31 May 2022 (Tuesday) - Jolly Good Fellows

I watched Morgan like a hawk this morning. He still seemed to be walking awkwardly on his front left leg, but it wasn’t causing him active pain. I’m thinking he’d strained it and needed to rest it, but have you ever told a puppy to take it easy?

I made toast, and watched Morgan eating his brekkie. He seemed to tuck in very well – an iffy leg hasn’t affected his appetite at all. As I scoffed I peered into a very dull Facebook. Very dull indeed.

 

I popped up the road to fetch the car closer to home. As I went so a chap came down the road having a full-blown argument with himself; screaming obscenities at the voices in his head. On the one hand it is wrong that people this ill should be allowed to walk the streets. On the other hand having seen the wards in which these people are imprisoned, perhaps he’s better off out?

I then got all four dogs and we drove down to Orlestone. I thought about leaving Morgan at home, but he wouldn’t understand the need for rest, so we did a very short loop and came home. As we walked so his leg seemed to be a tad better… and then he was limping again. And then it improved… And then it didn’t. We walked for ten minutes just to say that we’d had an outing.

 

As we drove home the pundits on the radio were trying to scare the public about monkeypox. They wheeled on an expert who was billed as being a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences. That was nice – I am one of those, you know (I really am!).

We got home just as the rain started, and I loaded up the rubbish for the tip before it got too wet, then sat with the dogs. They slept and I watched an episode of “Orange is the New Black” as another negative COVID test incubated. And them before I could stop him Morgan jumped off the sofa and set his leg off again.

 

With the dogs settled I drove round to the tip (yet again) and unloaded no end of wood, general tat, and two bags of tiles from the old kitchen wall (for which I had to give them a bung of eight quid before they would take). I also had an old fluorescent tube from the old kitchen light to get shot of. Unusually this one was plastic (and not glass). The chap who'd taken my money to get rid of the tiles told me to chuck it in the general waste. As I was about to do so, another tip operative came busying over and was nearly apoplectic when he saw what I was doing. He told me I had to put it in "the cage". I explained that his mate said I was to chuck it in the general waste; this new bloke was having none of it. As luck would have it, the first bloke came bumbling past, so I collared him, and the two tip operatives nearly came to blows over where my broken tube should go. I left it propped up against "the cage" and quietly slipped away.

 

I drove up to Sainsburys where I got lunch. As I came out there was another squabble going on. A rather threadbare and unwashed vagrant was haranguing the chap selling copies of the Big Issue; telling him to stop begging and to get a job. The pot was indeed calling the kettle black here.

I got to the works car park and scoffed lunch, and finally got round to having a look at the Internet. A day or so ago I mentioned that this year's Brighton Kite Festival had been cancelled. The chap who took over the kite festivals at Teston was saying that this year's kite event at Teston had also been cancelled. Whilst that is a shame, I must admit that I'm not surprised. The chap who was supposedly running the event said it had been cancelled "due to lack of interest from kite fliers generally". I thought the thing had died a death years ago. It certainly isn't publicised like it used to be. perhaps if I'd taken the event on all those years ago (like I offered) things might have turned out differently?

 

And so on with the work… and with it done I came home. Morgan’s leg is still bothering him…

30 May 2022 (Monday) - Front Left Legs

Treacle woke me when she came up to bed last night by sitting on my head, and then spend much of the night laying on top of me like a ton weight. I eventually gave up trying to sleep, and once I'd tiddled the puppies I sat with them watching an episode of "Orange is the New Black" as they snored.

 

I didn't look at the Internet this morning; being on an early shift and having seen a lot of delays on the road recently I set off to work promptly. My piss boiled as I listened to the pundits on the radio talking about the latest shooting of children in a school in America. It would seem that absolutely no one is brave enough to tell the American public that having everyone touting guns is a demonstrably stupid idea, and the only things being offered to the bereaved are "thoughts and prayers". And the bereaved are furious as they want something more tangible... Have the God-fearing American public finally worked out that "thoughts and prayers" achieve absolutely nothing?

Fans of the Liverpool football team are up in arms having been tear-gassed in Paris over the weekend. There was apparently unrest at some football match or other over the weekend when thousands of British fans arrived with what the French claim were fake tickets. Were they fake? Possibly. But from personal experience I know that the average Frenchman hates the English with a passion and the average Parisian even more so (I would never go back to Paris!) Am I being xenophobic in wondering if this was too good an opportunity for the French to turn down?

And sports centres up and down the country are struggling to make ends meet as the soaring energy costs are making their swimming pools too expensive to run. Not that I've been swimming for years, but I can always remember the swimming pools I went to being far too hot and humid. Turn the heating down a bit, maybe?

 

I got to work for the early shift and did my bit. Sadly with the "Waddley Doodle" song stuck in my head. Where did that come from? It is a rather annoying little ditty that “Daddy’s Little Angel TM used to squall some twenty-five years ago, and which she claims she has now forgotten. I'll remind her of it...

An early start made for an early finish, but Operation Brock made sure that the early finish didn’t make for an early getting home. But once home I got the dogs onto their leads and we went down to Orlestone Woods where we went all the way round our shorter walk without seeing anyone else. Pogo and Treacle had a good time playing. Morgan joined in with them quite a lot, and Bailey spent much of the time at my ankles whinging. I wish she’d play with the other dogs -  once home she got stuck in all with the rough-and-tumble that was going on.

 

“er indoors TM boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching an episode of “SAS: Who Dares Wins”. I must admit I don’t like the chap who has taken over from Ant Middleton. Ant Middleton came over as a soldier, this new chap comes over as an actor.

 

As we scoffed and watched we also gently mauled Morgan about. Having charged round the woods like a mad thing and then come home to charge round the house and garden like a mad thing, he was holding his front left leg awkwardly. He doesn’t seem to flinch when we touch or fiddle with his leg, but he is definitely holding it awkwardly. Has he twisted something?

And Bailey has a scar at the top of her front left leg…

29 May 2022 (Sunday) - Lazy Day

With water pressure re-established (I wonder what did happen yesterday?) I set the washing machine loose on T shirts and scoffed toast and coffee as I peered into Facebook. Desperately hoping to see something interesting that friends might have done yesterday, I was instead deluged with no end of poorly written adverts for stuff in which I have no interest whatsoever. And I wouldn’t ever answer most of those adverts as (call me elitist if you will) I have to wonder just who is putting out these things. Take the very first advert I read: “GRASS CUTTING GET UR FREE QUOTES TODAY on me thanks”. When you type this on your lap-top the mis-spelled words are underlined in read, and the grammatical nonsense is underlined in blue. If you do it on the phone then the spell-checker kicks in there too. I’ve been told off about my attitude in this before, but as far as I am concerned poor spelling and poor grammar is a sign of a rush job, and do I want someone who can’t be bothered to take two seconds to look at a spell-check to do a paid job for me?

And then Bailey sicked up all the poop I didn’t see her eating when we’d gone out earlier.

 

Whilst the washing machine worked its wonders on a second load I made sure the dogs were inside, ran out the hose pipe, lifted the manhole cover and cleaned out the fish pond filter. It was as well that I did – it was rather grungy. And with all the fish poo hosed down the drain I hung out washing, mowed the lawn, then scared up yet another carful of rubbish for yet another tip run. And then hurriedly got all the washing back inside as the rain started.

 

“er indoors TM went off to B&Q; I stayed on the sofa. With three dogs asleep on me I didn’t like to move them. So I took two minutes to do as I’d been asked and add my preferred pronouns to my LinkedIn profile. Rather than “he/his” (which was too obvious) I went with “hatstand/fusebox” for the simple reason that I could. (preferred pronouns? Seriously?) 

I then spent an hour or so in NeverWinter until “er indoors TM came home. She’d bought some really expensive masking tape which wouldn’t rip the paintwork off when removed, and used it to rip a great big hole in the new paintwork on the wall that was only done a week or so ago whilst doing the doorframe. I thought about suggesting she could have put some on Morgan to stop him getting covered in paint (again), but by the time I’d plucked up the courage to do so, it was too late. 

As she painted I watched the classic “Doctor Who and the Daleks” films on the telly. After a while I realised the puppies were quiet. Too quiet. I looked over and one of them had gone out to the yard, pulled a plant out of its pot, dragged plant (and soil ball) past “er indoors TM (who was still painting) and onto the living room carpet where they had destroyed it.
Once we’d cleared the mess “er indoors TM boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching the final of “Lego Masters: USA” which was rather good.
 

For all that today has been a rather lazy day I feel worm out..