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Storm damage
My father's faithful brolly, which must have been at least fifty years old, succumbed to a mortal gust of wind today on my early morning walk. I wondered if the wind would be too much for it; I was right. It turned inside-out so in effect it went tips up. I wrestled with it to restore it to its correct position but the damage had been done. One of its spokes had snapped leaving a segment flapping uselessly like the broken wing of a bird. I tucked the brolly under my arm while I tried, with difficulty as my hands were somewhat numb with cold, to put up the hood of my jacket. After that my glasses steamed up but, fortunately, I managed to complete my circuit without falling into a hole, tripping over debris or being hit on the head by flying branches. I arrived home wet but with a sense of achievement.
Later in the morning I tried to carry out a post mortem on the brolly; however, I couldn't open it. It had jammed. I put it in the wheelie bin ready to be carried on its final trip--to the local burial site.
Thought for today
When we forget, or wilfully choose to ignore the intractability of human behaviour, the complexity of human institutions, and the probability of unanticipated consequences, we do so at great risk, and often immense human cost.
Jeane Kirkpatrick, Dictators and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics, 1982
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10.3.08 19:48
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Gradual progress
The electrician arrived today for his turn in the kitchen. He re-routed some cables, removed the old extractor fan and added a new double socket. He also made a lot of noise drilling holes in the walls. I hope he wore ear protectors. I made cups of coffee, read books and swept the garage ready for the new units and appliances.
Little remained of yesterday's rain when I went for my emw (early morning walk). I wore wellies but needn't have bothered because puddles had drained or evaporated. There were no floods. It was rather disappointing.
Thought for today
As the world becomes more modern it does not become more uniform. Modern states use the power of knowledge to serve their different ends and are as prone to conflict as any others.
John Gray, Black Mass, 2007
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11.3.08 19:36
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Plastered
Two chaps arrived yesterday and re-plastered the kitchen walls. My father had the kitchen fully tiled years ago; it looked, my mother sometimes said, rather like a public convenience. The removal of the tiles on Saturday necessitated the re-plastering. I have trouble icing cakes so would be a hopeless plasterer. Last time I iced a cake I must have made the icing too runny because, instead of setting, it ran off the cake. It was like chocolate spread not chocolate icing.
Thought for today
Most of the men sang or whistled as they dug or hoed. There was a good deal of outdoor singing in those days. Workmen sang at their jobs; men with horses and carts sang on the road; the baker, the miller's man, and the fish-hawker sang as they went from door to door; even the doctor and the parson on their rounds hummed a tune between their teeth. People were poorer and had not the comforts, amusements, or knowledge we have today; but they were happier. Which seems to suggest that happiness depends more upon the state of mind--and body, perhaps--than upon circumstances and events.
Flora Thompson, Lark Rise, 1939
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13.3.08 20:07
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That time of the year
'Tis the mating season for frogs. I noticed several squashed ones on a road near my house that crosses a stream. In the afternoon I went for a walk to try out a new pairs of boots and came across more frogs--live ones this time--on the footpath.
They hopped to the side as I marched along and the movement startled me. I stopped to investigate and spotted the frogs. I proceeded cautiously after that as I didn't wish to tread on any. Further along the footpath were more frogs. One seemed to be perched on top of a large brown turd. Puzzled, I bent down to look more closely. The large turd had eyes and was a large fat faecal brown female.
As I walked past a small wood in private land, I spotted another dead fox. That brings my corpse count to six in about four months.
Thought for today
You're not meant to say it, but great men and women still matter. Even in the modern age when elitism is a sin and the media labour to show the famous are no better than they ought to be, people still need heroes and heroines.
Nick Cohen, What's Left? 2007
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15.3.08 20:16
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A load of rubbish
There was a brief item in yesterday's Times magazine entitled 'A waste of a bag'. The author, who described himself as a long-time opponent of carrier bags, concluded, after a simple experiment, that we should put our rubbish in large thin plastic bags and not use the free ones provided by supermarkets. As long as we packed our rubbish down and threw away the bags only when they were full, this would result in less plastic going to landfill sites. The banning of free plastic bags need not be a problem. That may be so but I doubt many will follow his recommendation. People want rid of their rubbish as quickly as possible. Leave it for long and it stinks. Think of the outcry at the reduction in wheelie bin collections from one to two weeks. The smell, the maggots, the flies, the vermin.Plastic bags have become scapegoats. The problem is the volume and content of what goes in the bags, not the bags themselves.
Thought for today
In the United States, political campaigning resembles the low end of the entertainment industry. Indeed, it involves many of the same people, not only running as candidates but lending their celebrity endorsements. American political party conventions have an aesthetic somewhere between professional wrestling, TV evangelism and a village fair.
Jamie Whyte, A Load of Blair, 2005
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16.3.08 17:36
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Paint smells
Non-smelling paint would be a welcome invention. If this is impossible, then paint that smelled pleasant would be an improvement. The decorator arrived today for his turn in the kitchen. My house has been left smelling of paint and I have been left wondering if my choice of colour was good. Deciding to have a new kitchen was easy. Deciding what units, colours, tiles to have was not.
My spuds on the windowsill are chitting well; they have big shoots and will be ready for planting soon. I shall have to decide where to put them.
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do. Elbert Hubbard
Thought for today
The fastest way to destroy the motivation of professionals is to prevent them from doing what they were trained to do.
Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005) Austrian-born American management consultant
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17.3.08 19:53
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Taking shape
The smell of paint is fading; or perhaps I have become used to it. The fitter arrived today and installed all the units. The designer gave me the handles last week. I put them somewhere safe and then forgot about them. After the fitter had gone I remembered that I had the handles and then had a job to find them. They were in a brown box; my house is full of brown boxes.
I achieved little today. Noise from the fitter drilling in the kitchen and two men cutting down trees opposite my house distracted me. The trees were tall conifers which had only a few leaves on top. They were unattractive to look at and swayed alarmingly in the wind. It was time for the old make way for the new.
Thought for today
I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.
William Morris, 1888
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18.3.08 19:36
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