Today is respite day, but Ram woke early enough for us to get some reading in. The part of the book, (the Science of Discworld 1) that we are reading about global warming. It is great to read something that is based on Science rather than things written by the media, which always seems to have an agenda which isn't necessarily telling the truth, or the government, whose agenda definitely isn't about telling the truth!
It is sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees, and global warming is definitely one of those things that has to be viewed from a distance so that you can see how the Earth has evolved. We have had the world both hotter than it is now, and colder, and somehow humans taking the credit for the current climate change looks rather silly when put into the context of the millions of years that the Earth managed it without us!
This morning Dxh needed to discuss the renovation of the home automation system that runs the house, with an electrician. Perhaps I should say a bit about this system as it ties in with energy conservation. When we set out to convert this barn 14 years ago, we wanted to take advantage of modern technology to help conserve energy. At that time, that is what self-builders were talking about when it came to home automation. But what has happened is that the techno-junkies have hijacked the concept and home automation now seems to mean home cinemas, flat screen televisions in every room, networks of music and video transmission in every room, mood lighting and being able to ring up the house from the office to make sure that your electric cappuccino maker has a cup of coffee ready for you when you get home!
In our barn it means something very different. It is about saving energy, not using extra. So instead of mood lighting, we have lights that turn themselves off after a certain amount of time in rooms where people usually forget to turn them off, such as the downstairs cloakroom. We have the heating system running all year round so that the house is kept at a constant temperature in the background, on the basis that is it more energy efficient to keep a house at a reasonable temperature than to let it get very cold, and then have to reheat the whole thing. This works especially well with the solid stone walls and the underfloor heating. And we do have music in every room – we just have to carry the portable radio with us!
So, back to today. The arrangement was that Ram would stay upstairs with me while the Dxh and The Electrickery Man (TEM) did their stuff. There was never any question of them coming upstairs but never the less Ram became extremely agitated when he arrived. I was reading aloud to him, and he just sat there, with the colour drained out of him, rocking gently and saying 'baaaa' constantly. Eventually he had to climb into my lap!
After TEM left the house Ram took about 20 minutes to calm down. Eventually he did and was able to disengage from me and go back to playing with Dxh.
He was very hyper after that. He is often hyper when Dxh is here. Eventually Dxh got him outside and they did their usual mysterious game involving empty bottles and trampolines! Today was too cold for sponges!
While they were happily playing I managed a phone call to Ursula to discuss some of the arrangements for our trip up there. In particular the food situation. Ram has become more and more picky recently and if a trip is to go smoothly there needs to be something that he can eat. One particular problem is picnics. He doesn't eat sandwiches so we had to think of what he could have. Luckily he will eat a baguette with brie in it.
We watched TV this evening and it was nice to have Ram not even turn on his computer for the second day running! It also made getting to bed easier. It means that we get upstairs earlier so that I don't fall asleep in the middle of a chapter of our book!
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