An Exciting Day

Well, yesterday wasn’t so good, but we had an exciting day today!

John was feeling very under the weather on Monday – not only was he having trouble with his breathing but he was struggling with his mental health, too. There really wasn’t much I could do to cheer him up at all yesterday.

My feeble attempt at lightening the load was to offer to take him for a trip out in the car and go for a COVID jab. Ha-Ha! We were successful in our mission and came home suitably prodded and poked with resulting sore arms this morning.

Other than that, it was a miserable day in front of the TV mostly and, for me, tiddling with my jigsaw which is now finished! The 199 steps at Whitby. Nice, eh?

I did also add to the excitement yesterday by contacting the solar panel people and giving them a piece of my mind in the morning, however.

I was put through to the Manager of the Installations Team and she authorised the removal of the batteries for them to be inspected at Head Office. I doubt we’ll see those again. She promised to return them within the week if they could repair them. Hahahahaha. Otherwise, I suspect it is likely to be weeks, or maybe months, before we get new batteries. The fix would be coming from China, of course……

Not unreasonably, I thought, I said we’d be claiming money from them if the delivery of the batteries is delayed. Watch this space, folks. Name and shame? What say you?

This morning neither of us wanted to winkle ourselves out of bed. John was up before me though, and brought me a nice cup of tea about half past ten. Lovely. Then I had another snooze while he trundled off to breathe in his medication on the nebuliser. I finally got downstairs just before noon and had breakfast. Or was it Brunch? Who knows?

I sat in the lounge in front of the TV and flicked the programme on to Bargain Hunt. John came and joined me. It is such a gentle programme that, blow me! – there I was, drifting off to sleep again! Missed the last ten minutes and only woke up when Paul arrived an hour later. Ooo-er! I’m blaming the COVID jab for my tiredness.

What a fabulous surprise to see Paul. He’d been playing golf locally so thought he’d shoot in for a quick cuppa. Ha! We had other ideas, didn’t we?

Last week, the strong winds had brought a branch down from the oak tree across the road. The neighbours had dragged it onto the grass verge and there it lay. “Oooh, look at that!” we’d said to each other, longingly. “Look at all that lovely wood to burn.”

When Paul arrived, our thoughts turned to the very large muscles he has. “I wonder if you could drag it over to our house, Paul?” John said. Paul went off to try – and came back with a shake of the head. “It’s blooming heavy,” he said.

“What about if we all go and help?” I suggested. So we toddled across the road and inspected said branch. “We haven’t even asked if we can have it yet, though,” I observed. “Well, go on then – ask!” urged Paul. The lady-from-over-the-road-said: “Yes!” So Paul, all by himself and with John and me looking on, dragged the branch across the road and onto our drive. I wasn’t half impressed….. it wasn’t too heavy, after all.

After Paul had left, we sat and had a cuppa. I popped upstairs to check something on the computer when I heard the doorbell go. It was Michael calling in. Well, our cup was full. Two boys in one day! Boom! He’d been up to Staffordshire for work and was on his way back. How very lovely.

We chatted for a while and then he had to go. “Come for tea?” he asked. “Oh, that would be nice,” was our immediate response. And then, after a bit of thought, maybe not. I was going out to my ‘Exploring Faith’ group in the evening for one thing and, for another, I wasn’t sure John would be up to the hurly-burly. So we declined and said our goodbyes to Michael.

We were galvanised though, weren’t we, by the excitement of the oak branch? “I’m not feeling too bad” declared John, “Let’s get it cut up and shifted into the back garden.” Righty-ho! And away we went. John got his electric cutter out, I got my secateurs and a wheelbarrow out and quick-as-a-flash, there we were with a cleared drive and pieces of wood down in the Man Shed.

John assured me that the use of the electric cutter required no effort at all. But he was beginning to struggle towards the end of the exercise. Mind you, so was I! We both fell into the house for another cuppa and a glorious text message from Michael revealing that they were having roast chicken for tea….’just in case you want to come’.

Naturally, we couldn’t resist. Time with family is so, so precious, isn’t it? And we’re allowed a ‘U’-turn, aren’t we?

We were both tired when we came back so John rested, but I was determined to go out to the little Bible Study/Prayer Group, so I went and enjoyed it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the ol’ man hasn’t overdone it though…….. we’ll find out tomorrow I expect.

Take care everyone. God bless.