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The smell of spring
It was a warm sunny day today, and the first time this year that sun shining through windows made rooms hot. I went for a walk after lunch; blossom on trees and daffodils in flower confirmed it was spring. Bluebells should appear in a few weeks. I spotted the ninety year old neighbour out for a walk. She collected litter from the grass verge opposite and took it home with her. A noble act.
A columnist in Saturday's Times wrote about a survey to assess the knowledge of kids; many were considered to be ignorant. The columnist wrote: 'Now, I tend to be suspicious of any survey involving children, because it seems to me that if I were twelve, and someone appeared with a clipboard and a set of grindingly facile questions, the temptation to make things up would be irresistible ... .' Facile questions deserve fatuous answers. If I could be bothered to reply to facile questions, I would make up answers.
Waiting at traffic lights this morning, I noticed in the car behind mine were a mother and her middle-aged daughter. The mother was a shrivelled version of the daughter. This made me wonder if I'd ever met an adult daughter shorter than her mother.
Thought for today
Wise men do not contend against the tongues of fools.
Japanese proverb
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8.3.07 19:57
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Up and over
The first hijack of a plane, I heard today, occurred in the 1920s. The pilot climbed into his two-seater plane to transport the wages for a company. A gun was pressed to his head and he was told to hand over the money. Immediately he took off in the plane, climbed steeply to 1000 feet and looped the loop. The would-be robber fell out.
Nothing in my house is straightforward. I discovered a hitch with the installation of the loft ladder; the mains pipe to the cold water tank is in the way. The ladder will have to be installed facing the bathroom rather than the landing which less convenient. However, at least I spotted the pipe before the HN and I started work. The insulation in the loft partly obscured it. The HN said the pipe could be shifted. I am an if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it person, and would worry that the joins would leak.
Thought for today
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus, circa AD100
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9.3.07 19:28
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Muddled minds
'I don't know what's going on here today; I haven't a clue,' said G in the care home this afternoon to another resident. The other resident was the one she had pushed over a few weeks ago. My father told G that by the time she was his age she should be able to sit on her backside and let people fetch and carry for her. G looked as if that was the last thing she would want.
I took in some cornflake crisps (cornflakes mixed with sugar and melted butter) that were left-over from a meeting I attended yesterday, and offered them to the old folk. They loved them and wolfed them down before a member of staff noticed and pointed out that some of them were diabetic and shouldn't eat them. I hadn't thought of that.
One resident is always immaculately dressed. Today she wore a string of pearls with her usual outfit of skirt, blouse and jacket. Often she holds an umbrella but today she held only her gold handbag as she walked round picking up bits of paper from the floor. Appearances are deceptive; it is only when she speaks that one might begin to wonder that she was not quite right up top.
Thought for today
We should weep for men at their birth, and not at their death.
French proverb
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11.3.07 19:32
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Something buzzing in the loft space
There was a wasp in the loft this morning as the HN and I (he more than I) fitted a new trapdoor to the entrance in preparation for the installation of the loft ladder. The wasp buzzed round the light before settling on a nearby rafter. I seized my chance and squirted it with fly killer hoping to miss the hot light bulb which I feared might break if cold liquid hit it. The wasp, stunned by the spray, flew into the bathroom and out of the open window.
A few minutes later there were two wasps in the loft buzzing round the light. They received the same treatment. Now I am concerned that they were prospecting for a suitable place to make a nest. As well as my frequent inspections in the garden for recurrences of ground elder, I shall have to inspect the loft for gatherings of wasps. The last thing I want in there is a wasps' nest.
Thought for today
Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.
W R Inge, (1860 - 1954) Dean of St Paul's, London
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12.3.07 19:18
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Another just job
Fitting a new trapdoor to the loft turned out to be a just job. What was going to take just a morning, turned out to take almost two days. My arms ache from having held the door in place while the HN adjusted the catch in the loft. We are now halfway through the installation of the ladder and shall complete the job (I hope) on Saturday.
Funding is to be withdrawn from a study to see what effect exercise has on the prevention of childhood obesity. I think people confuse exercise with being energetic. The latter is more important. There was no formal exercise at my primary school yet few of the kids were fat. Most walked to school; there were no buses and two car families were unheard of. During breaks we ran about in the playground. We were energetic.
At my secondary school, as far as I remember, we had about two hours of formal exercise a week. That would be unlikely to keep someone thin. Pupils walked more than they do today, they ate less and they ate rarely between meals.
Foods were not labelled as they are today; there was none of the so called traffic light labels. Bread and dripping was a popular meal. Nutritionalists would frown on that now.
Thought for today
Filth is got rid of by washing; habit is not so easy to erase.
Hindustani proverb
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13.3.07 21:07
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The end of the beginning
The painter and decorator arrived this morning and started work on the main bedroom. When I saw the look he gave the mess in the bedroom next to it, I spent two hours clearing it by moving it all downstairs. The books took a while to shift, not only because they were heavy, but because I had forgotten I had some of them and stopped to read them. The quotation at the end comes from one such book.
The post arrived with my father's latest bank statement. I discovered a direct debit for an insurance policy of which I was unaware. After much searching through files I found it was a home building insurance policy. I had cancelled his home building policy in January, as well as his home contents policy, when I bought the house, so I suspect he had an unnecessary second policy for the building.
He rarely paid attention to the documents he received at the best of times and in the last two years he opened fewer and fewer envelopes.
Thought for today
Distrusting authority should not be equated with advocating anarchy or with denying the useful role of authority. It may be wise to accept, at least provisionally, what an authority has to say: it is unwise and dangerous to believe. As Wilson Mizner once said: 'I respect faith, but it is doubt that gets you an education.'
Petr Skrabanek, James McCormick, Follies and Fallacies in Medicine, 1992
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14.3.07 20:27
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No pain, no gain
The house is a tip again. The painter and decorator said it'll look worse before it looks better. After yesterday's struggle with the books, I filled a rucksack with some and took them to a charity shop. Three were by Iris Murdoch, I'd had them for years but never got around to reading them, and the others I cannot remember. If I want to read a book by Iris Murdoch I can always borrow one from the library. There isn't enough space in the house for all the books. More is less. More books means less space. The bedroom I cleared yesterday looked better for it.
I also got rid of two large ceramic table lamps on the charity shop which pleased me. One had a wobbly top but I managed to unwobble it with a pair of pliers. I intended to do some work on the computer but the p and d who was in the bedroom opposite started to chat. Not having time for that, and not paying him for that, I went downstairs and decided to walk into town to get rid of books.
After lunch I dug up ground elder and unearthed vine weevil maggots in the process. A robin appeared and, I hope, scoffed most of the maggots.
Thought for today
An early form of miraculous healing, which still survives, involved the laying on of hands. Ordinary hands were not considered particularly effective but royal hands were a different matter. ...
Believers in supernatural healing tend to ignore the possibility that if good men can heal, by the same token evil men might be able to do harm. Black magic, voodoo, spellbinding, demoniacal possession, the jinx and the evil eye still plague some societies. In 'advanced' societies black magic has largely disappeared, only the white magic of alternative medicine remains.
Petr Skrabanek, James McCormick, Follies and Fallacies in Medicine, 1992
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15.3.07 19:46
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