The View from Here, More posted 9th June

[ForgeCorvus]

Just a short one today, I'll try to post more often but RL has got in the way a little (been working 11 hour days since my last post)
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Chapter 4
Noon, too tired to keep going without a break so I thought I might as well write a list of 'stuff to do' and ended up picking this up instead.
Bad night, worse morning. I feel as if I have been beaten all over with a crowbar.
Hope it is not Taz, that would really stink.
Feels more like 'Flu but I am pretty sure you can not catch the same strain twice, it was bad enough last time with heating, working plumbing and Fran checking up on me.

DEFEATIST!!!

Despite not one but two walking corpses trying to make it otherwise I am still here, that is one good point.

A second one is I have food, water and shelter, just wish I was not alone...... Doing it again, this is an Upside list.

Thirdly. Even though I have never fought for keeps before (playground dust-ups do not count) I managed to hold my own, Larp fights or Re-enactment duels are no more fighting then a fencing bout or a Judo match..... I mean even cage-fighters are not really trying to kill the other guy.

Four. I am armed better then most people, I know it is just melee weapons but that is what I have and at least I am used to using them.

On the weapons front, I have spent the morning ruining a perfectly good re-enactment Dane-axe. I am glad I made mine from medium-carbon steel rather then the dead mild plate I normally use for the ones I sell, that point-six will take and hold a reasonable edge even with just a file and my stones. I hope Fran forgives me for 'G'-clamping the axe to the kitchen worktop, but there was no way I was going to work on it out in the shed.

Five. It looks like now is going to be a great time to start cutting down on the smokes as I only have about three ounces in the fridge as well as what I have in my tin, at least if I run out of Rizlas I still have my In-Character clay pipe and for that matter my IC Flint&Steel so I can save butane and matches........Which reminds me.

This afternoon I need to inventory my food stocks and get my stored water down from the garret as it is a pain climbing up and down a ladder just to get a brew on.

Still no power and so no water pressure, at least I can use the bucket to flush with now rather then just using the bucket


Better stop for now, there is work that must be done
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*
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Later.
I managed to use the block and tackles to get the half empty water barrel down to landing level, but I could not lift the full one let along sway it down on the rig. I know a five gallon barrel weighs nearly four stone (10lbs per gallon plus the weight of the container) and my lifting tackle is rigged as a two-to-one advantage but the half barrel nearly did me in.
Why am I so tired this afternoon ?
I have an idea, I will be right back

I think (hope ) it is the 'Flu, tired, headache, muscle pain and according to the only thermometer I can find I am running a temperature of 102 F... I know it is really a wall-mounted one and the only way to get a reading is to hold it in my armpit for a few minutes (plus it maybe reading off by a degree or so either way). I hope I do not get a cough like last time, I do not think my throat has forgotten it yet.

I think I will give the inventorying a miss for today, I am going to get water and some comfort items set up in the bedroom.

Got signal so I sent a text to Fran saying I was safe and asking how things were there.... No reply yet, but I am hopeful

Something has been worrying the bodies of those that I put down and dumped in the back garden, they are torn up but not eaten.

Took my tobacco out the fridge and tried to eat some more of the food in there before it spoils. Good job the weather has been quite cool, unlike last year when it was really warm even in December

My headache is getting really bad now, it has been nearly four hours since my last lot of tablets so I am going to have another load and try to sleep it off.


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I'm becoming a comments whore, so feel free

[Nancy1340]

Very good chapter. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. Thanks

[dumb blonde]

Regards the water, he could use a garden hose and siphon/gravity feed the water down to the half empty barrel to fill it.
How did he get the water barrel up there anyway? Obviously wasn't full then...

[ForgeCorvus]

How did he get the water barrel up there anyway? Obviously wasn't full then...

I managed to use the block and tackles to get the half empty water barrel down

Same way it came down, eye-bolt in the roof-truss to mount the block & tackle over the loft trap-door. The tackles are rigged for 2 to 1 advantage, this means that you pull twice as much rope through them but only have to pull half as hard. In this case the four stone load (56lbs of water and barrel) being lifted up 8 feet becomes effectively a 28lbs load lifted up 16 feet.
I know I can lift over 40lbs into my loft just by pulling it straight up on a rope, but I am planning having this kind of set up...... Its just Crow got it first

Like the siphon idea though..... I might use that elsewhere

Nice to see people problem solving

Thanks guys

[ForgeCorvus]

Sorry its taken a while. I've been working 55+ hour weeks since the last post.

Here is chapter 4.5........
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Ch 4.5
Sick today....Really sick
Took me ages to get to the loo...I had to crawl in the end
Remembered to grab that blasted bucket at least.




Later
I've done what I can to makessure that I can't hurt anyone if this is Taz.
Fran, I am sorry I couldn't make it. Theres a letter in my lock-box for you.....

Stranger, if you are reading this then I no longer have a need for anything in the house and you are welcome to what you can use......Please treat my home with respect

I'm tired now....I hope I can continue later

Crow

[kaijafon]

Is that the end


I sure hope not!

[ForgeCorvus]

More for you, this ones short ATM (about half a chapter) but I'll try and post the rest later. That should spur me on

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Ch 5

Woke up this morning.
I can think, read and speak so I must of survived whatever the hell it was. Not sure what day it is or if I was dreaming/hallucinating about someone calling my name, phone battery is dead because I have been leaving it on all the time so I do not know if Fran has texted me. It is plugged into my hand-crank torch at the moment, but I needed to take a break from winding it.
It is raining out and I can see a couple of Tazzies out there...They seem to be staring at the road-drains, I need to get my binos out and find out what is going on.

I'll go back to this morning for completeness.
The first thing I knew was the terrible thirst, it felt like I had been gargling napalm. I practically pried my eyelids open and tried to get off the bed, had bit of a problem there. I was wearing my heavy army surplus roller buckle belt, the one I use as a load barer with my bush-kit or tool pouch. This was fastened to the bed frame with four or five lengths of para-cord and I could not just slip the belt buckle loose as it had been cable-tied shut with not one but three ties, then I remembered this was my Taz-proofing and that I had left a knife in my lock-box. I set the tumblers on the combi-lock to my usual combination.....No dice, then I read what I had written on the lid not as digits but as words “Oh,Four,Five,One”. I suppose I did that so I could not just follow muscle-memoury and would have to be able to reason to translate words into numbers.

The scary thing is I do not remember doing any of this, I can not even remember writing my last journey entry.

My Opi made short work of the cord, I could never of unpicked those knots. Then I saw the water keg that I was sure was on the bedside table was on the floor with the tap knocked clean off, sitting in the middle of a rather large wet patch of carpet. The nearest drinkable water to me was up in the Garret and I did not fancy the climb up the ladder.
Good job I put a bit of gaffer tape over the flush button of the loo. I made my way to the bathroom hanging onto the walls as I went and sat down backwards on the toilet lid, I lifted the top off the cistern and then used my tooth-mug to dip some of the water out.
As soon as some of that nectar touched my tongue I could not help myself from gulping down the whole mug full and then a second.
Within a minute I realised my mistake as the whole lot came back up and over the floor, when my retching was over I took a deep breath and filled the mug again. Over the next hour or so I drank maybe three lots of water, singing a verse and chorus of “Fat Bottomed Girls” between sips....Do not knock it, it worked
After that I was feeling more human, so I refilled the mug one more time and went back into the bedroom. Now my nostrils were no longer dried out I could smell the room and I nearly lost it again, the bucket by the bed was sickening and the sheets were not just grubby but fouled. It was then that my brain quit filtering out the stench of a combination of old sweat, urine, vomit and faeces that was wafting up from me.

I have scrubbed myself as well as I can and I am sure that I no longer reek but my mind insists on telling me I do.

I cleaned up as best I can, Olay Essentials facial cloths are great even on furry guys like me and Sanex can shift almost any grot known to man. My joggers are a write-off and I do not know what to do about the sheet or the under-blanket, the mattress might be salvageable if I can get it dried and aired out soon. But as I said.....Wrote, earlier it is currently raining. At least my rain-butt will be full, as will be the neighbours.
I do not think they would begrudge me it, assuming that they are still alive somewhere.
Oh well, back to cranking for a bit and I will try to add some more to this later.

[fourpaws]

Gettin' interestin' FC mate... keep it coming brother !

[Nancy1340]

WhooooHooooo Great story. Thanks