There was no wind when my alarm roused me at 04:45. Still a few gusts as I discovered later but it was warmer so no need for a coat. The Early Walk went without incident and was conducted almost identically to that of yesterday except that I put Isabella with Skinny and the five other dogs together. This worked out better than the previous arrangement since Isabella was less inclined to try to ‘play’ with Fido/Charlie/Obi/Luis/Oskar. She did try it on with Skinny at one point but I put her right on that very quickly. Naturally, once there was just the two of them, I let them play which they did with enthusiasm.
Following my conversation with Yiannis Petrakis yesterday evening, I ventured into Paleochora for some shopping. I must have been there around 07:30 so the store was hardly busy. They had all of the usual stuff except the Detol and hand sanitizer I’d been told about. As I don’t use either, I was less than interested. Staff sported gloves and masks, whether they were wearing them correctly was another thing. But, like the man who fell in the cesspool but couldn’t swim, they were going through the motions. I’ve not had any update from Fanis regarding the progress of the cases in Heraklion but I feel it extremely unlikely there are still only three infected people. As the message we all received yesterday, ‘delay’ is the operative word.
Xanthippos was hard at work when I returned so I prepared my breakfast and got on with playing with my batteries. I wanted to get them operational today even though I have no solar power to charge them. At least I have backup power if the Grid Power fails and don’t have all the ups and downs which are so often present. The batteries simply charge from the Grid which is not terribly efficient but, in the absence of solar, at least I have something. I can report that the cunning box which manages the power, solar and batteries is whirring away beside me as I write and I have deliberately disconnected Grid power to ‘exercise’ the battery bank and test it under load. At present, it’s running my laptop, the Raspberry Pi inside and occasionally the fridge. The load symbol shows 25% which is the minimum. It might wake up a little when I turn on the Instant Pot as that consumes 1kw! I still have some configuration to complete on the main box and a clever device which tells me the battery state. A few solar panels on the roof wouldn’t go amiss.
Other than wander over to open the New Room for Xanthippos, much of my day has been spent playing with my equipment which is currently working a little harder as I’ve loaded up the Instant Pot to cook my supper. This evening’s gastronomic extravaganza is to do with a rather nice cauliflower I picked up this morning accompanied by a courgette, green pepper and a rice/quinoa mix. The inverter is going up and down as The Pot switches on and off with its thermostat.
The Evening Walk was pleasant, warm and uneventful despite the presence of the guy with the Shepherd who was there yesterday evening. Strange that he should be there two days in a row. Once the clocks change, we’ll be out an hour later anyway.
The Pot is now cooking the second part of my evening meal as I didn’t want the vegetables to be cooked to death. The temperature has dropped so we’ve moved inside even though the door is still open. Isabella has jumped into my chair and made herself comfortable.
The weather has been calm, sunny and warm with a high of 21.4℃ which is progress from the previous two days. Boris is waffling away on the TV and sometimes sounds almost plausible.
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