Friday 22 November 2024: The kindness of folk

Once we were up and about yesterday morning, the first thing the poet tried to do was charge the battery on my car…but he couldn’t get the door to open. He tried everything, from the obvious (trying the key in the driver’s door handle) to the less obvious (lubricating the lock with WD-40). But nothing worked. I did a search online and we’d already done everything everyone suggested. So I called our mechanic.

The mechanic looks after the band wagon as well as my car, so he does get plenty of work off us. He gave us one more trick to try (pour warm water over the entire door for several minutes), and we’d just about given up on that working too when the door suddenly opened. So the poet was able to start charging the battery.

He kept going out every few minutes to check, and sadly it looked like the battery wasn’t holding the charge. Our mechanic warned us that if the battery was indeed flat, then it was the cold and snow that had killed it. 

I called him back and set in motion the process of getting a new battery on my car. He had to order one in first, then he’d call me back to book it in. If the poet isn’t here, then it means the mechanic might have to come to the house. But we’re not far away from the garage, so all should be okay.

I finally cracked on with work and got around to writing up yesterday’s blog post. (I hadn’t got around to it on Wednesday.) I chose the picture, changed my mind and chose another, posted it, and shared it to BlueSky and to Medium. Then I turned to today’s blog post.

I shared the gig list and added another potential trip away to TickTick. We’ve kind of said we can take one of the dogs if we’re needed for the same date. If the dog isn’t coming to us, then I’ll probably go with the poet. If he is, then I’ll stay home.

It was nearly dinner time by now, and I was starving. The poet was on a Teams call, though. So I just made us both a cuppa and got us some biscuits. While I chomped my way through those, I called a local pest controller and arranged for them to come out on Saturday. He said unfortunately, if it’s squirrels, he can’t catch them humanely as they’re non-native and it’s the law. 😟 But, we can’t have rodents running amok in the loft. 

I dropped in on the greenfly forum and was pleased to see that one of the others has the exact same problem as us with trees and bushes. She shared one picture of a heap of branches in the middle of the lawn, and another of them all gone, having been chipped and used as mulch around the garden. If our borders were defined, we’d be able to do that too. But we have to rediscover our borders too. 

The mechanic called to say my battery had arrived. (‼️) So we wrapped up warm, took the car off charge, fired it up, and headed to the garage. The mechanic swapped the battery with his own fair hands and only charged us for the cost of the battery! So kind. I try to keep people like that in my life if I can, and I also try to keep them sweet. Hmm, if we do a Christmas bake, perhaps we could take him and the lads some cookies…🤔 My friend Devon does that a lot, and I think it’s a lovely idea.

When we got back I didn’t have time to get my teeth into anything substantial because I was off to the dentist. We went in my car and we were going to carry on to Meadowhall shopping centre to get me a warm, winter coat and maybe some tea. But when we came out of the dentist, it was too cold, too dark, and too busy. So we headed home instead and had bangers and mash for tea. I also rustled up a quick apple crumble and we had that hot with ice cream.

Today I need to write. I have some catching up to do. If I don’t get around to it all today, then I’ll be working at the weekend. The poet is going to set up the sound for a charity gig in the village tonight. Pest Control are coming tomorrow. And we have shopping to do.

Have a super weekend!