still rather cool without a duvet.

  I have already mentioned the biggest pain this morning. There could be many explanations, even something bad like kidney stones, but not nearly as bad as that by a long stretch. I think I'll stick to the idea of a pulled muscle, or something similar that happened while I was washing the bottom of that door yesterday. It was not a strong pain, but still unwanted. Like the other morning pains, stiffness, creaking, and other ailments of a body that is past it's best before date, it sort of faded away sometime between getting up and now.

  I think there is a 50 - 50% chance I will get out for that walk today. Like yesterday it probably depends on the state of the sky once I am washed and dressed. At the moment it is bright, and yet most of the sky is piled with grey pillows of cloud. I am not worried about rain, but when it is dull and overcast it seems the grey sky sucks all the joy out of a walk, and turns it into a chore. If worst comes to worst I may still consider just a quick spin around the park rather than the long walk of exploration I have outline in my mind.