The rain is back! Just in time for Kate to go out to do some messages and go to the beauty parlour.

No scavengers in the house

We do love our dog, but sometimes it is nice to not have her hanging around scavenging when you are eating lunch.

She’s currently next door keeping our sick daughter company. She’s very good at that.

Very sad and disappointing.

Upper Hutt City Council cuts down a stand of beech trees to widen a road into a new housing development.

Beech trees cut down despite efforts of Upper Hutt community

Another gloomy day here in Pukerua Bay, although the rain seems to have eased off. I think there is more forecast for later in the day. Remarkably, we are producing 615W of power from the roof from the light seeping through the clouds.

More medical adventures (not me this time)

Our daughter had to spend last night in ED.

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No solar power today

As expected today, with heavy cloud cover and rain, our solar power production and self-sufficiency is a big fat zero!

Rain, rain and more rain

We were talking to our dinner guest friends last night about how dry it has still been this winter.

No longer. Rain started about 10pm last night and hasn’t let up since. I woke up several times overnight to the sound of relentless rain. Fortunately, there has been no strong wind. Time to get those vege plants in the planter box. Maybe tomorrow.

City Council is reporting flooding in Whitby and Porirua East. Don’t go out unless you need to.

I guess we won’t get any solar power produced today.

Accessibility on devices for poor eyesight

About 10 days ago I blogged on my new-found appreciation for the accessibility settings in various devices to help me read on screen when my eyesight is poor. Original post: Blurred vision giving me a new appreciation of web accessibility.

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Tory Whanau puts the PM straight

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has got stuck into the PM for his misguided speech to the Local Government Association this week. As well as justifyingly defending the good things WCC has done (and they aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination), she made the important point that it was a missed opportunity for how central and local government could work together.

Her column is in the Sunday Star Times. If it is behind their paywall, I apologise.

Tory Whanau: Time for the PM to stop taking cheap shots at councils

Kate has just come back from a swim at the beach with her friend. She reports that it was “terrible” and she got knocked over several times. It’s fairly windy, which made the water choppy.

Daffodils looking lovely

These lovely flowers are distributing a beautiful scent throughout the upstairs of our house. All from our own garden.

Photo of daffodils in a vase

Interdenominational religion in action

I think our little intersection corner of Pukerua Bay must be the most religious in town. By 10am our neighbour had gone off to the spiritualist church her family goes to; the Methodist church immediately next door on the other side had the full Tongan congregation there (beautiful singing as always); and I was upstairs here doing some Buddhist prayers.

This is how religions should accommodate each other. Not every religion will work for everybody; when we find one that touches our hearts, we should be able to explore it.

Photo shows Buddhist shrine with small offering vowels, statues and pictures of Buddhas, a prayer booklet and a mala
A photo of my shrine

Gratitude

Lying in bed thinking of some of the things I can be grateful for:

  • I have a wonderful wife who loves me and looks after me 💕💚
  • Old friends and family visited yesterday for afternoon tea and a fish and chip dinner 💕
  • Children stayed for a wide ranging discussion that included ‘How long could you survive by yourself on a desert island?’, to son talking about IT qualifications he’s doing for his post-construction job
  • More old friends coming to a 1970s themed dinner tonight — salmon mousse and cheese fondue
  • New line of cancer treatment might be showing signs of positive response (early days but fingers crossed 🤞😷
  • Dedicated Dharma teachers who guide me on a spiritual path that is meaningful to me🙏🕉️
  • Inspiring people on social media and in real life communities who are trying to make the world a better place — it doesn’t always feel like it, but there are a lot of us
  • Knowing that most people are essentially good and want the best for everyone

Yuk. A good night to stay home.

Thank heavens for morphine. (That’s all I have to say.)

What you need to know

Am I the only person who is irritated by the statement “What you need to know” in online stories?

Where has this phrase come from? Has it been audience tested, or have people just copied other publications?

I find it patronising and I don’t know how a copy writer in a website can know what I already know about something and what I might want to know about it.

My normal reaction is “I’ll decide what I want or need to know about something, not you.” Harrumph.

Solar power obsession

Trying — and failing — to not be obsessed about how much electricity we are producing off our roof solar panels, how self-sufficient we are, and how much we are giving away to the power company for free. On a cloudy day like today, we are producing only 22% of what we are using. Whereas yesterday, a brilliant sunny day, we used only 34% of what we produced.

(See what I mean about being obsessed?)

PM shows he doesn't understand local government

The PM Christopher Luxon got the reception he deserved when he spoke to the Local Government Association conference yesterday. He (or who ever wrote his speech) trotted out a tired prescription of ‘reducing spending’ and ‘tackling waste’ in local government, when the problem for many years is that local government has been underfunded for the services it needs to provide to communities.

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Kate’s off on her second run in as many days, after a very long time not doing much exercise. Very proud of her getting back into it. She enjoys it and feels much better being fit.

Good for her!

🎵I’ve just been listening to a couple of old Jeff Beck albums, ‘Blow By Blow’ and ‘Wired’. I’d forgotten how jazz rock they were. Wired, in particular, has a real Mahavishnu Orchestra influence with Jan Hammer and Narada Micheal Walden playing on it.