3 July 2018 (Tuesday) - Back to Work

When the dogs (ours or new-next-door’s) weren’t barking in the night, "er indoors ^TM" was snoring. I didn’t sleep at all well.

Fudge seemed rather soppy this morning; he wanted to come into the loo with me this morning, and his ears were right back. I wonder what’s up with him?

I had my usual rummage round the Internet over brekkie, and with not much happening there I took the dogs round the park for a walk. Rolo picked fights with dogs far bigger than himself (as he does) and despite being told expressly “no!” Fudge and Treacle went for a swim.

As we walked we met OrangeHead and her posse. OrangeHead was walking with a stick; I didn’t like to ask why.

We got home before it was *too* hot outside. It can get too hot for dogs, but ours would rather walk and get warm. And they did get to go in the river.

Once home we all had a drink. The dogs were asleep within seconds. I got changed and set off in the general direction of work. As I often do I had a little geo-mission on the way to work. Using Google Street View at home I was able to blag the required information for the Village Sign geocache in Hothfield. I was a tad worried when I got to Hothfield and saw the road sign from which I had blagged the information had been changed since the Google car had driven past, but it had been changed recently. The info I'd blagged was good, and soon I had the geocache in my hand. Happy dance.

Flushed with success I then drove on down the road where I soon round another cache. This other one gave me pause for thought though. Today on a bright summer's morning it was idyllic. However it was different when the thing first went live. The log of the First to Find mentioned taking a 4x4 for a spot of caching in the snow. Only two days before that log I'd been stranded overnight in Pembury; the snow was that bad. 

I've mentioned before (and been rather casually dismissed on the matter) about how the urge to log a First to Find can be rather dangerous. If the main road from Ashford to Tonbridge Wells (the A262) was near-on impassable and dozens of people were spending the night away from home because of the conditions, why on Earth would anyone mess about in a country lane hunting for a film pot under a rock?

I went to McDonald's for lunch. I wish I hadn't. I've always been the world's biggest McFan, but after today... I asked forMcScoff and McChips and a McFlurry. They made the McFlurry instantly and left it on the hot plate. Twelve minutes later the McScoff and McChips came out. As they handed it to me I gave the now liquid McFlurry back explaining that it had melted in the heat of the day and the heat of the hot plate. The chubby spotty oik behind the counted grumbled about making another one. I sat down to eat and realised they hadn't given me a straw. for the McFizz. Then the Chubby spotty oik brought over the very same melted McFlurry I'd given back to him.

I quite like the hospital canteen - the food comes out quicker and is cheaper... I shall start going there more often.

And so back to work. What with night work, rostered days off and a week’s holiday it seems like I’ve been away from the place for ages. Originally I was supposed to be going to Turkey for a week with "My Boy ^TM" but "er indoors ^TM" couldn’t get the time off work. I wish I’d gone anyway. Mind you I had plans for my time off, and I got quite a few of them done. Two decent geo-walks, a day’s fishing, a geo-road trip. I got to pressure-wash the back yard and the pond’s splash-pool. I got the new lino in the shed and painted the front of the house. I didn’t get to put out the new geo-series I was planning, but it was too hot for that,

Whilst I can’t say I was desperate to get back to work, I *certainly* wasn’t feeling physically sick at the thought of going back to work which I would have been (and was) two years ago.

Work was actually rather busy; I was a little late getting out. As I came home it was obvious that the England football team were playing; I could hear football-related shouting and screaming coming from all directions.

I wish I understood the attraction…

2 July 2018 (Monday) - Yet Another Hot Day

An hour after new-next-door’s dogs had had a nocturnal woofing fit, our wolf-pack kicked off for no reason. "er indoors ^TM" went and sorted it; I kept quiet; Someone had to. They all (eventually) went back to sleep leaving me wide awake.

I gave up trying to sleep and watched an episode of “Trailer Park Boys” until everyone else got up.

I did my usual look at Facebook over brekkie, and my piss boiled (it does that). Some people use Facebook to tell the world what they have done, some use it to share jokes… more and more I’m seeing less of the fun and more of the attention-seeking and self-pity.

It can be rather depressing.

It strikes me that in life we all have a major decision to make. Everyone’s lives can suck sometimes. We either make the most of it, or we don’t. I too *could* whinge incessantly. Most of the time it hurts when I move. It is only a matter of time until my left knee needs surgically swapping out, and at that point it would make sense to replace my left hip as well as that give my gyp too. I *could* fuss incessantly with one of these memes about no one knows what anyone else is going through, or I *could* make the most of the (relatively) few years left to me. Whichever I chose will still leave me hurting when I move, but one of the choices will have me smiling more than the other.

I got all three dogs leaded up and we went for a walk. As we go up the road every morning various dogs often bark at us from the safety of their windows. After the umpteenth barked at us today I was struck by a revelation. When we walk we meet some dogs; a couple of dozen maybe. But nowhere near as many as bark at us from various windows. Over the last few months and years we’ve walked at all sorts of times during the day. Bearing in mind that Viccie Park is *the* obvious place to walk a dog, why haven’t we met more dogs? Don’t all these dogs that bark at us get to go for walks? Thinking about it I’ve not seen new-next-door take their dogs out. Four neighbours ago there were three dogs living next door who were the size of cart horses; they *never* went for walks.

Are all these people neglecting their pups, or am I walking my hounds too much?

Bearing in mind today was supposed to be another hot one we’d started our walk early so we could finish our walk early. And with our walk done I hung out washing, emptied the paddling pool, scrubbed out the barbecue and loaded up the car with rubbish for the tip. Fifteen seconds to type; an hour to do. I was glad to do a tip run today; over the weekend I used the sun’s heat to dry out those half-dried tins of paint so I could legally dispose of them (as opposed to just chucking them in the bin like everyone else does).

I had some geo-maintenance to do in the Park Farm area, so whilst I was there I went to Tesco to get new trainers for work only to find they didn’t have any. Tesco doesn’t cater for anything over a size eight in a man’s shoe. They claim they do, but they never have any. They are the same for trousers. Nothing they sell comes close to my midriff.

So I went to Matalan. I should have gone there as I drove past the place when I was driving to the tip. Whilst in Matalan I also got the DVD of “Trainspotting II”. I watched the film over lunch, and with lunch scoffed I watched it as I did the ironing. The film wasn’t as good as the original, but it wasn’t bad. Which is probably what can be said for most sequels.

Having emptied the paddling pool in the morning it was ready to deflate by mid-afternoon. It was surprising how long it took to put away. I got far hotter doing that job than I intended; I spent much of the rest of the afternoon dozing until "er indoors ^TM" came home. She boiled up pizza and chips, then went bowling. I took the opportunity to turn on the telly and watch Demelza’s heaving bosom. For me, that is the star of Poldark…

1 July 2018 (Sunday) - Another Hot Day

Even though I slept well I was still up and watching “Trailer Park Boys” at seven o’clock this morning. As I watched I set the dishwasher and washing machine to do their things. Dull, but they needed to be done.

The dishwasher worked hardest and finished first; as I waited to the washing machine to finish doing its bit I checked out the Internet. Not much had changed overnight really.

Continuing the theme of the week I did some dull housework. I emptied the shed of as much as I needed to (and as little as I had to) and got the new lino in place. As I fought with it I managed to drop a set of shelves on my finger. The nail has gone a rather impressive shade of purple.

I then turned off the pond filter and (with the help of "er indoors ^TM") got the splash pool out and pressure-washed it. I had hoped to remove as much of the stringy pondweed as possible; the pressure-washer didn’t touch the stuff. I had to pull it off by hand.

With "er indoors ^TM" off to Tesco I set up the garden for the afternoon; it wasn’t long before she returned, and hot on her heels were "Daddy’s Little Angel ^TM" together with Sam and "Stormageddon - Bringer of Destruction ^TM". We had barby, we had beer… "er indoors ^TM" made some rather good skewers. After a little while Rachel and Brian joined us. We had more barby and more beer and put the world to rights. You can see what we did by clicking here.

Not a bad way to spend another of these hot days…