TheBanyanTree: There is always a solution

[John Bailey]

Tuesday April 27, 2004

THERE IS ALWAYS A SOLUTION

"Oh," I said as I stood in the garden talking to our neighbour. "The wind 
has shifted."

"Coming from over there, is it?" he asked, pointing in a more or less 
easterly direction.

"Yup. Touch of the North Sea in it."

"Good. We'll have a drop of rain tomorrow, then."

"I fear so."

It wasn't just a British exchange, about the weather. Oh, alright, it was 
in a way. But it was also me learning the lay of the land, the flow of the 
air and the way the weather moves here. I'm finding that my weather bones 
are learning, too, developing a distinct creak about two days before rain 
appears on the horizon, and freeing up a day or so before the weather turns 
fine again. It seemed ridiculous yesterday, in the hot sunshine, to have an 
attack of the creaky legs and hips. Had I put two and two together I'd have 
realised what was going on.

By this evening things had really cooled down and, at about eleven-thirty, 
when I popped out for my late night breather, it was distinctly chilly. Too 
chilly for comfort with only a shirt between me and the elements.

"It'll be raining when we wake up tomorrow," I said, coming back into the 
light and warmth of the kitchen.

"Oh great. Just as I've got the window out of the workshop."

"Can't have it all ways. At least the roof won't leak."

It is a shame, though, that the rain couldn't have held off for a little 
longer. Graham's been busy all day removing the workshop window and 
replacing the line of bricks above it with a new reinforced concrete 
lintel. The mortar needs to set before the window is replaced, so there's a 
great hole in the wall at the moment, open to the weather.

"If it gets too damp you can always put the dehumidifier in to run for 
twenty-four hours. That'll dry it out nicely."

"I shall need to run in a temporary power line if I do. The wiring in there 
isn't up to taking much of a load and I'm not ready to rewire it yet."

"Nothing's simple, is it?"

"You can say that again."

But it is simple. We've yet to come across a problem for which we've not 
found a solution. Some are harder than others but when you've a proven 
track record of successfully researching and solving house and garden 
problems you start with the benefit of full confidence that you can beat 
anything.

Why, I even beat the dreadful, tedious task of completing all the address 
changes today. It feels terribly anti-climactic now it's done, and I 
wandered about the place for a while wondering what on earth I'm going to 
do with myself now that I have no project on which to work. Doesn't seem 
right, somehow, to be sitting about reading when Graham's outside doing 
heavy building work, and I get up far too often, go out and ask if more tea 
is required. Mostly I get a welcome reception but I know I'm over-doing it 
when I receive a gruff: "Too busy." Then I retire gracefully and stay 
retired until I'm called.

Picking through my tax file, little used over the past ten years or so, I 
discovered one very pleasing piece of paper. Issued to me by the Central 
Electricity Generating Board when I left their employ in 1968, it entitles 
me to a residual annual pension payment from age 65. I'm to write to them 
three months before my birthday, it seems, and claim my entitlement, valued 
in 1968 at £3 10s 9d.  I shall have fun writing that letter next month. And 
I shall have enormous fun of them if they miscalculate the uplift to allow 
for almost forty years of inflation. I know about pension calculations, and 
I shall be checking.

I do need a project. I think it is likely to be all about exploration 
first, puttering around Lincolnshire in the little blue Ford. Hopefully my 
legs will permit a reasonable amount of wandering about places of interest. 
If they continue to be recalcitrant I shall have to see what can be done 
about the problem. There is always a solution to these things. I have full 
confidence in that.

--

John Bailey   Lincolnshire, England

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