Day 223: Manual labor day

For a while now, my master bathroom toilet does a “water hammer” thing after it’s flushed, sometimes for a few minutes but sometimes for hours. Last night, urgh, it did it all night long, and I could even hear it with fresh earplugs. So today I worked a bunch on getting the house ready for a plumber to come. Tidying indoors is a simple enough matter, though I worked on it quite a bit today (we haven’t had visitors for months, of course). The more complicated tasks are moving the boxes around in the garage so that there’s access to the crawl space above the house and cutting down the blackberry vines so that there’s access to the crawl space below the house.

Yes, the blackberries grew all spring and summer to fill the entire space behind my house again. We only need a path from the front gate to the crawl space, and we were able to do half of it today. There’s a value in not having a path all the way through – the blackberries do fill a security role there. Eventually I plan to install stamped concrete on the ground, so that the berries won’t come back, and replace the fence, including a locking gate.

Day 224: Delgani concert

Today was the first concert of the season for the string quartet I subscribe to. The concert was livestreamed, and 40 people went to see it in person, also, by reservation. I was content to listen from home, all cozy, with J's headphones for the best sound quality. I considered putting it on the TV, but that wouldn't have been as cozy. They played Haydn (the "Sunrise" quartet), Shostakovich (his relatively cheerful sixth quartet), and after intermission, Beethoven (the "harp" quartet). I confess that my mind was wandering by the time we got to the Beethoven. Fortunately, the third movement was very lively - it was playing in my head the rest of the day, and I listened to it a few more times while doing some housework, too. (Subscribers can listen to the concert again for 30 days.)

It was rather cold outside - we went on a walk but didn't bundle up quite enough. We also finished the second Ori game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, but we wished the ending had been a bit different. Oh, and J. got Thai food for the three of us, a fun treat, especially as D. shared his thoughts about what he would like to do if he ever became a Twitch streamer.