This week's obsession

 As some of you lovely readers, those who have experience with their own relatives with similar problems to my husband, have said - dealing with your close relative's problems, physical and mental, and lack of motivation etc is hard, very hard.  Not only do we have our own stuff to deal with, coping with someone else's stuff means we're doing the work of two people.  And it is exhausting.  Husband has little obsessions which change from week to week, sometimes reappearing a couple of weeks later.  His current obsession is with our electricity usage - we don't have a smart meter so he is constantly checking the meter outside, at least every other day, writing down the reading and then calculating how much we've used since the last time he read the meter.  He then insists on telling me, not that I want or need to know - our electricity is quite cheap actually, we're on the lowest tariff with Octopus and it's very reasonable indeed.  He's now going on about the water charges (he heard they're going up in April) so is obsessing about saving water.  His brain never switches off - well, except when he's dozing, as he often is throughout the day.  And even then, he must be dreaming about this kind of thing as he immediately launches into a rant about his latest obsession as soon as he wakes up.  It's no wonder I relish my 15 minutes of total peace and quiet when husband is taking Betty out for a walk twice a day.

The gravel beds in the back garden constructed by the previous tenants to make the garden easier to manage, are bordered by a mixture of things - some have an assortment of bricks and rocks of varying sizes and shapes, some have planks of wood.  The gravel tends to fall out of the gaps between the rocks onto the paths, or Betty accidentally kicks it out when she's been running about on the gravel.  The wooden planks are clearly a few years old and are rotting and bowing, so need replacing.  I'm constantly picking up gravel off the paths and chucking it back on the beds, it's almost a daily occurrence.  I suggested to husband that we need to think about replacement this year.  Well, that's certainly motivated him, and fuelled a new obsession - he's been googling ever since to find out where he can buy the cheapest planks, or other edging, and constantly measuring and re-measuring.  At least it's given him an impetus and galvanised him into action!  Trouble is, he's constantly telling me all about it and keeps calling me over to look at the latest bit of wood or edging he's found on the computer.  A couple of times I've had to tell him I can't look at it now as I'm busy, if he bookmarks it I'll have a look later, I'll never get things done otherwise.  I don't know what's worse - him doing nothing all day, or driving me mad with his obsessions.

As it was sunny again, we had a nice walk with Betty at Dunster beach in the afternoon, although we didn't go on the beach but walked along the grass beside the chalets.  Nobody in the chalets, other than builders doing work in quite a few.  It was very peaceful there and quite warm, except for a bit of a cold breeze.