Woah.

Another out of the blue text! This time from G.

We're going to meet for a coffee or a drink later this afternoon.

Very unexpected (I wasn't expecting him home again until next month) but very welcome.

Oddly optimistic.

Out of the blue, I got a text message from KfW2 last night.

"I still haven't forgotten. I think I'm free soon."

It's related to me "demanding" to take her out for food and drinks for her birthday. I'm delighted. For the past few years, this is something that drags on for months. And she insists that it's a joint day out to celebrate her birthday and mine. I don't really like this aspect of it. I want to treat her. We don't buy each other gifts, but pre-Covid, we would buy each other dinner.

But it's entirely possible that we could be doing something within a few weeks. Yay! 

WTAF?

Remember a while back I said I'd like to go to more gigs? Well, I've not done too badly, since I made that a goal. I could do more, and I will, but I've been to more gigs in the past 12 months than probably the previous decade.

Anyway, a band I like will be in town in September. I've just found this out. Tickets are already limited availability. I checked anyway.

£236 

Two hundred and thirty six pounds. 

What the actual fuck? 

Dream Girl.

Last night was a bit of a strange mish-mash of dreams. Plenty of people featured, but the context around most of them has already faded. The one aspect of the dream that I do still, sort of, remember featured CH.

We were at a bar, chatting. I think I mentioned something about the number of people who had been convinced that KfW2 and I were dating over the years. Not people who knew us directly, but those who kinda, sorta knew us and saw us out and about together.

In the dream, CH said something like:

"Yeah, I get that. I often have to correct people about my relationship with a close friend." 

I looked at her.

"You, dummy." She punched my arm.

Then she pulled me in and gave me a long, lingering hug.

I think there was more to it, but that's the bit I remember.

I do miss CH sometimes, but I think that's more the ambiguous touching/flirting and my attraction to her that went on rather than who she was as a person or a friend. Or the fact that it was clear that she had feelings for me. I can't remember the last time I had that, and it would be nice if I had that again. As a friend, I don't think she brought that much to the table.

But here are a few photos of Alison Brie in her "squint and she kinda gives off CH vibes" era. (I think it's definitely the smile.)

 I think my head might have exploded had CH worn a dress like that second picture.

Let's go!

Yesterday I sent off my first request for a quote for a big piece of work for the house. It's something I've tried, on and off, to get done for about 5 years. I've pivoted slightly this time. Instead of repairs, I'm just going for full replacement.

I got an email back, quite quickly, saying they'd call to arrange a date and time. Just waiting for that call to come in. 

Once I get that sorted, I'll see if I can get a second or third quote. But, much like the heating upgrade I got done before Xmas, if the first quote comes in around a figure I have in my head, I'm likely to just go ahead with it. 

Back at it.

While I've yet to do any of the exercises that I extracted from Chat GPT a few days ago, I have been putting other aspects of its advice into play: being more active, getting up out of my chair more, going for short, leisurely walks.

Walking to the post office yesterday to post a letter helps. Doing the favour for CC last night helped. They're not big things, but they help. I'd love to be out, doing some gardening this week, but the weather's rubbish. But that'd help, too. 

It advised taking things easy. My weight loss has also had an impact that I didn't get from Chat GPT but it was something that came up when I was cross-referencing its findings: I've lost muscle mass, too. And that could also be contributing to my back pain.

So I need to build up the muscle mass, which the exercises would help with, but general movement would also help.

It'll be weeks or months before I see some actual proper improvement, so this isn't something that'll be fixed within a few days, but it'll be a habit I have to re-form.

Plot points.

CC called me out of the blue. Well, not exactly out of the blue, because I tried to get her out for brunch a few weeks back, but that's the first contact we've had since... January?

Unsurprisingly, she wanted a favour. 

"I'll buy you dinner for it."

So I was sold.

It wasn't even that difficult a job: build some furniture. It took about 45 minutes. I think CC thought it would take longer. We adjourned to the nearest bar, which happened to be CC's local.

We chatted about various things: work, our families and TV. I don't watch a lot of (current) TV. I'm watching Daredevil at the moment and have just completed my annual rewatch of Community.

"I've started watching Euphoria" said CC.

"I've heard it's very good"

"Sydney Sweeney is in it. She gets her tits out a lot. It's a bonkers show."

"I can't say that Sydney Sweeney floats my boat, but I might give it a watch anyway."

"She what?"

"She's attractive. She has a GREAT figure. But she doesn't do it for me."

"Are you mad?"

"Not when I last checked."

And we moved on to other topics. 

Back to fitness.

I know that a lot of people look unfavourably at AI (or what's currently being described as AI: large language models, or LLMs). I admit that there are issues that I have with it, too. My job is increasingly at risk due to AI and I think it's entirely likely that I will be made redundant within the next five years as a direct result.

And don't get me started on AI-produced "art".

But it can have its uses if you know how to utilise it. That's half the battle. Creating a good prompt can yield incredible results, but writing a good prompt is a skill in itself.

For example, I could ask Google about chronic back pain.  Which would give me thousands of results.

Or I could write a comprehensive prompt, which is what I did. I described my pain, how long I've had it, the fact that I've not yet had a GP diagnosis, my own suspicions about my sedentary lifestyle being a factor and it give me a result.

To be fair, it did advise going to see a GP as one of its first comments, but it also suggested that my theory about my inactivity could be a factor. I then asked if there were exercises that I could do to help ease or remove the pain and it updated its response with a 6 - 8 week plan. I then added that I had some basic exercise equipment and listed it to see if that would change things, and the LLM made slight adjustments to add the equipment after a few weeks.

And finally, I asked it to create a collated collection of its responses with detail descriptions of the exercises in a printable format for offline reference. And it did that, too.

I still have to contact my GP, and it's still hugely advisable to double-check what an LLM tells you (as should be the case for any internet search, especially medical) but a lot of the basic exercises are the same as those in my Yoga programme. A cursory search looks like there's nothing massively incorrect in what the LLM has given me, so that's something to get on with, I think.

FFS.

Remember a few weeks back I complained about my sister's communication? Well, last night, around 11 PM, I got a text message.

Was I available to paint a fence? My Dad's fence, specifically.

As you may know if you read my last post, I had plans to today: carpet shopping. I also had plans to do some gardening and some cleaning.

I could  have said "no", but the work needs done for reasons I don't really want to get into on this blog. But 24 hours notice is awful.

I didn't reply until this morning. Not that my sister would have noticed as she barely carries her phone with her and even then she's awful at keeping it charged.

Anyway, I hurriedly did the cleaning this morning, or some of it at least, and will head over to my Dad's after lunch to paint the fence. It at least looks like a nice day outside.

Oh dear.

I have a confession, dear Reader. I didn't go carpet shopping per my plan that I shared yesterday. My plan was originally to walk to the carpet shop (probably about 2 miles from my house), grab a coffee on the way and just take it easy. However, the weather wasn't as reported, with frequent heavy showers. I could have gotten the bus most of the way there, but I really had my heart set on the stroll.

I contented myself with some further research about pricing, I did some basic measurements about how much carpet I'd need etc. and what I am prepared to budget. I am arguably better prepared to go to the shop than I was at this time yesterday. If the weather improves, I'll go tomorrow.

I also need to pull up the old carpet. I want to do that ASAP so I can prepare the floors - fix some creaky floorboards etc. That might be a job for an evening next week, 

Magic carpet ride.

I ended up taking tomorrow off work. I say "taking it off work", but the reality is that I've done my hours by 4 PM this afternoon, padded out with some time accrued from a few weekends ago. I'm looking forward to it.

The plan is to get a lie-in, a quick shower and then off to the local carpet shop to see about (finally) replacing the awful-looking 1970s carpet on my hall and landing.

I've already narrowed it down to a few, from online browsing, so it's just a matter of seeing them in person, arranging measurement and then fitting. I'm hoping that won't take any more than a few hours. I could be back in the house by lunchtime.