Work in progress

Status:

A while back I lent my power washer to a not-so-young-anymore friend who then lent it to another previously young friend whose life has slowed to the point where they’re noticing paving need a clean. Over the weekend I got it back and found myself wondering if I could safely use it myself. We haven’t cleaned the paving for a couple of years now due to my CFS and Fiona’s indifference and it was getting a bit slimy over the winter. A quick blast wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I rationalised that I didn’t need to do the whole area at once – I could spread it over a few days – and I also realised you can do this job sitting down. Two ticks on the fatigue prevention list, so I set it up and started cleaning.

This evening I’m definitely feeling it, mostly in my back which is probably from leaning too far forward when I should have just moved the chair (next time I’ll try a swivel stool), but it’s not too bad. And of course there’s loads more to do. Will see how I feel in the morning.

Power washing the paving is a strange thing in that it bypasses all my ethical rules. I know it’s wasteful of water and electricity but it triggers something really satisfying in my brain. I joke about it being a middle aged man thing, but Fi’s niece is also a power washing enthusiast, so it’s not that. Probably the same reason I really enjoy the sandblasting bits of the tool restoration videos I watch.

In other news I had a nice visit from Mina today, a friend from work who is also a composting aficionado, though we didn’t really talk about either of those things. I found myself giving a potted history of our thirteen years of rabbit custodianship which made me realise I should probably write it all down.

Reading:

• The oral history of the scrapped ‘Swamp Thing’ story 40 years in the making — Rick Veitch’s run on Swamp Thing was cancelled when I was 16 and totally invested in it, so it’s completion this year is rather a big deal for young Pete. I’ll be revisiting the whole saga over the next few months in preparation for this and am rather looking forward to it.
• RIP Desmond Morris — Aged 98 and still making art right to the end. Growing up we had the big hardback copy of Manwatching in our house which I vividly remember reading. Decades later my good friend Andy started making work about Morris' time as a surrealist in Birmingham which resulted in him visiting Morris to collect his “lost” student film Time Flower to digitise for a screening at Flatpack last year. Sounds like he was an absolute mensch and one of the good ones.
• What happens when the short-form video bubble pops? — Garbage Day again reporting on the bits of the internet that really don’t affect me and leaving me so glad. What’s the opposite of FOMO?

Telly:

• Scrubs
• University Challenge — What a final! (I got all the Herzog questions right, of course, and the Navaho flag, which surprised me.)