Category: misc

Idling

At the start of 2025 I’d intended to blog more frequently. And here we are, 2 months since my last post and back to being a content consumer.

I’m not disengaged but yet again there’s too much happening in the world for me to offer up my opinions without offending someone/everyone, so I’llā€¦

We’re 2-1/2 weeks into a garage conversion – having a garage too small for our cars and previously full of 18 years of stored crap turned into a room suitable for our girls to entertain in. Or maybe one to escape to and shut the world out.

A partially cleared garage prior to conversion into a second reception room.
A partially cleared garage prior to conversion into a second reception room.

Apart from the tradesmen breaking our hot and cold water and central heating system (after they’d moved the boiler out of the room for a reason I still cannot fathom) it’s gone well so far, but we’re now at the snagging stage. It’s not a small list.

We also had new flooring laid for 50% of the downstairs area, and apart from being unable to shut the kitchen door that’s oh so nearly done.

The house is dusty throughout and strewn with stuff we can’t really put back yet, not until we’ve had the job completed and we’ve signed it off – and yeah, paid what’s left.

Today I’ve got a bad back, the worst pain in years, so everything is making me grumpy – especially today’s New York Times ‘Spelling Bee’ puzzle and its inability to allow ‘eutectic’ – which is somehow not in its word list. Bah!

Authenticator

The iOS Microsoft Authenticator app lost my 2FA codes. Luckily there’s only one that mattered today, and I could temporarily disable the Wordfence security plugin to gain access to my blog.

This underscores the importance of retaining backup recovery codes. Somehow at least, I’ve not actually figured that bit out just yet.

Stella cat looking intently through the white-painted stair rail.
Stella cat looking intently through the white-painted stair rail.

Butternut Box

On Thursday I signed up to the Butternut Box dog food delivery service and was pleasantly surprised to see they’d deliver an introductory pack of 2 weeks of food the very next day.

The sign up and variety selection process was pleasant enough I suppose, and I looked forward to getting, erā€¦ told Pumpkin to look forward to some lovely new food.

She’s been a very fussy eater of late, probably because she’s started the transition from puppy to lady dog. So we’ve tried introducing her to new varieties of biscuits, wet foodā€¦

Anyway, as soon as their delivery partner’s email dropped in my inbox my heart sank. dpd have a well-deserved negative reputation. But hey, how difficult is it to deliver a box within a 1-hour window?

Bear in mind I’d instructed Butternut Box that our safe space is to the right of the house behind the bins. In the shade. Bear in mind I’d already informed dpd too. Easy.

I arrived home just after my wife had returned with daughter1, to a box dropped upside-down at the front door in the heat of mid-afternoon sun. The contents had started to defrost but at least Butternut Box said they could be refrozen if still cold to the touchā€¦

So I complained.

I tried to complain.

The reply-to email address is a ‘no-reply’. The from email address was returned to me with AI instructions to try another one, which elicited an AI response letting me know that I could save a safe space location in my Butternut Box account and with dpd.

Sigh.

Right, let’s close the account.

That’s not possible without a message to either an AI or via a telephone call. So I asked the AI to delete my account. Nope, had to wait for a human to contact me to do it.

So I waited.

Just tried signing into the account in the app and on the web site. Nope, it’s now an invalid email or password.

Erā€¦

They shut the account without a request for feedback. To be fair it’s what I asked for, but it all seems just so impersonal.

No, I cannot recommend Butternut box and I emphatically cannot recommend their delivery partner dpd.

But hey, at least Pumpkin has a new branded bandana. It’s too small to fit her, but hey we can’t have everything.

A Butternut Box branded bandana in a table with, in the background Pumpkin, a female black cavapoo dog. She's waiting to be let out to chase a neighbourhood black cat invading her back garden.
A Butternut Box branded bandana in a table with, in the background Pumpkin, a female black cavapoo dog. She’s waiting to be let out to chase a neighbourhood black cat invading her back garden.

Peace

A few weeks ago I posted about a peace lily plant I’d inherited and somehow kept alive for a few months. I don’t think it’s got long left.

The advice I was given was it was over-watered. Or under-watered. Or needed more light. Or had contracted a plant disease (despite not being close to any others for a couple of years).

So this is what I’m left with.

A sad and utterly bedraggled peace lily plant.
A sad and utterly bedraggled peace lily plant.

After cutting all the dead stems off I teased the dead half of the root structure away and threw it out, worked some compost in and around the roots, gave it a light watering and will leave it a week before its next feed.

Oh, the pot liner had drain holes in the base, and I’d simply not thought to empty the stagnant water out again – which is why I got a big mug full last time. Yes, of course I sniffed it this time!

The worst that’s going to happen is it dies and I buy a fourth. Or a cactus. But after seeing a couple of recent new leaves I’m hopeful I can assist in resurrecting itself.

Or, maybe I’ll do a search for “un-killable house or office plants”!

No, plastic is not an option.

For now.

Moist

I acquired a peace lily plant when my last boss retired in November. I feel a great responsibility to keep it alive. I’d killed 2 of his previous plants and bought this a couple of years ago to make amends.

A desk with a peace lily plant in a white pot. To its right is an IKEA watering can. To the right of that are some papers. In the foreground is a mug with a cat motif, it is full of a very dark brown liquid.
A desk with a peace lily plant in a white pot. To its right is an IKEA watering can. To the right of that are some papers. In the foreground is a mug with a cat motif, it is full of a very dark brown liquid.

Until recently it positively thrived in my care, but this week it drooped. It has browning leaves too despite it being watered to the same schedule and with the same volume of water my ex-boss used. (Science)!

Now if you hear in mind that I’ve been poking my finger into the soil between twice-weekly watering sessions, and it’s always been just slightly moist. But today I tested at 180ā° from my usual place.

The photo caption mentions a dark brown liquid. My poking finger submerged up to the first knuckle.

Oops!

Kitchen roll pushed into the pot absorbed some of the surface water, but it just kept on absorbing and absorbing andā€¦

I cradled the plant and tipped up the pot over my mug (which needed a wash anyway). Most went in the mug.

Next week I’ll trim the dead leaves.

It’s a plan.

Phase 2: I’ll buy a soil moisture meter/monitor.

And, erā€¦

That’s it folks.

Books

I replied to a toot by @greghiggins457@appdot.net about the frequency of new books sent by ‘Book Bub’.

“I signed up for Book Bub a while back. Everyday I get free books on my Kindle thanks to this email. Problem is I am not a fast reader. I have so many unread books on my Kindle that will probably last me the rest of my life. I need to learn how to read faster and read more consistently.”

A slightly enhanced version of my reply follows.

Greg’s words got me thinking of where I am, not actually reading, but definitely collecting books for some time in the future when the ‘book thing’ switches on againā€¦

About 40 years ago I began to make weekly or slightly less frequent visits to a used books market stall that bought the books back for half the purchase price. Their science fiction collection drew 100% of my interest and I struggled mightily to come away with only a few at a time.

As an already insatiable reader I learned to read fast, to get the meat out of a story, and maybe a little more. Books l loved I kept, the rest eventually got returned. I read them all. And things slowed down a bit.

The candidates for keepers I read again, more slowly this time, and culled those that didn’t entertain me. So things slowed down a bit more.

Finally I read again what was left, savouring the nuanced stuff I’d inevitably find in and between the lines. And there I found the keepers.

A 1978 reprint of Isaac Asimov's 'Pebble' in the Sky' novel. Originally purchased used for Ā£0.40 I could have got Ā£0.20 from the market stall if I'd returned it. But I did not. (The turned over corners are not my doing, I abhor it).
A 1978 reprint of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Pebble’ in the Sky’ novel. Originally purchased used for Ā£0.40 I could have got Ā£0.20 from the market stall if I’d returned it. But I did not. (The turned over corners are not my doing, I abhor it).

Eventually life changed and I stopped visiting that market stall. I found enough to fill the void. Family, responsibility, different stuff.

Retirement’s a few years off yet, but close enough that I know what I’ll be doing for at least a part of it.

And last year I found another market stall, one town over.

Oddbox

We had a first ‘Oddbox’1 of fruit delivered yesterday. Priced against a major supermarket chain there’s a distinct disadvantage to a consumer having a literal box of fruit delivered weekly or fortnightly2, but life’s about so much more right?

The company’s basic premise is that they take the fruit (and vegetables) supermarkets deem too misshapen, too large or too small, or with slight weather damage. It’s ‘wonky’. It stops farmers having to throw produce away because of some ideal.

Back to economics.

For just over Ā£15 including a delivery fee they delivered (in a ‘Modern Milkman’ van) 9 apples, 6 not-quite-ripe bananas, 6 oranges, a punnet of grapes, a similar weight of small sweet tomatoes, and a ripe pineapple.

7 apples and 6 oranges in front of a fruit bowl, the contents of which aren't shown.
7 apples and 6 oranges in front of a fruit bowl, the contents of which aren’t shown.

I know I’m paying for the convenience and yes, feel good factor, but right now I don’t care. I have to do something to get my blood pressure and cholesterol down and so I think I can support this, at least for a while.

Filing this, in my head, under ‘healthy’.

And now all I have to do is wean my habits off Spam, big meaty breakfasts once a week, kebabs, andā€¦ (gulps) chocolate.

So, ideas, that’s why I signed up. You’d think I’d be old enough to know what I want.

Apparently not.

  1. https://www.oddbox.co.uk – tagline: “Rescue the “too wonky” and “too many” direct from farmers to your door, and help fight food waste with every deliciously odd fruit and veg box delivery.” ↩
  2. A term for every 2 weeks, in case you’re thinking instead about a multiplayer video game with a Battle Royale. ↩

Haircut

Pumpkin puppy had her first major haircut a few weeks ago, going from this delightfully shaggy dog:

Pumpkin puppy, a cavapoo dog in need of a haircut.
Pumpkin puppy, a cavapoo dog in need of a haircut.

To this somewhat severe poodle-styled cut:

Pumpkin looking surprised after a rather over-zealous haircut. It'd be fair to say none of us are happy with the cut - making her look more like a poodle than a poodle-Cavalier King Charles spaniel hybrid.
Pumpkin looking surprised after a rather over-zealous haircut. It’d be fair to say none of us are happy with the cut – making her look more like a poodle than a poodle-Cavalier King Charles spaniel hybrid.

Though we’ve used the grooming place for 10 years (with Ruby dog), and though Pumpkin’s first trim was fine we probably won’t be going back again. They completely ignored my wife’s instructions to give Pumpkin an overall trim, just clearing her eyes and arse of the longest hairā€¦

To be fair, she can see now. And her hair will grow to look more like her ‘breed’ should.

Eventually.

CD

My wife bought me a CD (Compact Disc) for Valentine’s Day, for my car, to be played when she’s not in it. Though she respects the influence the band had on the music recording industry she’s not a fan of Talking Heads. She’ll listen to other people’s cover versions though, and is especially fond of Simply Red’s ‘Heaven’. Weird.

But I have a shiny new CD.

Talking Heads 'The Best Of Talking Heads' compilation album. Pumpkin puppy wonders if she can chew the case. No Pumpkin, over my dead body.
Talking Heads ‘The Best Of Talking Heads’ compilation album. Pumpkin puppy wonders if she can chew the case. No Pumpkin, over my dead body.

It took way longer than I wanted to fight my way through the plastic wrapper, the pull tab on the strip running around it was completely hidden. Fingernails scrabbling at the wrapper overlap at the top edge of the case used to be the way I got in, and today was no exception.

Extracted it, placed it in the DVD player under the TV, closed the tray and pressed ā–¶ļø.

And this is what I see.

A useless CD track listing in a TV, indicating only Track 1, Track 2, etc., though it does show track durations.
A useless CD track listing in a TV, indicating only Track 1, Track 2, etc., though it does show track durations.

What century are we living in?

Well, right now I am living in the nineteen-seventies and eighties – matching the dates of the tracks (from 1977 to 1988). And do you know, it wasn’t a bad time to grow up after all.

Anyway, for me there’s just one track missing from this 18 track album – and it’s ‘Making Flippy Floppy’.

My favourites on this disc though?

All. They made enough to leave a tremendous legacy, but not enough to get tired of. And while I like to think after all these years I’ve heard all of their stuff I know I haven’t.

Ok, ok.

‘This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)’. It’s on right now.

I wanted it to be played on the last App.net social network’s Monday Night Dance Party, but making the request spelled the DJ’s @ name incorrectly.

Still, here I am.