2008 — 15 October: Wednesday
Good! No more birthdays for a whole year. Dear Mama, by the way, completely fails to grasp the concept that "her two boys" are so old. Though she does realise that she is now in her 90s. Funny stuff, Life.
We start off so small and helpless (though perfectly happy, as exemplified by tonight's picture) and end up (it seems to me) in much the same state. Dear M actually told me this time that she'd considered moving into a Home but has now ruled that out. Interesting times lie ahead, methinks.
A chap can have a bit too much of a Good Thing. Boston Legal remains superb, but I've drawn the line at a mere three episodes tonight. (I used to stop reading books I was enjoying as a kid, to make them last longer!) Oh well, it's 00:55 and the last domestic task tonight consists of putting away the laundry.1 Later today is, as it were, another day. Mind you the weather forecast looks a bit iffy.
Iffy it is
As it's 10:11 I think I've earned my next cuppa. Reheated peppermint tea from about nine hours ago will do nicely, thank you. Now back to Polly Toynbee on Woman's Hour! I haven't had any breakfast yet. I'm too busy reading an open letter from Michael Pollan to the next "Farmer in Chief". Fascinating stuff that also was touched on in one of last night's episodes of Boston Legal. As Kermit said, it isn't easy being green! Snippet:
...to take animals off farms and put them on feedlots is to take an elegant solution — animals replenishing the fertility that crops deplete — and neatly divide it into two problems: a fertility problem on the farm and a pollution problem on the feedlot. The former problem is remedied with fossil-fuel fertilizer; the latter is remedied not at all.
Now I feel guilty eating my breakfast cereal. As for the idea that infectious cancers both exist and could evolve... Thanks to Olivia Judson's blog for taking my mind off global financial and climate meltdown! Her "Dr Tatiana" book was a lot more fun.
Use soap, dammit!
Honestly, what's wrong with people???
First law of (culinary) thermodynamics
I claim no great insight for this insight:
If you have to microwave your pre-packed salad for 30 seconds to defrost the layers of ice in the hard-boiled eggs, your fridge thermostat needs adjusting.
Aside to Christa: I had to laugh as I was just driving back through Southampton a few minutes ago. This Alan Coren quip was new to us: "I love Sainsbury's — they keep all the riff-raff out of Waitrose." It's one year to the day since you left our home, my love, and one year since I drove my first 25 miles in your magnificent final birthday present to me. That was over 10,750 miles ago. Unbelievable.
Time for lunch, then I shall treat my main co-pilot to afternoon tea somewhere.
Dragon flies and mushrooms... dept.
Back in what we laughingly like to think of as the summer, I took a nice shot of a dragonfly. Here's today's variant:
Made of sterner stuff, this time
At least he was in no danger of flying away before I could capture him. And, for my fungi expert, Graham, are these edible?2
I did check I had permission to photograph this artwork, by the way. It's on show at Hillier's in an exhibition sponsored by Saab. As was this chap:
Time to feed that implacable foe, the inner man. It's 19:09 already. When did that happen?
Not a new comic, but...
A particularly fine single panel example. Now, why didn't I try this trick years ago?!
Results from Borders...
I'd set off this morning with the best of "Matalan" intentions, but discovered an unopened pack of five new pairs of socks from an earlier outing just in time. So I decided to head down into town instead...
I mentioned my last encounter with Messrs Gravett and Stanbury here. As for "The 60's", it's been unkindly remarked that if you can remember them, you weren't there. The CD is from the latest issue of "The Word" which has now entirely taken the place that "Q" once held in my musical affections.
It's 21:46 and thus (obviously) nearly time for my nocturnal dose of Boston Legal. I've just had a phone call from my cousin Leigh, with all her latest news. Tomorrow, by the way, I'm apparently off to Compton Abbas Airfield where (I'm promised) there's a café of some sort. Sounds like a more than passable adventure to help tide me over until the Friday evening post-birthday meal out in Winchester. Hope the sun does its shiny thing.