Wow, rain last night. I was awake between 3 and 4am and it rained heavily. That’s handy, because I was noticing how dry my verge lawn was looking and realised I haven’t turned my reticulation (watering system) on for the summer yet. This rain has given the ground a good soaking and a good start.

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I say I was awake, but it was the need for a piss that woke me. At last, at last, have I got a fix for the restless legs at last? I’ve been taking a drug called Sifrol. It’s for Parkinson’s Disease patients, to increase dopamine levels and reduce limb twitching. It’s hard to say whether this is the actual cure for my restless legs, because sometimes it goes away for a period anyway. All I can say is that I’ve had four or five nights free of the awful problem so far. Time will tell.

Crumbs, it gets added to the dozen or so medications I’m taking. I think I might try to eliminate a couple that I wonder if are necessary.

In addition, I have seven small pills in the morning that are all, except one, round, white and about the same size. I can hardly tell one from another. I could be doubling up on one or two and not realise it. I have to be careful.

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I’ve been dragging my feet on buying two new tyres for the Verada. My “friend” who borrowed the car for 16 months returned it with the rear tyres in illegal condition! I’ve been planning to get the RAC tyre guy out to fit new ones, but balking at the estimated cost. I was thinking it would be at least $100 per tyre.

However, I did a bit of googling yesterday and I find a local shop (just up the road) sells a basic tyre for $54 each, plus fitting. I don’t need fancy tyres, I only drive this car locally at 60-70km/h. So on Tuesday I’ll investigate this.

I say Tuesday because tomorrow, Monday, I’m having an ultrasound examination to investigate the ache in my left side. I thought a possible kidney stone – not all stones give the extreme pain. Sometimes it’s just an ache. We’ll see. But I have to fast for four hours, i.e. from 10am, and drink a litre of water before the exam. Hmmm.

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Also on the topic of cars, I’ve been dragging my feet on getting a new number plate for the Peugeot (I lost the front one, remember?) I didn’t like the idea of driving to the licensing office in Joondalup, finding parking, walking to an office and possibly waiting hours in a line.

But wunderbar, I’ve discovered that they’ve moved the office to a new one just near me (2km away) in Butler Boulevard. I don’t know what the queues will be like, but maybe people haven’t discovered it yet and it will be light traffic. So that’s on the list.

It means I’ll lose the “Evie” number (1EVI 891), because they issue new plates. Pity, I liked that one. But it gives me the opportunity to get a half height plate for the front, so it won’t scrape again.

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And I’ve been shuffling car radios between the Verada and the Honda. I’ve got two Pioneer touch-screen radio/CD units, but only one is a DAB+ digital radio and I can’t make up my mind which car to put it in.

Well, whacky doo, I moved some bits in a cupboard the other day and realised that I’ve got another DAB+ radio! It’s a Kenwood that I bought about 15 years ago. Wow, I’m a two-digital-radio man! So I can solve my problem in the Honda of having a faulty AM/FM antenna by installing the DAB+ radio. They use a different antenna, you see, one that sticks on the windscreen with a lead dropping down behind the dash. Now, if I wasn’t wasting so much time writing blogs I could get onto it. Hah!

I’m only driving the Honda these days (Verada has two crook tyres and the Peugeot has a dead battery and is missing a number plate). I was thinking yesterday (as I frequently do!) how much I like the Honda. It’s a big car, an “on-demand” 4WD and it drives very pleasantly. It doesn’t drive like a truck, as some critics say about four wheel drive SUVs. I enjoy driving it very much, so much that after I’ve been shopping at the Butler shops, instead of going straight home, I always take a long way home, along the freeway or similar, just for the enjoyment of it.

But the cost of groceries! I set new record yesterday for the total bill. The price increases are savage, frightening. Everything is over $4 per item now, so the bill just mounts up at a staggering rate. I have to question whether I need things. That’s not a bad thing, but it takes the enjoyment out of shopping. I used to go past the book store and usually buy a book, but I can’t do that any more. Same for JB Hifi – no more DVDs or CDs for me. Not that that’s a bad thing – I have far too many already.

Damn YouTube has wrecked me. It dominates my screen time now, to the detriment of my reading.

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Hmmm, I have washing to hang out on the line, but it’s looking very grey, possibly rainy. What should I do? Oh well, if I hang it out, that will bring rain and we need it.

Hey, 2pm and it rained. It’s looking very grey and gloomy outside. Not cold, it’s 25degC, extremely pleasant. A bit of thunder just then.

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I watched the movie Nyad on Netflix last night. Strange title, but it’s a woman’s first name. It means water nymph or something like that.

It stars Annette Benning as Nyad and Jodie Foster as her (gay) partner. She’s gay in real life, of course. Wow, women lose their looks as they age. Both of them are looking a bit haggard and wrinkly. Men, on the other hand, get better looking as they age. True!

The story is that Nyad has the urge, at age 60, to make another attempt to do something she attempted in her twenties, and failed then, to swim from Cuba to Florida, a distance of 103 miles. Wow. Non stop. Jodie Foster is her support person.

It’s a typical American movie of course, full of drama and emotion. Sharks. Box jellyfish mainly. I agree that’s pretty dramatic. She gets stung a couple of times.

And sharks, so it’s good to see an Aussie along for the attempt, with his invention, an electric field generator that repels the sharks. It works well. I think he’s a West Aussie guy in real life.

At the risk of being a spoiler, she finally succeeds on the fifth attempt – well what else, you knew she would. It’s not a bad movie, it held my attention right to the end, but as I said, it’s typical American overblown drama.

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As if I don’t have enough hi-fi already! I’ve been very pleased with the Edifier computer speakers I bought a couple of years ago (a couple? More like a few years. Phew! Time flies) and these grabbed my attention yesterday. Buit-in 130W per channel amps, 8″ bass drivers and those cabinets look pretty solid and dead. And they connect to your source by Bluetooth, so they sit on the desk or a stand with no cables except a power cable. As if by magic. $599.

Wow, this is Chinese manufacturing. They’re not known for high end audio, but they’ve caught up fast.

Dog, I don’t need more equipment!