NotSheep

There isn’t much more news on X yet; he had more bleeding during the night and had to have further surgery as a result, but as of lunchtime today, his condition was stable. We hope there will be good news soon.

Back here, Scratchy took George, Freddy and Jack to the science centre, where there was a pirate-mask-making event going on. The event seems to have been fairly minimal, but there’s plenty more to do there so they had a good time anyway. Unfortunately he forgot to take the camera.

I stayed at home and spent the afternoon clearing out the garage. This seems to be a regular chore here; apart from all the skateboards, basketballs, footballs, bicycles, baseball gloves and other toys sporting goods, we often go in and out of the house through the side door and so it houses most of our shoes, welly-boots, etc. Then there are the cooler-bags, two large filing cabinets, gardening things (rake, spade, lawnmower etc) and a variety of other objects. Part of the garage is also our utility room, with a sink, cupboards, a huge chest freezer, a tumble-drier and the world’s biggest washing machine. And when it rains - as it seems to have been doing almost incessantly recently - laundry is also hung up to dry in there. So all in all, our garage is a well-used space. We have talked about converting it into living space - but if we ever do that, we will have to build another garage onto the side of the house before we start. We were given a tall cupboard - the kind schools and offices often use for storing supplies - and it has been sitting on its side in the front of the garage for the last few weeks, because it’s too tall to allow the garage door to close over it. Today we finally got it moved to the back of the garage, put it upright, and filled it with a variety of things from around the garage. I also stacked some of the bicycles which aren’t regularly-used in a sort-of-upright manner - I’d like to get hooks up so we could hang them, but for now this will do. It’s amazing what a difference it has made. There’s enough space in the back bit - the utility area - so that everything is easily-accessible and there’s plenty of space for hanging laundry - and at the front, the bicycles can be wheeled in and out without making the rest of the contents fall over. Any bets on how long it will last?

Toby stayed with me and helped by sweeping the floor - repeatedly and determinedly, until it was time to put the bicycles back, at which point I had to wrestle the broom from him. He’s very charming at the minute - although there was a moment of exception to his charm this afternoon when he walked up to me and bit me on the thigh Hurt like hockey-sticks too.