Oooh, I was in trouble this morning. “White noise. White noise, that’s all I am to you.” John declared after I’d totally ignored him when he brought me a cup of tea in bed. Oh, dear. I was so busy concentrating on my e-scrabble game, Words with Friends, that I wasn’t aware of anything very much. It must have been half an hour later that I wondered about a cup of tea and asked him if he’d brought me one….. It’s not good is it? When you’re not even aware of what’s a-goin’ on? Must do better.
Made me smile throughout the day, though. Every so often, there’d be a little bleep and murmuring of the words ‘white noise….’ just as a little reminder, you know, that I really shouldn’t ignore the person with whom I share the house. It wasn’t intentional, which probably makes it worse…. ah, well. Tomorrow’s another day, so perhaps I’ll have got my brain in better gear by then. Let’s hope so anyway.
Neither of us got up very early though. I woke early enough, but really couldn’t face painting, so stayed in bed for a while. John, too, stayed in bed and, once again, by the time he’d done his medicals, it was lunchtime. Honestly, all the pills, eye drops, eye pads, supplements, inhalers and nebulisers take such a long time to get through first thing in the morning. Then he has to do it all again a few hours later, then another few hours later after that. Great life, if you don’t weaken.
However, once he’d got through it all, he purposefully made his way into the garage. He was about to use the new trolley jacks that he’d bought yesterday from Machine Mart – not Tool Station, as I originally said. Machine Mart/Tool Station/Screwfix…. they’re all one and the same to me. But obviously not – there is a difference, I believe.
His plan was to jack up the Lotus and have a good inspection of the underside and take some measurements. Something seems to be a bit out, and he’s not quite sure what. That was his plan but, by the time he’d chatted to two of his sons on phone, then jacked the car up, he didn’t have the energy to crawl underneath. Maybe tomorrow?
Energy? No, me neither. I did paint the last coat on the last wall, clean the skirting boards and mask everywhere up in readiness for re-painting them, but, to be honest, the light was rubbish today, so I left it at that. John suggested switching on the electric lights, but they aren’t great for making sure you haven’t left the paint patchy. So I took that as my excuse for just idling the rest of the afternoon away watching the inauguration on Capitol Hill.
I found it unexpectedly moving. I was glad to see the back of Trump, but respect to Mike Pence, who did the handover with dignity. I thought Biden’s speech was a good one, but the highlight of the event for me was the young Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman. Her poem was just fantastic. What a girl, and one to watch.
This evening we had great fun as it was Quiz Night. Nigel and Hazel were the Quiz Masters and Nigel had created three very original rounds that we really enjoyed – even if we couldn’t answer some of the questions – they were really hard. As always, we talked ourselves into answers and back out of them again, only to find that the original answer was the right one. Fabulous fun and great company as always. Lucky, lucky us to have such a very nice group of friends.
Obviously, watching the coverage on the telly of the inauguration meant that we seamlessly moved into watching the news this evening. It’s distressing to know that so many people have lost their lives to COVID today; and equally so to hear the stories of all those medics who are caring for those rising numbers of patients in intensive care. It was heartening to hear that the infection rate is going down, however, and that the lockdown seems to be working. Prayers and more prayers for all those who are sick and all those tending them.
- 38,905 people tested positive for the virus today
- 1,820 people died from the virus in the community in the last 24 hours
- 531 people died in hospitals from the virus on 18 & 19 January
The people dying are still mostly in the over 60s bracket but, although the numbers are relatively small by comparison, the figures in the 40 -59 bracket are now rising too, which isn’t good.
So, let’s keep ourselves to ourselves, mask up, and keep washing our hands – oh, and ventilate. Other than going to Mum’s (where I do open the window when I am there), we don’t really go anywhere where we need to do that, but I conscious of it now. And I am keeping my hopes up that we all stay safe and healthy to fight another day. After all, we’ve done 15 days of Lockdown 3 and 308 days since Lockdown 1 started, so what’s a few more?
God bless and take care.