Use washing line to support cable with an electric mower

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

What magical cable do you believe I have?

[MM]

Maybe you're actually using a rechargeable and the cable is just a figment of your imagination.

MM

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

I don't believe those mowers could do a whole lawn. My mower uses 1kW. How big a battery do they have?!?

[MM]

Three months. I couldn't wait that long before mowing the lawn. Which is why I bought the Bosch lightweight electric. And I parked the car on the drive so I wouldn't need to open the garage. Shopping - I ordered online from Asda and the delivery guys were also helpful and carried the bags through to the kitchen and placed them on the worktop for me. Seems like ancient history now, though it's only been two years in reality.

MM

[Nightjar]

That is what gardeners are for :-)

You must be one of the few people I know who still have room in their garage for the car.

I stockpiled anything heavy in advance, so only had to do occasional light shopping and I ate out a lot.

ISTR that cycling on the road was not allowed for about a year, but that wasn't really relevant to me. Exercise bikes were permitted after twelve weeks, but, apparently, using the handlebars on a real bike puts serious stress on the sternum.

.. and many more to come, we hope.

[MM]

I can't afford luxuries like gardeners on my meagre five pensions!

It's a small car and quite a big garage.

I didn't do the latter as I rarely eat out. (Don't care for the ambience of most places.) And stockpiling, yeah, I've always done it. Right now I could ~probably~ exist for 10 days, maybe longer, just on what's in the cupboard. Even longer if I include the freezer, but to my mind stockpiling kind of assumes there's going to be no leccky left, leaving freezer contents rotting across the land.

Yep, I read that, too. I've been out on my bike a couple of times in the past year, but after the hospital rehab course finished (8 weeks) I bought an exercise bike and ride it every morning for 30 minutes, with the pulse at around 100, which is what the rehab guys and gals recommended. I'm pretty hot and sweaty after 30 mins, although the heartrate comes back down very rapidly. I also do a fair bit of walking, as I live in a very quiet part of rural Lincolnshire where it's as flat as a pancake. Back in the Chilterns, which I vist occasionally, it is quite hilly and that makes for far more strenuous walking. I could do with a few hills locally, apart from my stais indoors.

When were you "done"? How old at the time? Did you also have coronary arteries blocked? My valves were all okay, but the arteries were f***ed, except the left main. I'm now 69. My late uncle, who died last year aged around 93, had a 4x bypass in 1988. The cause of his death was NOT due to the heart, so his bypass lasted 26 years. My aunt (his wife) is now pushing 90. She had a 2x done about 13 years ago, which is quite an event for someone already quite old at the time. But her angina was terrible, so the doc recommended bypass. With me after the angiogram they said stents don't last and "the team" had consulted on my case and all recommended CABG. It made an amazing difference, although I do have trouble sleeping sometimes, which is why I'm up now typing this, with still half a mug of Ovaltine to go and a light snack of grapes and cheese straws in my belly. Beginning to feel tired again. It comes and goes. Often I'll sleep soundly throughout the night, apart from a toilet break.

MM

[Capitol]

The family bought me mine. About £550 IIRC. Uses a wheelchair motor.

We went to a funeral yesterday, so I pointed out to my wife, that to avoid paying for a hearse to carry our coffins, we would have to buy a new battery for the wheelbarrow! We live about 1200yards from the crematorium, mostly down hill!

[Nightjar]

I only have four, although I don't draw any income from one of those as the tax man would take too large a cut of it.

...

I was slightly surprised, when I checked the implant part number card I have, that it was October 2009 when I had the operation. The valve should last 15-20 years before I need another. I am hoping that, by then, advances in stem cell research will mean that they can grow me a real living one, or print it out with a 3D printer, as is being done for bladders, rather than having to use bits of dead cow or pig.

My problem was that the aortic valve I was born with had only two flaps, instead of the normal three. One of them weakened and allowed the blood to pass the wrong way - an aortic reflux. The effects were similar to a heart attack and I was given an angiogram, with a view to fitting stents. However, my arteries were totally clear, probably because my natural cholesterol level is around 4.0. It took a lot of tests before they eventually found out what the problem was and recommended that I have the valve replaced as a precautionary measure.

[MM]

Don't worry! I was only trying to show off. One pension pays out the staggering sum of £10.60 a month. Two of the others do at least cover the council tax with some left over. I've still got one pension untouched, but the most lucrative are the UK state pension and German state pension (I was a Gastarbeiter for almost 13 years).

I reckon medical science will make tremendous discoveries in the next

20 years. If I could come back in, say, 2115, 'heart disease' will just sound weird to people. "You mean, they CUT YOU OPEN with a saw?!!" Dunno what form scientific developments will take, but something to dissolve plaque would be high on my list if I were a research chemist. Like, recently surgeons actually used a heart from a dead person to transplant into somebody!

Strange, as my next door neighbour had a heart valve replaced shortly before I had the CABG, and he didn't have any blockages either! He's

75+ now (I'm very nearly 69). With me it was the opposite. Arteries blocked, one or two up to 90%, but valves perfectly fine. Ah (reading further...), but if your *natural* cholesterol is around 4.0 then you aleady have a big advantage. Mine IS now 4.0 (in January at least), but only by taking a statin and consuming as little saturated fat as possible. Otherwise it would be 5.5 at least. Difficult, since I've lived my life enjoying foods like bacon sarnies and sausage rolls.This is the thing, you see. Science will want to know more and more about WHY these differences occur across the population. Mind you, my surgeon said, I may (as in 'allowed') get a hamburger *occasionally*, just not often. And when I do it tastes like an angel from heaven has landed on my taste buds.

MM