18 August 2019 (Sunday) - Late Shift


It *is* possible for dogs to sleep in a tightly curled ball. Mine do this during the hours of daylight very successfully. However at night dogs seem to have to sleep with all limbs stretched out at odd angles, and heads and tails extended as far as is physically possible to do so. I found myself sandwiched between Pogo and Sadie last night, and as quickly as I would move one offending limb, so another would be scratching up against me. I gave this until five o’clock when I told them that they had had their sleep, and it was time for mine. I scooped both up (one scooped easier than the other) and dumped them both at the bottom of the bed. I then got two hours’ sleep until Treacle kicked off barking and snarling for no reason that anyone could fathom (least of all Treacle).

I got up, looked outside and smiled. It was raining. With a dull day on the agenda, rain suited me. Everyone else went back to sleep. I came down, fed laundry into the washing machine and sparked up my lap-top. Seemingly three weeks later it started working. What is it with these Windows updates? Twice a week the laptop announces it needs an update. The thing is unusable for an age whilst it does the update, and when it finally finishes it is no different to how it was before.
Eventually I got to have a look at the Internet before my toast got too cold. I saw that quite a few people had been out to that new series of geocaches that I’d hidden a few weeks ago. Most people seemed happy with what I’d done. There were a couple of comments about one of the hides. The GPS co-ordinates might be a bit awry on one of them. I’ll go have a look when I get chance; it’s a shame that rather than saying “your co-ordinates are out”, people don’t send me what they made the co-ordinates to be.
I also had a “Needs Maintenance” on one of the caches I hid years ago. The paper inside is full. Rather than replacing it himself someone’s asked me to go sort it out. On the one hand according to the rules it is my responsibility to sort it out. On the other hand I carry spare paper with me so I can do in seconds what someone else would have to give up an hour or so to do.

I spent a little while working on my new Wherigo project. As part of it, players will have to find six film pots under rocks. To do this they need the GPS co-ordinates of each. So for each one I had to create a jpeg file of the co-ordinates, then turn each into a media file for the Wherigo creator, then use the media file in the creation of an object in the Wherigo creator. That took forty minutes.
Then the doorbell rang. Once we’d calmed the dogs (who were all going hysterical) we let in cousin Natalie. She’s closed down her fish tank and had asked if we’d take on the last of her fish. It wasn’t as though we don’t have space in our fish tank. I popped the new fish into a quarantine tank with a little potassium permanganate, and whilst that worked its wonders we took the dogs down to Orlestone woods.

We got to the woods; within minutes we had more dog dung than dogs. We then had a good walk. Bearing in mind it had rained overnight the walk was wet and muddy. All four dogs got filthy. But as we walked we didn’t see another soul or dog. And (at the risk of appearing anti-social) that was a good thing. All four dogs ran round like things possessed; all four got caked in mud.
We got back to the car just as the rain started.

Once home "er indoors TM" bathed the dogs. Sadie didn’t like the bath. As "er indoors TM" scrubbed, I put the new fish into the tank; they seem to have settled in fine. I then had a shower myself. Partly to get clean, and partly because it is the easiest way to clean up after muddy dogs have been scrubbed.
I had a cuppa, then set off towards work.

As I drove to work do the weather was changeable in the extreme. Glorious sunshine gave way to torrential rain, and then back to sunshine on a regular ten-minute cycle. Definitely a day to be going to work rather than going on a long walk.
As always I had the radio on in the car. I caught the end of a program about the fire that happened at York Minster a few years ago. Those clergymen being interviewed were likening what happened at York Minster to the relatively recent fire at Notre Dame in Paris. No one was prepared to rule out that it might have been an act of God. Now I'm no expert on what the Almighty might or might not do, but it strikes me that zapping a cathedral and blasting a minster is akin to pissing on your own chips. Surely He'd be more likely to be flinging thunderbolts at dens of iniquity and ladies of loose morals?
This was followed by Nicholas Parsons leading another episode of "Just a Minute". I do like that show. Nicholas Parsons is over ninety years old; I hope I'm as sprightly as he is if I get that far.

I got to work; broccoli cheese was on the menu. Very tasty. As I scoffed I read a notice that the work's canteen has "gone green". Rather than having individual sachets of sauce and vinegar, there's now bottles of the stuff. The sachets were five pence each; the bottles are "help yourself". I prefer a bottle of vinegar rather than a sachet of the stuff. I really did begrudge that five pence.
Suitably replete I went in to work. Much as I grumble about having to work at the weekends and nights, I don't mind it. there is something strangely satisfying about lone working. I can just get on with the job without being supervised in any way.

Mind you the trouble with a late shift is that I get hope so late…

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