12/08/10.
I’ve been of the opinion that a positive attitude makes life easier, and that it all comes out alright in the end. That might seem a bit Pollyanna, I’ll let you decide, here’s a list of recent events.
The gutters blocked up with Larch needles after the gales.
I fell off a ladder and wrenched my ankle.
The upstairs shower started leaking.
The FreeSat stopped working.
The FreeView and analogue signal turned to rubbish.
The Central Heating packed up.
My beautiful (well I think it is) brick garden path, is getting dangerously slippery.
My Hospital parking permit is being withdrawn.
The LandRover buyer pulled out.
The kit-car needs three Hillman Minx wheels and a roof, all of which are as rare as hens teeth and horribly expensive.

It’s been a kind of up and down month so far, It started just before Mum and Anne visited when heavy rain and a load of Larch needles blocked up some of the house gutters. Clearing the last one in the heavy rain, I slipped off the wet aluminum ladder when 6 feet off the ground, wrenched an ankle and put myself on a walking stick for a few weeks, so everything is behind schedule,  could have been worse though, and a valuable - or at least expensive - lesson. Mum’s visit went well, but soon things went rapidly downhill. Most of it proving perversely beneficial.
The hospital is known for its shortage of parking spaces, so I wasn’t too surprised to lose my special permit in the re-arrangements when the new car-park was to be built, I could see my easy parking days ending in less than a month, but just in time, a contractors problem meant the awful day was delayed by another month. 
Then my appeal for an even more special parking permit (elderly, confused, important, I tried all the angles I could think of) was turned down, and again I braced myself for, no doubt, healthy walks in the rain. Two days before the deadline I get a surprise note  out of the blue saying I can park on the upper level of the new car park for the next three years, no explanation, and I didn’t ask. I parked there for two days and the parking manager saw me limping and decided to put me in the lower floor, this means my car doesn’t overheat or get dust, rain or seagull poo during the day and I get to park a few yards from the new department. I tried, no really I did, to get reassigned to the roof, but he just sucks his teeth and says that I’m safer on the ground.
At home, a simple shower repair uncovered larger leakage problems, fortunately before they had caused serious damage, so that saved me some considerable grief in the mid-range future.
The FreeSat signal had been degrading for some time and the terrestrial version (freeview) was getting pretty ropey, this combined with a poor analogue signal meant that it was getting quite difficult to watch or record programs. Since we rarely watch live programs this was getting to be a pain. In moving the cables about in the roof I realised I needed a better ariel, and a friend promptly offered me one. Putting it up, I found the signal to be much the same, but accidentally moving it to what seemed the wrong angle vastly improved it. I stopped thinking and bolted it down.
Cutting down a rapid growing Leylandii perked up the FreeSat signal, as I had hoped, and added to the wood pile. While I was getting the chain-saw out of the workshop, a bird fell down the chimney, so, by chance, I was there to let it out of the stove and put a bird proof mesh on the chimney. The tree removal has also let the path, that was getting slippery, dry out and has improved the light to the fruit bushes. The falling tree, incidentally, missed everything of note, in spite of it being unexpectedly snagged by another tree and not dropping where I had intended. Somebody smiles, I just say thank you, in a general sort of way, and don’t ask questions.
Part of the gutter blocking mess was moss, so I put a roof ladder up (ok, I won’t go up in the rain) and put some copper strip along the ridge line which I hope will prevent moss growth. In the process I found two broken tiles and a row that needed adjusting before they leaked. (Both being faults left by the “professional” roofer.) The Central heating fault was fixed fairly quickly, if rather expensively, and it reminded me to get on with the wood-burning stove, so I’ve left the ladder up. If the weather stays nice I’ll start probing the roof this weekend, which (happy thought) includes Monday and Tuesday, with a view to building a chimney before Autumn. I was wondering if the copper might cause a tightly controlled lightning strike to do the work for me, but that might be asking a bit too much. I think I’ll go and buy a safety harness first, though, pity to put a dent in the new conservatory.
Wanting to make some space in the garage for the kit-car building project, I decided to sell Cog, the Lightweight LandRover. I haven’t used it very much recently and although it doesn’t cost much to keep, the  insurance and MOT’s aren’t free. The first prospective buyer cried off after several weeks of havering, but it had caused me to do several small but useful repairs which I’d not gotten around to. It’s so much nicer to drive now that, if I get any spare time, I think I’ll take the roof off and drive it around a bit with a ‘for sale’ sign on it. Then, if it’s still here in Autumn, I’ll build it another shed and keep it, at least until the kit-car is finished. A friend found 3 wheels for the kit, at a reasonable price and a roof, almost new, for £25 which is beyond reasonable, through bargain, and into “a steal” territory.
Keep smiling. Jim.