With an alarm set I woke at quarter to three and just
lay awake. I gave up trying to sleep at five o’clock, got up and scoffed toast
as I watched an episode of “Stranger Things”. It was rather good.
I then had my usual look at the Internet.
I had a minor sulk as I peered into Facebook this
morning. People were posting holiday photos from Spain and Dorset and Austria
and the Lake District. But a *lot* of friends had been posting from
Norfolk where they’d arrived for the beginning of the five-day national
geocaching mega-event. I would have liked to have gone myself. Back in the day
I used to organise no end of long weekends away at kite festivals and camping
events. I suppose I could have sorted something but we’d left it too late to
book anywhere to stay in the area, and camping is simply too much like hard
work these days. Back in the day I used to organise mid-week and weekend mass
geocaching walks, but sadly since I’ve not had time to organise them, no one
else has taken up the mantle.
I Munzed, Wordled from “minor” through “boils”
to get it with “posit” on the third go for the simple reason that pretty
much every other possibility had the “i” in the wrong place.
I set off to find my car. As I walked I saw her who
lives down the road and likes walking. I've been seeing her on and off for
nearly forty years. Her son went to school with “My Boy TM” and
was one of my cubs (a particularly odd child who chose not to speak but to
communicate by pulling faces. He could speak, but preferred to grimace). I
often see her walking about Ashford. All over Ashford at all times of day. This
morning she was marching past our house at half past six. I often wonder why
she walks so much. Does she want to stay out of her house? Should I be
contacting someone about her?
I found my car. As I drove to work so the pundits on
the radio were interviewing some dog groomer. The woman being interviewed
simpered and wittered and basically wasted ten minutes of peak air-time. I
couldn't help but wonder what she'd been brought on to the radio for.
They had tried to get her to talk about flea and tick
treatments (not that she actually said very much at all), and once she'd
gone it turned out that the spot-on-the-neck treatments used to prevent
parasite infestations (like I dobbed onto the dogs' necks on Monday) are
under scrutiny. There's calls
for them to be banned from general sale
after an inquiry raised concerns about their impact on their environment.
Apparently they are widely available in all sorts of
shops and supermarkets, and the component chemicals are being found in
rivers and streams. I was always under the impression that the stuff was only
available with a vet's prescription and that dogs had to be kept dry after
they'd had the treatments dobbed onto them?
I'm going to carry on treating the dogs with the flea
jollop and they will carry on having their tick collars. There's no point in
waiting until the ticks and fleas have latched on and given them no end of
diseases before you do anything about it, is there?
I got petrol in Aylesford. Today it was only a penny a
litre cheaper than in Ashford. And with a few minutes spare I went for a little
walk looking for somewhere to hide a geocache. There's a souvenir for anyone
who hides on in August.
And then I cracked on with work. At tea break I
started reading a new book on my Kindle. It was terrible. Poorly edited, poorly
proof-read. It read as though it had been written by a foreign schoolchild and
translated into English by another schoolchild as a rather rushed bit of
homework. I gave up with it at lunch time and rated it at one star on Amazon
and Goodreads with the recommendation that it be withdrawn from sale and
proof-read. Harsh? Maybe. But it had the potential to be a good story; if a tad
unreadable. The chap who wrote it has done himself no favours by rushing
publication. I then got another e-book from Amazon. It wasn't *quite* as
bad, but was still on the crap side... zombies in outer space? Seriously? I
suppose I shouldn't really have had high expectations for ninety-nine pence,
should I?
I came home to find the nice Amazon man had delivered
my glucose monitor. I’ve been feeling numbness and tingling in my left hand for
some weeks now. Occasionally in my left foot and right hand as well.
I realise it has been very hot recently but I do think I’m
more thirsty than I have been for some time; more so that would be explained by
the heatwaves. My father had late onset diabetes as did my grandmother. I don’t
want anyone to think I’d had a look at Google and diagnosed myself… but I had a
look at Google and diagnosed myself. But with a random blood glucose of five
point three mmol/L I think I’ll have another look at Google.
Or ring the doctor…
“er indoors TM” came home. She’d
taken the dogs out, and she seemed stressed. They had been totally ill-behaved
little sods for her. Odd – they normally see her as pack leader. I’d have
thought they wouldn’t have dared to put a foot wrong.
I’m feeling rather tired. If only I could sleep when I
have an alarm set.
