Metal

An odd sort of back blip today.

In the morning I checked my email and had one from my father, who we visited a fortnight ago.

We built the pictured green house and found that the wind can blow the panels out so during the afternoon I drilled some holes through the metal panels and fitted some stainless steel nuts and blots, wrapping steel wire around them and then put it all in tension going all around the green house. The wire is in tension and spaced about 50 cm apart so when the wind blows the frame can flex a little but not enough for the polycarbonate panels to blow out - or that's the plan...

Just as I was going to sleep I had a call from my father's wife's son to tell me that my father had passed away sometime in the evening. For someone 89 years old my father had been fully mentally alert and physically independent, and from what I knew at the time (and subsequently confirmed) I assumed it had been a heart attack after dinner before going bed.

All my parents and step-father have now passed away. My mother went first, smoking does horrible things to you, but both my step-father and father had pretty good innings and were fully independent all the way to the end - which is very good.

As you can imagine at the time I was rather shocked but having just visited and had a good time, and the last email was a nice general chit-chat does make you feel relieved.

It's never wise to part on bad terms with anyone - one day it will be the last time and you will feel awful. So far I've been lucky and always parted on good terms - which does feel less bad than it could be...