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Yesterday was such a busy day in one way or another. I had no private electrical work again (I seem to be in a slump just now but I am not dependent on my occupational work, fortunately) so I wasn’t in any particular hurry to get out of bed. Having said that I managed to get downstairs before 9 o’clock. At the moment I am suffering a rather unpleasant condition, something many women experience from time to time. To put it bluntly I have a possible infection of the clitoris for it has become inflamed and sore. E thinks it might just be irritation caused by urine. If it doesn’t improve I will need to see the doctor. That aside, I ventured out into the cool morning air and began working in the garage. There were sheets of plywood to cut and fit. If you look at the picture I posted here two days ago you can see the rear opening (will have a door on it when finished) above which is a large storage area under which steps lead into the garage proper. It is this area that I am currently working on. Bearing in mind that the sheets of plywood I needed to be cut were 8 feet by 4 feet 5 ply and one was 7 ply making them difficult to manoeuvre around the garage with everything else that is stored there! I had nobody to assist me. All I had on which to cut the boards was a ‘Workmate‘ and an old chair! Sawing by hand takes a long time, especially if the saw is old and worn out! To be fair it isn’t a bad saw at all, it simply required the blade lubricating but it isn’t a new saw and has seen better days. I didn’t fancy the idea of cutting the 7 ply sheet which I had to do as it was needed to complete the unfinished ‘floor’ of the storage area. The other surfaces only require a thinner sheet so I used the 5 ply for them but they are not yet finished. So if I wasn’t to cut the sheets by hand what was I going to use seeing that I don’t own a circular electric saw? I did have a ‘jig saw‘ though so I used that. Admittedly not as good as a circular saw but it saved a lot of arm ache! However near the completion of cutting the 7 ply it gave up. I took it apart to see what the problem was. It turned out that the gear drive for the reciprocating arm had become flat for part of its circumference. That meant it became detached from the motor once every revolution and the blade stopped reciprocating. There was no way to fix it short of buying new parts but the machine is quite old and not worth paying for a repair. It went into the waste bin. Thankfully the heavier sheet had almost been finished with but I still needed to cut the 5 ply sheets. By hand! So with all the lifting, shifting of materials and ladders, sawing of wood and so on I was completely worn out by 5 o’clock, so much so that I fell asleep on my bed for an hour! E had been out shopping and normally I would be at home to bring it all indoors for her but she came home whilst I was asleep. Later I heard the front doorbell and when I went downstairs I found that our eldest son was paying us a visit for a couple of hours. He was telling us about his visit to the dentist and how much it had cost him. £240 he said! Gosh! I was too tired to listen much to what he was saying and I asked him if he wouldn’t mind speaking a little more quietly. He didn’t realise how tired I really was when I told him what I had been up to but after I showed him he insisted on helping me fit the sheet of plywood I had cut for the underside of the storage area but couldn’t fit by myself as it was too heavy. I told him it would do another day but he persuaded me to enlist his help there and then. It took the three of us to get it in position and fix it, passing the cable I had partly installed earlier through a hole in the centre of the sheet. That will enable a light to be fitted there later as the passageway will be rather dark when in use later in the year. It was 8 o’clock before we got back indoors and he had to go visit his  wifes parents for a meal they had prepared for them both. I finally sat down at 9 o’clock after my evening meal to set up my old compter for E to use as hers isn’t working because its supply lead is faulty. Now my old computer hasn’t been used since October and that meant its virus protection needed bring up to date. We use Norton 360 on all our machines which automatically updates itself. This machine however was 114 Mb out of date! It took almost an hour to update and more time for the machine to re-organise itself! Finally it was ready for E to use. Well no actually it didn’t like the guest settings so I had to log in and allow E to use it under my log-in. No problem there, no sensitive or should I say insensitive material there for her to come across. It was 10.30 before I could sit down with this computer and write all this down. During the day I received many phone calls too which all turned out to be a waste of time but one call, later in the day was from a friend who with her husband accepted our invitation to a barbecue on Sunday. I will most certainly be glad when Sunday arrives, I’ll be sorely needing that rest!

Shirley Anne