Well - Something happened yesterday which has left me feeling a bit "scared". I was checking out how the battery voltage on my Ibiza had settled out after being on charge for a while (Posted yesterday) and one of my pals, Bob "the welder" who lives at the end of the road, pulled up to the kerbside. He stuck his head out the window and said " can you give me an opinion on this and maybe fix it for me"? He popped the bonnet and pointed to the "front" engine mount (timing chain end) of his 2007 Honda Jazz IDSI. He thought one of the two big studs had sheared. This engine is exactly the same as my daughter in law's 2008 Jazz so I know it well and I thought exactly the same thing when I first worked on hers. Actually what it is is that the front stud is installed from the top and the back one is installed from the bottom. So what you see, looking down from the top is, a normal hex headed fixing on the front one and the very end of the screw thread of the one behind it which has been inserted from the bottom. Many years of corrosion - Alloy mounting/steel stud - and it closely resembles a sheared stud with it's hex head missing. He was enormously relieved when I was able to tell him not to worry about it.
Anyway, he then sat in his car and I bent down, socially distanced, chatting to him through the passenger's side window. We are good friends having followed a similar life "blue print" He started off in the shipyards before going into the North Sea and then teaching welding at tech college. I did the workshop thing before also teaching then changing to working with learning disabled people at the end of my working life. We always find something interesting to talk about and have similar "politically incorrect" views about modern life! So we were asking the usual sort of questions, How's things with you? Family all Ok? etc. etc. Then I said that although there is all this concern on the TV etc about Covid that, so far We only knew two people who had contracted it - My youngest boy just less than a year ago who didn't actually get very ill with it and my wife's friend, in her 80's who was very ill but survived. Then I asked "how about you, do you know of anyone who's got it badly"? He replied that although his family are all fine did I know that a number of people in the bowling club - we don't bowl but do go to some of the social functions - had died and also three of his drinking buddies down in Leith had also died, several more peolpe he knows are also seriously ill in the hospital. I'm not sure why, maybe because I'm not aware of any of our neighbours being ill or anyone else I'm close to, but I'm feeling shocked and not a little scared and insecure to hear of all these deaths so "near to home" The bowling club people will all be people we probably have more than a passing acquaintance with.
We have been isolating as best we can and haven't been away from the house/garden for almost exactly 2 weeks now. We are going to do a big food shop tomorrow about which I am feeling a little anxious, but we are very careful to only go in the supermarket if it looks quiet and we wear our masks and gloves and distance from others, so probably all we can do. I'm much more worried about looking after our wee grandson (15 moths old) on a Tuesday. It's the only reason we leave the house apart from taking exercise and food shopping but it does mean we spend the day at their house. She only works part time just now but my son does a full day at his work on a Tuesday so can't stay to look after him and she can't find a place for him with a paid minder so if she is going to work, and by golly they need the money, We are their only option. Whereas before I was feeling reasonably "happy" about us doing this, now, with the schools being closed my granddaughter will be there too, home schooling - so it's going to take the two of us (Mrs J and I) to "keep the lid on". It's all left me feeling a bit "twitchy". There may be a wee chink of light on the horizon though. We just had a 'phone call this morning from my daughter in law to say her employer is giving her advanced notice they are considering furloughing her! In fact her work have not needed her for the last fortnight so we haven't been needed and they have told her not to come into work tomorrow so we won't be needed this week either. If the furlough her this could solve the whole situation for us as it would mean we wouldn't be needed to childmind and could just stay home and isolate 'till we get our jabs. I've got my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed, sleeve rolled up "at the ready"!
Still feeling shattered and insecure to have heard of all these deaths though - It's really clobbered me in a way I hadn't seen coming!
On a different note and talking about extended interval food shopping, We find it's milk which always goes "off" first and forces you out to the shops. We've discovered semi skimmed "Filtered Milk" in Lidl - I believe others are selling it too. It lasts for absolutely ages. Mrs J only uses fully skimmed "white water" as I call it but I use the semi skimmed and I was finding that a normal 2 litres (or pints) of semi skimmed would often go off before I could use it all. Now I buy 2 containers, @ 2 litres or pints each, and keep them in the fridge. One container lasts me almost exactly a week then I start on the other. I never have a problem with even the second pack going off! Wonderful stuff and, if anything, it maybe tastes just a tad more creamy than "ordinary" semi skimmed! - Must remember to start shaving the hair from the palms of my hands, soles of my feet and end of my nose though -- Ha, Ha!
Anyway, he then sat in his car and I bent down, socially distanced, chatting to him through the passenger's side window. We are good friends having followed a similar life "blue print" He started off in the shipyards before going into the North Sea and then teaching welding at tech college. I did the workshop thing before also teaching then changing to working with learning disabled people at the end of my working life. We always find something interesting to talk about and have similar "politically incorrect" views about modern life! So we were asking the usual sort of questions, How's things with you? Family all Ok? etc. etc. Then I said that although there is all this concern on the TV etc about Covid that, so far We only knew two people who had contracted it - My youngest boy just less than a year ago who didn't actually get very ill with it and my wife's friend, in her 80's who was very ill but survived. Then I asked "how about you, do you know of anyone who's got it badly"? He replied that although his family are all fine did I know that a number of people in the bowling club - we don't bowl but do go to some of the social functions - had died and also three of his drinking buddies down in Leith had also died, several more peolpe he knows are also seriously ill in the hospital. I'm not sure why, maybe because I'm not aware of any of our neighbours being ill or anyone else I'm close to, but I'm feeling shocked and not a little scared and insecure to hear of all these deaths so "near to home" The bowling club people will all be people we probably have more than a passing acquaintance with.
We have been isolating as best we can and haven't been away from the house/garden for almost exactly 2 weeks now. We are going to do a big food shop tomorrow about which I am feeling a little anxious, but we are very careful to only go in the supermarket if it looks quiet and we wear our masks and gloves and distance from others, so probably all we can do. I'm much more worried about looking after our wee grandson (15 moths old) on a Tuesday. It's the only reason we leave the house apart from taking exercise and food shopping but it does mean we spend the day at their house. She only works part time just now but my son does a full day at his work on a Tuesday so can't stay to look after him and she can't find a place for him with a paid minder so if she is going to work, and by golly they need the money, We are their only option. Whereas before I was feeling reasonably "happy" about us doing this, now, with the schools being closed my granddaughter will be there too, home schooling - so it's going to take the two of us (Mrs J and I) to "keep the lid on". It's all left me feeling a bit "twitchy". There may be a wee chink of light on the horizon though. We just had a 'phone call this morning from my daughter in law to say her employer is giving her advanced notice they are considering furloughing her! In fact her work have not needed her for the last fortnight so we haven't been needed and they have told her not to come into work tomorrow so we won't be needed this week either. If the furlough her this could solve the whole situation for us as it would mean we wouldn't be needed to childmind and could just stay home and isolate 'till we get our jabs. I've got my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed, sleeve rolled up "at the ready"!
Still feeling shattered and insecure to have heard of all these deaths though - It's really clobbered me in a way I hadn't seen coming!
On a different note and talking about extended interval food shopping, We find it's milk which always goes "off" first and forces you out to the shops. We've discovered semi skimmed "Filtered Milk" in Lidl - I believe others are selling it too. It lasts for absolutely ages. Mrs J only uses fully skimmed "white water" as I call it but I use the semi skimmed and I was finding that a normal 2 litres (or pints) of semi skimmed would often go off before I could use it all. Now I buy 2 containers, @ 2 litres or pints each, and keep them in the fridge. One container lasts me almost exactly a week then I start on the other. I never have a problem with even the second pack going off! Wonderful stuff and, if anything, it maybe tastes just a tad more creamy than "ordinary" semi skimmed! - Must remember to start shaving the hair from the palms of my hands, soles of my feet and end of my nose though -- Ha, Ha!
