Hot water at last.

The new water heater is in. It took me most of yesterday afternoon to get it installed, with a fair amount of going back and checking the instructions. The old one is in the garage behind the house for now. I'll work out how to get rid of it once I've got a few other things ready to go.

I had a proper hot shower last night. Stayed in longer than I needed to, probably, but after hauling that tank around and spending half the afternoon on the floor, it was worth it. Being able to wash here makes the place feel a lot more like somewhere I can live.

I also wedged a little piece of wood into the bedroom window frame to stop it moving. I'll still need to fix the catch, but it held through the night. No rattling, and I slept well. The mattress can stay on the floor a bit longer.

There was one thing before I went to sleep. I heard what sounded like somebody yelling outside. I couldn't make out any words. I went over to the window and listened for a while, but I didn't hear it again. Could have been kids out on the road. Or a fox, maybe. I'm better at recognizing the noises a refrigerator makes than anything living out in the woods.

It does take some getting used to, being here on my own. At my old place there was usually a television going through the wall, or somebody coming up the stairs. Here I catch myself stopping what I'm doing to listen to something I'd probably have ignored before. Give yourself enough time in a quiet house and you can get carried away.

I haven't said much about myself on these pages. I used to teach mathematics at a university, and my doctorate is in theoretical physics. I stopped teaching after what happened. I won't go into the details here, but having some work to get on with has been good for me. I used to spend whole afternoons marking papers; now I spend them trying to fit a water heater into a cupboard. I'm still in the habit of looking for an explanation when something doesn't make sense. A few noises in an old house aren't going to change that.

Anyway, this morning the window was still quiet and there was hot water when I turned the tap. I've left the tools in the bathroom because there are a couple of smaller jobs to finish in there before I get back to the basement.