Thread 12 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 11).

The days are gradually growing longer, but the worst of the winter weather is not yet behind us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Such lovely memories to share.

I wanted to get to the West Country for the eclipse that year but didn’t manage it. I was in central London (Trafalgar Square and the Mall) and remember enjoying the way the city fell silent (like animals do) because everyone and everything just stopped. And as it got past the darkest point everything started up again and there was much tooting of horns mostly by bus drivers who wanted their streets back.

I was thinking of battery storage rather than a generator @Britinme - mostly people have them when they also have solar but here I think quite a few people are getting batteries even if they can’t have solar as time of use tariffs mean you can charge the battery when demand (and therefore the price) is low and use the power at peak time rather than drawing from the grid.

I watched it from an alleyway about half a mile north of Squeaky, having spent the morning making pinhole cameras with the rest of the office. Too overcast for much detail. A field in Dorset sounds much more fun.

Speaking of exciting phenomena, whoever captioned this on the BBC can't tell the difference between a landmark shaking and the camera shaking. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-68744775

@artant I haven't seen any kind of battery storage like that but it sounds like an interesting idea. I'll Google and see if there's anything like that feasible.

Apparently Maine is inundated with eclipse hunters and the roads are likely to be chockablock so I doubt we'll drive up to the area. Where we are we should be at about 97% totality I think. I was at a full eclipse in Italy in 1999 I think, in August. When my first husband was alive we were at a swimming pool and it got chilly quite quickly. Very eerie when the birds all went quiet.

Sorry that post was a bit garbled due to editing before posting and then not previewing. I was trying to convey that the we now is a different we from the we that saw the eclipse in 1999. I'll shut up now.

Having looked it up, I'll have a chance to see part of the eclipse just before sunset - If the sky is clear, that might be quite good - if the sky isn't clear it will just be 'what a dark evening'.

Brother's cat friend Barney, who is trying to move in from his neighbour's house, says hello. They seem to adore each other so it may yet happen.

I do love a black cat.

Still lightheaded despite having got plenty of nutrition in for the last couple of days and heading there today. I think it's a magnesium and potassium thing so I'm going to call on Monday to see if I can get a blood test followed by an infusion. This is definitely not hunger dizziness.

Friend B didn't get as much done as I'd hoped yesterday but the place looks better and I had a shower while she was here which made me feel so much better. I have another friend coming tomorrow for my birthday when there shall be no cleaning just lots and lots of chatting and laughing.

We have a battery as part of our solar set up, but I don't see why it wouldn't work without the panels. Through the winter when we weren't getting much sun it still saved money by charging up on the half-price night rate so we could use it during the day.

The standard set up doesn't work during a powercut because they don't want it discharging into the grid and electrocuting the people trying to fix it, but it possible to have a switch fitted to cut the grid connection in a power cut and use the battery to run the house.

I'm not sure how the numbers would stack up if you dont have a dual tarrif and only wanted it for powercuts. For that a solar generator might work out cheaper - and will regenerate to an extent if the outage is prolonged, whereas a battery will be empty after a day or 2.

Barney has certainly made himself comfortable.

I hope the dizziness passes soon, Mouse. A vitamin/mineral/electrolyte factor could well be in play, so the blood test is a good idea.

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast Look at that precious panther face 😻

@MouseMinge I hope you have a lovely day tomorrow.

I slept most of the afternoon, not sure if it’s the zoladex side effects or if it’s the new progesterone element of the HRT I added in yesterday. I also had my first proper hot flush followed by chills, which was nice. On the plus side I made an amazing cake yesterday, so I have cake.

I’m about to watch Anatomy of a Fall.

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast Brother's cat friend Barney, who is trying to move in from his neighbour's house, says hello. They seem to adore each other so it may yet happen.

Though Barney may, of course, choose to move into one of the other 6 houses he visits daily! We thought Visitorcat Ron (real name, as it turned out, Marley) was trying to move in with us, until one day we met him outside his own home. His human mum (we didn't know her) was chatting by the gate when Ron charged up the road and hurled himself at us before realising he'd been caught in the act of prostituting himself. He slunk indoors, and she just laughed and said "Oh, are you more of his victims?" Turned out he had a radius of about 2 km and generally started his day with an old boy in his 90s who bought cat milk especially for him!

Sadly they moved away - we still miss him sneaking in through a window, hopping silently on to the back of a chair and tapping me on the shoulder, or suddenly appearing in MrGon's lap, or simply finding him staring hopefully at the fridge.

Interesting thought about battery backup system - not sure it's worth it for us as, despite the evidence of this winter, this is the first time we've had power cuts in this house in the six years we've been here. In our old house we had a petrol-powered generator because the power went out at some point every winter (overhead power lines, lots of trees nearby...)

@Gonners that must be 'Six Dinner Sid' you're referring to. What a cheeky cat, visiting all those houses. Still, can't blame him. We had a dog who was like that and it became clear when we went camping and he kept going into other people's tents and making himself at home.

I still miss Garfield, my ginger stepson. The only thing I miss about my old flat. If I could have brought him with me I would have. I sometimes wonder if Francis misses him too but my guess is that he doesn't because he's a cat and has almost certainly forgotten that Garfield even exists.

The sun is out and my friend E is on her way. It all looked like it might not happen yesterday due to a landslide type thing near hassocks messing up the trains but it got sorted so huzzah for that!

Glad you're seeing your friend today, Mouse.

Mr Veg has jet washed and then actually washed my car and now I scarcely recognise it. There was moss around the windows and lichen had started to speckle the paintwork, plus it was absolutely filthy. We got a snazzy new jet wash for work after the last one packed up so he's been having a bit of a frenzy, blasting the slabs here and both cars. After all the rain we've had everything was covered in algae, so it needed something doing. Next up is cleaning up the patios of the people we work for, many of whom are elderly and worry about slipping and falling over.

Can he do mine next? I went at the moss growing around the windows with a key the other day. There’s green stuff all over the trims too that needs scrubbing off. I need to go and give it a proper wash with a bucket and sponge but it’s so awkward going up and down the stairs and I struggle to do it all with my shoulder.

There is an automatic carwash nearby but it’s rubbish and also very scary.

I had a lovely time with E. Had the back door open until the sun came down and it was so nice to feel as though it was actual spring and not just a shitty continuation of something between winter and autumn. The worst of all possible worlds. Or something.

E and I just sat talking and talking and talking which is one of our favourite things to do. Some serious stuff, some hilarious stuff, some which left us both thinking deeply. It was perfect. One moment of definite imperfection. When she was about to leave I got up for our big hug. My head was low because I can't be fully vertical and she was singing happy birthday and swaying. I was about to say to her, "I think we need to stop swaying" and then I was sitting on my recliner shaking and feeling scared because I had no idea wtf was going on. So, yeah, I fainted but because I was being held I didn't fall but as anyone who's fainted knows when you come to everything feels weird and unreal. I was doubly scared because of course I'm ill and I thought something was horribly wrong. Poor E was worried because I was shaking and very obviously verging on terrified. I think I realised pretty quickly, within 30 seconds what had happened. We stuck on my oxygen and beats per minute finger thing to see how my heart rate was. Suffice it to say it was through the roof. Lots of slow breathing and it got down to its current normal which is high but it is what it is. E was prepared to stay longer but once I knew I was fine I sent her on her way.

So, yeah. Great day not ruined but certainly an attempt to ruin my day by stupid drama queen (joking obviously because, blah) fainting. The positive to me is that I know I'm not just feeling the dizziness, fainting can and will happen. I had every intention of calling my nurses tomorrow anyway because I'm convinced it's the whole potassium/magnesium thing and I definitely need that infusion.

Lovely day, slight hiccup, oh, and gorgeous flowers from Snoop via Bloom and Wild. For a 59 year old, pretty sick, currently unable to go out and about and do anything much other than sit or lay down and be, I had a pretty damn fine day!

The fainting sounds scary but good that you had a good day despite that. A great big happy birthday to you (albeit a big late).

Yes, belated many happy returns from me, too!

Belated birthday greetings @MouseMinge and I am glad you had a (mostly) lovely day - I hope the dizziness and fainting can be quickly resolved!

That must’ve been really scary @MouseMinge, but I’m glad you otherwise had a lovely day. Did you manage to speak to the nurses?

My friend played a terrible trick on me today. She sent me a photo of the sun being eclipsed out of her bedroom window. I was half asleep at the time and ran to my window to have a look, realised the sun was behind a building so started to grab some things to dash outside. Obviously it turned out that she had altered the image and had caught me in a moment of compromised logic. I’m blaming the menopause.

Happy YesterBirthday, @MouseMinge and hope they've managed to infuse you with the non-falling-over stuff.

About 10 minutes ago, while I was wondering whether lovely stepson in Montreal saw the eclipse, I casually looked out of the window to see the most spectacular display of what looked like multicoloured clouds of lightning to the east, somewhere over the sea between East Kent and Foreign Parts. No sound, just flashes of lights. It was very jolly, though of course it may herald The Apocalypse in which case ... bye!