My New Cleaner

 This post contains an Amazon Affiliate Link.

One problem with having nine cats is the constant need to clean up "accidents". Most of the time, one of us can get to the cat pee quickly and clean it up right away. But sometimes, for example, overnight or if we've been out, these accidents are left for a few hours! If it's on the wooden floor, mopping up is easy to do, a few paper towels, hot water and a mop, followed by some kind of spray!

The problem is when it's on the carpet, tatami mats or sofa, as it soaks into the material. We have tried everything to get the smell out, but it's almost impossible.

I've spent ages looking at different ideas to clean up the smell and stains, to prevent the cats from using that area as a toilet, but nothing has worked.

Before anybody says that we should have more litter boxes or keeping them clean. We have plenty of litter boxes; there are 10 boxes. They are scooped twice a day and refreshed once or twice a week!

One thing that was suggested was a wet/dry vacuum cleaner.

Again, I spent ages on the internet checking different models. I finally decided on this one from Amazon.

https://amzn.to/48YHge

Wet/Dry Vacuumer Cleaner

David ordered it for me, it came last night!

We set up this morning and had a go!

We only did one cushion on the sofa.

Basically, spray water on the cushion and then vacuum it off. I'll have to check later to see if the smell has gone. I hope so, as I was planning on using the sofa once the weather cools down!

One thing that I was surprised at was the noise. Our usual vacuum cleaner isn't that noisy! Cleared the cats out of the room!

I really hope this deals with this problem, as having the house smell bad drives me crazy!

I'll have to give everywhere a very good clean.

Next week we will get our leaflets for our school here! This time, David wants to start teaching, and he is willing to put in the work. Here's hoping that we can get some students!

Hot

 All through August and September, I told myself that come October, the weather would be nice. I imagined lovely warm days, where walking for a few minutes or cooking a meal wouldn't make me sweat! The first few days of October were nice, a bit hot, but okay. Yesterday and today, however, we were back to summer temperatures! Today the high was 33C here, 34C where Hannah is! One good thing is that the nights a cool, I actually woke up shivering the other night!

I actually made a start on the closet in my room!

I spent an hour sorting socks!

The sock problem.

Somehow, we end up with a massive collection of odd socks! I try so hard to keep them together when doing laundry, but we still end up with a lot of odd socks!

This is not a new problem. When we moved to the old house, about 16 years ago, I had 2 boxes and a basket full of odd socks! I remember spending time trying to sort them out, only to realise that I had moved these boxes of socks from two different houses! Why was I dragging around boxes of odd socks? To try to save a bit of money?  So after I sorted out as many as possible, I threw away the rest. I think I'll do the same this time. I'll have another look through, also I need to pull out all the stuff in the closet as I think there might be a few more at the very back, after that I'm going to throw them out! Or maybe roll some up into balls, put some catnip on them and let the cats play with them!

I have to make room in this closet for some of my books. One of the bookcases I'm using in my read nook is ready to collapse, so I need to store my books somewhere until I can get a new or second-hand bookcase!

I'm thinking of getting some for the room that we are going to teach in, but I need some with glass doors because of the cats! Once I have a bit of money, I'll have a look round!

A Bit Of Gardening

 Not me, but I did sweep up the dust that was left. David did a bit yesterday and today. He actually cleared the front of the property on the road! Looks a lot better; there were so many weeds growing out of the small wall!

I managed to get a short video of him yesterday!

This was October 9th! It's still hot here during the day, up to 30C. Thankfully, the nights are very cool. I didn't need a fan last night and haven't used the air conditioner for about a week. I hope the electric bill goes down a bit!

We went out to do a bit of shopping. I took a little video on the way back. I was trying to get the cosmos flowers that are in bloom now, but David was going a bit too fast to really see them. You can get an idea of what the area is like, fields, lots of fields!

It's nice but very isolating! 

I hope to get outside tomorrow and do a bit more! We will see!

How One Tire Almost Ruined The Day

 Tuesday and Wednesday, I go with Mikey to the other city to teach.

It's a 40-minute drive, if we are lucky and there's no traffic or bad weather. We leave a little early just to be on the safe side.

Wednesday's schedule is tight. Mikey has a class at a different community center from 5pm to 5:50, and his next class is from 6:10 at the usual community center.  To make sure that the kid isn't left waiting around if Mikey is late, I go to the usual community center and wait for him.  It helps relieve the time pressure off Mikey.

Yesterday, however, all our great plans came crashing down!

We left here at about 3:30, stopped at a store to pick up a couple of things and noticed that the rear driver's side tire was flat!

Flat Tire

I suggested going to a nearby gas station and putting air, then getting a new tire the next day. 

We stopped at a gas station, the staff tried to put air but the tire wouldn't inflate!

So we had to go to a repair shop and get the tire changed!

We got to the repair shop at about 3:50. Fortunately, it wasn't busy; out of 7 bays, only two were being used, so our car got seen to very quickly!

Fixing The Car

It didn't take long. We were back on the road about 4:15, but that meant that we didn't have time to drop me off and then go to the other community center, so I went with Mikey. We managed to get back to the usual community center just in time!

The repair shop suggested changing out the other tires. I told Mikey he should do that before winter. Mikey said that it's before winter now! Which is true, but it still feels like summer!

A few photos from yesterday. The clouds over the mountain were really incredible.

Looks like the clouds and mountains are one

I managed to see the full moon. Apparently, Monday was the best day to see the harvest moon, but it was too cloudy that day!

Lovely Moon

No More Zero Days

 The other day, I came across a video about motivation, or making good habits, something along those lines. I was only half watching as I was trying to tidy my room at the same time!

But one point that really caught my attention and has had me thinking for the past few days is the idea of not having a "zero day". You know those awful days where nothing on your to-do list gets done, where you haven't worked on your goals, or just getting things done!

I've had a lot of those days recently! My sleeping habits are all over the place; I'm more awake at night than during the day! I tried to change that, but realised that most of the time I'm sleeping in the day because I just don't want to do things, I don't want to clean or do the garden, I know I have to, but don't want to! It's how depression shows up in my life, not sad, but just no desire to do things! I think I'm still digesting Hannah's situation and, of course, worrying about her!

Also, I feel rather useless at the moment. I've been working since I moved to Japan, usually 6 days a week, now I'm down to 3 classes a week! I know I'm at the age where I should retire, but I have no money! I don't mind that everyone (except Hannah) pays for things here, but I want to travel and buy things for myself, so I need some money!

Also, I worry about my mental health! I don't want to end up old, relying on others for everything. I remember seeing my mother-in-law in the old people's home, just sitting or lying in bed. She never had any hobbies, she didn't read or watch TV much, as she got older, she didn't really have anybody to talk to, all she had was her work, and when she couldn't do that, she stopped, she just existed, not really living! I don't want to become like that. One way to keep one's mind sharp is to read and study!

This is where the idea of no zero days comes in!

I set goals, make plans and then don't follow through. Some days I do okay, some weeks I even manage to do what I plan to do and make my goals. Then I have days and even weeks where I haven't done anything, and everything seems so overwhelming that I just want to give in!

The idea behind no zero days is that even if you can't meet your goal, you can do something. For example, your goal is to do 20 push-ups every day, but today you don't feel up to it. So instead of doing nothing and having a zero day, you do one push-up. Or you have a book that you've decided to read a chapter a day, but today you don't feel like it, so you read just one page; again, it's not a zero day!

I like this idea! Sometimes, actually many times, I feel almost paralysed by all the things I feel I should do, like the chores, gardening, preparing for my few lessons I have that I don't do anything, leading to lots of zero days! But on those days, I can do one small thing, then it's a productive day and maybe doing a lot of little things will lead to better days!

I hope you can understand this. Sometimes we push for perfection, but just being able to do something every day is powerful!

Just a cat photo to finish!

This is what greets me in the morning when I go into the kitchen!

Another This And That Post

 The typhoon isn't coming our way, at least according to the latest news, but I know things can change again, so I'll keep on checking! The last forecast I saw it was going to be parallel to Japan and maybe make landfall in Shikoku!

We are still having summer weather here! The forecast says the highs will be up to 30 °C this week, again. I was looking at the UK weather, it's cold, my hometown will see highs of 11C. I'm tired of this heat. I really want nice, cool weather!

I know I complain about the cold weather, especially in this house, but it's so much easier for me to deal with!

Hannah and I have a little ritual in the mornings. I send her cat photos, and most mornings she sends photos of her breakfast!

A couple of the photos I sent to Hannah

Today she called me at lunchtime. When she calls near a meal time, it's usually to ask about cooking. She can cook, but sometimes isn't sure about things! 

Today, however, she called because she has a new professor, a British gentleman.

He's been in Japan for 35 years, I've been in Japan for 34 years!

He's from Birmingham, I'm from Wolverhampton, just 12 miles away (about 19 kilometres).

His daughter is 24, also Hannah and using the same kanji (Chinese character).

And his brother has epilepsy, the same as me!

Talk about coincidences! 

Typhoon?

 We have been lucky this year, as most typhoons have missed us.  

A lot of the typhoons this year have been closer to the Philippines; therefore, southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and those areas got hit very badly.

The few that started south of Japan hit the Kanto area, around Tokyo.

I really thought we would not get any typhoons this year. We've had more than enough rain and thunderstorms!

Then I saw the weather forecast this morning. A massive typhoon is forming south of Kyushu! I watched a rather detailed forecast that stated that south of Kyushu, the sea is still hot, about 30 °C!  Usually, once the sea is over 28C it's possible for a typhoon to form!

Of course, it's still in the early stages, and the forecast wasn't sure which course it would take, but it's so large that wherever it goes, we will get the edge of it!

The red dot is about where we are!

On this map, the eye is passing south of Kyushu. The red circle indicates the area of the storm! I guess we should prepare and just hope that it isn't too bad!

The weather is rather strange! It's October, but still hot. We had a few days of cool weather, about 28C. But the forecast for the next few days is back to 32C!  I even had to put my air conditioner on today!

If it's cool in the morning, I'll try to get out and clean up some of the stuff that could get blown away. At least here I don't have to worry about neighbours! 

I went shopping again today. I didn't buy so much the other day, so I needed to run out and pick up a few things!

As we were pulling out of the drive, I scared Mikey! I turned toward him to tell him which store I wanted to go to and saw this hitchhiker, and of course, screamed!

It stayed there for about 40 minutes. We parked, and when I came back to the car, it had gone!

I still don't like those things!!!!