Looking from the South West

Lighting up

Uptime

Blast...

The Gorse Fox's camera-server which posts the noonday pictures has been running non-stop for 116 days. The electrician was here today to finish the wiring for the Orangery. This meant that he had to perform the correct RCD tests and these, in turn, meant that "redkite" had to power down. Oh well - it's up and running again now, and so the clock starts to tick to see how long it can go without a re-boot.

Talking of boots, the Gorse Fox enjoyed a good session of walking football again today. Three games were played, resulting in 2 draws and a win. Very satisfactory.

Noon Image: 31 Mar 2015

On your marks...

The Gorse Fox is bone idle, by nature. This means that he has to gear himself up to do anything of any significance. Today he has been gearing up to decorate the Orangery. A trip to B&Q for paint and a long roller and to look for some suitable mouldings behind which to hide the LED up-lights. The painting bits are now sitting waiting for the surfaces to be suitably dry, though at the moment the plaster still shows some damp patches. The moulding was less successful. The Gorse Fox bought one, but having looked at it in situ, he is not convinced it is right answer. Back to the metaphorical drawing board.

On another front, GF had the chap from the local installer of PV solar panels come to visit. GF thinks they are a good idea and a good investment. The chap came round to survey the property and will now go off to give us a quote. We will be interested to see what he comes back with.

Noon Image: 30 Mar 2015

Goal

The Gorse Fox has a touch of sciatica. Deespite this he went to football. The idea was to see how he felt after the warm up. Then he would decide whether to play or sit it out. In the end he decided to play for the first few minutes... but needless to say that turned into the whole game. It was hard at first but slowly things began to loosen up and the Gorse Fox enjoyed himself with four goals in our 10-8 win.

Once home and showered, Gorse Fox waited whilst the Silver Vixen took Amber home and then we went out for a late lunch. Nothing too special, just Frankie & Benny's, but it was good.

Noon Image: 29 Mar 2015

Catching up

The Gorse Fox has been catching up on some Walking Football admin. Contact lists, distribution lists, tournament details, team squads, and so forth. He's even had to write some Excel macros to reformat a list in such a way as to import it to Google Contacts. How quickly the mind fades! The GF found himself having to look up some functions that, in the old days, he would have written without an instant of hesitation.

The plaster in the Orangery is still drying out. Today's weather has been cool and damp, so progress isn't as obvious as yesterday. The Gorse Fox expects he may be in a position to pain on Monday, though.

Teen-sitting is next on the agenda. Urban-cub and Pistol Pete are off to see friends and staying overnight. They are not happy leaving the teens at home together... so we are looking after Amber until tomorrow. The Silver Vixen has just left to go and collect her.

Noon Image: 28 Mar 2015

Noon Image: 27 Mar 2015

Totally Plastered

It was a bit dark by the time the Gorse Fox thought of taking the pictures last night, so the update had to wait until this morning.

The plastering is finished, and they have done a super job. Needless to say, there is a great deal of moisture in the plaster, and that needs to dry out over the next few days. Certainly it had caused a lot of condensation over night.

The Gorse Fox has opened the roof vents, and windows to allow the moisture to escape as the sun starts to hit the house.

One of the things that the Gorse Fox requested was a hatch that would give him access to the void in the roof. This was to provide access to the transformer for the lighting. Well, the plasterers didn't forget - but the "hatch" is about the size of a small letter box. This will need some intervention from the Gorse Fox in order to sort it out; it is much too small at present.

Anyway, overall they have done a splendid job. The GF always admires plasterers and what a fantastic finish they always seem apply. A real skill. One that the Gorse Fox has never acquired.

Next step is dependent on the speed of drying... either painting (which is up to the Gorse Fox), or the second fit electrics. Let's see how things work out.

Ideal

With the closure of Earl's Court, Olympia has become the new venue for the Ideal Home Show. This actually works out well for us. We set out around 0900 and drove to Arundel Station. Arundel has the advantage, locally, of having plenty of available car parking. Grabbing our tickets we headed up towards London, changing trains at Clapham Junction to pick up the London Overground. Three stops later we were at Olympia, and our tickets had been a lot cheaper than if we had used Victoria and the Underground.

The Show seemed better organised than during our last trip. Distinct areas had been set aside for Gardens, Home Improvements, House Wares, Technology, and Fashion and Beauty. This made it a lot easier to work your way round. As usual there were several show homes as the centre piece of the event. We worked our way round, section by section. Stopping here to look at this, or there to examine that. The Gorse Fox was surprised that there were not more stands featuring renewable energy... but in general there was plenty to see. We picked up a few bargains on the way round, but nothing too significant. We did, however, finally manage to replace the blades for our blender - the originals having been lost in one of the moves.

After about four hours we had exhausted the show and were ready for a final cup of tea and to head home. The trains were not yet crammed and we timed things pretty well, getting back to Arundel just after 1800. All in all it was a good day, but the Gorse Fox suspects it may be worth skipping the show next year, and returning the year after.

Noon Image: 26 Mar 2015

Plastered - almost

The plasterers have been hard at work.

They have got the whole Orangery boarded now and all of the corners have been reinforced.

They are not, however, at their happiest as the job has proved much bigger than they expected - using 20 full sheets of plaster-board (when they were only expecting - and quoting on 16). Also they hadn't realised that the design drawings they had received were not the final drawings and did not show the extra courses of bricks above the doors and windows that make this design unique.

They've knocked off for the day, but will be back at 0730 tomorrow.

Draw

Well there were a lot of us today. So much so that we had to change the hire to a big pitch. We then split into a couple of teams (more or less at random) and kicked off. The big pitch clearly proved too much for several of the players... but after a hard 50 minutes we came to a 3-3 draw.

We are meeting up again this evening to formally inaugurate the club and elect officers.

Noon Image: 25 Mar 2015

Chuckle

The plasters have arrived. There is something deeply satisfying about giving them coffee in the Gorse Fox's "Spurs" mug, and learning they are Arsenal supporters.

Retired

Well the netbook that was the subject of yesterday's post was rebooted with a Linux Live USB stick. This allowed the Gorse Fox to text out how well the low powered ATOM processor would cope. It soon became clear that, with a few minor nits, it worked a lot better than the Windows 7 that had been installed. GF fiddled and played for a while and decided this was a better use of the Netbook than leaving the sluggish W7 software on board (it took 5 hours to download and apply the latest W7 fixes yesterday). W7 was formally retired at this point.

Ubuntu (Linux) has now been installed and the Gorse Fox is using the resurrected hardware to write this blog post. He still needs to change a couple of things, but it is very noticeable how much responsive the machine is.

Being Tuesday, GF had his usual football session. It was hard today as two of our players were not very mobile, which meant the rest of us had to cover a lot of ground. Despite our valiant efforts we lost all three games today. Oh well, better luck tomorrow.

Noon Image: 24 Mar 2015

Non modo, sed etiam

The Gorse Fox dug out his laptop so that he could do some work in the kitchen rather than retiring to his upstairs study. With the electrician back on site to complete the first fix, the Gorse Fox wanted to be on hand to answer any queries. He switched on the laptop and firstly had to reconnect it to the home network - evidently this was on device that had been forgotten when the new hub was installed. Clearly, it had been a long time since it had been used. It had, however retained a good battery charge. It fired up. It started to look for updates. The Gorse Fox decided to run it from the battery to give it a work-out.

This combination seemed too much for the vintage netbook. It started scanning for required updates and the battery started to gently dischage as it powered the machine. The Gorse Fox kept an eye on the battery and after about 15 minutes it was down to 95% - excellent.

Then the machine died with an audible click.

The Gorse Fox plugged it in and rebooted. Everything snapped back into life - except the batter which is now sitting there with  a red cross through it. Dead. The Gorse Fox remembers how difficult it was to get a replacement last time, and fears that this signals the end of this device as a mobile computer. It  may still have a use, but will have to relly on a power cable.

Noon Image: 23 Mar 2015

Reset

The late night with the neighbours made the Gorse Fox a little lethargic as the football started, but he was soon into the swing of things. It was a hard game, and we just edged it by one goal in the end. Very satisfying.

Back home the Gorse Fox tried to watch the afternoon soccer, but couldn't get the Sky box to switch out of standby-mode. An hour of fiddling, researching, fiddling some more and failing was beginning to look like a requirement for a new digibox. One last try meant resetting and reloading the software. Fortunately this worked.

Noon Image: 22 Mar 2015

Out

Well we're not out yet, but will be.

It satrted bright and sunny, but clouded over and got a bit chilly as the day went on. It was nice in the new orangery whilst the sun was out, but when it clouded over it became quite cool without any heating, flooring, or wall covering. With the floor slab still curing, it felt a bit damp. The Gorse Fox went up to the study and caught up with some paperwork and scanning (once scanned paper is shredded, not filed).

We spent a quiet afternoon in front of the TV before getting ready to go to dinner with some of our neighbours. It should be nice as they are a charming couple.

Noon Image: 21 Mar 2015

Sparks

The electrician started work today. We  had already determined how many sockets and lights we would need - we just had to agree where they would be sited. We also had a long chat discussing whether to use cool or warm lights and whether they should be dimmable, standard, or LED. Decisions made, he set about creating an extension to the existing ring (having checked the current load and resistance, first).

A lot of drilling, and seemingly miles of cable later the first part of the first fix was complete. He will return next week to do the lighting. Meanwhile, we also had a visit from the aerial chap and he has ensured we have a suitable TV aerial with a good signal in the Orangery.

Lots of progress. Very satisfying.

Noon Image: 20 Mar 2015

Alone

No tradesmen today. We are alone. It seems strange, somehow.

The Gorse Fox started his admin with a call to the MD of the company providing the Orangery:

"Hello, this is the Gorse Fox, I was just calling to say how delighted we are with the progress so far, and more importantly to say what a credit to the company your fitters were. Polite, diligent, tidy and always cheerful."

The MD was a bit taken aback. Most people, it appears, provide no feedback. (In fact, according to our fitters, most people do not even offer them a cup of tea - whereas we provided a steady stream of tea, coffee and biscuits throughout their time with us).

That done, it was back to the budgets (the Council Tax payments have gone down, and GF's company pension has gone up slightly). Talking of budgets, the Chancellor did a good job and the Spring Budget was very positive. God help us all if the economically incontinent Labour Party get back in - though it does seem that they have an interesting strategy - get into power, spend until the country is broke, let the Tories in to sort out the finances and cause everyone to hate their austerity measures, then get back in and repeat.

Back in the real world, GF and the Silver Vixen have been out to get some lights and prepare generally for the Electrician's visit tomorrow. We need to make sure we know where all of the plug sockets and lights are likely to be.

Noon Image: 19 Mar 2015

All Fitted

The big clean-up is under way. All of the fitting is complete and the lads are now working their way round and checking everything and making sure everything is spotless.

We are delighted with their work and indeed commented that we would miss them being around. They are so cheerful and polite, and work so incredibly hard. They are a real credit to the company.

We still have some efflorescence from the brickwork, but that should settle and then all blend down to the colour of the main brickwork. The electrician is due on Friday for the first fix. We just need to work out exactly what we need!

Noon Image: 18 Mar 2015

Watertight

All the glass is now fitted and we are watertight. The fitters have a few internal tasks to complete, then all they have to do is the final clean-up.

That's all good, but better still is that Jasper has started to use the cat tunnel in the wall.

Walking about

GF was back at Worthing for the Walking Football, this morning. Not playing on Sunday had left GF feeling a little stiff, but after a long and gentle warm up, he was feeling fine by kick-off. Three 15-minute games today - a 0-0 draw and 1-1 draw and 1-2 loss. Overall, not too bad as we were expecting to get trounced in the last two games.

The warm spring weather made the game very hot and some of the lads were wilting. Heaven's knows how they will cope during the summer. Meanwhile, the registration forms have arrived for the Sussex FA's Walking Football tournament. We will have to decide how we narrow down the selection to 10 players, but we will discuss that tomorrow.

Noon Image: 17 Mar 2015

Building Sites

The Silver Vixen had a friend come to visit today. The Gorse Fox was able to tuck himself away in the study and finish the conversion / update of the wider family website. He still has to start on the close family, but the main site is done and he's very happy with the look and feel.

GF also took the opportunity to go and see the lady from the developers who handles request to change the houses. (She was the one who gave us permission to build the Orangery). After seeing the success that Barney Rubble has had with his solar panels, GF wondered if it might be a sensible investment - and whether the developers would even allow it. She was a bit non-committal, but didn't rule it out. Clearly we would be the first people on the development to go ahead with an installation, if permission was forthcoming. Two previous requests came to nothing as they were from people with semi-detached houses and their neighbours objected. This should not be a problem for us. It's time now for GF to do a bit of research and to come up with a proposal.

No photos of the Orangery today - it was dark by the time the fitters left.

Noon Image: 16 Mar 2015

Mothers' Day

Mothers' Day should be special.  So it was that no football had been arranged and the Gorse Fox was at home with the Silver Vixen, discussing lighting options for the "south wing" when it is finished. Urban-cub and Pistol Pete would be turning up later, but we had some time to debate the various aspects of down-lights, up-lights, wall lights, and ribbon lights. In the end, no definitive decisions were made.

We managed to get through to Cousteau-cub on the phone. The Silver Vixen had a long chat with her. Clearly, she is very positive and at peace within herself, despite the latest flare-up of her rheumatoid arthritis. It was good to hear that, despite the pain, she is feeling so positive. The Gorse Fox must admit that he does miss her and hopes that we can get out to see her before too long.

Urban-cub and Pistol-Pete arrived just after we hung up form C-c. She had brought all of the ingredients with her and set to work cooking a roast dinner for us all. It was delicious, and made more so by the fact we didn't have to cook it.

Overall - a lovely day.

Noon Image: 15 Mar 2015

Excellent afternoon

We met up with Sue and Trevor, and after a coffee we headed out to Stanmer - on the outskirts of Brighton. It was a lovely day, though a chilly wind blasted in from the east.

The idea was to have a short walk, and visit the nurseries, then stop for a tea. It didn't quite work out as the nurseries were closed. Apparently Council cuts have limited weekend opening during the winter months.

We conducted an about-face and headed back the other way, stopping briefly at the museum (which was just closing) where the Silver Vixem managed to purchase a oval bowl with a silver finish. This should look really good on the coffee table in the lounge.

We carried on through the village, then doubled back to Stanmer House where we had a cream tea and discussed the upcoming family wedding.

Leaving later than expected, we headed straight across to Hove and found a table at Sue & Trevor's favourite Indian restaurant. For the next three hours we sat and chatted whilst consuming the finest cuisine emanating from the sub-continent.

Excellent day... though we were very late getting home. This would normally have been a concern as Jasper the Cat needs feeding. We have, however, now got an automatic feeder that pops open after a pre-determined time. This allowed us to set his dinner, and time the feeder to open at the right time. This has also proved a godsend for the morning. His breakfast has popped open at 0630 and that way he has left us alone. Result!

Meet up

It has been a while since we have met up with Sue and Trev (Rick Wakeman). Today seems like the ideal opportunity. We'll be heading out to Brighton for chinwag and then a meal at their favoured local Indian Restaurant. Should be fun - we always have a good time when we meet up.

Noon Image: 14 Mar 2015

Cornice

The work continues. The cornice has now been fitted and roof capping completed. The guys have worked their socks off again today so that next week they can do the windows and doors and then finally the bi-fold doors.

With luck, they should be finished on Tuesday, but the Gorse Fox would not be surprised if it runs on into Wednesday.

Meanwhile we have had a garden designer in to see us. We gave him a brief, and now will await his ideas and designs.

Noon Image: 13 Mar 2015

Workshop

It's about three hours drive to get to Barney's. The Gorse Fox arrived in time for a coffee a tour of his new house and to get stuck in to the workshop build. First order of the day was to get the stud walls up and square, and get the whole fabric bolted down to the under frame. This went without a hitch. In celebration we headed into town to see the Samosa Lady who made us some lovely lamb samosas and vegetable samosas which we took back to eat with a cup of tea.

Afternoon began with the insertion of the ridge beam and then the measuring and cutting of the rafters (with the bird's mouth cut-outs). We formed a successful production line for this and made full use of the various power tools available to us. By half past four the roof structure was complete and the cross-brace in place. We had achieved what we set out to complete. As if to signal the end, the rain started as we were clearing away.

During the evening we went to The Greyhound Inn in Fenny Bridges for a pint and very fine meal. Perfect end to the day.

Super structure

The construct at home continues. First some thermally reflective blinds are put in place at the lower edge of the roof

Then, that area around the periphery of the roof is boxed in with this lightweight caging. Eventually this cage will be covered in plasterboard and become part of the ceiling and create the illusion of a roof lantern.

Noon Image: 12 Mar 2015

Heping hand

The Gorse Fox is leaving the Silver Vixen and Jasper the Cat in charge. He is off to Devon to visit Barney Rubble. Barney is building a new workshop in his garden and the Gorse Fox offered to help. (Somethings you just can't do single-handed). It should be fun, and as it's about 3 hours drive, the Gorse Fox will stay overnight. (Which may prove to be an excuse for a beer in some nearby hostelry).

Successful Fit

Again, a very successful day from the fitters. All of the fixed glass panels are in place and the cappings are on most of the mullions.

They are still working, but it has just started to spit with rain, so they are moving sensitive components into the orangery.

They aim to fit the four roof-lights (opening panels) before they leave tonight.

Another win

Good game of football this morning. A solid 25 minutes each way, and narrow 6-4 victory for the Gorse Fox's side.

Because we had a good turn out, we ended with 7-a-side, which was less than ideal on the small pitch - but Captain Jack is worried that some of the less regular players wouldn't cope on the larger pitches we use on Tuesdays.

Noon Image: 11 Mar 2015

Going Up

Well the roof framework has been erected whilst the Gorse Fox was away at football, and since he has returned and had some lunch, the first glass panels have been slotted into place

It is early evening (or late afternoon) now. The lads are still at it as the Gorse Fox writes, and slowly but surely further panels are framed and the glazed units fixed into their rightful place.

The bi-fold doors have also been delivered today, though they won't be fitted for a few days, yet.

We are both very pleased so far. The glass has a self clean coating that gives the glass a slight blue tint. This will be a huge bonus as even the grey days will seem brighter!

Balmy

A lovely balmy day. Too warm for a sweatshirt when playing football - nice to think it's down to t-shirts in early March. (But then there is talk of El Nino this year - so watch for all of the Climate Change  adherents telling us this years weather is proof of global warming - when actually most anomalous weather this year will be directly attributable to El Nino).

Three games today - won one, drew one, lost won. Enjoyed them all.

Noon Image: 10 Mar 2015

Fit

The fitters have been here all day. There isn't too much to see as most of the day was spent measuring, cutting, preparing, and squaring things off. Th Gorse Fox is assured that all is now ready, the ring beam is in place, and the box gutter is installed; first thing tomorrow the roof frame will be erected and then the glass will start to be installed.

Good progress. (and the fitters are are nice chaps who work incredibly hard).

Almost done

The rework of the web site is nearly done. All pages have now been moved to their new homes, and one by one the Gorse Fox has been cleaning them up. There are about half a dozen pages left to clean up. GF cannot get over the amount of html-coding detritus that the Microsoft we tool placed in these pages. He must have edited thousands (quite literally) of lines over the past few days.

Noon Image: 9 Mar 2015

Close

The Silver Vixen is out at an all-day workshop, learning some new techniques for making art quilts. Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox has been to football. It was a very intense game today. Neither side gave any quarter, and at the end of the hour it was a draw and we were all completely exhausted. Having said all that, it was great fun and despite the apparent unevenness of the sides, we did well. The Gorse Fox was expecting a complete caning, so the eventual draw was evidence of how hard we worked. Very satisfactory.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, GF continues to edit the web site. So far he has completed 33 pages, but still has quite a few to go. Despite that, he is very pleased with the results.

Noon Image: 8 Mar 2015

Webbed

The Silver Vixen is out at a sewing event in Chichester. The Gorse Fox is scratching a metaphorical itch that has been growing for a few months. The web site he runs on behalf of people from across the world with the same surname as he has been looking a bit jaded. It could do with an update and a bit of a face lift.

This itch, has been combined with a wish to find out more about the Joomla Content Management System. The result is that GF is now working through the old web site, page by page, and copying them into Joomla. It is a lengthy process. Not because Joomla is difficult, but because a) there are a lot of pages to convert, and b) the Microsoft tool he used to build the existing site generated dreadful html-tags which now need cleaning up.

GF is several hours into it, and suspects it may be a further day or two before it is finished and ready for public consumption. (Then it will be time to start on his own family web site).

Noon Image: 7 Mar 2015

Deliveries

Ahem. The components that form the roof, windows, doors, and manage the flow of rainwater have arrived - this included 47 double-glazed made-to-measure glass panels. The chaps turned up with a huge van and started the delivery. An hour later they knocked to say they were going back to the depot to load up with the second van-load. That has now arrived, and the components are spread all down the side of the house, across the extension and around the garden.

The fitters, Albert and Connor, are due first thing on Monday. They estimate they will be with us for a week or two. It seems daunting at first, but then you think about how much it is costing and you conclude that it good to see so much stuff and so much labour - it gives a feeling of value for money!

Noon Image: 6 Mar 2015

Exploring

After the domestic responsibilities were complete and we had had a bite to eat, we went out exploring. We had heard of a Farm Shop out towards Runcton and thought it was time to find it and give it the once-over. It only took 5 minutes to get there and this Tardis-like shop proved to be a great find. It was far larger inside than it had appeared from the outside and had a huge selection of provender: vegetables, cheeses, dairy goods, cakes, biscuits, jams, jellies, sauces, and even a butchers. This deserves a return visit, particularly if we wish to pick up something out of the ordinary.

From there, we crossed the road to a garden centre. This was serendipitous. It had a wide range of plants, toys, furniture, gifts, and heaven knows what else. We wandered round for ages looking at the various displays. Another excellent little find.

Noon Image: 5 Mar 2015

Decking

In preparation for sorting out the garden, the Gorse Fox contacted a couple of suppliers of composite decking materials. This is like traditional decking, but rather than use normal woods, the boards are made up of a composite material. As such, they are maintenance-free, and importantly, non-slip. The first couple of samples arrived this morning, along with a brochure. We are both very impressed with the material and the ideas shown in brochure.

Warmer

It was noticeably warmer today and this somehow made the football more fun. Maybe it loosened up a few of the older limbs among us. We deliberately picked two very evenly matched teams in an effort to ensure we got a good hard work-out. At half time, it was honours-equal at 3-3. The Gorse Fox relinquished the goal-keeping gloves for the second half and slowly but surely we inched ahead of the opposition - eventually winning by 2 goals. The GF was pleased to score a couple and was generally happy with his play.

After the game, there was a lot of discussion regarding the variations on the rules that seem to be adopted by different teams. We are trying to focus on the rule-set used by the biggest conglomeration of WF teams across the country (indeed, the rules that will be used in the 2015 National Tournament).

Noon Image: 4 Mar 2015

Afternoon out

After a morning performing a house-sitting relay for Urban-cub - awaiting the delivery of a new bed, Gorse Fox joined up with the Worthing crowd for football (the Silver Vixen having taken over the baton of house-sitting).

Football over and delivery completed both headed home for a bite to eat and an hour of down-time before heading back out. We had tickets for the cinema to see "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

Surrounded by crumblies, we observed the blatant ageist targeting of the adverts, and indeed this started to irritate. Finally, the film started. Like the first, it was a gentle comedy on the reality of age and the fact that people still want to be useful and fulfilled as they get older. Shutting down and hiding away is not an acceptable option. It was an excellent and uplifting film... and, as far as the Gorse Fox could tell, all of the crumblies in the theatre survived the screening.

We stopped off for dinner before heading home.

Noon Image: 3 Mar 2015

Tournaments and Cousins

Well the Gorse Fox has entered Arun Amblers for two more tournaments. One is the National Walking Football Tournament for 2015, the other is organised by the Sussex FA. This should keep us busy, and get us some more game time.

On another tack entirely, GF got a phone call from a distant cousin yesterday. He is pretty far removed genealogically, but descended from the same bunch of McDonalds as the GF. He was phoning to tell of a death in the family, but on discussion realised that it was way over on his side and absolutely no relation the GF at all. It did provide an opportunity to catch up a bit and to share some details with him - on the proviso that he communicates any required updates.

This got the GF thinking about his family website. It is about due for another overhaul. Question is, what is the best mechanism to support this? A continued use of hand-cranked tools, or some form of modified content management system; the jury is out. There are several good tools for just the family tree side of things, but the website holds so much more than just a tree.

Noon Image: 2 Mar 2015

Jealousy

The Gorse Fox puts it down to jealousy over his boyish good looks. Either that, or his magnetic personality. In fact, if it's the latter, then the strongest part of the magnet seems to be his face.  Twice today he got hit in the face at football - the first time hard enough to break the skin (but so far - no bruise or black eye), the second (with a flailing arm) hard enough to raise an expletive.

Thank goodness for the shatterproof glasses.

Noon Image: 1 Mar 2015