unironedman

My brother Rob turns 60 next month, and a party is planned to celebrate this big milestone. Not a surprise, I might add… it’s hardly a surprise that he’s turning 60… I mean he’s the Party-Planner-in-Chief, so it’s not a surprise party either. Quite the opposite. Rob is an engineer (he holds a Doctorate in Fibre-optical Engineering and works at a research facility) and so there must be some serious pre-party-planning to get this thing off the ground. Ironically, we took out a small gazebo yesterday from the workshop and erected it out on the front lawn and the foul weather blew it over this morning. The temerity! To think we could have an outdoor party in Ireland! Ha! Anyway, no real harm done to the gazebo, but it has given us pause to consider our plans to cover all the seating with… five gazebos.

Last weekend’s plans were somewhat stymied by a leak in the mains water pipe coming up the driveway. It serves both my Mam’s house and our own. Not enough to stop us getting water, but more than enough to be a problem that needed fixing, so last weekend, I spent most of Saturday and some of Sunday afternoon digging out and locating the leak. On my way to solving this latest conundrum, I unearthed the Largest Rock in the World. (Surely you jest? ed.).

Okay, it may not be the biggest rock in the world, but it’s huge, and thankfully the pipe went around it so it remains where it has lain for, I suspect, about 10,000 years. I attempted a patch repair but it only slowed it down. The problem was the magnolia tree whose roots had all but strangled the old lead 3/4 inch pipe. I think it will have to be felled, sadly. I had to dig back to where it was joined to new hydrodare pipe from a previous repair. During the week, I tried to get my hands on the correct fittings to connect old lead to new plastic, but it wasn’t until my brother arrived on Friday that I was able to get out the following day and hit the right providers who had the right gear and know-how. The actual fitting of the coupling worked out quite well, and we left it for a day to make sure there were no more leaks, and then we backfilled most of it today. I’ll let the hare sit for a few days, then reinstate the cobblelock.

Only two measly runs accomplished during the week. Both in the local park, and both just over 5k. Indeed, the first of these has been labelled ‘5k grind’, to give you an idea of how much I enjoyed it.

With the Party-Planner-in-Chief here ’til tomorrow evening, there was too much time spent in a hole in the ground, or above it, clearing out workshops, and going to the civic waste facility, not to mention the pub of an evening. Little time for running.

But today (Sunday), we did venture up to Ticknock in the Dublin Mountains and managed a decent 8k of a ramble from the car park and up around Fairy Castle and Three Rock, stopping off to pay our respects to Dad, whose birthday is the 27th March. Ferociously windy up top, but also very sunny, so we both have a rosey glow to show for our efforts; a magnificent combination of wind and sunburn. And of course, we stopped off in the Blue Light on the way home. And I I have a sneaky feeling we may have to visit the Salmon Leap Inn one more time this evening…

In the pictures above, the one marked ‘Tor’ is just below Fairy Castle. and you would not be surprised to see Aragorn with Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in tow appearing from around the side on their way to Rivendell. There is also some frog spawn, the obligatory rusty old shed, and a shot of a very distant Kippure which Gary and I tackled a few weeks back. I also fluked a decent snap of a mountain biker flying through the air.

And now for some dogs and silly things, including some poems (some of which I suspect I have posted previously). But, sure… have at it!

(The Spraytan poster is from the recent No Kings protests in the States)