Daffodils looking lovely
These lovely flowers are distributing a beautiful scent throughout the upstairs of our house. All from our own garden.
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.
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
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.
Max Romeo - War Ina Babylon
Another day in the hospital day ward
Another day in the Kenepuru day ward for a blood top up. Keeps me out of mischief, I suppose.
CW: Adverse reaction to medicine
Solar update with operational system - day 1
Solar update with operational system.
Yesterday, we had clear, sunny skies with good solar production for a brief period. That is, until a hail storm arrived. But this screen grab shows what is possible.
At about 3:10pm yesterday, we were producing 3404W from the panels and using 236W for the house. That’s about 7% of our power going towards the house’s running. The rest was ‘wasted’ by going into the grid. Even though we aren’t being paid for it, it is power we don’t have to pay Contact Energy for. We’re obsessively watching the app and will have to learn to balance production under certain conditions and use appliances in the morning. We tend to put an electric heater on for an hour or so to warm the house if it’s been cold overnight. And we do laundry in the morning so we can line dry it. Fortunately, we don’t have to do laundry daily, so we have some flexibility.
So much for a bright sunny day producing all the power we need. Now we have a hail storm!
Solar power update
Good news. The electrical inspector has just been around, tested the new solar system, turned it on and pronounced it safe to use. We are now running off the solar power produced on the roof panels on a bright sunny day.
We still don’t have the import/export meter installed so we don’t know how much power we are giving away, but we can wait for that, I reckon.
But it will be good to get the smartphone app to monitor the smart meter in the switchboard to get a clear idea of what we are producing and using.
Very exciting!
Linton Kwesi Johnson
🐕The dog has now returned from a walk with Kate and has assumed another of her favourite positions; tucked in behind my knees.
🐕The dog emerged from her bed, barking at an unknown sound, only to quickly make herself comfortable in another of her favourite spots; my legs!
A misty moisty morning.
This is the view out our upstairs windows this morning. Somewhere out there is the Tasman Sea and Kāpiti Island.
