Friends and Heroes

We've had a dramatic cool change; the temperature today didn't even reach 70F/21C, and I had to wear both a long sleeved shirt and socks to keep warm. This is not normal weather for June.

I usually like to go for a longish walk or run on Sunday mornings, making the most of the nearby road that's closed to vehicles on the weekends, but it was raining when I was about to leave the house this morning so I changed my mind and used the exercise bike instead.

Other than that burst of exercise it's been a fairly lazy day. I sorted out one more box of books to be donated, and reorganised some of the ones I want to keep so they don't get given away by mistake. I've got a small collection of Judi Dench movies and I'm working my way through watching them again so I can donate them too. Yesterday I watched Philomena and today I watched The Last of the Blonde Bombshells. Philomena was very good but I might not have watched Blonde Bombshells if Judi Dench wasn't the star.

Burnt leg: https://maju01.livejournal.com/2025/06/15/

We normally have large item pick-up four times a year, once every three months, and it's normally advertised on the town email list. So far this year we've had large item pick-up in January and April, so I was expecting the next one to be in July and I've been collecting things to put out for collection when the time comes. So I was very surprised and disappointed when the truck came around this morning and I missed it. I hadn't seen any piles of stuff out on verges during my daily walks, so I suspect other people were surprised as well. After the truck had passed I checked the town website and found that large item pick-up was scheduled for today (so why weren't we informed ahead of time?) and the next one won't be until October, four months away. I'm guessing the company wants to take a break in the summer? Maybe? Anyway, that was my first annoyance for the day.

The second was that my gas bill arrived, but unlike previous bills, I was unable to pay it online. The company has revamped its website and says it has improved security features, so I guess letting someone pay their bill without logging in (which I've been doing for the last six months or so) was considered a security risk. I got the frustrating message "This account has been flagged for cash only payments" meaning I would have to go to CVS or 7-Eleven or Walmart or one of several other places that are set up to accept these payments. (I emailed them a couple of weeks ago to complain about still having to pay cash after 6 months, and the reply was that after twelve months of on-time payments I would be able to pay online again. So about four more months to wait.)

The third annoyance was that when I went to 7-Eleven, cash in hand, to pay the gas bill, the cashier couldn't read the provided barcode and was unable to process my payment, even though I've paid there in the past. The poor girl was very apologetic and explained that she was new and couldn't work out how to do it (and nor could the two other people she asked for help). I went to CVS to try there, and at first the cashier there couldn't read the barcode either. This time I thought to try a new barcode instead of re-using a previous one (even though the company says you can keep reusing the same barcode as it's directly linked to your account), and this time it worked perfectly. I just wish I'd thought to try that in 7-Eleven so that poor cashier didn't think it was her fault.

Anyway, I went off to parkrun after the first two annoyances feeling very grumpy, and by the time I went to make the payment on my way home I was feeling a bit better. Then when the 7-Eleven cashier couldn't get the barcode to work I was starting to think I'd never be able to pay the bill and things would go from bad to worse, so it was a real relief to eventually be able to make the payment at CVS.

My morning started off well enough; I woke up a couple of minutes before my alarm and was able to go for a good walk just after 6 am, while it was still pleasantly cool outside. Things went slightly off the rails while I was getting my breakfast ready though. I'm not sure exactly how it happened (I think I turned around too quickly) but I knocked over my cup of tea just as I was about to spread marmalade on my toast, and the hot tea spilled right onto the front of my right thigh. Luckily the tea wasn't quite still at boiling temperature, but I hadn't yet added milk so it was quite hot. I stepped out of my wet shorts as quickly as I could and then got into the bath and ran cold water over the leg for a while before going back to the kitchen to deal with the mess.

I was eventually able to make myself another cup of tea and warm up my toast, but breakfast wasn't as enjoyable as it might have been. My leg was quite painful for a couple of hours but it's feeling much better now. The burns are still very red but there doesn't appear to be any blistering. I was afraid it would be much worse than this.

Accidents like this are one reason why I'm nervous about living alone. I'll be relieved to be closer to my daughter in due time.