When not attending to garden tasks what other things have filled your day?

Ian's sodium levels are ok now and he can have his op on his squashed elbow nerves next Wednesday. Someone up our close is taking us at 6.45 am to get there for 7.30am. he'll bring me back and collect hubby in the afternoon.

@Oreti i hope everything goes well for your hubs.

@S-H good luck with your retirement, enjoy it while you can and think before you do anything.

 

Sometimes, things which should be simple, aren't.

We have this cupboard under the stairs.
It houses the "vacuum cleaner museum" and the tumble dryer.



Last night I washed my golf gear from Wednesday, went to put it in the dryer, but found the light wouldn't work. OK... I'll change the bulb. As I took it out of the pendant bulb holder it crumbled in my hands.... No problem, I've probably a spare in the garage. Went and got one and with difficulty, changed the bulb holder.
I say with difficulty, as I had to do it with a torch, reaching up above my head, as I had to trip the mini breaker serving all the ground floor lights.
Job done!


I decided that today, when I was out shopping I'd look in Argos for a flat ceiling light, (£10) as I often bang the pendant light as I go to hang up the washing basket that also lives in there.
When I removed the cover from the rose in the cupboard ceiling, as I feared, there was a long terminal block inside, connecting three live, three common and an earth wire, plus the two wires for the light connected to the same block. The power probably comes up from below the floor to connect the light and then goes on to supply the lights in the kitchen and the two reception rooms.

As the terminal in the lamp I bought is about the size of my thumbnail, I didn't fancy disconnecting all the wires and use several terminal blocks, to connect all the other wires, again working above my head.
So I enlarged the hole a bit where the wires came through the ceiling and forced the round base of the rose up into the void, so only the two wires that powered the pendant were below the ceiling and I connected the new light. It covers the small hole in the ceiling.

Job done!

 

Hope all goes well for hubs @Logan .
I have servere squashed nerves in my right foot and lower leg, which was caused a few years back from an horrendous bout of sciatica but apparantly my knee replacement has made it alot worse. After many blood tests and consulations they have said there is nothing that can be done but I do have an appointment to see if there is any hope or not.
So I know full well of the pain your hubs has had.

 

Thank you @Oreti i hope that you can find some relief from your pain.

He won't be able to drive for at least 3 weeks and can't lift anything heavy for 3 weeks.
A friend of ours will help us with the food shopping.

I have numbness in my legs sometimes and i know that it's my back, but i won't have surgery on it, i was told by a chiropractor many years ago that i might need to but i won't.

 

@Oreti I am saddened to hear of your joint pain . Been coping with similar pain for many years. I hope you find some peace and relief soon.

@Logan… I agree with your decision not to try surgery. It’s a card 52 pick up while not offering relief for certain .
I keep it moving and stay away from foods that exacerbate the symptoms.
Hope you can find relief from this too. It’s always different for everyone. What really helped me was a hot tub soak and water jets messaging the back and joint areas after walking in a swimming pool to help build muscle supporting the joint areas. It’s physical therapy offered .

 

Thank you @Pacnorwest i think surgery is out of the question.
I'm pleased that you can find relief in what you do.

 

I would never have anymore joint surgery either. I prefer to keep as active as possible .At the moment because of the lack of gardening sessions available during the winter months that means an increase in our city and local places of interest wanderings. I also try to plan our walks using the longest routes as much as is possible.....short cuts are saved for the days of higher pain levels only.
I only record my steps and mileage when I'm away from home....so gardening and housework sessions are not included.
As I don't plan on going out over the weekend....hoping to enjoy some garden related sessions so my steps/ mileage stands at..


I feel it's not bad for a body thats enjoying its 70th decade and still breaking in a new knee.
Oh and not forgetting walking with surgically fused toes too.

 

Well done @Oreti

 

Great to see you are active and seeing your steps are very impressive.

 

We both have a smart watch now and it can count my steps, at the moment I've done 1.304 steps today, it's 11.45am, my heart rate is 75 when resting. Hubby got his so that he can keep an eye on his blood pressure but he still uses his monitor.

 

Thanks both of you as I said I don't wear it at home and take it off as soon as I come home from our wanderings.
Hubs wears his all the time to monitor his sleep apnoea and ( relate condition) irregular heart rates. Our eldest son and myself will get alerts when he experiences them.

I wear mine solely for monitoring my tkr recovery and to ensure I am able to build up the length of my walks.....a 6- 7 mile hike ( in one go) is my aim at the moment, I can now comfortably walk for just over 4:5 miles in one go.

We have the same blood pressure monitor as the ones used at our GP surgery. I think they are considered better on the whole than the ones on smart watches....so I've been advised.

 

Yes the monitors are better than a smart watch for taking blood pressure readings.

 

I attended a star party last evening. The sky was very clear, so it was a delightful evening of astronomy! It was really lovely.

 

I think I'll post a seperate thread about it here. Because that star party was really amazing. Where a new amateur astronomers club was launched. Free for anyone to join - It has to be free, as the objective is to inspire more people. Specially kids.

 

I bought a blood pressure machine a year ago and started taking both my wife's and my blood pressure daily. My wife's was always a bit high, but she's on a lot of medication. Mine was always normal. So we got bored with doing it. When I went for my annual diabetes check-up before Christmas, my systolic was 127. I was happy with that.
I've always been lucky with my health, probably always having a lot of exercise, a proper diet, never having smoked and not drinking a lot of alcohol.

What makes me smile sometimes, is when I read about the death of a musician or an actor, I liked and remember from decades ago.
I often think to myself, that they must have been getting on in life, so they'd had, "a good innings."
Then I read further down the report to find that they were often younger than I am now.