7 September 2022 (Wednesday) - My Dad Died

The day started with absolute mayhem. Being on a late start and no need to be up at silly o’clock I came down to find the babies flying round the house being chased by Treacle who was partly enjoying a game of chase and partly trying to take the toys from the puppies. They had her favourite toy; her favourite toy being whichever one that another dog has got.
 
As I scoffed my toast I saw I had an email. On 18 June 2018 I used my “Mammals” app to photograph a mouse. The “Mammals” app was something I heard about on the radio years ago. The UK Mammal Society openly admitted that they didn’t really know which mammals lived where, so they were asking the public to download the app and photograph various mammals. These would be uploaded to the UK Mammal Society who would use the photo’s GPS tagging to figure out what mammals lived where in the UK. On June 18 2018 I photographed one or two mammals for them, including (as well as that mouse) some deer. I eventually got a very rude message from them saying that there were no deer in the area that I’d seen them in and that they were deleting that record. To my mind that rather defeated the entire object of the exercise, but what do I know?
But this morning (four years later) they told me I’d correctly identified a mouse.
I’ve given up with that app…
 
I got the dogs organised; Bailey is getting much better in having her collar put on (I no longer have to chase her round the house to catch her). We drove down to Orlestone and wandered round the woods. The walk went well; we met a couple of dogs that we know, and the puppies ran to make nuisances of themselves with a dog we didn’t know but came back when I whistled.
 
We came home and I messaged here and there to get out of Friday’s night shift, and I had a little look at my accounts. Not too bad I suppose…
I phoned the hospital to see how Dad was doing. The doctor told me he was comfortable, all the tubes had been taken out and he had been started on morphine as part of the “end of life” protocol.
 
With the dogs settled I set off to work... slowly. Having had a look at the accounts I decided I had enough money to squander on the ongoing pond refurbishment project so I went to Sheerness (Whelans) where I bought a little bridge ornament thingy. And minutes after I bought it so the heavens opened.
 
I went to work. Just as the day staff were about to go home the hospital phoned and said I should come as soon as possible as Dad’s breathing had changed (?) I left work and hurried off to Eastbourne. As I drove I had another phone call.
Dad died just before six o’clock…

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