Clock and chilli

The guest alarm clock doesn't ring at all (with hindsight I really should have checked on that before attempting to use it, but it worked the last time a guest needed it). That one takes AA batteries, of which I have spares, so I was able to test whether it was just low battery voltage by putting in a new battery. Apparently not. So for the moment it's back to the old one that rings when you test it but can't be trusted to do so when needed :-(

I really need to get round to harvesting my chillies now, since they have stopped ripening and started to shrivel... I did manage to plant up the garlic. I didn't attempt to split it because, as so often before, it didn't appear to have formed cloves.

"How to Keep House While Drowning", KC Davis

I flicked through this little book in ten or fifteen minutes (I'm a speed-reader and was skimming what is already a short volume), attracted by the title, but was sufficiently struck by it to continue all the way to the end. All the stuff about "Be kind to yourself", dancing to joyful music, and "Tell yourself you are a worthwhile person even if you don't believe it" doesn't work (I don't believe that sort of thing if I hear it from someone else, so definitely don't believe it when I am myself mouthing the words and know that I am lying with cynical intent), and the advice "Don't worry about the environment, just throw everything away, use disposables if necessary and start with a clean slate" is completely impossible for me (though I can see the liberating mental effect -- and there are probably uncompleted projects that I should simply get rid of rather than vainly hoping to return to some day) But the practical advice is, much of it, practical.
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