yesterday was bandcamp friday (once again horsemouth had forgotten)
once again horsemouth recommended people purchase sproatley smith's great river wye suite named after the river that flows through horsemouth's home county of weirdshire (and to be fair some of wales too (the land of horsemouth's granny) through powys and monmouthshire ). the water flows by where she moved to - on a tributary river the lugg. in the rolling leominster farmland.
the wye is in danger ladies and gentlemen they are poisoning it with excess chicken shit run off from giant chicken sheds, the environmental protection agencies cut to the bone.
yesterday was also the birthday of judee sill (of whom you have heard horsemouth tell).
last night he watched a documentary on loretta lynn. he should probably watch coal miner's daughter. there was a bit in the documentary when old loretta is being interviewed at her home when there's a knock at the door and her daughter arrives with a tour group of canadians (loretta has her own theme park built round her house)- the canadians pretty soon start singing coal miner's daughter at her (she compliments the guy who starts singing on his voice and helps the old lady who takes over out with the lyrics). the tour is abandoned the canadians back out the door with tears in their eyes well satisfied that they have met a star.
horsemouth's gaff does not have a smart meter. (the company head (main fuse) is of an old metal type with asbestos padding that would need replacing by whoever handles such things before the youngster the power company sent round would be comfortable fitting a new meter - curiously the electrician who replaced their fuseboard seemed less bothered.
anyway - this (horsemouth guesses) prevents horsemouth from taking part in a scheme his electricity company is running where you get paid twenty pounds a week to reduce the electricity you use between 4 and 7pm (peak demand time - when everybody gets home and cooks their tea). of course this, and differential pricing of the electricity depending on when/ where you use it are the advantages that smart meters bring (that and being able to identify expensive items to run and switching them off).
poor people will thus be able to sell their underconsumption to richer people (ain't life wonderful) - in this way the resilience of the network to extreme events can continue to be cut to the bone and still give the appearance of adequate operation (until things go bad).
friday horsemouth was in the meeting for people who want to access government money to insulate their social housing. horsemouth's main worry is that (suspicious creatures that they are) people will balk at the hoops they have to jump through to get the money (submitting anonymised energy bills for example).
next week horsemouth goes to a conference for such things. he wants to enable people (himself indeed) to be able to keep the home warmer in winter - we're all getting older, horsemouth has no desire to return to the bad old days of cracking open the fireplace, burning skipped wood and coughing out his lungs all winter.
there is some comedy in this. the housing that is the coldest and most difficult to heat cannot be helped under the scheme because the measures that would lift it up from an EPC E to an EPC C rating are too expensive and not considered value for money under this particular government scheme, examining the government value for money advice what they are prepared to pay for is the minimum and cheapest measures that lift the property up to an EPC C (but not beyond particularly), all the property that is already at EPC C (just above national average) cannot be helped under the scheme.
furthermore it appears that this saved carbon can be sold to people who have not saved their carbon and used to generate loans to pay for the carbon saving works. again horsemouth remarks ain't life wonderful.
today it is supposed to be sunny. horsemouth will hang his washing out on the line. he will read more of charles dexter ward.
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