'Twas on the Friday morning the gas-man came to call

All hail the plumber-guy, who came and fixed my thermocouple, as he does. I can has hot water.

Also he threatens to come back next week and replace the rotten floorboards in the bathroom, to fix the rocking toilet. That would be good, tho' also costly; but I am counting neither my chickens nor my coins, because he's been making the same threat for something more than a year now.

In the meantime, I am rearranging my day. I'd expected to wait in longer than this. I have to be in town for three o'clock, to collect some artwork off a train (for Bryan Talbot: I am his emissary in the Big City); so I think I will grab an early lunch, then take a couple of MSs to the Lit & Phil and just read them through, scribble a little, see if they're fit to go out yet. Rewrites: it's like telling adolescents "you're not leaving the house like that." Who knew I would be such a strict parent...?

In other news: if I could find my camera, I would have taken photos of the boys trying to break down the dining-room door. It's the only door in the house they cannot open; the plumber was at work behind it, and they took that as a challenge. Mac attacked from beneath, rolling cutely onto his back and trying to tunnel under; Barry took the aerial route, balancing on the coat-hooks and trying to shame the door into opening in the face of such magnificent effort.

And on they came, and more and more...

You know how it never rains but it pours? What I said before about single spies, battalions, like that...?

If God is on the side of the big battalions, I must clearly be on the other.

I am cooking my lunch in the dark.

*glowers up at kitchen light-fitting*

*is the opposite of dazzled*

Sigh...

A sorry state of dither

Really, I should be finishing off my accounts for the year, and sending them to my accountant to be converted into tax returns. It wouldn't take an hour.

But I have had a severe case of dontwanna all week, and it is manifesting again. Also, the cat is sitting on the bank statements, which is kinda definitive.

I do sort of feel I have done enough today, while at the same time recognising that I have done almost nothing. I got my boiler fixed! [Um: I lingered in the house for half the morning. I might have used that time usefully, but did not.] I did something useful and important for a friend! [I went to the station, met the person I had arranged to meet and brought a package home. It wasn't exactly strenuous, except for walking in the rain.] And that's about it. Oh, I did read through a redrafted story while I waited for the train, but, y'know. Forty minutes.

And now, as I say, dontwanna. I think I'll leave the cat in possession of the finances, and go work out some kind of dinner that I can prepare in daylight and cook in the dark. I have chilli and cauliflower, pasta and cheese; I am thinking some kind of ridiculously elaborate mac-and-cheese encompassing the cauliflower and laid on a bed of the chilli (three comfort foods in one!), which will only need to go in the oven later. [I woulda fixed the kitchen light, but, y'know. I've been busy...] And then when I've cooked, perhaps there will be wine and Buffy. And something to munch. I am much in a munchy mood these days.

In other news: by definition, I now have a dozen pieces of original Bryan Talbot artwork in the house. How tempted am I, to tear open the tissue-paper wrapping and hang them on my walls?