Concrete floor Sunday, 19-Jan-25 21:17:30 CET

Sunday, 26-Jan-25 21:30:35 CET

Roadplates returned

This week, the road plates were returned. The data cable was replaced, and I started digging a trench for the rainwater pipes.

Monday 20 January

Today, DW had decided to go to work earlier than usual. Perhaps it will be a recurring pattern that we wake up earlier on Mondays. If the new alarm pattern stays, then that is given. I made a smoothie for breakfast, as I usually do. This morning, it was made from banana, apple, pear, and frozen raspberries.

When DW had left, I was sitting there. It did not feel like I would work just yet. So what should I do? Well, I started working on a new song. I knew the title already: Mothers of Russia. I wanted it to be a song directed towards the Mothers sending their sons, brothers, and husbands to the front in Putin's war.

Well, I started today's work on time. The commute to the (home) office took 20 seconds.

In the afternoon, the machine shop owner came to pick up the road plates. He arrived with his truck. Laid out the bucket on the road. In the bucket, he had a front loader with fork blades.

He dropped the road plates into the bucket with a large bang. This is not a subtle man. I had rented four plates. With the last plate, he almost got stuck in the clay.

We will not have heavy vehicles on our property for a while. When the barn is ready to move in, we will empty the sea container and move it away with a crane in some form. After that, it is possible to fill up the ground in front of the barn and arrange a connection with the driveway. But that is for later.

Apparently, this was the blue Monday. The most depressing day of the year. I thought it was suitable to make a depressing song. I finished the song Mothers of Russia in the evening. Here is the lyrics of the song:

#Chorus
Where are the mothers of Russia?
Not crying on every street,
They bury their rage in silence,
While betrayal's drums still beat.
Their sons, their husbands, their brothers,
Were stolen in endless lies.
Where are the mothers of Russia?
Stand up. Let the truth arise!

#Verse
The pastors preach courage,
But their words are soaked in deceit.
They praise the fallen for glory,
While the mothers kneel in defeat.
No gratuity can mend the hollow,
No flags can cover the pain.
It's time to stand in the open,
And let the world hear the disdain.

#Chorus
Where are the mothers of Russia?
Not crying on every street,
They bury their rage in silence,
While betrayal's drums still beat.
Their sons, their husbands, their brothers,
Were stolen in endless lies.
Where are the mothers of Russia?
Stand up. Let the truth arise!

#Verse
The streets are cold and empty,
But their grief should fill the air.
Why aren't they screaming for justice?
Why don't they shatter despair?
Eight hundred thousand souls,
Silenced by fear and control.
Mothers, set your goals:
To cry, to fight, to be whole.

#Bridge
What more is left to lose now?
What more can they take away?
Your tears are a force, not a weakness.
Let them flood the streets today.

#Chorus
Where are the mothers of Russia?
Not crying on every street,
They bury their rage in silence,
While betrayal's drums still beat.
Their sons, their husbands, their brothers,
Were stolen in endless lies.
Where are the mothers of Russia?
Stand up. Let the truth arise!

#Outro
Mothers, the world is watching,
Your silence is a sign of strife.
Cry out for those you've buried,
Cry out for stolen life.
The mothers of Russia must gather in every corner and square.
The time for silence is over.
Let your fury fill the air.

The idea of the song is that we in the West do not see any remorse from the people around the lost men.

I did not do much remastering on the song. It was almost good to go. It is amplified to minus 0.1 decibels so it sounds loud and clear. The end was trimmed off with a simple fade-out. I made the album art with Dall-e.

The Russian accent is good in this song.

Turning things I have been burdened about into songs is increasingly soothing (for me). For example, the new resident of the white house, the dangerous clown, got a place in my mind. That place is called You had one job. He rented a space in my head for free, but now he has been kicked out. I hope I can keep it that way.

Tuesday 21 January

Last night, I had problems with a stiff neck. Turning the head to the left is doable. Turning the head to the right is a bit more challenging; it hurts a lot. Maybe sleeping is a little bit challenging. Merida came to sleep next to me. She's becoming a big cat and is also relatively warm.

I did not bring any neighbors to work today. That meant we had a more relaxed morning. I was so relaxed that I started to get stressed.

When DS arrived, it was about time to put on shoes; he was going somewhere for a try-out day at an IT help desk. He wanted to borrow my bike. This is so typical of him; there is no preparation. It is around freezing temperatures. He wanted to go there without gloves, so he also got to borrow gloves. I hope he made it without freezing to death or getting pneumonia.

At 6:20 PM, I drove home. It was misty again. I see some cars turned on their mist lamps, but they don't seem necessary to me. I had a good day working on my project today. I had a glitch at the end of the day, but I can continue with that tomorrow.

In the evening, I found that Cinnamon Rolls (Metric Version) had arrived in the Music Match environment. I uploaded the lyrics and synced it. In a couple of days, it will be synced on all platforms. I love it.

Today, I agreed with the shed builder that they would arrive on 3 February to finish the remaining minor details on the barn. That is good because then they are done and out of the way. I am the customer, so I should not feel that they are demanding, and they are not. They are doing a great job. It is just that they arrive early, and when they are present, they require a little attention. It is not much, but enough to keep my mind busy. I am, of course, busy figuring out that everything is running smoothly, and it is. That is not coming by itself; it comes from my effort.

Wednesday 22 January

DW had a day off; I worked from home in the morning. I had a productive morning and finished my current project. That was great.

After lunch, I figured out what sheet metal to order for the barn. I want to put a metal sheet around the foundation so we do not need to see the corner of the concrete. We decided to make the metal RAL 7035.

We ordered the metal from a shop where you specify the material, color, and angles. We get the pieces 6 meters long. In total, we ordered 30 meters of the metal. I will need to cut corners. It will be fine when this is finished.

When the metal was ordered, DW went to the food cooperative to pick up our order, and I went to the veterinarian to pick up more medicine for Merida. It was misty.

Thursday 23 January

Today, both DW and I went to our offices. I had a great day. I fixed a couple of bugs in the program I released yesterday. Then, I started on a new, smaller project.

DW went back earlier, so I went home with her. At home, I continued in my home office. I managed to finish my second project. That was a really great feeling. That is a nice way to start the weekend.

Friday 24 January

Today, DW worked from home, and I had a day off. It was raining today, so doing large projects outside was not ideal, but that did not matter because I had to order things.

Our fantastic robot vacuum cleaner had to have new spare parts.

I had to order a UTP cable for the barn. I already have a UTP cable in the case pipe, but I know that the cable is broken. It cannot handle the forces we applied while dragging the cables through the case pipes. I ordered a much more sturdy UTP cable to handle much more force. I will connect the new cable to the old cable and drag out the old replacing it with the new cable. It should work.

The main project for today was to order a scaffold for our cottage in Sweden. It was a lot of details to get sorted. We ordered a zinked metal pipe scaffold system compatible with the system we got in the Netherlands. It is the Layher knockoff we got here (probably.)

It will be configurable in two ways: wide and 3 meters high or narrower and six meters high. It will be possible to work on the house in plenty of ways, and the system is reputable and can be extended endlessly.

We ordered it from the assco.se site, and it took some time to understand how their web system worked. At first, I thought we could only order a standard package. We decided on module package 9, as they called it, in steel with no extra wide sides. We looked into the content of the package and wanted extras and things removed, so in the end, we made our (own) package:

• 12 Horizontal beams of 1.09 meters
• 12 Horizontal beams of 3.07 meters
• 2 long diagonal beams 3.07 x 2 meters
• 4 short diagonal beams of 1.09 x 2 meters
• 9 feet 0.8 meters long.
• 9 starter rings.
• 8 long 3-meter poles.

We will bring intermediate support beams from the Netherlands because assco.se did not provide these. With that, we can use any plank material for the platforms. It is probably not according to Swedish standards, but it works and saves much money.

The critical issue with this whole scaffold order is that it has to be delivered when we are in Sweden because it is almost 400 kilos of material. I cannot let DF and DM unload the truck. I have to do that myself.

It is funny that we are now acquiring our third scaffold. A scaffold hoarder, is that a thing?

After the scaffold research, we walked around the area. It was great to stretch our legs. The rain had stopped. We met neighbors we had not seen for a long time, and we could catch up with all the latest news. I could promote a song I made.

In the evening, it was time to make a new song. This time, I wanted to grasp a rather abstract thought about last year's events, especially how I experienced them. I tuned in on channels providing headlines of the situation with words such as unhinged, bombshell, and meltdown, but these words had no meaning on election day. If someone is unhinged, you are surprised to see that person swing smoothly on the hinges the next day. A bombshell is dropped on someone, but there is no blast? A person has a complete meltdown, but there is no puddle? We kept listening to these words in the bubble, but the bubble was not big enough to keep the dangerous clown away. Here are the lyrics of the song:

#Verse
They said it was a bombshell, but it didn't shake the ground,
Just a clickbait explosion in a world of endless sound.
Unhinged, they called it, but the door's still swinging fine,
The words keep losing meaning, one headline at a time.

#Chorus
We're caught in the bubble, spinning around,
Every word's an echo, a hollow sound.
It felt like the truth, but it slipped away.
Resonance in the echo chamber kept us at bay.

#Verse
A meltdown, they shouted, but where's the puddle?
It evaporated, and our thoughts are left in a muddle.
We tune into the chatter, we spread it all around,
Not seeing how the lies are what keep us bound.

#Chorus
We're caught in the bubble, spinning around,
Every word's an echo, a hollow sound.
It felt like the truth, but it slipped away.
Resonance in the echo chamber kept us at bay.

#Bridge
It's hard to scream, "Be quiet!" without raising your own voice,
Hard to fight the current when you've already made the choice.
The words keep piling higher, and the meaning's wearing thin,
When everything's a bombshell, where do we begin?
You are the product when the service is free.
To make a change, think for yourself; that is key.

#Chorus
We're caught in the bubble, spinning around,
Every word's an echo, a hollow sound.
It felt like the truth, but it slipped away.
Resonance in the echo chamber kept us at bay.

#Outro
Break the bubble and turn off the feed.
Say words that matter, and do a good deed.
The echoes fade when we step outside.
To find the truth, we have to look wide.
Break the bubble, and turn off the feed.

Saturday 25 January

I continued working on the song in the morning while we had tea in bed after breakfast.

Then, the first package arrived with spare parts for the vacuum cleaner robot. It was magical to get it the day after. It was less magical that the wrong spare parts were included in the package. The rolls had shrunk. No helpdesk was open today. I have to call them on Monday.

Then, the following package arrived! It was the CAT6 UTP data cable. I thought I had ordered a CAT7 cable, but it said CAT6 on the box. I am not going to send it back. The important part for me is that it is adequately shielded. This cable has extra strong stretch resistance, two layers of shields, and a stiff inner core. All this makes it easier to get the cable dragged through the narrow case tubes without damage, and it can live happily next to a 400-volt, three-phase, 25-ampere power cable.

When Mr Radi was here, we dragged the much cheaper UTP cable I already had. It had been clever to have the correct cable already in the house, but that part had slipped my mind. Now, DW and I had to drag the cable. We opened the hatch to the space below the house. There was the case tube with the three-phase for the barn, the one-phase for the stable, and the data cable for the barn. I attached the new data cable to the old data cable.

I dragged the old data cable from the case tube outside the house. DW pushed the cable at the hatch inside the house. We dragged the first stretch until there was enough cable outside the house. Then, we repeated the dragging and pushing at the next joint. That was where the case tube split into the stable and the barn. The next stretch was between the split and the barn.

It went reasonably well. Until the old cable snapped. A shock of feelings swept through my body. This wasn't very good. I had to get fresh air because this was going to be awful. It was like crashing a car; many feelings rushed through my head in seconds. In one of the pictures, I used a pneumatic sledgehammer to open up the new concrete floor.

When I had time to calm down, I cut off the excessive part of the case tube sticking out above the concrete floor. Woala, the data cable peeked up a couple of inches below the floor. It was almost like the end of the cable had a smile saying, "peek-a-boo!" I got hold of the end of the cable and could drag it out. There was the new data cable. We were rescued!

This resolution kept me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

I could start to fill the trenches when the case tube cables were done. The water pipe still has to be connected, so I could not fill all of the trench, but I did some of it. The clay was sticky, wet, and heavy, so it was not an especially fun task.

In the evening, I continued to work on the song Echoes in the Bubble. I made the artwork for the song. Then, I uploaded it for distribution to the stores.

After that, I checked out Music Match to see if any new songs had arrived on the Music Match console. The Dubstep Soup and Dora, who are you?. I decided to make synced lyrics for the Dubstep Soup. It was tricky; little words were spread throughout the song as sound effects. I synced it all.

Then we went to bed, and I dreamed about how I constructed dubstep elements standing on a scaffold and using a sledgehammer. It was a mess. Merida did not come to sleep next to me.

Sunday 26 January

This was a beautiful morning. I cannot remember when we had such lovely sunny weather. Is it a month ago?

To make maximum use of Mr Radi's time, I would like to prepare a trench for the rainwater pipes from the barn to our existing rainwater pipe system. So I'm standing here digging again. From the outside, it might look like I like digging by hand in the clay a lot, but I hate it more and more. Luckily, I found an image on my blog from 4 June 2023, the last time I dug a hole around here. A thread displaying where the tiny house would be standing with the pipes open. This was fantastic.

I started hesitating, and that did not feel so great. I filled the hole again and started digging another hole, and not long after, that hole didn't feel great either.

Then I recalled that I had taken a photo of the pipe system on 14 December 2020 before it was covered. I found that photo and realized that my 1st hole was much better; it was spot on.

It is funny to read the blog from that time. Mark Rutte, then Prime Minister, sat like a stiff manikin behind his desk while people protested outside. Now, he is the Secretary General of NATO.

Now I have started digging from my 2nd hole towards the original 1st hole, and sure enough, the pipes have been found.

While working on this, a horse came strutting along the road. I took a photo of the horse and the rider, but it was towards the light, so I don't think it was a brilliant photo.

It will be tricky for Mr Radi to get the Y-section in because the sewer pipe is lying on the rainwater pipe. I don't know if it is going to be easy. I will have to dig more, that is for sure. Today, I stopped when it was time for lunch.

After lunch, we went to the grocery store. That is what we managed to do this week.

The road plates were returned this week. We replaced the data cable to the barn, and I started digging the trench for the rainwater pipes. I ordered the sheet metal to cover the foundation edge of the barn. That was the activities at the barn this week. Besides that, I made two new songs. This was the week when I had 300 consecutive weeks of writing the blog. That is also a remarkable achievement. I think I am more and more productive with the words. Sometimes, I feel I got the storytelling wibes; sometimes, it is just the daily yada yada. I wrote 3408 words and am impressed and honored that you read these words. See you back next week!