Tuesday, November 03, 2020

Oh no!? - Aah don't panic. Its OK.

 


What's that? A big scrape along Herbie's paintwork?  My heart skipped a beat when I arrived yesterday, until that is I realised it was just the reflection of the boat opposite.  Actually she was looking pretty good and all tidy and dry inside, batteries 100% charged (thanks Mr Sun), oh and there were the headphones Kath couldn't find at home.  Successful visit then.  The plumbing is now drained and the deck drains cleared.  There is about 3 or 4mm of rain water in the engine bay but that's nothing.  The best thing I noticed was that even though Wigrams Turn is pretty windswept, (down at the service key the water was very choppy), Herbie is quite sheltered from the prevailing breeze by the surrounding boats so I doubt he solar panels will blow away.    It was a four hour round trip just to check on her, but the peace of mind is worth it.

Wigrams has quite a few residential boaters in the senior citizen category and although a number of them were out and about, they all seemed very anxious to maintain a large social distance, especially from me as someone they don't recognise.  I think the local area of Southam and Rugby is one with a relatively high Covid prevalence so I suppose the marina residents are nervous of strangers.

Back at home, the locals are doing unusual things too.  Look at his picture I took a couple of hundred yards from our house.  


These cars stretching right back to a roundabout on onto a dual carriageway are the rear end of a crawling queue more than three times as long.  I counted forty vehicles in all. Road works?  An accident? Nope, just the queue for a McDonald's drive thru.  When we walked past the restaurant entrance (we pass it on our walk round the local lake) that was heaving with people.  Some lucky businesses seem to be doing well in lockdown, but you have to wonder about their effect on the spread of the virus.  I guess drive thru bit is pretty safe though, you may well get more ill from the dietary effect of eating too much fast food.

Finally, just to cheer you up, I mentioned in my previous post the steep learning curve of using digital recording software. Yesterday I downloaded the user guide to my chosen app (Reaper if anyone is interested). It is 438 pages long!  That should keep me quiet for a few weeks,  I'm currently on page eight, not counting the contents pages.  I don't think I'll be printing it off.  

1 comment:

Marilyn, nb Waka Huia said...

Be safe, you two! Here's hoping this lockdown is tight enough with enough commitment from people to break the infection cycle!

The requirement to have fast food in lockdown is a really interesting reveal about human psychology.
In NZ when lockdown occurred (Alert Level 4) takeaway places were not allowed to open and there were no home deliveries either (only supermarkets and pharmacies could be open). So when Alert Level 3 came round, when cafes, cake shops, fish and chips and burger places could open in a contactless way, people (esp the young) queued to get them. There weren't that many people, because it's NZ after all and we don't like to do queuing as a general rule - to clarify: we queue and take our turn and it's very bad form to queue jump; but if there's more than 5 people in a line (unless it's at the rugby or a bar), we call it quits and come back later.

Good luck with your recordings - I am sure the grandkids will love them!

Cheers, Marilyn