An up and down day

We took it easy this morning – John had a bit of a well-deserved lie-in while I braved the downstairs by 9.30 this morning. Early, eh?

Paul came round to keep John company while I went to yoga, arriving about 10.15. “Ok,” he said, “where’s this list of jobs you want me to do then? The ‘heavy lifting’ jobs?” Ha! I had, what I thought was, a very long list of ‘lifting’ jobs and things that would take me for ever to do. Paul polished them off in no time at all. Yippee!!

The brash from the bottom of the garden, the rubble at the side of the house and the old rags from the garage, all went into the back of Paul’s car to go to the tip. That took him five minutes. The rock that was at the front of the house, and which I’d been eyeing up for months to take and put by the pond? Easy-peasy. A two-minute job. The Hallowe’en box from the loft took a bit longer. Of course, we can’t find anything up there, because it’s such a mess. But it didn’t take Paul long to find it and bring it down the stairs. Turning the mattress? I wasn’t here to witness the event, but I don’t think that took long either. Mind you, although Paul had the strength to do that job, he did admit it was a bit unwieldy – it’s got a mind of its own, that mattress! And finally, the job I thought we might leave until another day, was also tackled successfully – we now have the cap back on the staddlestone. Ooh, and it does look good! Chuffed to bits with that.

All in all, by the time I got back from yoga, the boys were sitting comfortably in the lounge feeling very well-satisfied.

Paul left at lunch-time, so John and I had a bite to eat before he had a snooze and I pottered about. With my mind cleared of quite a few of the jobs that have been haunting me for months, I felt able to have a look into one of the boxes of bits I’d got stashed in Andrew’s room. Toby Jugs were put on display, mugs that I’d had formerly placed on display went into the cupboard to be used, and other bits were popped into the charity bag. It’s been a good day’s work.

All seemed well and hunky-dory as I meandered about sorting to my heart’s content, rummaging through books, picking some out for charity, browsing through some others, when I had a niggly feeling that we were supposed to be doing something. I checked the calendar. Oops! Darn it! We’d missed the ten past one appointment at the surgery for John’s hormone injection and it was now 3.41 – just the appointment time for his Covid and Flu jabs.

I woke John up and we rushed down to the surgery a bit late, all a-fluster. It didn’t do John any good whatsoever, Not only were the anxiety levels raised because we were late, but I wheeled him into the surgery in the wheelchair, which he was none too happy about. Dr Horsley was there with a nurse and they made too many sympathetic noises about John’s situation, his breathing, his capacity to come to the surgery and so on, that it thoroughly upset the ol’ man.

“Let’s go and see Pete and Dawn,” John said, as we sat in the car waiting for him to get his breath back. Reasonable conversation was what we needed. Fortunately for us, the Crosses were available and willing to offer us a cuppa. Their wonderful company helped and John felt a bit better as the afternoon wore on.

Once we were home, John thought he’d have a stroll down to the man-shed to drill a hole in a piece of metal. Well, that turned out to be hard work. He had to walk down to the bottom of the garden with the extension lead to enable some power down there; then he had to walk back up and get said piece of metal, before walking back down again to drill the hole in it. “Tea’s ready,” I said, as I met him just coming out of the man-shed, and he walked back up the path again. All that walking! His poor old back wasn’t so keen on the exercise, I can tell you, and his mood wasn’t lightened.

John hasn’t had the best evening and opted to go to bed early. We’re hoping for a better day tomorrow when we have guests arriving. Fingers crossed they brighten us up.

Take care everyone. God bless.