2010 — 1 September: Wednesday — rabbits!
The evening entertainment after the Indian meal was "The Oxford Murders" which began well but dribbled away most of its potential within the next 30 minutes or so. Then it was back home on a pleasantly empty motorway.
Just because I'm paranoid1 I've been scanning and patching my system with the help of this handy tool. While it doesn't really do anything beyond what you can do yourself, it did give me the confidence to clean out five back-level Java images and upgrade to the very latest level of Open Office.
Ever onward. G'night, in hopes of seeing at least two, and preferably three, replacement bookcases delivered within the next few hours.
Local elasticity
Whenever there's a Bank Holiday Monday (and most of them fall on a Monday, of course) the local rubbish collections are displaced to Wednesday from our normal Tuesday. And seem to occur much faster, too. They've just whizzed round as I relax (after a good night's sleep) and sup my cuppa. Gosh, it's a hard life being retired on a bright sunny morning with good music drowning out the whooshing sounds as that fragrant chap's memoirs hit the distribution fans. Or are distributed to the fans. So Mr B nearly sacked Mr B and felt anguish over Iraq. You surprise me. The rubbish / remaindered Bins will be Laden in due course, Osama.
As sure as eggs is eggs, if I learned anything from watching "Yes, Minister" it was Never ask a question if you don't already know the answer.
Food safety advocates accept that the changes will cost consumers. "Do you want cheap food that makes you sick, or slightly more expensive food that doesn't torture the animal and doesn't make you sick?" Hanson said.
As a lad...
... my personal Holy Trinity consisted of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. So I soaked this up with delight. Source and snippet:
I won't go any further into the plot of this novel. If you have never been a science-fiction fan, I will long since have lost you anyway. But if you ever were a fan — as I was, quite obsessively, in my teens — you cannot do better than to return to the works of Isaac Asimov. Cheesy as the love story inevitably is, and inconsistent as some of the time-related logic turns out to be (why, for instance, does Harlan have to cancel an appointment in the 575th century in order to go to the 3000th and see a man who is "free this afternoon," when normal logic tells us he could have gone and returned in a matter of minutes, or even seconds?), the essential storyline has a deeply compelling quality that is — to me, at least — irresistible.
If you don't know which of Asimov's 500 plus books is under discussion, there's no hope for you.
I've read that the New York Times will be moving behind a pay-to-view firewall in the near future. Pity. No more ...
... touching stories? Again, if you can't identify the novel here, shame on you! The Sony device is launched today, I gather.
Hell's teeth!
It's too long since I played Jacqueline du Pré's 1965 recording (with John Barbirolli and the LSO) of Elgar's Cello Concerto. And I'd somehow forgotten its raw emotional power, even though I heard part of it used in "August Rush" back in April. I now need a cuppa to recover... And it won't be long before I'm working on a spot of lunch. Still no sign of my bookcases, however. [Pause] Mr UKMail has just driven past the house. Fingers crossed. The salad has nearly finished defrosting, too. I really must tweak the fridge's thermostat setting. Again. [Pause] OK, the next two (of three) packs are safely in the garage. I shall resist inspecting them until after some calories, however, as one of the packs looks fairly well battered already.
Still, at least the sun is shining. It's 13:20 and I'm starving.
<Sigh>
My email of gentle, patient, reproof is already being read in the Staples Direct Customer Support department...
The situation now. Two beech packages were delivered today, minutes ago. I have extracted an undamaged side panel from one of them. Both side panels in the other package are damaged (and, indeed, the external appearance of the second package had already made me pessimistic). So, six bookcases out of the eight of my original order are now OK. One beech and one maple are both currently unusable. I received an email yesterday stating Your Order VXK60600 is on its way which should allow you to confirm what was sent this time. Please advise me what you wish to do next. Thanks.
This could run and run.
Christa's green thumb...
... was mighty powerful:
