Rain & pain stopped play

No more work on the pond today as it's been far too showery (not to mention the gale-force winds), plus there's not a lot more we can do to it until we get some more plants and/or rocks. In any case, an indoor day was well overdue; it means that hubby has managed to cross a couple more jobs off his 'chores pending, boring' list - not that I'm complaining, as I'd far rather have a garden pond than have had the new towel rail fitted any quicker. As for myself, I'm supposed to now be resting in preparation for Thursday - always assuming it now goes ahead: I can hardly believe the appallingly bad timing of my mouth, but it appears that I've developed another abscess! Ironically, although it is one of the teeth on the hit list, it's not one that had been marked as top priority - had never even twinged until this afternoon; but the x-ray showed that it was only a matter of time before it became as troublesome as its neighbours, & it made sense to get the plate made with this one included. Perhaps it knows that it's been condemned, & has decided to pay me back? But it just goes to show how desperately all these teeth need to be sorted, though I'm pretty sure that the hospital won't be willing to take it out whilst there's an active infection, & having spoken to my GP, I can't have any antibiotics as it's too soon after the last course. So, having gone a good way towards psyching myself up, I now won't know what will be happening until I speak to the hospital in the morning; I suspect they'll say to come along on Thursday anyway, & then when I get there will either send me straight home again, or else they'll decide to just remove the peripheral top teeth, which will mean dragging things out & having yet another appointment to get the front four dealt with: they can hardly take out the other three as the plate won't fit until they're all gone, & I certainly don't want to go around with a horrendous gap for however long it may be until they can finish the work! Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn.

Anyway, hubby drilling & banging hasn't been the only noise to disturb Jack's slumber today. Having been told that our gas would be turned off last Thursday, the work has progressed much more slowly than predicted, & it's only today that they've finally reached outside our house. That great arm coming out of the vehicle appears to be some sort of vacuum hose which sucks up the debris as the pneumatic drill loosens it - and it's even noisier than the drill. Somebody just knocked on the door to tell us that our gas will be turned off tomorrow whilst they replace the pipe coming into our house - and, unless the existing pipe is in a dead straight line, they will have to dig up our drive; luckily this isn't the only photo I have to show how it currently looks, though I wouldn't mind if they put a bit 'less' of it back leaving us with a slightly wider border at the front; but they'd jolly well better not disturb any of our new plants - they've finally taken & are just beginning to grow!

Things we've learned about Jack
He has taken the lesson of his owner's oral health to heart, & will not allow us to forget his daily tooth cleaning session: if we haven't done it, he goes into the bathroom & sits looking up at the tube. I wonder if he'd be so keen if the paste wasn't poultry flavour?
Whilst he may randomly choose to ignore us calling his name, we have discovered a key phrase which is guaranteed to bring him running: viz a viz his jealousy should hubby & I show any affection to one another, we only have to utter the magic words: "I love you" for Jack to instantly materialise. This may work in the privacy of our own home, but hubby has stated that we'll definitely have to find another solution before he takes him walking in the park with all the other dog owners!