By quarter to nine this morning the outline plan for the week had pretty much unravelled. The phone rang, which at that hour is either a nuisance call or presages something ominous. It turned out to be Autoglass, who were booked to replace the windscreen on the Systems Administrator's car, which is currently at the garage in Ipswich. A chip that had been there for so many years the SA had discounted it suddenly propagated into a crack just as the car was due for its annual service and MoT. The SA blamed the stresses of the hot weather for the crack, which was bad enough to constitute an MoT failure. The garage pointed out, rather brilliantly, that it was worth checking to see if the windscreen replacement was covered by the insurance (it was) and that Autoglass could carry out the work at the garage, rather than the SA collect the car, have the work done in the drive, and then return to the garage for a retest. This morning Autoglass were going to fit the new windscreen and this afternoon I was going to drive the SA to Ipswich to collect the car, taking in John Lewis en route to buy a frying pan.
Autoglass rang to say that the new windscreen had arrived damaged. The job has had to be put back to Thursday, which leaves one day in hand of the ten working days allowed for an MoT retest. The SA was philosophical about the delay, which was doubly disappointing since originally the SA had been planning to go today to the county match at Lords. That trip was rescheduled to tomorrow to allow for picking up the car, and the London forecast for tomorrow now shows a fifty per cent chance of rain from two onwards, whereas today was dry.
The deteriorating forecast was the second cause of the week's plans unravelling, since I'd arranged for my niece to come over on Wednesday to do some gardening (of the safe, carefully vetted kind designed not to involve being poked in the eye, sprained, scratched, or blistered by toxic sap) to earn something towards her new phone and because she is said to be interested in gardens. It is now forecast to rain on Wednesday, rising to ninety per cent probability of heavy rain by lunchtime, with a Met Office Yellow Warning of potential traffic disruption. I had been planning to start her off on deadheading lavender then maybe offer some potting by way of variety. I am not sure she would want to spend all morning in the greenhouse in the rain, the roof leaks, and anyway I don't think there are enough things to pot to last for two hours. It sounds like a recipe guaranteed to put a teenager off gardening for the next three decades.
I will speak to her mother and see what they want to do. She could come on Thursday if she doesn't have anything else planned, and we could collect the car after taking her home and go to John Lewis another day. Or she could come on Wednesday and we could make ice cream, or bread. We could get the car on Friday and have loads of time to go to John Lewis. It will all work out one way or another. It's just that I am enough of a nerd to like to know what the plan is in advance.
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