More windy weather

20th & 21st November

Despite the continuing troubles with the weather (not that we can complain too much in view of the dreadful time they are having in Cumbria), it’s been a reasonably busy couple of days. Yesterday being Friday, we went to the yard at ten and took more photos of Sanity Again. Then Sheila went back to Sanity, and I walked down to the paper shop.

Following a suggestion from Elanor, I relieved the monotony of the walk by using the iPod. I don’t know why I’ve waited until I’m over sixty before starting to wander the streets with earplugs in; it must be another example of second adolescence.

Back at the boat, we had lunch and then decided that the weather had relented sufficiently to make manoeuvring feasible. Even so, extracting the boat from her mooring was interesting, but we managed it without too much damage to the paintwork. Then it was down to the water point to top up, to the winding hole to wind, and back to the shop mooring where we took on 84 litres of diesel and unloaded about 250 litres of what is euphemistically referred to as black water.

Whilst we were doing this, Katalina, the boat that ties on the towpath opposite us, had come down to the water point, so in theory the return to our mooring was made easier. It still involved a bit of fending off and pivoting the boat on the end of the jetty, but in the circumstances I don’t think we did too badly. The wind was blowing diagonally across the cut, so as soon as I started to turn Sanity she began travelling sideways up the cut.

Once established back home, I put into effect an idea I’d had overnight. This was based on the thought that the current arrangement of the desk in the study, with the monitor to the right of the keyboard, meant that all the time I was working on the computer my right arm was stretched out and somewhat across my body, thereby stressing the problem rotator cuff in my right shoulder.

The answer was to take it all apart (taking the opportunity to clean up all round) and put it back together so that the monitor is on the left and I work with my right elbow much closer to my body. It’s too soon to be sure, but it seems to be helping.

Having done all this, I finished sorting out the new photos, uploaded them to Flickr, and did a post on the other blog.

Today we had a relaxed start, though we’ve managed to get quite a lot done. Whilst I was off getting the paper, Sheila did some housework, vacuuming through and dusting. Since then, it’s been a mixture of perusing the paper (mostly me) and proof reading (Sheila) and tackling the various quizzes which come with the Saturday Independent. Their big general knowledge prize crossword seems to be getting harder and harder, mind you, with a good deal of research via Wikipedia and Google needed to finish it off.

I’m sure it’s not just a case of failing memory; Surinamese Silver medallists in the 800 meter worlds in 1995 and obscure works by Herman Melville (Omoo, anybody?) would be testing even for the most well informed nouveau renaissance brain.

The weather seems to be deteriorating again, so we may well sit tight for the whole of tomorrow, and make a dash for Marple on Monday morning.