Painting the ceiling in the cottage Sunday, 10-Mar-24 22:33:27 CET

Started preparing for plastering the workshop Sunday, 24-Mar-24 21:09:06 CET

Sunday, 17-Mar-24 20:26:24 CET

Finished plastering the staircase hall

This week, I finished the plastering project. I made a tune just for fun, and you can listen to it here!

Monday 11 March

Last week, I wrote 4246 words, which I think was brilliant. To write those words, I spellchecked 88468 words. I got 303 errors in my writing. I will not write that many words this week because I don't have a holiday. Another thing I thought was brilliant was that I could knit together three completely different podcasts to form a coherent idea about the world around us. Besides these things, it was nice to have a holiday.

In November last year, I used so much power while sanding the ceiling that I had bitten my teeth together, so I had damaged a tooth. My dentist repaired it. This time, I was cautious not to bite while sanding the ceiling. That worked, though I got something else. It appears as if I brought back home pain in my hips this time. We will see how long time it will take to recover from that. After a while of sitting, my hips complain, and I stand up and walk like I was twenty years older. It was easy to go to the dentist, but what should I do now, to go to the hipster doctor?

DW had planned to go to the office this morning, but she worked from home. Merida enjoyed having us back. She slept on our bed last night, purring loudly. That is how Merida wants it. She grew bigger last week and learned a new trick: jumping to the kitchen table. I laid out strands of tape with the sticky side upwards on the table to discourage jumping onto it. We will see if we can reverse this behavior.

The sheep got a garlic salt block to munch on. They loved it.

It was overcast and drizzly weather today.

In the evening, I checked in on the former resident of the white house and his downfall. This is like watching Titanic going down in slow motion. Indeed, lying has a price; it is one and a half million dollars more expensive in two weeks for this hand-flapping rhino ranting incoherent, bizarre, unhinged jibberish.

Last week, the Swedish prime minister went to the US to deliver the formal application for NATO membership to the US state secretary. Today, Ulf went to the NATO headquarters. There was a ceremony in Brussels, and it was raining heavily. This time, he held a speech after Jens Stoltenberg. Jens Stoltenberg is 187 centimeters (6'2"); it is like Ulf reaches up to Jens' chin, just barely. When Jens finished his speech, he invited Ulf to take over the microphones so no confused camera panning occurred like last week. If Ulf's height was a function of his popularity, he would become shorter and shorter.

Tuesday 12 March

Today, when I came to the kitchen, the strands of sticky tape had moved. Some were halfway to the floor and a little messy. I do think this might deter Merida from doing this again. Time will tell.

DW and I both went to the office today. It was a little cold and overcast, not that pleasant. I still could feel my hips while walking.

Today, I arranged a remote meeting with a colleague for tomorrow.

In the evening, I unloaded the chunks of firewood we brought. This was because DW was going to a spinning event, and supposedly, she might need the whole trunk for spinning wheels. When I had unloaded the firewood, she told me there would not be so many spinning wheels. Oh well, it is good to have it done.

We still need to install doors. A door between the workshop and the hall would be lovely because it would be possible to keep Merida in while walking in and out of the workshop. She still needs to get operated, so we cannot have her walking freely just yet. We would also like to give her a GPS tracker, which is still pending.

I mounted cardboard in the door opening, creating a blockage for Merida. That worked, but she was not happy about it. She went to DW and complained about the situation. She sat on one side, listening to me walking in and out with firewood. When I was done, I removed the cardboard, and Merida went around in the workshop to find out what had changed.

This evening, I also lent out the auger machine to a neighbor.

Wednesday 13 March

Today, I worked from home in the morning, DW had a day off, and she went to a wool spinning event.

The moment for the meeting with my colleague arrived. I had prepared for it. All went fine; we shared screens and spoke on the telephone. We were 9 minutes into the session. We had finished the greetings, and I had started to explain something, but then the Internet died. It was totally dead. At first, the internet service provider said there was no issue in our neighborhood.

I was unsure what to think about the situation, but I texted my colleague and told him I experienced an outage. That was before I knew it for sure. Moments later, neighbors started asking if anyone else had experienced any problems. Then, it was clear that this was an actual internet outage. A couple more moments later, the internet service provider also figured out that it was an outage. They said that the Internet would be back at 2 AM. I did not believe them. I thought it might be back in just a couple of minutes. You can keep thinking that that is what I did for a long time. I had just a half day of work, and it passed by with me doing very little for work, checking if the Internet was back. That did not happen.

Instead, I decided to do an emergency repair on my work trousers. The first time, I repaired my trousers by hand. That was back in February 2022. I repaired the trousers today. I first repaired them in April last year. Back then, we had a good standing with DF and DM. That has since then deteriorated, which is sad. I had to have something on while working, and I did not want to have gaping holes in my trousers, so I decided to do a visual mending, a la Jens.

The Internet was down almost exactly until 2 PM. That was then my free portion of the day, but I decided to call my colleague anyway and finish the meeting. Luckily, he could rearrange his calendar so he could have a meeting with me. We finished what we had to finish, and it felt much better. I'm not too fond of unfinished business. Then, I could log out and do my free part of the day.

I finished plastering the staircase hall! That is a fantastic feeling. Now, the painting crew can do their job (DW). Well, there is a tiny little patch that I still need to do, but for the rest, it is finished.

Thursday 14 March

Today, DW worked from home, and I went to the office. I continued on the issue I worked on yesterday. It went well; I solved the problem and could continue working on it.

I decided it was time for the puzzle to be unpacked to celebrate the success. Perhaps it was slightly too early. The headmaster of the puzzle activities was hesitant to start on a new puzzle. But I was eager to start the puzzle, so I had no patience to wait.

After work, I sat at the puzzle table and laid some pieces. It was actually fun! Then, it was time to go home. It was great that I solved the challenging issue.

Friday 15 March

Today, we both worked from our offices. There were few people in the office, but it was jolly anyway. I laid a few more pieces of the puzzle.

DW returned on the train early, so we both continued working from home. It was a hybrid day, so to speak.

It worked out very well; I finished what I had to finish before the weekend.

I found a YouTube video that was published this Friday afternoon by Arcade. The title was "AI Will Replace Music Producers."

I tried it. I randomly made these lyrics: "Working hard, every day, building for the future."

I gave this to Open IA Chat GPT. It produced some texts. I sat and fiddled with it for ten minutes, trying it. It was surprisingly good.

 

DW had been out in the cold and needed a warming fire at the stove. I could arrange a fire with three chunks we brought back from Sweden last week.

Saturday 16 March

Today, we woke up early again. DW had a day out with her friends.

It was lovely weather today. I let the sheep out. They even made a couple of jumps of happiness. There is grass to eat, but not in abundance. The grass is not strong enough for their hooves in the winter, so we keep them in their winter area. There has been a lot of rain this winter, and the grass is incredibly fragile. As the temperature increases, the grass gets stronger. It is then nice to let them out briefly when it is dry. This time, they were two hours outside their winter area. They went back to the rain roof and were lying there quietly regurgitating.

I had a look at the lyrics I made yesterday. Would it not be nicer if I made the syllables match up and even make it so there were similar rhythms between lines? Yes, I am still learning how to do this, and I am okay with the result; although I have to say that these lyrics are awfully cheesy, it was great fun making them.

[Verse]

Working hard, building for the future.
Chasing dreams, start the computer.
In the rhythm of life, we find our groove,
With the beat, we rise. This is how we move.

[Verse]

Sun goes down, and we dance away the night.
We are alive, and all will be alright.
Music takes control, we are lost in the flow,
Building the system, this is how we glow.

[Chorus]

Bing, bing, bing, bang, bang bang.
Bing, bing, bing, bing, bang bang.

[Verse]

Hands up high, reaching for the stars.
Free at last, breaking through the bars.
Are we closer to our dreams?
Truth is nothing as it seems.

[Verse]

So, the bassline guides us through high and low.
Feel the music in your chest. You will know.
With this beat, our moves are connected.
The drop is hard, and feet are affected.

Here is the result of this effort. Funny!

In the afternoon, I wanted to take Merida for a walk. That turned out to be a disastrous decision. Merida got the harness on. Her belly had grown since the last time she had the harness. Merida accepted me putting it on, so that was nice. At the moment she had it on, we got a visitor. This is Hunter, the neighbor's cat. He ran away before we were ready to go out.

I held Merida in my arms, and she soon started shivering when I got out. I wondered if it was because she was cold or afraid. I decided that it was because she was cold. I talked to her calmly and continued to walk around the house, holding her in my arms with the hope that she would not be so cold. There was no point walking to the sheep because they were so big and scary, so I went in another direction. I had been outside perhaps three minutes when her shivering transitioned into an epileptic seizure. It started more slowly than before. I turned around and walked back to the house as fast as possible. When I came inside, she peed while I put her on the floor. She woke up from the seizure more quickly than the previous seizures. So now I sat with her in a pool of pee; she had peed on my jacket and my trousers as well. I cleaned up after her while she ran away in the house, leaving wet footsteps after her.

She decided it was safe to stay beside our bed while licking her fur. It took some time to clean the fur. After a good while, I cleaned up that place as well. I am afraid I will find spots in the house with a bit of pee odor spot.

This was thus her seventh seizure. I am confident that this time, it was my doing that caused it. That makes me a little sad. The good thing was that it was a short seizure, if that could help. The next time she shivers, I know it is because she is afraid.

After this event, I was a little empty inside. I was not the kind of Jens who writes cheesy, happy songs. I went for a walk. On my walk, I came across three neighbors. I got updated on things that happened in the neighborhood. That was not all happy news. I was told that a neighbor was currently in the hospital, fighting for his life. There were also positive things that had happened. People had booked progress in their building projects, improved their gardens, and resolved disagreements. That is all very good.

A neighbor came by with a get-better card that I signed. I do hope he will get better.

DW returned from her day out with her friends late in the evening. They had gone to a huge fabric market, a gadget shop, a glass melting workshop, a luxury restaurant and had a walk in a beautiful park. That was a lovely day out, indeed. A little better than my day.

Sunday 17 March

Today, we had a family gathering at the PILs house. DW, DS, and I. DW's sister SIL and her husband UIL were there, as was DW's brother BIL. There were nine people. The task for today was to maintain the MIL garden. She has been a keen gardener for a large part of her life, and it is now getting a little too heavy for her, so we all came to do garden maintenance.

We collected brown sticks, leaves, and branches from last year's growth. Trees were released from ivy that tried to climb up the trunk. We cut back a holly shrub to half the size. Some other brushes were cut back as well.

It was great to meet the whole clan. We brought two cakes to celebrate DS's birthday, which occurred when we were in Sweden.

The weather held up nicely. It was overcast, but there was no drizzle or rain. We were finished when the rain started falling. That was okay.

This concludes this week's blog post. I am mostly healed from the activities in Sweden. My hips are still a little sore, but they are getting much better.

I finished the plastering project on the staircase this week! In the evening, DW ordered the paint for the hall. We are still using Auro paint, which is organic and breathable, meaning the walls let through moisture. That gives an excellent indoor climate.