#Storms By The #Ocean, Medical Mutterings, #Baking, And Phone Upgrades

The above video is what it looked and sounded like when looking out of our living room window towards the ocean last Tuesday. The whistling sound is caused by the wind. It got worse and started raining shortly after that clip was done. Needless to say, the plans of the repair guys to be up on the roof doing more work that day were changed. The guy in charge came to make sure the skylight was secure, but wasn't about to do more than that. Quite frankly, we didn't blame him for not wanting to do the outside jobs in that weather. He promised to come back the first day it was safe, which was fair enough as far as we were concerned. Although, I don't know why they didn't just do the inside jobs while the weather wouldn't allow for them to be doing the outside jobs. Either way, I spent the day listening to the stormy weather and rough ocean, while alternating between playing with Lilie and doing things I both needed and wanted to do around the house. Well, that and resting some, since I'm still not 100% recovered. Pretty close though from my point of view, since I'm doing loads better, and don't hurt so much any more.

The weather wasn't quite as bad on Wednesday, but it was still pretty rough, so the repair guys still didn't come. Mostly that means it ended up another day like Tuesday had been, except I randomly decided I wanted to bake cookies. There's a sign I'm doing better right there... I haven't done much baking in the past couple of years, because I haven't really felt up to it. Anyway, I made some chocolate cinnamon cookies. Well, with some help from Kelly, since he had to reach up to get things down from the cupboards, and bend down to deal with the oven for me, since I'm still meant to be avoiding too much bending and stretching. Either way, chocolate cinnamon cookies were baked, and we enjoyed eating them afterwards. Kelly was pleased to have me baking cookies, and said the only way they could have been better is if they were brownies. Given his love of a good brownie, I took it as a compliment. No. I don't have photos of the cookies. I only made a small batch, and we'd eaten them before I thought about it.

Most of the rest of the week continued in the same manner. I didn't do any more baking, but the storms of various intensity prevented the workmen from coming to finish the roof and fix the skylight until yesterday, when the sun finally decided to return. Well, the sun actually returned on Sunday - rather appropriately - but they don't work on weekends if they can help it. As I said, I'm not sure why they didn't just come do the inside jobs while the weather was stopping them from doing the outside ones. It wasn't my choice to make though. If it had been, that's what they'd have done. But there you go.

Anyway, the not knowing what would happen each day until we got up and saw what the weather was doing made it even more difficult to plan what we'd be doing each day than it usually is for us, which was a bit frustrating. OK. A lot frustrating. Not that we usually have everything planned out, but we generally at least have tentative plans, and the result of the weather situation was that the tentative plans I'd had for the week went out of the window. Although, I did somehow end up being quite productive regardless, and I managed to cross lots of little tasks - both online and offline ones - off my to-do list, which is a good thing.

I made another attempt to get the bin of used needles sat on our kitchen counter picked up. I'm talking about the ones from the shots I had to have for the first week I was home. Yeah, we still have those. The council keeps insisting they don't have the paperwork to approve the pick-up, despite the hospital having done the paperwork twice already. Well, three times if you count the one they did for me again yesterday. The hospital would just take them and dispose of them for us, except they apparently aren't allowed to do that any more. Kelly did take them in, because they thought they could, and were going to. But apparently they're not lisenced to any more or something, because the nurse was told she wasn't allowed to accept them when she went to do so, and Kelly ended up bringing them back home. So we're still trying to get them picked up and disposed of. Bearing in mind, it's now almost six weeks since I had my surgery, which makes it about four weeks we've been trying to arrange for these used needles to be picked up now. It's the council causing the problem. I know for a fact the hospital has filed the paperwork. Anyway, let's hope the council actually agree they have the paperwork that approves the pick-up this time.

The other thing I sorted was upgrades for both phones. By which I mean, the home phone and internet, and my mobile phone. I needed to do the mobile badly, since - as I told the guy from the company when he finished his professional greeting, and asked me how he could help me - "My phone is dying, and I want a new one before it finishes the job." Yes, I actually said that. Anyway, while I was thinking about phones, I figured I'd get the internet upgraded too, since they've been offering a newer modem for a while, and we only hadn't accepted it because we were going to worry about it when we moved, and then we didn't move, and I kept not getting around to calling them back. It's different companies, but I figured I'd call both while I was thinking about it. Anyway, in both cases it's just newer versions of what I already had. Same companies, newer models of the same equipment really, and pretty much the same contract details. Although, I do have more internet data with my mobile now. Both the modem and the new phone should be here Friday or before. Oh, by the way, for those who might be wondering: my new phone is going to be an iPhone 6S. A silver one. Yes, I know that's not the most up to date version of an iPhone. However, it's a lot more up to date than the iPhone 4S I've been using, and it's what my brother, Carl, upgraded to a few months ago, so I know from him it's a good phone (both in general, and in terms of accessability for the visually impaired). I figure if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me, especially since it was him who provided me with the iPhone 4S, which has served me well for more than three years now, despite having been his for more than a year before that. Plus, I've heard stuff about some of the newer models not being so great in terms of accessability, so wanted to play it safe with getting one I know someone else who's blind is using just fine.

Other than that, I worked on some of my own writing, helped Kelly with some write-ups for one of his characters for a roleplaying game he's involved with, gave Joshua and Mollie some attention, played several hundred games of fetch with Lilie, helped out a little with what Kelly would let me help with around here, and took naps whenever I needed them. So, the week may not have gone quite to plan, but it was a productive one, and a reasonably good one. I hope your week was as good, if not better.