Lexin

I had guests yesterday for a few hours.

One of them, J, talked about his hobby for hours. Ho hum.

He then went on to criticise the way I live - my house smells of cats, and I shouldn't have adopted my two cats. He was quite forceful. He went on for some time about it. He particularly didn't like Geraint.

On a previous occasion when he was my guest he rated for an hour about my weight and my terrible diet, and how I should become a vegan.

I'm seriously considering banning him from my house. I'm through with him.

Advice?

Another IT nightmare – I have two cats, and one of them is on one database, and the other is on another. I will have to ring them tomorrow to get them on the same one, because there doesn’t seem to be any way of doing it online on a Sunday.

Why must life be so difficult?

I am still fighting the good fight trying to find someone who can fix my solar panel inverter/data logger problem. Most of the people I’ve written to have ghosted me, and the one person who said he could help went into hospital and then died. I know it shouldn’t have made me laugh but it did. It’s an extreme method of not assisting.

Having said that I just found someone who said he’d come round on Thursday. So fingers crossed for Thursday.

Weather

It’s both sunny and windy here in Wales, and there’s an odd smell of burning. I think there must be a bit of forest on fire somewhere, but I can’t see it so it may be somewhere over the back of Bangor mountain.

Edited to add: my podiatrist told me that the wildfire was in Conwy, between Conwy and Bethesda. It was so bad that some people had to be evacuated. It must have been bad if I could smell it ten miles away in Bangor.

We were supposed to go to Plas Newydd today, but with the heat, I didn't feel well enough. It is unnaturally warm in Wales.

We got home to discover that Geraint, bless his furry paws, had opened the door to the freezer, with the result that about half of the contents are defrosted.

Little bastard.

My Mastodon home seems to have disappeared and I'm now there on:

lexin@mastodon.social

I have had some bad news: my old friend Peter Cheer passed away in the last few days.

We (our DnD group) became worried when he didn't contact us to confirm whether or not he was playing last Sunday, and I had tried to get hold of him by email, text and Discord, with no luck. So I sent a message via the Police Scotland website for them to do a welfare check and a policeman rang me on Wednesday night with the bad news.

He told me that it was a 'medical issue' and nothing suspicious, which is something to be grateful for.

They are getting in touch with Peter's wife, Tabby, who is currently in Nairobi, through Interpol.

I am really upset, I was very fond of Pete, a kindly, good, man in all the best ways. He was a Quaker, and everything a Christian should be.

I’ll miss him. He used to stay with me during our August gaming get-togethers. Staying with me was cheaper than getting a room at the university.

He had an adventurous life despite having profound disabilities (he walked strangely, he was completely deaf in one ear, and had lost an eye) brought about by having a bad fall while mountaineering in 1981. He did Voluntary Service Overseas three times, in Kenya, in Mongolia, and I think the third time was in Ecuador, though I could be wrong.

For some reason I’m not sure about I watched “Scarpetta” - the whole series.

I still have no clue what was happening most of the time. I actually prefer “Silent Witness” and that show is beginning to annoy me.

Now, I have read about half of Patricia Cornwell’s books, and I don’t remember any of them being as gloopy as the TV series. Nor do I remember them as being quite so full of horrible characters. Kay’s sister in particular I wanted to die a death. Kay herself was annoying and Lucy nearly as much. The only character I liked was the dead wife.

I also struggled with telling current events from flashbacks. They could at least have given Kay different hairstyles.

All in all, a waste of my time.

I’m exhausted, and I don’t know why. I’m working with my CPAP machine quite well, and it works, but I’m starting to fall asleep in the afternoons again.

Mind you, I had a good reason yesterday. When I went to hospital at the end of January, I was given a prescription. I took it to the pharmacy but it turned out that the doctor (whom I suspect to be a locum) had not signed or dated the scrip, and therefore it was useless. On Monday I had a letter from the hospital about the appointment, and usefully there was a phone number.

I rang the number and was told that if I came to the hospital at 09:15 on Wednesday, they’d give me a new prescription. I rather balked at the time, but I pulled myself from my bed at a sparrow’s fart and made it to the hospital by 09:10. Great, I thought, I will be home by 10:15. Not so. I was finally given my new prescription at 11:00, and had been excruciatingly bored, not to mention cold. Most hospitals seem to be overheated, but that one is always cold.

Worse, when I left the hospital to catch a bus home, I had to wait in the freezing wind. By the time the bus came, the muscles of my face wouldn’t move, and I wondered if that’s what Botox feels like.

I made it home at about 11:30, and had a hot breakfast at the local club, which has a café at the back during the mornings. It was very nice to have a meal I hadn’t prepared myself. Having said that, I’m living largely on breakfast cereal because even heating up ready meals is proving too much for me these days.

Cats

Geraint seems to be doing better, he’s gained some weight and is no longer the skinny cat who originally came here. He plays, has zoomies and when I’m playing my PS5 he curls up at my feet, keeping them warm.

Opal still has a problem with her back – she’s chewing her fur, for all the world like a person with trichotillomania. It really worries me. She’s on Metacam and Gabapentin, but though it helps a bit, it doesn’t solve the problem completely. The vet only suggested that she be fed something that is a specialist food for a cat with a problem with coat and stomach. Again, it helps, but not completely. I give her a taurine supplement and various oils, but really, I’m at a loss.

So, my friend “J” sent out a round robin email wishing our gaming group a Happy New Year, and outlining that he was planning a gaming get together fairly soon at a venue yet to be chosen and a time yet to be decided on. I replied, saying I’d like to come but it depends on the cost.

Nothing happened for a couple of weeks.

Then I got the following email: Me: “I’m up for it if I can afford it.”
“Him”: That's not the main issue: I'm sure we could have a whip round or something.

“I have now looked at various venues but it will be difficult to make a decision as they are so good, if diverse. Even if I confined this decision to those with bedrooms on the ground floor and disabled access, I am still doubtful that you could even manage. You could barely walk in August and I don't feel you could travel for 2-4 hours on public transport without a carer/plus size wheelchair now. Anyway, I don't want the risk of you collapsing in transit on my conscience.

“Unless I find somewhere I feel is particularly possible, participation doesn't seem viable to me. Sorry about that. I hope you understand.”

What this boils down to, shorn of its verbiage, is: I have decided that as a disabled person, you can’t manage, so I have decided you can’t come. I therefore rescind my invitation. Plus, I can’t be arsed to find a suitable venue.

Now, I don’t want to go somewhere where I wouldn’t be welcome, but I’m also well pissed off that he didn’t even ask me what kind of venue I would need.