Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 19 January 2020

Sounds like an idyllic day out, Pat. You'll remember it for a long time.

Heather: Today, your post was just not meant to be!! Hope the rest of your day goes well.

Myself, I got up late, had a slow breakfast and then went to wash my hair - not as long a process as it used to be when I had long hair years ago, but nevertheless it was late morning by the time we had our elevenses. I've put half a dozen books on the new shelf, and found some glass vases in a box, but too listless to do much else. Had lunch and now going to rest again.

PatO;  You day out does indeed sound idyllic - and so refreshing (hope your feet survived the rocky beach).

AQ:  Well, what can I say about people who don't take care of their fruit trees.   Hope the temps continue cooler for you guys.

Diane: I just watched SpaceX's launch and test of the Crew Dragon's in-flight abort system, which went very well.  Such spectacular footage.

Lindybird:  Glad to read that you're resting!

Also just Facetimed my sister in the UK who wasn't well at all over the holidays but is doing better now.  We had our recently widowed friend over for dinner last night; she's an extremely resourceful person, has always been very supportive of her friends and so is now receiving lots of support in kind as she adjusts. She's moving to a retirement community later this year.

I'm planning a working day in the garden, but determined not to overdue things.  

So, yesterday: we all got up at 6am for J to get his light breakfast and morning meds before 6:30. OH drove him to the hospital for his 11:30 admission then came back and cooked our lunch of liver & bacon – luckily we had decided to have main meal lunchtime to avoid interruptions at dinnertime. We had a phonecall to say J could be fetched at 5pm. They eventually got away at 6:30 and home about 7:30. Fortunately, I had scratched around for something edible and portable for a meal for myself. They ordered J’s choice of takeaway to be delivered, but it arrived very late, so nobody got to bed before midnight! We all slept through to 8:00am this morning, and after our cooked breakfast (carried forward from Saturday, but not to be missed) J went back to bed until lunch, so I think he must have finished sleeping off the anaesthetic. He has eyedrops, which are a combined anti-biotic with steroid. He is struggling rather as his glasses have some of the prisms built in, which he no longer needs, so his eyes are still not truly working together and he is wearing an eyepatch to use the eyes alternately until he can get new glasses once the bruising is gone.

It isn’t practical to go back to last week’s thread, so I will make replies to the new one, for which thank you, DIANE.

ANNETTE – what was the significance of the Women’s March? Sorry to see that your Sister has not been well – I hope it was nothing serious. I hope the gardening day goes well.

AQ – my mention of “other issues” was just about the erratic timing of our evening! I don’t like anything to disrupt my eating arrangements! Sorry the birds are missing the Peach Tree! Sorry the rain didn’t reach you. Weather here started very cold this morning, and frost lasted halfway through morning – and not much sunshine – but thankfully it is dry.

LINDA – Ikea furniture is very useful – when J had his own house, it was furnished almost completely with their designs, now distributed among his room here, granddaughters and others including us. Good to see you are having a rest day today! I think it is best not to fill the new spaces straight away – appropriate shelf-fillers will gradually make themselves known.

HEATHER – hello…!

PAT – what a lovely day you had yesterday, with fresh air and exercise! Not easy walking on pebbly beach.
I spent an hour on the phone with Dau#2 yesterday – unusually got a good clear line and found her having a morning lie-in and therefore with time to chat. Between family, environment, independence and royal news I think we put the whole world to rights!

Well, I'm back but as usual, so much I want to say but typing with one finger takes me for ever!
What a super day out, PAT.
OG - I'm glad that you got food before the much delayed takeaway!
ANNETTE/AQ - I'm afraid that I don't get around to using all the fruit here and every year promise myself to do so....
LINDY - Congrats on culling more books. Every time I see things that I could get rid of, I think about the family and how much extra work it would make for them eventually.
Regarding hairwashing, I do it in the morning while in the shower. I don't like getting water in my eyes so stand with my back to the thingy! I blush when I remember tipping water over my childrens' heads while they were in the bath. But - I saw,that Bella and Millie were treated to that when they were here...

OG: The first Women's March was held the day after Trump was inaugurated as a protest to his treatment of women and others. I went to the LA March that year, where more than 700,000 people showed up - it was a very long day of standing in one spot and/or shuffling to the next spot, bracketed by two hours each way in a bus. Anyway, the organization has gone through some changes and I've been going to the local events since that first one. But the main purpose remains; that is to encourage women to run for public office and it was a very successful strategy In 2018 mid-term elections, where more women were elected to public office than ever before. Many groups were represented at yesterday's event (Planned Parenthood, The League of Women Voters, Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee and SB Democratic Women were the main ones, plus smaller groups focusing on specific interests (immigration, civil rights, gun control, health care) which are still a large part of the more mainstream groups' platforms. All of them had booths where you could sign up for volunteer work in this year's elections. The main goal is to get out the vote. In California, which is strongly Democratic, volunteers will likely spend most of their time calling registered Democrats (and maybe others) in other states to encourage/remind them to vote. As I said, I was really pleased to see so many young women in attendance and also in positions of leadership Lots of energy there!

OG: Glad that most of yesterday went according to plan. Hope that J can soon adjust.

Annette: I remember the huge Womens' March which began it all, after Trumps disgusting behaviour towards women came out during the run up to his election. Well Done to those of you who are keeping it up!

Talking of protests, I've just signed and also added to my Facebook page a petition which is trying to prevent (I can hardly believe I'm typing this.... .......) a scheme to allow ten large houseboats to be moored on the peaceful shores of Grasmere Lake, with of course all the accompanying infrastructure of jetties and storage tanks etc. A really unthinkable prospect for this wonderful, unspoilt area - it's all greed on the part of developers, trying to get around the rules that you can't build in the conservation area.

HEATHER - well done coming back on here! I also wash my hair in the shower - have to sit down, so it's head forward and put up with it!

ANNETTE - thanks for the explanation. I wish I was more politically minded, but I think I am too lazy now!

LINDA - the Grasmere plan hadn't crossed my radar! It doesn't seem right, with all the restrictions on building in the Lake District National Park and the constraints they put on local people trying to stay in the area.

Hi alll, and thank you Diane for starting us off as usual.

AQ - glad to hear its gone a little cooler over there. Saw on our news that there has been flooding, hail storms etc in some parts of Australia, talk about one extreme to the other.

OG - glad to hear J's op has gone well. Once he has his glasses adjusted it should be much better for him. I know my eyesight improved greatly and now I've had the hospital checkup I'm to go and get some new reading glasses which I have arranged for next Friday.

Pat - sounds like you had a lovely day out. Couldn't walk that far now. Sunset sounded fabulous.

Thank you for all your news - haven't replied to all but love to hear what has been happening.

~What a saga yesterday - toilet cistern - narrow pipe leading from it sprung a leak and we kept having to mop it up , talk about how many towels I put down to try and stem the flow but it kept coming and then started coming through the ceiling. That's when we got worried. Couldm't have slept so in the end about 10.45pm rang for an emergencu plumber. Finally arrived about midnight and it was fixed in 15 mins, however it cost us an arm and a leg but gave us peace of mind. These things come to try us.

We had a shower of rain last eve . . . and it did not even register! This morn a mere 0.2 mm recorded. Not fair that other places are having floods. A large water bomber has arrived in SA, first of 4 extras to Aussie fleet. Its arrival was delayed by tornado (?) in Alabama, the second delayed by ash cloud from volcano in Philippines.
I activated the vacuum cleaner this morn. I hope no more tinsel will be seen! OH volunteered to do his computer room & living room. All is quiet, time for me to finish bedrooms before lunch.

Good Morning. Dry here and the fog has gone, which we had all yesterday. I thought of you, AQ, as our temps didn't rise above 2 degrees all day, and the fog hardly lifted, meaning our view was restricted to the end of our garden, about 40 feet away!

Lynette, glad to hear that your eyesight has markedly improved after the surgery. Sorry that you had a bad leak - as you say, these things are never at a 'good" time.

I feel better after having a lazy day yesterday, and hope to get back to emptying more boxes of books and china.