Blue Bear

The cooling stand that I bought for the beast of a laptop came today. At
least I think it was today, yes, definitely today. I ordered a mouse to go with
it as well which makes a big difference. So it’s all good now, I can play my
games, have more than one tab open and generally not start a fire in the motel
room. That would be bad. The smoke detector has already been taped so I can
vape at ease in here otherwise I would go mad. The cooling stand is pretty cool
(get the JK there) as it has six fans and LEDs in them. So it looks like something
from a hacker movie in the 90s. All about the stereotypes. I’m having fun with
the fan controls. Make it sound like a plane engine or quiet as a whisper.
Since I listen to music all the time here, the plane engine is. Things here at
the motel are still a bit rough and scary at times. Lots of screaming and
shouting from the room to my left; a young girl and her mum don’t seem to get
along very well although that’s just based on the shouting and crying. To my
right I have the drunk who snores, coughs up flem constantly and can hear
stumbling about. Today they (other people) were trying to get into people’s rooms,
obviously drunk, as they used their keys thinking they had this magical power
to open any door- a skeleton key. Then they would bang on the door in
frustration. They did it to mine. I have this secure lock from Amazon which
when combined with the lock makes it impossible to unlock from the outside.
Well. Unless they kick the door down or do a ‘Heres Johnny’ skit. I sleep
better with it on and having music on helps. Although now the fans are on it
drowns them out as well.

Proud of myself today. After a wobble this morning from Ben. He started
having the misophonia thing again, where he’s super alert to any noises, which
invoke his fight or flight response and goes ape. He starts kicking his door
really hard and screaming out the window. I was with the dogs downstairs and
they went batshit crazy. I shouted up at Ben, then had to text D to calm him
down as he triggered my FND and I started drooling like an idiot and not being
able to type on my phone. He left the house for fresh air, and he came back an
hour later (he did check in on WhatsApp that he went to the shop with some
money he ‘found’) all calm and his usual self. I was still a bit of a mess.
Then D’s mum and boyfriend came in without D and they don’t speak English. Got
a hug from them both. Ben came down and had hugs too. Then they sprang into
action, picking up dog poo, tidying and started mowing the back. All in like 5
minutes of arriving. I in my lovely lameness just sat down awkwardly as they were
doing jobs I should be doing but I can’t do any more. D came back and I left. I
resisted the urge to go to Asda and pick up alcohol. It was tempting but I
resisted. Not going to be that guy. So that’s why I’m proud of myself today.

This is a good one. My brother, the slag, phoned me and we spoke for 45
minutes about lots of different things that for reasons of privacy I won’t go
into. It was nice talking to him though. Not a lot of people I can talk to on
the phone. Owen has phone issues, D isn’t going to like to talk and yeah that’s
it. The stuff I can say like talking about the past and moving on, how he’s
doing well in his job and his drinking is more under control. It was nice to
hear that he has a positive outlook on things.

Right. Meetings tomorrow about training. Bed.

 

QOTD

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever been camping?

I’ve answered and deleted it about five times. I have, what you will call, a love-and hate-relationship of camping. The posh snobbery that I was brought on taught me to turn my nose up at camping. My parents never took me camping, instead favoring static homes and hotel resorts. So naturally when confronted with “Let’s go camping” it instantly fills me full of mixed emotions.

D was the first person I have ever gone camping with. She showed me that it can actually be fun. She has been SO accommodating. I hated putting up the tent so she buys an inflatable one. There are a few other things that took I really had hang-ups about. Having an electrical hook-up is amazing though. We have all the kit living in the attic. Kettle, hob, toaster, and go knows what else. It made me appreciate the warmth. Last year it was really warm but the nights were freezing. Especially when your bed has sprung a leak and I just slept on the floor. Which isn’t as bad as it sounds as I prefer cold and hard mattresses.

I do still dread it though. I’m not sure which part I hate the most. The filling of the car, the setting up and taking it down? I used to have an issue where I felt exposed to everyone but discovered with the new tent I can seal it up tight and no one can see inside. We had a couple of great holidays last year. One down south and one near us in Cheshire where my daughter R came along. That was a truly awesome holiday. It involved fishing. Anything fishing-related makes things better. Plus I got to teach her how to do it before she lost interest when the fish weren’t biting.

There was one horrific memory from last year.

Last camping trip of the season. Kids are playing in the pool. Me and D had gotten out the pool and were drying next to the pool. B swims up to say hello. Suzi pushes him from behind. Crunch. I’ll never forget that sound. The sound of teeth smashing against concrete. We ran over to him expecting all his teeth to be smashed. His front tooth was. That was traumatic. Fortunately, the dentist reassured us over the phone that it can be fixed. D was on the phone to 111 NHS advice. So we kept an eye on him to make sure nothing else got messed up. R was with us and spent the afternoon looking after him and keeping him busy.

Crunch.

Damn.

So I like camping and I hate camping. I don’t think we will be able to go camping again this year due to B and his issues with misophonia and also my snoring. Unless I sleep in the car, he might not hear me then. But the whole trip will be filled with stress. Can we go here? will it be busy? will he hear others eating? Will I feel safe? a whole load of things. Well. If we camp near home as a test run. Like the lakes, about an hour away from here.