Taking things in our stride…….?

Some things just put you off kilter, don’t they? And this week it was Shadow, the cat.

He’s been unwell for a few weeks and it all came to a head this week with the final visit to the vets yesterday. The family discussed the situation and agreed, sadly, that it was the right decision.

‘Do you need me to come?’ Michael texted. I shook my head at the message. ”I don’t need you to come. I will manage.’ I texted back. John offered to come, but no: ‘I am strong.’ I tell myself. ‘I can do this.’ And I did. Stroking my farewells to our beautiful cat as he passed away. And so another chapter of life is closed.

I forgot to tell myself to be prepared for a bit of fallout from the event though. Might be feeling it a bit now.

RIP ‘sitting-on-your-lap-and looking-into straight-into-your-face‘ Shadow.

Meanwhile, we have had a flurry of activity at home with a) the plasterer finishing the job in the dining room; and b) the team to fit the solar panels arriving yesterday very early in the morning.

We were, naturally, still abed when the doorbell rang at 7 o’clock. It was the scaffolders. “Alright, love? Just open the gate and we’ll get on.” Right. I toddled round the side to let them in. The wheelbarrow was in the way so I started to shift it. “Nah…. don’t worry about that, love. We’ll do all the shifting that’s needed.” Well, that was alright by me.

In an hour and a half they had finished their bit of the job and were away. The roofers arrived next and started shuffling things from the van round the back. Then it was the plasterer returning for the third day running and finally, it was the electrician…. crikey, I’m going to run out of milk for all the teas and coffees…. I went and bought some more but, by the end of the day, they had drunk their way through that bottle too.

It was quite exciting really, but tiring too. We were up and down the stairs; in and out of the loft; to and fro along the landing; in and out of the bedrooms and calling through the windows – all in the name of finding where to poke the wires. And then ladder shifting to reach the top of the house. We were exhausted by the end of the day – and the electrician didn’t leave until a quarter to eight. Phew.

The solar system is connected and has started to work but the roofers haven’t finished fitting the panels. “We’ll have to come back tomorra,” they said, in their delightful Liverpudlian accents. One of them thought they’d be here bright and early. Clearly, the boss didn’t agree. He shook his head. “Might even be the afternoon,” he said. After all, it was a five-hour round trip from Liverpool.

Anyway, the upshot was that they didn’t come back today. They are coming back on Sunday. That’s scuppered my plans for a family barbecue, then. Ah, well…..

This morning we had the pleasure of entertaining Pete and Dawn for morning coffee and cake. Oh, what a balm for the soul. So easy. So comfortable. Such good company.

John pottered in the garage this afternoon then slept a while. I slothed in front of the TV catching up on programmes I had missed. I had thought that I might get on with cleaning the house to remove all the dust that has settled everywhere but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. And despite the lovely balmy evening out there, we both thought, ‘Let’s go to bed early, eh?’

Just in case you miss it on the news, by the way, there is another COVID wave coming. Anything to do with the Jubilee celebrations, do you think? Whatever it is that is generating more infection, please be careful everyone. It’s not the flu, whatever anyone says.

And in other news: Susie Dent’s Word of the Day is a reminder of ‘trumperiness‘ (19th century): the state of being extremely showy, yet utterly worthless.

Take care. God bless.