Once again there was no mist or
fog this morning, but it was down
to -3° C, and the frost was so
thick it could be mistaken for
snow. A lot of the frost was on
top of frost from yesterday that
survived through the day. As I
type this (09:55am) we have
glorious sunshine. There is just
some clumps of streaky clouds, and
so the full sunshine should
continue for some time, and maybe
it will even continue through to
sunset. It should push the
temperature up to 3° C this
afternoon. It seems like we may
have finished the frosty nights
for now. Tomorrow may start at 2°
C, and sunny spells might mean it
will be 5° C tomorrow
afternoon....which is still damn
cold, but at least it is a bit
higher than bloody cold !
Yesterday was not such a
bad day, but it was nothing like I
expected. It did feel like I was
just about over the bug that had
left me feeling like I had a mix
of a mild version of the common
cold, and mild 'flu. It was not a
100% cure because I still had an
occasional twinge.
One particular thing, or
maybe two things did cause some
aches and pains. Both were the
extremely cold weather, but in
different ways. One way was the
effect of the very low temperature
on me. I spent a bit of time
outside the front door cutting up
some boxes to put in the recycling
bin. I assumed that with little
wind, and wearing a long sleeve,
and quite thick, thing that was
more like a super t-shirt, would
give enough insulation,
It was not enough for the
cold to creep through to, for
instance, my right elbow, and
managed to get that aching. The
worst thing was breathing in the
icy air. It was probably made
worse by having an unprotected
throat, and maybe an inch or two
at the top of my chest. It caused
some quite unpleasant, and almost
worrying chest pains. Fortunately
I knew it was just external and
internal operation scar tissue
getting angry, and would calm down
once I warmed up.
The other effect of the
very cold weather, and all the
frost, was that the outlet pipe
from the bathtub froze like it did
last year (or was it the year
before). Yesterday I mentioned
that one of the most important
jobs yesterday was to finish doing
some laundry that had been left in
detergent for almost 24 hours. It
was freezing cold, and most
unpleasant. Fortunately I had only
half filled the 26 litre bucket,
and instead of pouring it down the
bath plughole, I hefted the whole
thing one long pace to the right,
and poured it down the toilet.
I had started to fill
the second bucket with rinse water
when I noticed that some of the
spilled water was not draining
down the plug hole. I instantly
knew what had happened - the
outside pipe frozen. With a
potentially leaky patch of the
crack in the bathtub I did not
want to let the water level get
any higher, and had to stop doing
the laundry until such time that
the small amount of water at the
plughole end had drained away.
One good thing is that no
water seemed to leak through my
patch over the crack. There was
almost nothing I could do except
wait, and hope it warmed up enough
for the ice in the pipe to melt.
It did not look too hopeful. I
wondered if I could speed it up by
dropping rock salt crystals (food
grade) down the plughole. I hoped
it would sink to the bottom of the
water, and as it dissolved it
would spread out enough to come
into contact with the ice. I think
it did work, but it was not until
4pm that I noticed the bath had
drained (and the carpet was still
dry where it would get wet if my
patch was leaking).
In anticipation of hanging
up my washing to dry in the dining
room I had put the heater on high
early in the day. It was nice and
toasty in there by the afternoon.
In one respect it was a waste of
heat, but when leaving the kitchen
door open (which I usually keep
closed when not using the kitchen)
it made it comfortable enough to
do things like some washing up,
and some very light cleaning. I
also prepared and started to cook
my dinner many hours before I
would be eating it.
I had many hours with
little to do in the afternoon. One
thing I did do was rather nice,
and it was to lay on my bed in the
sunshine that was coming through
the windows. I read and also had a
couple of long (at least I think
they were long, but I never
measured them) snoozes. They were
nice at the time, but did seem to
mean it took a long time before I
felt tired enough for sleep in the
night.
It was probably just after
midday when I had to stop doing my
laundry, and the first thing I did
was to make some lunch. It was two
wholemeal rolls again, and once
again I put some sliced processed
chicken and mixed salad leaves in
them. The taste of the bread
seemed stronger than the taste of
the chicken, and although that was
sort of OK, I would have much
preferred a filling I could taste.
As I mentioned above the
water drained from the bathtub
around 4pm, and I tried pouring a
couple of jugs of hot water down
the plughole to make sure it was
running freely. It was, and I did
the last couple of rinses,
followed by fabric conditioner
before hanging it all up to dry on
the big clothes horse in the
dining room. By then it was very
warm in there, and I think most of
it dried before I switched the
heater off a few hours later, and
substituted the desk fan to blow
air over the slightly damp
clothes.
By 5pm I was feeling
hungry, and at 6pm I had my
dinner. It was lamb and sprout
stew with quite a lot of green
finger chillies - enough that it
was noticeably warmish, but I
think those chillies must be very
mild, but maybe only after
cooking. Before I had that dinner
I had something else as a sort of
starter, and I think it was cheese
and crackers - actual salted
crackers and not rice crackers.
After dinner I had a dessert of an
apple and an orange, plus a few
more crackers and cheese.
I feel sure there I was
other stuff I ate during the day,
but apart from a small amount of
peanuts, it seemed like I didn't
eat all that much. The
consequences of this would have
two opposing outcomes this
morning. One additional thing I
had last night was a small can of
ready mixed vodka and lime. It
originally came from Tesco, quite
an few years ago, and it was sort
of nice, although maybe as I
reached the end of the glass I was
feeling less endeared of it.
There was nothing to watch
on TV last night, and I resorted
to watching a recording of Black
Adder (series 3) for some video
entertainment. Mostly I just
read from screen and book,
but much later in the evening it
was just from screen. I tried for
sleep around 9pm, but I ended
getting up again, and reading
stuff on my PC until gone
midnight. I am unsure of the exact
time, but is felt like it would be
a good time to have another go at
getting to sleep, and this time it
worked.
It was in the first sleep I
got that I had an interesting
dream. It was interesting in so
much that it seemed so much like
real life is, or maybe was, that I
seemed to drift from dream and
sleep to waking up, and continuing
to consider the same things as I
had in the dream. The transition
was so gentle that I don't really
know when dream turned into real
life. The dream was set in an
electronics workshop, and I was
designing a radio transmitter, and
when awake I continued to consider
my design ideas.
I think I still woke every
2 to 3 hours to go for a pee, but
sometimes it was only a trickle,
and it was obvious I was doing it
by habit instead of need. Some
time between 6 and 7am I woke up
for a pee, and this time it was a
big one. If I had not got to sleep
so late I would probably have got
up then, but with zero reason for
getting up at all (except for
boredom from too much sleep) I
went back to bed, and laid there
wondering if I could get back to
sleep.....then suddenly it was
almost 9am !
Despite a few big pees (and
no poo) my weight seemed to have
gone up 600gm this morning. A good
poo or two may have knocked 200gm
off that weight, maybe more
considering I can't recall having
a decent poo yesterday either.
Sooner or later it will happen,
but maybe it is an indication that
I did not eat that much yesterday,
or what I did eat was the sort of
thing that doesn't leave much
waste.
The idea that I didn't eat
all that much is reflected in the
rather good blood glucose readings
this morning. The Contour
meter gave a very good reading of
just 7.3mmol/l - well into the
light green colour coding of my
spreadsheet. The GlucoRX was
disappointing because it only just
missed being in the light green
area by being a still very good
8.0mmol/l. I now wonder why I
thought the Sinocare meter was so
bad once. This morning it broadly
agreed with the other two, and it
has done so far this month. It
gave a reading more than the
Contour meter and less than the
GlucoRX meter. The reading was
7.7mmol/l, and that is very good.
I think I have two
objectives for today. One is to
wash the hand towel in the
bathroom, and at the same time
wash a brand new towel I bought as
a spare for the kitchen. I will do
this after I have had a shower, or
at least I will start it then. I
will probably finish it later this
afternoon. One thing I must try
and do is to only half fill the
big buckets to make it easier to
carry then to, and pour them down
the toilet. Carrying one about
2/3rds full yesterdays seems to
have pulled a muscle in my right
shoulder (or revived an old pulled
muscle injury).
My second objective, or
third if you include taking a
shower, is to go and get some
shopping. I do have lots of food
and drink, but not all the food I
really want at the moment. Thanks
to the extra space in my new
fridge/freezer I have some of this
and some of that, lots of the
other, but I feel I want something
completely different - such
as sliced cooked beef to put into
baps with mixed salad leaves.
Today I feel like I might have two
baps !!
1
