Satisfaction

The Gorse Fox is feeling very satisfied. The code, started yesterday, and completed this morning is now fully tested and is operating beautifully. It no longer depends on a Python module to do pre-selection of the blog posts from Gorse Fox. By using the "cURL" command the Gorse Fox has managed to come up with the right incantation to extract and handle the posts in Rexx (Regina, as it happens). By ensuring the output from this new code was the same format as the defunct Python out, he was able to reuse the code that actually posted to the private blog without a single line of change. Overall he thinks this is a fair neater solution than the original one. The only outstanding task is to finish the built-in documentation.

Code

Well, it was very overcast this morning and had clearly rained overnight. Once everyone was up and about, the Gorse Fox retired to his study. He could feel a build-up of code in his fingers that was just bursting to get out.

Code started to flow and tests results were looking good as we cut each new "chunk" of code. The Gorse Fox was in the zone

Urban-Cub, the Silver Vixen and Ellie decided we needed a walk. We wandered around the estate to where the new houses were being built. Hopefully, one of these will be the new home for Urban-Cub and Ellie. The foundations are now in place, so there is something that can actually be seen.

Back home there was some more code and more progress. One of the real benefits of the original code design was that there were several distinct phases to the blog extract and the posting of information to the private blog. This means that the bit that has been failing (the first chunk) can be replaced with without any further ado. Yesterday's problems regarding JSON and SQL disappear as the existing SQL handlers will continue toe run as before. The initial chunk can be replaced in isolation as long as the intermediate transfer file is in the same format as before. At this point the Gorse Fox is about 98% there.

During the afternoon there was a pleasant 5.5km walk to and from Sainsbury's to pick up some carrots and potatoes for tomorrow's dinner. The queue outside was longer than recent visits, but still only took about 10 minutes to get us through to the entrance.

Eyes

It's wet and grey today.

The Gorse Fox started the morning with a little wander round the house with the new security cameras. The idea was to check that they had a strong enough signal to allow the Gorse Fox to mount them at both the front porch and at the bottom of the garden. The portents were good. It was raining heavily, however, so the actual fixing could wait.

The blog extract software has failed again, the way it did earlier in the week. Maybe the Gorse Fox will have to raise a concerted and concentrated effort to construct some new code after all. There several "gotchas" that make this less than straightforward. 1) Regina rexx supports SQL, but not JSON; 2) Object Rexx supports JSON, but the Gorse Fox has never managed to get it to connect with SQL on the Raspberry Pi; 3) Python should be able to do both but he's having trouble installing some of the required libraries. To add insult to injury, the Gorse Fox thinks he'll have to rebuild "tawnyowl" after one attempt to install some pre-requirements went drastically wrong. Pah!

The rain stopped. The cameras have been mounted and now provide surveillance for the front of the house and the whole of the garden. WIth the old camera covering the driveway, we are now pretty well covered.

Snooping

It was a fairly typical Thursday morning. Ocado arrived with a mountain of shopping which we sorted, stowed, or carried round to our elderly neighbours as appropriate. The Silver Vixen and Urban-cub were both interested in YouTube fitness videos so the Gorse Fox showed them how to access them on the big TV. No doubt there will have to be further explanations, but at least they have seen the videos they want on the big device.

The Gorse Fox retired to the study. He had heard from Barclaycard. They want to see the correspondence between the Gorse Fox and Expedia where they are refusing to pay refunds on the FlyBe bookings. This is easier said than done. They have no detectable email address, no proper UK address (other than a serviced post box), and the Gorse Fox could only find their complaints contact form. Given that they published a clear statement on the day FlyBe went to the wall, this all seems very silly. Anyway, the Gorse Fox is playing the game and awaits a response from Expedia.

This afternoon has been spent helping out in the garden.

The Silver Vixen had ordered some faux ornamental laurel hedging. This arrived early afternoon and after some remodelling of the old trellis, now nicely covers one corner of the garden.

A Buddha pokes his head out between the leaves and as he writes, the Silver Vixen and Urban-cub are feeding several kilometres of solar lights through the foliage with some frangipani flowers randomly interspersed through the hedging.

While all that was going on, the nice man from Amazon turned up with the Gorse Fox's new security cameras. He will leave it until tomorrow to set them up, but they are currently charging in the corner of the kitchen.

Not a clue

The Gorse Fox pottered about this morning, He was distracted. He was thinking of the little challenge set by the blog extractor yesterday. How could this best be solved, without a massive rewrite? Slowly ideas began to form. Some were dismissed, others were promoted because of their ease and simplicity. When he got time he would have to experiment with a few lines of code to see which would work best. He would return to this later. Ellie required a playmate, and the Gorse Fox was chosen!

The Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub did some tidying in the garden. This prompted a request for us to join the green waste collection scheme run by Arun with Biffa. We signed up. This meant we would get a new bin for garden waste which would be collected every second week.

After lunch the Gorse Fox, Urban-Cub, and Ellie walked to Sainsbury's. We needed some bread, a joint for the weekend, and some food for Jasper. By taking Ellie's buggy we had transport for the shopping on the return leg.

The Gorse Fox retired to the study. Lines of code were cut and tried. Ideas were shown against the wall to see if they'd stick. Progress was definite. He then wanted to check something about the way the old code ran. He logged in to "peregrine" and triggered the code. It ran through without incident. He ran it several more times. Each time it ran without incident. Whatever had stopped it running yesterday was now fixed. He suspects that this was something in Google rather than in "peregrine" as no changes have been applied in the intervening hours. The pressure is off. (That doesn't mean he'll stop thinking about a better approach, it's just that there is no hurry to get it done).

Clean and smug

While the Gorse Fox was fighting with his little blogging problem, the Silver Vixen was doing the Spring time clothes swap whereby winter clothes are archived and summer clothes retrieved. Urban-Cub fired up the oven for a deep clean. The Gorse Fox went down to help and cleaned all the racks while everything happened automatically. Finally, after several hours, the fine ash that is left after the self-clean was wiped up and the racks replaced. The Gorse Fox was feeling smug.

After lunch, Urban-Cub and Ellie went for a walk with the Gorse Fox. There was a cool breeze, but it was lovely and sunny.

Arriving back, the Gorse Fox returned to his little blogging problem. Bit by bit he managed to use cURL to work out the right incantations to retrieve his blog posts fairly easily. Certainly the amount of code involved would be significantly less than he currently employs. He won't start crafting the code today, but is feeling remarkably smug now that he has cracked this simple interface.

Pass and Fail

The good news is that the backups which failed two days ago (the Gorse Fox alternates between backup devices) ran through without incident last night. He will, however, continue to monitor the situation and has started to research a replacement NAS.

The bad news is that the code he runs to moved posts from this blog to his private blog, has failed. This has run without incident for about 4 years, but today it has failed with a Python error message. Looking at it quickly, he suspects this is because something has been deprecated in Python 2.7 but a bit more research is needed. Whatever the cause, the Gorse Fox can see another little project on the horizon!

Prodigal's Return

As usual, the Gorse Fox was first up this morning. After reading his emails, the news, and FaceAche he returned to Urban-Cub's laptop. Bit by bit old apps were cleared, two unnecessary levels of anti-virus were removed and finally the latest release of Windows 10 downloaded and installed. It ran for most of the morning, but in the end we had a machine that was working quite well. We'll probably do some more tweaking, but we have made significant progress.

Ellie returned at lunchtime. This added a certain frisson to the proceedings as she charged around from one distraction to the next. Meanwhile, the Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub had been preparing the shopping list for the week. Along with the items for our elderly neighbours, the Gorse Fox started to construct our order for the week. This seemed to take a lot longer than it should and several times he found the whole list duplicated. Eventually, it looked right and before fate could set in, the Gorse Fox checked-out.

Urban-Cub, Ellie, and the Gorse Fox went for a walk this afternoon. (At least Urban-Cub and the Gorse Fox did; Ellie rolled along in her buggy). We stopped at Tesco Express on the way back. This enabled us to pick up a few bits and pieces that were not available on the online Ocado list).

Strange Easter

It’s Easter Sunday, but it seems strange. The lockdown means that there is no family get-together of any sort. No celebration as such. It was good news, however, that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was discharged from hospital.

The Gorse Fox received three separate warnings overnight regarding errors during backups. This warranted some further investigation. So it was that after breakfast he retired, once again, to the study and started examining the errors. As he said earlier this year, he suspects he has a drive that is failing. Re-running two of the backups was sufficient, in these cases. The third backup, however, was more problematic. This was the photo library, and it’s huge. In the end he decided to split the backup into a series of smaller jobs. This may not solve the problem, but it should limit the extent. Meanwhile he has to determine what to do about the failing drive.... but that’s what he said last time (and did nothing in the end)!

The Silver Vixen was pottering in the garden, when the Gorse Fox came down. He helped a bit by moving some stuff about and removing a faux window that was rotting.

After lunch he settled down in the garden with Urban-Cub. And the Silver Vixen. Urban-Cub has a laptop that is slow to the point of being unusable. He decided to take a look. In the end he ran Linux on it just so that he could look around and find out what was there. It has a large (almost empty) hard drive, and about 4GB of RAM... but is totally unusable. We have decided to clear it right down to the bare bones and rebuild those application that are necessary. It’s too bright in the garden, however, so that will have to wait for another day.

Lockdown

The lockdown continues. In general, people seem to be following the Government advice, though there are always some morons who think that they know better, are immune, and don't care if they carry the infection to other people. He feels that a uni-lateral knee-capping is perfectly in order for these people; it's firm but fair.

The other thing about the lockdown or at least the furloughing of many workers is they get the chance to experience what it's like to be retired. They are, of course, complaining about the effort required deciding when to get up in the morning, whether to get dressed, what to do, and whether it is acceptable to a) watch TV all day, and b) start drinking before 10 o'clock. The Gorse Fox can put their minds at rest: 7 o'clock; yes, immediately; read, learn, write, exercise; NO; and NO.

The weather today has been beautiful once again. The Gorse Fox did, however, have to spend a chunk of the morning in the study. He had received an alert overnight, informing him that one of his backups had errors. He re-ran it and realised that it is an absolute monster. He decided that that particular set of subsystems should be broken into 5 component backups. Each was crafted and all but the last run and tested. The last one will run for over an hour and he decided to wait for the schedule to kick-in overnight.

Urban-cub and the SilverVixen have been doing some Easter crafts for Ellie and the children in the neighbourhood. Our front window will be plastered with painted Easter eggs for them to spot on the walks. Once that was done they retired to the sun deck for the duration.

The Gorse Fox headed out for a walk. The problem with this area is that there are few local countryside walks. As a result, he ended up walking the local streets. Nice exercise, but hardly inspiring.

Keep taking the tablets

The Gorse Fox was first up, as usual. He had an hour or so to kill before Ellie stirred and woke Urban-cub and the Silver Vixen. This gave him a chance to read the papers (online), check his emails, and look at Face-ache while drinking a solitary coffee. He usually has two. The Silver Vixen had some tablets to collect from the pharmacy and the Gorse Fox said he would walk around there to collect them. The distance was such that two coffees may have caused a degree of discomfort!

Once everyone else was up and the time ticked towards 9, the Gorse Fox set off. It's only a couple of kilometres and is a pleasant enough walk through some nice open housing developments. He turned the final corner and felt quite smug seeing that there was no queue. As he got closer he noticed, additionally, that there were no lights on. Doh! It's Good Friday and they had decided not to open until 2pm. The Gorse Fox turned on his heels and retraced his steps, empty-handed.

Once home he retired to the study. The plan was to continue the battles with Barclaycard and with Virgin. The former involved launching a well-aimed cruise-email. The latter involved reading lots of options, lots of Ts & Cs, and then being referred to the phone number upon which he has already wasted many hours. Forget it. He will wait for them to contact him.

After lunch, he set off again. The lights were still off, but he was a couple of minutes early. The door burst open and the one person in the queue in front of him was called in. It was a strict one in and one out. The Gorse Fox collected the Silver Vixens tablets. He had forgotten how many there were and wondered if he should have brought a trolley (or pack mule) to take them home.

Once home, Urban-cub was getting Ellie ready to take to Pistol Pete for the weekend. The Gorse Fox settled down for a quiet hour or two in the garden.

Lazy days

The Gorse Fox may have mentioned it before, but in case you have forgotten he will reiterate: the Gorse Fox is inherently bone idle. The current lock-down in response to the Coronavirus plays to his strengths.

Today has seen the Gorse Fox at his best. He was up early and treated Ellie to some apple juice and toast before anyone else emerged. He then showered and spent some time on the accounts, and thinking about the latest comments from Virgin and from Barclaycard regarding his current transactions. The former being an ongoing problem, the latter starting to emerge as a problem. In the Barclaycard case, however, he is not over-worried at this point and has decided an earl morning phone call should allow him to sort things out and get the refund he has requested.

Ocado turned up with the shopping. We packed everything away and the Gorse Fox delivered a care package to the elderly neighbours (Old Bill and Lady Penelope). Much of the rest of the day has been spent reading. Urban-Cub prepared our lunch and has started on supper, so the Gorse Fox is sitting in the garden enjoying a glass of wine as he writes. The Silver Vixen has just finished a fine Jamaican rum with some coke.  (It’s nice having our own live-in private chef).

Out

It was grey and muggy this morning.

Once we were all up and about, the Gorse Fox, Urban-cub and Ellie walked through to South Bersted to get some exercise and to do some necessary food shopping. When we got to the shops we split up. Urban-cub and Ellie went to Sainsbury's. The Gorse Fox went to M&S. His queue was shorter but took a lot longer to process than hers. He was unable to get the one thing he had needed. As it happens, so was she. Having said that the Coventry Hobbit was able to pick some Worcestershire Sauce at Morrisons. We were sorted.

It was a nice 6km round trip and the best exercise the Gorse Fox has managed for nearly a week.

Other than that it's been a very quiet day, and very relaxed.

Deliveries

It has been a lovely day. It was a little chilly to start with, but soon warmed up and it mid-afternoon before we saw any cloud.

Once everyone was fed, washed, and dressed, the Gorse Fox and Urban-cub took Ellie out for a walk.

We headed down to the lake to see the ducks and the ducklings. There were plenty of ducks to see, but the ducklings were well out of sight. We did, however, see a couple swimming with their mother on the far side, near the reeds.

Once we had exhausted the duck food, we headed off around the lake. Ellie decided she wanted to be carried. Bumpa said that he would carry her once we got to the end of the path. By the time we got there, she had forgotten and walked all the rest of the way with us.

During the afternoon we received a delivery from Morrisons. Not our usual supplier, but with the Coventry Hobbit working there, it was an opportunity to get some otherwise unavailable goods delivered. So it was that the Coventry Hobbit arrived, clutching a pack of day-time nappies for Ellie. It is clear he is quite enjoying his job in the Twilight Zone, particularly as they get the chance to select food that is being discounted because it is reaching its sell-by date. Some is being sold with a  95% discount.

The other idea was that he would collect an Amazon delivery from us... but that hadn't arrived by the time he left. (Since he left, Amazon have delivered, but his parcel wasn't included - maybe tomorrow).

Feeling thankful

The Gorse Fox is feeling thankful. The new financial year kicked in this morning. His State pension has increased (not hugely, but everything helps), and his pension from Starfleet increased also. At a time when so many people are having to get by on 80% of their usual salary, the Gorse Fox is very thankful.

We hadn't received our usual alert from Ocado to say our order was being allocated. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen decided we would construct our shopping list for the week and then try an log in and see what the late of the land may be. It took a while to get the list completed and we included some bits and pieces for the neighbours. Then, with a degree of trepidation and expectation of a long wait, the Gorse Fox logged in. Ping! He was in immediately. Our usual weekly slot HAD been allocated. All he had to do was edit the default list with all of the items selected. It took a while, and there were several items unavailable, but we got it done, and our order has been accepted and is in the process. Another think to be thankful for in the difficult times.

It looks like the latest FCO guidance for travellers includes the phrase "Do not travel abroad unless it’s essential. The FCO advised British people against all non-essential travel worldwide. This applies for an indefinite period due to unprecedented international border closures and other restrictions.” The Gorse Fox has taken this up with Virgin, as it strengthens his case for a full refund. He awaits their response!

Spring Clean up

It has been another gorgeous day, with wall to wall sunshine. It’s about 16-17C here by the coast, but that is very pleasant indeed.

In the ongoing Spring clean outside we split into front and back thirds morning. Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen hit the front, cleaning the white surfaces round the bay window and door.

The Gorse Fox  stayed in the back and repainted the planter. This was interesting as it showed how much the colour had faded over the few years since it was last done. The faded colour almost looked like a grey-blue against the refreshed lavender-pink. It didn’t take too long, and the finished article looks very smart.

The Gorse Fox then went to the front to help the Silver Vixen finish cleaning the windows, which had taken on a lot of muck where the Urban-Cub had washed down the paintwork.

This afternoon we have made the most of the fine weather and sat quietly in the garden listening the water cascade into the rill.

Cracking

It's been a cracking day, weather-wise. The Gorse Fox pattered around downstairs for an hour or so before the Silver Vixen emerged followed a while later by the Urban-cub. Once breakfast was out of the way he retreated to the garage and the garden. The jet wash was retrieved from its hiding place, the hose run through the Orangery and down the side of the house, and the cable was plugged in. Yesterday's cleaning exercise continued. The stretch down the side of the house running out to the sidewalk was grimy from the winter. The jetwash lifted the grime and left the paving slabs looking pristine. Immensely satisfying.

Once the side was clean, the path leading to the front door needed the final bit of cleaning. It was a matter of running everything through the garage. It didn't take long and with everything clear, the equipment was in just the right place for Urban-cub to clean her car.

With all of the planned chores out of the way, it seemed like a good time to sit and enjoy the sunshine with a sneaky G&T.

It's lovely to sit and see the fresh green shoots of the acers beginning to break through.

The Gorse Fo finished the afternoon by ordering some security cameras. This will allow him to monitor beyond just the driveway (which we already have covered) and cover the front entrance and (maybe) the back garden.

Jetwash

The Gorse Fox was up first, as usual.

Ellie woke soon after and came down for a crazy half-hour with Bumpa before we went and disturbed the Silver Vixen with a cup of tea.

 Ellie was very good this morning and very excited that she was going to see Pistol  Pete for a couple of days.

The weather was bright and quite warm. The Gorse Fox retrieved the jetwash from the garage and fitted the appropriate adapters and started cleaning the paths and patio. It took a couple of hours, but they have come up really well. He still has to complete the paths at the front of the house, but that can be done over the weekend. (Though as the Gorse Fox is retired, every day is the weekend).

Delivery

We were lucky. The Ocado delivery turned up with almost everything we had ordered, and that which wasn't available had been replaced with suitable alternatives. It even turned up early. We had included some items for a neighbour and dropped their stuff round to them as they are self-isolating.

The next delivery was the photo book that he had completed at the weekend. This turned out really well and afforded a very pleasant hour's diversion as the Gorse Fox went through and checked it. This got him enthused about the next book so he returned to the study and continued selecting photos for 2006/7/8 but as they were such busy years the selection took ages and he is still only partway through 2008.

More patience

It was another day destined to try the patience of the Gorse Fox. He decided to get on the one early. At 7 he tried; Virgin was closed (which was expected). At 8 he tried; Virgin was closed (still expected). At 9 he tried; Virgin was closed. At 9:03 he tried and was told he would be in a 3 hour queue. Two and half hours later he was cut-off again.

An SMS arrived from Virgin, in response to yesterday's message. They told the Gorse Fox he could rearrange the holiday or accept a voucher which would be valid until the end of 2021. They also said a refund was not an option. He responded that this was unacceptable, demanded a full refund, and pointed out to them that their own Ts&Cs and the current FCO advice. Silence.

He will return to the fray tomorrow.

An email arrived from the organisers of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The whole festival had been cancelled this year - a refund would be processed immediately. The Gorse Fox cancelled the hotel reservation and cancelled the flights.

Going well isn't it?

After lunch he went to Sainsbury's to pick up those items not available from Ocado. He, again, timed it well. The queue was only about 10 people and took no longer than 5 minutes. Inside he managed to get almost everything on his list. By the time he left, the queue was again halfway round the car park.