Lost lens and Masking tape….

Screaming for help from hubby this morning. I was just cleaning my glasses but with my shaking arm I wobbled and dropped them onto the kitchen floor. I picked them up, but a lens had come out. I tried to find it but having one focused and one unfocused eye didn’t help. Started shouting, but hubby was upstairs and is deaf. I looked all around, the eye with the missing lens closed so I was just looking out of the lens still in my glasses. I moved the fridge back a couple of inches very gingerly and moved the bin, no sign. I shouted some more and went upstairs and woke my hubby. Help! Please help! He came down and straight away found it! Half way down the kitchen under the overhanging base of the sink (how did it get there? Must have skittered across the floor). The lens wouldn’t fit in very well. So.. Tape? I found masking tape, and parcel tape, then a very broad roll of sellotape. I managed to cut a thin strip. The lens is just about in place. I’m going to get the opticians to fix it later…. So of course I decided to illustrate the glasses!

Broken glass

Three local teenagers walked past our house today shouting and swearing. I heard a crash of breaking glass so looked out of the front door and saw this. I shouted at them that I would call their headmaster because I recognised their uniforms. I did ring and leave a message for the school. I doubt that they will be able to do much. However it’s the principal of the thing (no pun intended). I know that children want to have fun. But smashing things is not acceptable behaviour. It’s disturbing to think what they could do next.

We don’t sell that anymore….

For months now our cat flap has been broken. Not the main part of it, but the screen that opens in and out. Basically we had tried to keep the big cat in at night by putting the lock on it, but he forced his way through and broke the flap part into three bits. For a while I glued it together, and taped it up with sellotape, but soon that had been ripped so my next idea was to tie it open with some string. I can’t get down on the floor so I couldn’t swap one catflap for another and I didn’t know if I could get a replacement.

Today my sister came over so we decided to go on a search. The local petshop said it was a staywell catflap and they only stock petsafe ones. So we went to the big petstore. We had managed to take the front and flap mechanism off as it had catches you push in to release it. The store had about seven different sorts but according to the customer assistant out catflap was out of date!

Eventually after much head scratching we found one that was about the right size. We couldn’t take it out of the box so it was a guess but I decided to try it.

When we got home I and looked at it I realised the whole catflap was slightly narrower than the old one so the screw holes were closer together and if I were to use the whole thing we would have to get someone in to re-drill the holes. Plan B was to take the plastic flap out of the new one and put it in the old one? Yes it fitted, but it was too stiff, the diameter of the cylinders that go into the holes in the flap were too big. My sister filed the sides of the cylinders down where there was a flange around them and I used a knife to whittle the inside of the tube shaped bits it fitted in…. Result! The flap now swings freely. There is about a two millimeter gap at the bottom but it hangs in the closed position and opens both in and outward.

Now I’ve just got three confused cats, there isn’t a hole to leap through anymore, but a window out to the garden. Bemused looks! I opened the flap for one of them and opened the door for the other… If they want to come back in they will have to learn to use it!

Broken glasses

Note to self, don’t leave your glasses on the side of the armchair, my hubby sat on them. The little screw that holds the frame together has disappeared. I can’t see it anywhere. I looked at taking the screw out of an old pair, but my small screwdriver is too big. So I’ve sellotaped the lens in place but that’s unwrapping as it gets warm. Why do things have to go wrong!

‘Balti’ printer?

After a week of trying to get my new printer to work I finally gave up and took it back to the shop. The computer man changed the inks, tried doing a scan and a print, but apart from the very faintest small amount of blue lines nothing showed up. Half an hour of watching him try and work it out and we both concluded it was faulty. I rang hubby to say unlock the front door, I would be bringing the replacement printer home as the one I had bought last week was faulty.

Silence for a second, then my hubby asked. ‘you’re bringing home a Balti?’

No I said, ‘faulty’. He again asked if it was a Balti? I give up! I walked home with the printer. I got home and almost told him his tea was in the printer!

By the way I have to rate the computer shop as very good and helpful…

Broken cat flap!

Crash! Smash! Clatter!

The big outside cat who now comes in has finally broken the cat flap! It was cracked in two yesterday, but with both parts still in place, but today? When we came home from my studio the cat flap was broken with two side pieces twisted away from each other and a pizza wedge shaped piece on the ground outside. The outdoor cat was inside and my female inside cat was staring through the cat flap from the outside! I opened the door and let her in. But how to try and fix this? Glue and wide clear tape. I tried gluing the edges, but I was just making a sticky mess. Next I dabbed glue on the flat surfaces and stuck the clear tape to them like a bandage. Next I slid the wedge shape up between the sides and wrapped another lot of tape and glue around the bottom of the flap. Finally I supported the flap on our toilet roll holder so it’s inside the door and horizontal. Why? Because it’s raining heavily and it would soon be soaking wet if I shut it. The door is also open to keep it out of the rain. I’m relying on the door between the kitchen and the backdoor staying shut to keep the cats in (and out).

Fingers crossed x

Repair tape

This morning the bottom door shelf of my fridge collapsed when I put the milk carton back in it. When I checked the bump on the door that sticks out had broken off…! I looked at the broken piece. It was about a centimeter by three centimeters and stuck out by about half a centimetre, but it wasn’t solid. It was only about half a millimeter thick and it looks like the whole inside door panel is just vaccuum formed!

Wnhat to do? I tried an epoxy glue but it wasn’t holding it. I put the shelf back in place but you could see the crack where it was pulling away. I’m NOT going to buy a new fridge (shades of my broken door catch). So I went out and bought some transparent repair tape. It’s not pretty, I can’t get the tape very flat, but it’s holding, for now.

Stuck!

Just at the bottom of this picture is the inner door catch of my car. I’d been out to the shop and when I got back I tried to open the door, and it snapped off in my hand! I had to get someone to open the door from the outside. I called the AA (automobile association) and they came out quickly. But all they coukd do was thread a cable tie round the pinion inside the door… Now I can pull on a bit of plastic, and if that doesn’t work lower the window and pull the catch on the outside… Hopefully I will be able to manage until the catch is replaced!

Juxtaposed

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Juxtaposed they sat

The jelly mold and the light

Till they got in a fight

The triceratops came off worst

The cat pounced

Paw out

Dinosaurs leg fell off

Juxtaposed in opposition

They growled

And snarled.

Only in the dark

The cats eyes sharp

Wobbled over to the triceratops

Whose battery had gone flat.

Batted it with a jelly paw

Splat!

Now he’s really flat!

Morning time.

Bin time

Sorry you can’t be glued.

Now jelly mold

Hangs it’s head in shame

Magnetised with a hook

To the fridge!

At the boating lake

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My hubby went out with his remote control boat today. He took it to the boating lake in the park. This park is beautifully tended with floral borders and a restored boat house.

I wish I’d gone, but I was busy sorting things out as we are having to get a new washing machine. The old one has finally given up. The thing works but it keeps coming up with error messages. E8, E9. Don’t know what they mean but it’s stopping it finishing the programmes. I can only get it to work on one, 30 minutes 30 degrees…

But what’s this got to do with parks? Only that I didn’t go on a walk. They did about ten miles. I wish I was fit enough to do it. Humph!

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