2009 — 18 January: Sunday

In the midst of rain, a suitably wet picture¹ of Christa for tonight:

Christa and her pond in 2005

Here's (very) much hoping the inflamed finger starts to subside during the night. I must say it's thoroughly unpleasant (and, indeed it cost me several hours sleep last night). Another piece of evidence in the non-intelligent design camp, if you ask me. G'night, at 00:18 or so.

Brightly shines...

Well I made it through the night until around 06:00 and then dozed. The inflammation is pretty much as before; the pain also, so I fear I may end up in the "A&E" department. We shall see what the doctor next door thinks. But a cuppa and breakfast first, of course. It's 09:40.

I've had my morning "consultation". We will re-assess this evening, at which point (if needed) Zahid will drive me down to the hospital and oversee my admission and treatment. Meanwhile, there's still supplies shopping to be done, lunch to cook, what have you... It's 12:10 and the finger is sore. But not the slightest comparison to what poor Christa went through, so stop moaning, Mounce!

At least I have enough strength left in my poorly mouse-clicking finger to send a "cancel" to the supplier of that tasty-looking Sony A/V receiver I ordered last week. The Onkyo turns out to be more than sufficient as a Yamaha replacement as I continue to simplify my system. These pieces of kit have come a long way since I last did a major refresh² of my main system back in 1998. Time for lunch. (14:14)

Time hangs heavy...

... as I await the return of my neighbour this evening. It's 16:59 and I have to admit I'm not exactly relaxed!

Now it's 19:12 and I've forced down an evening meal, packed an overnight bag, selected a book for the inevitable insomnia, set one of the PVRs to capture the John Mortimer evening of programmes, and doubtless forgotten whatever it is I'm supposed to remember. Cash for a taxi? Check! Coins for a phone call? Check! But I've never done this before without Christa's capable and helping hands. It's so strange, this being an adult lark. (Long overdue, of course, some will say.)

If I am admitted, overnight or longer, I dunno when the diary will be back online. Watch this space!

Footnotes

¹ If my calculations are correct (and they were the subject of the last few hours effort to ignore the discomfort — as was catching the extended edition of "QI") I've not previously published this particular shot. (If they're not, I have, but I haven't finished all the tidying up — a comprehensive spot of file name rationalisation — yet.) There's a similar shot here from nine months ago. (You have a good memory, Geoff!)
² Paid for by the sale of the tiny batch of IBM shares I had been buying (I refuse to say "investing in") over the previous fifteen years or so. When that scam was unleashed upon the ranks of wage slaves it was a "two for one, plus 15% discount" deal. I remember the discussions about "they'd have to fall a long way before you lost money on the deal". They did. So, when they recovered I talked it over with Christa and decided to turn them into something tangible that the family could enjoy. We did.