Lock-down Day 592

I woke up to .... you guessed it: No power! A pole had blown down during the storm in the night ...

Freaky, busy day. First my neighbour took a drive around to inspect the damage, then one of the landlord's employees came - inside - to inspect the damage, then my landlord himself showed up, to inspect the damage.

They all decided that, since they are going to be busy here, with chain saws, they would do EVERYTHING that needs doing. Like, cut that branch off the Jacaranda tree, which overhangs the house, and cut ALL the trees on the eastern side. They are half-dead, half-alive and I suppose it's best to put them to rest.

At first, while waiting, I tried a bit of weeding - around the back, since I didn't want mippies to go out front, but by around ten it started drizzling and I had to call it quits. It drizzled, dripped and rained the whole rest of the day. With nary a break.

Since I couldn't do anything inside, nor in the garden, I figured I might as well take this opportunity to clean and tidy the veranda. It also allowed me to keep an eye on the gate - which was acting up, so I turned it on manual and left it open.

The workers came with a caterpillar outside, fastened a chain around the trunks and lifted them over the fence! They did very little additional damage - to my plants, that is! They didn't just take both those trunks, but took every last stump, branch and large piece of wood that had been lying around the garden when I moved in! All that crap, that had been in my way - which I just couldn't cut or burn or do anything with ... all gone now! AWESOME!

I tried throughout the day to call the municipality to follow up on the power outage - no use. Whenever I get through to a human, at last, they put me on hold - which is their way of telling me to feck off! And, even though I TRY to stay on hold, with load shedding turning cell towers on and off all day, eventually I loose the signal, and the call is ended.

On the veranda, I decided to do something about the table. The problem is, that it's a steel table. Which rusts. I had put the drop sheet on it, but that doesn't keep the water off the table, when I water all the pots - and it also isn't weather resistant, so it's in tatters.

Here's what I have done, for now: First, I put an old bed sheet on the table - so that IT can absorb any liquid / condensation. Then I cut cardboard boxes to fit the table, and taped them together, to form a 'fitted table top'. And last, I taped refuse bags all around and on top, so that ALL water runs off and none gets to the actual table.

Those black refuse bags don't look particularly nice, but with the table filled with growing trees, nobody looks at the table!

Mippies came to fetch me a couple of times - with workers busy around the house the entire day, they were getting brave (or restless?) by late afternoon. I spent a lot of time inside with them, brushing one, then the other, cuddling, brushing again ... 

They did enjoy a bit our outdoor time late afternoon ... until my neighbour showed up to inspect whether they had done a nice job in my yard. I showed him around, told him they would be coming back to finish the last trees tomorrow.

The gate was troublesome, now the remote worked, now it didn't, and with the landlord saying that they couldn't find my spare remote (and keys) in the office ... I suggested to leave the gate on manual, so they could just push it open today. My neighbour said, though, that he's sure he's seen keys like the ones I showed him - so, hopefully they'll turn up.

Fortunately I had fried two steaks yesterday, so at least I had something to eat. But nothing to take to work, tomorrow ...