Lockdown, day 31

23rd April, 2020

SFSG

Had a day of it, yesterday. Three deliveries, one of them the second box for my Workbee. Spent the day opening boxes & assembling it. A beautiful day, hottest so far, I reckon.

First box landed yesterday.
Delivery of second box earlier…
Boxes galore…

For shits ‘n’ giggles, decided to do some kind of blog on this assembly. It’s amazing how modern technology allows you to do almost anything on your own, reasonably easily. Camera (live feed to laptop so I can see what I’m recording as I go), a tablet to read the online manual, & a phone for comms. Cup of Britain’s finest, & I’m all set! I’m not saying this’ll work well, but I’m keeping interested, & that’s all I’m bothered about.

Lockdown, day 29

Tuesday, 21st April 2020

Weather bloody amazing, 17°C!

Was going to go for a ride, but my router is waiting for me… An Ooznest CNC machine. Looking forward to throwing it together, should take my mind off things for a bit. Received two parcels, 2.5L isopropyl alcohol, & 11 bottles of specialist fruity cider, from Ciderlicious. Gonna make some shit!

Num, num num!

But seriously, going to put together some instant bug killer. 66% isopropyl alcohol (C3H8O), 33% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), in a big squirty gun. Die, scum!!

Lockdown, day 28

Monday 12th April.

(Week 17, according to the government)

Getting used to my Alexa, being a solo guy. Interesting. You can tell her to shut up, and… she shuts up!

Had to put the Alexa app on my phone (see prev post), and now I can call someone, get some music & stop it all, anytime! Smashin’!

Almost finished my 5L of beer. Decided that some solid sustenance would be a good idea.

Dr. Campbell’s video of the numbers.

COVID19 April 2020

Lockdown, day 27.

Well. I just had to.

I hope this’ll turn into a reasonably frequent story.

General observations about how this bloody bug is affecting me, & those I see.

It’s getting really old, staying in.

I had thought I wouldn’t be phased, but I can’t totally get away from the feeling of isolation. The mailman is always welcome, never more than now. I’m still getting parcels from PRC, from old orders.

When they land, it’s gloves. Rip apart, dispose of extraneous packaging. Get to the item, squitry squirty with a bleach spray. Wipe down, leave in sunshine as long as possible, turning to let the U/V get to as much as possible. Not possible to bleach electronics, but am awaiting delivery of some alcohol & hydrogen peroxide, to make an instant killer.

Never have my hands been this clean!

So. The start, for me & my mates was around very early March. Things were getting serious, lots of theories in the “what if?” vein.

I had an appointment at Trafford General Hospital for a scan. I landed, well in advance of my appointment time, stumbling around the site trying to find out where I should go. It was a bloody ghost town! (Day before lockdown)

Wow! Things are… daunting..? Haunting?

Went back home after a great session with the scan operators & staff (really not many around). Whilst there, I think I spotted around a dozen people in the whole hospital. No idea where everybody was.

It landed. It got serious.

WuFlu.

Suddenly, the facial recognition system the police have spent millions on, is now redundant (not that it was any use to start with).

Well, it HAD to be done, didn't it?
Well, it had to be done!

Lockdown.

Masks, gloves & spray were everywhere.

At this time, I was wishing I had a bigger freezer…

Local club shut. Pubs shut. On realising the severity of this pandemic, I stopped smoking. Stupid, I know, but I get a great deal of pleasure out of that filthy habit…😁

Ah well…

Last night was Sunday, so I decided that I had to perk myself up. I opened my beer cask, (5L!). Got stuck in.

Beer leads to bad decisions… three fags. Bugger! But wonderful… Bliss!

Monday, 20th April.

So that’s nearly a month.

I have a stepper, I try to use it as much as I can, usually every day. A bike ride a couple of times a week, as the weather has been amazing! 15° today! Was going for a ride, but my mate needed a plug, so he came round to pick it up. He missed the throw. Another mate, young Billy was walking past, stopped for a short chinwag (keeping the appropriate distance, ‘natch!). All in blazing sunshine. Me, with beer in hand (only got three days to shift that keg on my own…) 😍

Didn’t realise quite how gregarious we are.

Bought a girlfriend to play with. Her name is Alexa. She’s a right bitch, just like the rest. Absolutely refuses to do what she is supposed to do. Struggled to make calls, eventually figured it.

Alexa came on my new tablet (I find a tablet helps me out a lot), a Lenovo M10.

Base in my lounge, but what to do by my bed? Make a base unit, as they’re not generally available…

Lenovo M10 with 3D printed base.

Set the battery management to “Saver”, which restricts the battery to 60% max charge. Brilliant! First device I’ve seen that does that. The file is available on Onshape for you to play with. Also Thingiverse. Use pogo pins to get power to the tablet. Works well, but it’s misbehaving, as I still haven’t configured it right, it goes to sleep instead of listening all night. Eventually figured that you need to put the Alexa app on your phone, tie it in to the app, and Presto! Can now make calls! Also the only way (so far) I’ve figured out to configure Alexa… not ideal, but a start. Privacy needs looking at, but I’m too old and stupid to bother with all that. I really don’t care.

Best place for facts in the U.K. is Dr.John Campbell, YouTube). His latest is here: LINK