April 8th: Death, procastination and mice

Back on 30th March I posted about John Prine, a country/folk musician who was battling coronavirus. I was sad to find out today that he had passed away in Nashville (just to be clear, I'm sad about everyone who is impacted by, or worse dies from this dreadful virus).  Here's a link to a YouTube video of a live session of one of his best known songs "Lake Marie". There's a BBC article today also that you can find here.

Sadly, I think we in the UK haven't even started to see the worst of it yet. There are suggestions from many quarters that the lockdown (if that's what it can really be called) are working and that rates of infection are slowing, but as many are quick to point out, we're not testing that many people, so it's hard to trust the data with any great degree of confidence. As I said yesterday, at my wife's hospital, whilst there are Covid-19 patient there and the ITU is busy, they don't expect a real hit for another week or so yet.

It's been another relatively quiet day at the manor. Mrs H has gone to see her Mum who's doing pretty well all things considered. She was pretty much in a lock down situation anyway before all this began, not being able to go anywhere due to her frailty, except that she could at least have visitors, but she's managing OK (as we all are). Both kids still working from home although my daughter's IT  many and frequent IT issues remain largely unresolved, or only resolved for short periods of time before another issue rears its head (and not just her, it seems many in her company are having similar issues), so she's been limited in what she can realistically do. She has a day off today so we'll see how things go tomorrow.

We had a video call catch up last night with my wife's brother and one of her sisters and their other halves. It's good to stay in touch and we were yakking for about an hour.

I keep putting off the decorating I have lined up - I'm arguing that the weather's too nice to be indoors at the moment, so focusing on gardening, and waiting for rain before I start to tackle the painting. Seems to be a good strategy as we haven't had any significant rain for a few weeks now, and none on the immediate horizon. Oh well.....it can wait.

The cat brought her first "present" for a while in last night. Just after I went to bed at about 11am I heard her bang through the cat flap, followed by her "I've got something" miaow (very different from her normal "I'm here and I want something" miaow. I then heard my son who was still up mutter something unintelligible (and probably non-repeatable) and some clattering. When I got downstairs, he was in the process of putting that cat in the downstairs loo (in the room not actually in the loo!) and said there's a mouse under that box, motioning to a small cardboard box on the floor. We're pretty well versed in dealing with these stains, so once he returned he lifted the box and I pounced with an upturned plastic takeaway container, neatly capturing said mouse before sliding the lid under it. It didn't seem physically affected by having been between the jaws of the cat, so it was quickly returned to the garden. Oh, and we let the cat out of the loo. I make that 2-0 to humans vs the cat .

Butter wouldn't melt....

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives

March 30th: Silicone and Windows - but not that kind

So, starting with coronavirus/covid-19 because that's what prompted this renewed effort at blogging. Yesterday the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England said that it might be six months before life in the UK returns to normal. That's quite scary as that takes us to the end of September, although she did say that doesn't (necessarily) mean we'll be in complete lockdown for 6 months. And I was thinking today, that on the day that Boris (or whomever says it) says, "Ok folks, you can get out and about", where is everyone going to go first? I bet for a good many it'll be straight to the local pub (if it's still open). Those first few days post lockdown are going to be really weird I think, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
It's evident that some people still don't appreciate the seriousness of this pandemic. However, when it starts affecting those they know and love, perhaps that'll hit home. A couple of those nudged me today. First, a post on Facebook from someone I don't know, but who lives relatively locally said they had someone in there family that had "had" the virus. True or not, when it's just around the corner, it rams it home a bit. Secondly, as people that are famous (or at least well know) are reported to have been diagnosed, it also becomes a bit more scary. Obviously we've had a few politicians who have been diagnosed including the Prime Minister. Today I found out that one of my favourite musicians, American country/folk singer John Prine has not only been diagnosed, but it currently on a ventilator. That's not to say that I didn't appreciate what a terrible situation we are in before today, but this brings it home even more. As an aside, one of John Prime's songs "Ain't Hurtin Nobody" has got one of the best lines of any song ever:

There's roosters layin' chickens
And chickens layin' eggs
Farm machinery eating people's arms and legs

On the basis of that single line about farm machinery I bought his album "Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings" which is absolutely splendid.

In #isolationlife today I've meandered between redoing the silicon sealant inside the conservatory and upgrading a laptop. You'll recall my sone was clearing out his bedroom the other day. Well he dug out his old laptop. I can't recall just how old it is (it's the one before the one he's got now), but he was going to chuck it. Ever the gadget hoarder, I dusted it down (literally), booted it up and found that it ran (almost) perfectly. I did a completer restore of the operating system (Windows 8) and today I upgraded that to Windows 10. Can't see anything wrong with the device, and it runs really well and quite fast for an machine a few years old. Bonus win as a spare machine (although I'm a Mac man).

Old laptop with W10 installed

As for the silicone..... Well I'm not the best DIY-er by a long way. But how hard can siliconing be? The professionals make it look easy. I look like I've done 10 rounds with a silicone gun and lost badly, and whilst the sealing will do a job, it ain't going to win any prizes for neatness. It's terrible stuff! And I only managed to slice my finger once getting the old stuff off. I've got a few tales about my DIY failures which I'll save for another day.

Hardly seen the cat all day.