…or at least a hint of one. As I look out of the window now I can see a driving instructor waiting for his client to come out, and taking the time to check his front driver’s-side bumper for damage. This, I think, tells a story.

I had to cancel a trip to the Doctor to check on a dodgy knee yesterday, because I was too sick to go. Not the usual excuse, I expect.

I’ve been doing a little bit of reading on digestion, as I’m currently suffering somewhat in that respect. I learned with interest that the large intestine (normally my second-favourite intestine, btw) acts as a storage compartment for spare water, which I assume saves having to drink more frequently.

“What the large intestine essentially does, other than act as a passageway for removal of body wastes, is to act as a provisional reservoir for water. There are no villi in the large intestine and peristalsis is much less forceful than in the small intestine. As water is absorbed, the contents of the large intestine change from a watery liquid and are compressed into semisolid feces. Nerve endings in the large intestine signal the brain that it is time for a bowel movement. The fecal material moves through the colon down to several remaining inches known as the rectum and out through the anus an opening controlled by the outlet valves of the large intestine.”

I would like to take issue with the bolded word at the end there. Turns out rampant peristalsis isn’t as much fun as you might think. I hope that normal service will be resumed soon.

I’ve posted before about the interesting time we’ve had with the person buying our house. You might think that two months after the sale we’d be free of such problems. You would, of course, be wrong.

One of the conditions of the sale was that we would re-grade around the house so that water would more efficiently move away from the basement. We did this to a level we thought sufficient (using about 20 cu ft of dirt), but the buyer’s inspector disagreed. Unfortunately this was just before the closing date, so we agreed to escrow some money pending a further re-grading so that the sale could go ahead. Within a week of closing we redid the grading with an additional 140 cu ft of dirt. The buyer was present at the time, and was given every opportunity to point out flaws in the work, and we even left some dirt behind in case a top-up was needed.

Unfortunately it turns out this wasn’t quite enough to satisfy our buyer. From the person following this up for us in the US:

She pulled out all your shrubs which left holes so feels it was not properly graded.

Words fail me.