By Monday, the Deckhand will just over half way through his first term. Only 6 more weeks until he’ll be back on board for Christmas. I can’t wait… I’m okay, and we Skype every week, and leave messages on Skype too, but I do miss having him home. This past week we only Skyped for about 40 minutes as he was coughing, and so was I. We both have a cold that is proving troublesome to shake off. He’s been doing some recon of the area, and has mentioned places that seem a tad ‘rough’. The area I like doesn’t seem to have any bad ‘press’ so it’s likely that’s where we’ll end up, all being well.

It’s been a quiet week here, oh apart from incessant barking from the neighbour’s rescue dogs and of course damned fireworks. I know, I know, lots of people enjoy them, but from a pet owner’s perspective they’re a damn nuisance. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were limited to just a few days, and finished at a decent time of night. Someone who lives a little further away was telling me how they were still being let off after midnight near her home. What a drag! Here, they’ve been going off for over a week and I’m fed up now of constant noise all evening and a jittery Ship’s Dog. As for the neighbour? Occasionally I open my door, yell at her dogs to shut up, and sometimes she takes the hint and takes them inside for a while. I’m not clear what she ‘rescued’ them from, but she’s a bad owner IMO.

The Ship’s Dog is a funny one. I have a living/dining room. A long room, with the table at the back of the house. The TV, sofa and so on, at the front. If I’m watching TV, the Ship’s Dog will lie near me. If I then use the computer on the dining table, he’ll go into the kitchen and lie down near the back door. If he notices I’ve moved back to the TV, he’ll come back in and lie near me. At night he comes upstairs and will lie in the Deckhand’s bedroom. When my bedside light goes off, he’ll come in and check on me, then go downstairs. Funny dog…

Here we’re down to single figures now, sometimes as low as 5C, and though we’ve had some sunshine, it sure is feeling cold. I’ve had the heating on a little though not as much as my energy company would like lol. I recently filled in a form for the meter readings and they queried it as my usage is low. I’ve previously told them it’s only a small house and told them I would be the only one here for much of the year. They don’t listen. I’m hopeful that they’ll lower my monthly payments soon, same with the water bill; I should be paying about half what I usually pay as the Deckhand is the one who takes long showers and he isn’t here. Lower bills would be nice. 6 more weeks… :)