The road was finished! Sunday, 17-Dec-23 20:03:13 CET

Borrowed a scaffold Sunday, 31-Dec-23 23:59:59 CET

Monday, 25-Dec-23 08:54:40 CET

Replaced the rain-roof

This week, the storm Pia arrived. It shattered the rain roof of our sheep. We had to replace it right away. We also cleaned up the platform and prepared the sheep place for New Year's Eve. No work on the staircase walls.

Monday 18 December

We are getting closer to the end of the year. One full year of blogging every week. This week, I started blogging on Tuesday. Usually, it feels like there is not enough to blog about as early as Tuesday, although that is not always true.

Tuesday 19 December

This morning, we had a power outage. It happened just before I could make fruit into a smoothie. I made pieces of fruit in a bowl instead. DW was still sleeping, so I surprised her with breakfast on the bed. Last weekend we bought electric candles. It was convenient at that moment. The power outage took about 30 minutes to fix, which was not bad.

At work, it was my day at the Yule calendar. Three colleagues have been knitting Yule balls; it is so much fun. Then, they set up a calendar where colleagues are getting to open a little sweet package with the crafted present. I took the ball home.

It was time for the yearly vehicle check-up today. In the Netherlands, it is called APK. In the UK, it is called the MOT test. It is essentially a roadworthiness test. This subject is tied to various nations' local regulations, so there is hardly even a typical Wikipedia article about it. Interesting in itself that there are large holes in the Wikipedia network about the subject. That means that AI and other services cannot talk about the subject properly. That does not hold me back from talking about it. Our car had to have new springs back. It was not too expensive.

DW worked from home. She had Merida on her lap when Merida had her third epileptic seizure. When it was over, Merida woke up and was a little surprised. She jumped down from DW's lap and went to eat. It took about two or three minutes. After work, DW set up the Yule tree. I decorated the tree with my newly received Yule ball when I came home.

In the evening, it happened again. Merida had her fourth seizure. It lasted three minutes. All my hope that this was a one-time event is now lost. We are going to the veterinarian tomorrow.

Wednesday 20 December

I worked half a day from home today, and DW had a day off.

After lunch, we prepared to go to the veterinarian. It was not that easy compared to earlier times. Merida did not want to go into the transport box. She tried to run away and made hissing sounds, but I held her. We calmed down for a while, and then we did it again. I put her in the box, and she did not want to, but DW helped me close the door this time. That worked. I sat with Merida on my lap while DW drove. She made roaring sounds from time to time. It was hard to hear her roaring due to the motor noise of the car; we still don't have an electric car. I could feel the vibrations, though. Perhaps Merida did not like DW's driving style?

We arrived at the veterinarian. It was less luxurious compared to our previous veterinarian. We had to switch to this place because they had more options for doing medical health checks on animals. The vet shaved off hair on Merida's throat. Then, she took blood samples. An assistant held Merida, and she did some more roaring sounds. She got more and more comfortable and used to the treatment. Each new needle was a little painful, and Merida roared more. The veterinarian also measured Merida's temperature and weight.

The veterinarian watched the film I had recorded the day before. She described it as a severe seizure. We got medicine to stop attacks if they lasted longer than three minutes.

The veterinarian discussed how this was a young cat, and the seizure was severe, but the conclusion was unspoken. We do not know it since it was not spoken out, and I did not ask about her conclusion. We will get the results of the blood tests, and then we know more. Then, it is time for accurate conclusions. Or not?

On the way home, I drove. I tried to drive as smoothly as possible but could not ask Merida if she preferred me as a driver or DW. Well, I could ask, but she would not answer. There was no roaring from the transport box.

It appears that this visit to the veterinarian was far worse than any of the epileptic seizures. Merida was tired and sat on the couch the rest of the day and evening. She did not follow me around as she usually does. Perhaps she was a bit reluctant to me since I had put her in that box.

Thursday 21 December

Today, both DW and I went to our respective offices. I know what you are thinking: Merida is alone; who will look after her? That is correct; no one will look after her. We arranged our work in office days so that we are at home most of the time, but there are occasions when we both go to the office, and this is one such day. There is not much to do about it. It is what it is.

Today, the storm Pia arrived in the Netherlands. The rain roof ripped apart.

DS sent this movie. I asked him to cut off the rest of the roof to make the situation less scary for the sheep. It worked out well. After a while, he sent this picture, which is much more pleasant for the sheep. They do prefer a roof, but they are weatherproof. In a storm, they don't care much.

Today, we got the answers from the veterinarian. The blood samples showed that Merida has no issues with inner organs. She is healthy. It would require more investigation if we would like to know more. We have to make a decision on how to proceed on this. It costs money and is tough on Merida, and I wonder if we should go ahead immediately. I am thinking of a wait-and-see approach on this matter.

DW was enjoying a company festivity. It took some time to get home, but I waited patiently, or instead, I worked on my stuff to get it done on time. It got really late.

At night, the storm Pia went on, raining on us. It did not only rain but there was hail as well.

Friday 22 December

Today, DW worked from home. I went to the office. There were not that many people at the office, but I was lucky that there were people at all. Some have already left for the Yule holiday. When I grew up in Sweden, it was called Jul or Yule in English. When I moved to the Netherlands and started blogging in English, this holiday's regular name became increasingly intimidating. Oh, dear, I am so pleased with my decision to call this stuff for Yule. As I have grown older, I have become less patient with fantasy figures and multinational corporations running fraudulent schemes selling the delegation of accountability. That is immoral at times when human accountability is vital for the survival of humankind on the earth. The pagan and Roman traditions of Saturnalia predate the current fantasy figure era; I can live with that. Oh well, it is Friday. I went to the office.

I finished what I had to finish at work. It felt excellent. When I was done, I felt it had been good to go home early. Primarily since I worked so long yesterday. That was when I received my boss's message that it was okay to go home early because of Yule!

On the way home, I went to the hardware store. I got the things needed to replace the shattered rain roof. I could not find a green tarp on both sides. They had a tarp with one green side and orange on the other. I bought two and thought I was clever. The tarp, this time, was 150 grams per square meter. Last time, it was 70 grams per square meter.

I thought I would work on the staircase hall, but apparently, I will work on a rain roof and planting trees.

After the hardware store, the plan was to go and watch a choir singing, but right now, Pia is bringing a lot of precipitation in the storm's tail. I hope the choir did not sing in the rain because it was a heavy shower. We stayed at home. When most of the rain had fallen, I bought two pizzas at the shop. Easy.

Then, I continued on with my Visual Effects program. I am working on a new scene where I will paint things on top of the image from the camera. I planned to do this with the Open CV library. It would not been so difficult if I just wanted to paint a line or a circle. It becomes much more complex when I want to apply Gaussian blur or other effects on the things I draw. The plan right now is to draw lines, etc., in a separate image and apply Gaussian blur, and when things are ready, I will transfer them to the camera image. This means I must figure out how to select one part of an image and overlay it on another. It involves using masks with alpha values. It is all rather complex, I must say, but I continue. In the process, I will learn a couple of things.

Saturday 23 December

This morning, we had a cup of tea in bed. I blogged while DW knitted on a new sweater. She has made several sweaters. She is also learning new skills. She wanted to knit sweaters a few years back but dreaded the process. Gradually, it is getting better and better with how it feels. Not only that, but I also have two new sweaters made by her. That is great.

Today, our primary mission was to replace the shattered rain roof. I started making the first rain roof on 19 September 2022. On 11 October 2022, I worked on the reinforcement of the tarp. This was the first time I used the triangles. It is unclear exactly when I put it up. It has been great, so now it is time to replace it.

When I bought the stuff, I did not calculate what I needed. It turned out to be so I bought twice the amount of plates. I will keep those for the next time I need to replace the rain roof.

It was impossible to put two tarps because they had different sizes. The size difference was too much to make it work. We removed one tarp and made a single-layer rain roof; the green side will be up, and the orange side will be down.

There goes fourteen triangles into a three-by-four-meter tarp. I cut out the ring and put a triangle in all the places with a hole in the tarp. That is fourteen places.

In the previous design, the spanners were loose. I used a regular rope of various quality. I even used metal wire. All those binding and tying methods allowed for knots, etc. In the new design, I decided to use metal wire. You cannot just make knots in thicker metal wire. For that, you need to use steel wire clamps. I bought them, but they are cumbersome to use. I figured out that if the fastener is bolted onto the triangles, I can avoid using wire clamps.

Before setting up the tarp, I added horizontal beams to the scaffold. That will make it more sturdy.

It was dark when the roof was finished. I could not take a photo of the end result. I will do that tomorrow.

When we finished the rain roof, we went shopping for groceries.

I worked on the visual effects program in the evening. It was not that simple. I could not create a grayscale image with three channels. Frustrated but tired, I went to bed.

Sunday 24 December

With a cup of tea and the laptop in bed this morning, I created a grayscale image with three channels.

The main task for today was to remove manure from the platform under the rain roof. It was heavy. I even brushed the sheep platform with water after removing all the manure. Then, I applied a thin layer of straw. Next, I set up fences around the rain roof construction. This is for New Year's Eve next week. We will not repeat the same disaster that we had last year.

 

I had one fence part that was too few, so I went to neighbors to ask if they had any, and indeed, they had one fence part for me. They had many more, but I just needed one, so I was happy. This way, I created an enclosure the sheep cannot escape from. I let the enclosure open so they can go in and out freely, but we will close it on New Year's Day.

While I worked on all this, DW worked on food. The sheep were in front of the house. They got so dirty lately. I do hope this cleanup action will do them good.

Here, Merida is posing as Leo the Lion by MGM in her new tower. I must say, though, that this is Merida's "What are you up to?" expression. It is curious but not wholly content. On the other hand, if someone suddenly points a telescope lens at you, what would you think about that?

Tonight, DS came to us, and we ate good food. Although this was the Yule evening, I did not have that genuine Yule feeling like I had when I was a kid. 24 December was the big day when I grew up. Today, I mocked manure; perhaps it is hard to get into a Yule feeling when moving manure?

From a blog point of view, this was a great week; I wrote 2477 words. I did not work on the staircase walls, which was a bummer. My hobby project, The Visual Effects program, is almost at a standstill because it is so difficult to program Open CV. I am learning things, so that is okay. At work, I got a project as far as I had promised my boss, which is an excellent feat. I got the sheep ready for New Year's Eve, which is excellent. We are worried about Merida but have hope she will manage.

God Jul everybody!