2010 — 13 September: Monday
Suddenly1 it's after midnight, and sleep begins to seem like a smart idea. I shall be off to see dear Mama later today, I have a friend to ferry back from a hospital appointment tomorrow, and (miracle of miracles) I may even get an undamaged pair of bookcases delivered on Wednesday. In between times, there are still many cartons to bring back and unpack. Plus I'd like to get started on my grand new CD storage solution.
I'm also quite anxious to see how "West Wing" Season 6 pans out, not to mention Chris Mullin's last few months as an MP :-)
Taking the pee?
According to an overnight email from one of my NZ chums, reporting an unsolicited text message: "41% of mobile internet users use it on the loo!". He does not say where he was, or what he was doing, when this message splashed down, but I naturally have my suspicions.
Although the sun is struggling through the murk (and the BBC predicts "white cloud") it's only an unbalmy 18C here and the central heating is in some danger of switching itself on. Time (08:26) for an extra layer, methinks. I'm tickled to see that 0.2% of the people browsing molehole are using the Commodore 64 operating system. I remember watching that machine's famous "bouncing beachball" demo when it was on display in a shop in Guernsey one Sunday evening2 in the mid 1980s. Of course, the space lander demo on the Acorn Archimedes was the one that captured my wallet — strictly, IBM's wallet — in 1989.
Let nobody accuse...
... today's crop of roboticists of failing to think things through...
Now, if I only knew what "nefarious" meant. (I did check the publication date and, no, it wasn't the 1st of April.) Perhaps Asimov's Three Laws need an addition?
Having successfully picked up my next copy of "The Word" magazine, and a spare Kitchen Devil (my single most useful kitchen tool), and been given the finger by a grey-haired lady carving me up on the motorway exit, and lunched, and relaxed with a single episode of "West Wing", it's time to resume my travels. I shall try to swing by the storage warehouse on my way back, too. Busily busy. It's 13:30 and still dry but grey out there. The temperature in here has crawled up to 19C.
I was an avid reader of "Q" magazine in earlier years. It's easy to see why Mark Ellen (an excellent editor) moved from there to the newer pastures of "The Word"...
Mr Burns and his Corporate cousins will get you every time if you give them a chance.
Later
Having forgotten to carry my wallet, my tentative plan to add Waitrose to my swing-by list fell at the first hurdle. However, Peter called me while I was in the care-home (hanging on in quiet desperation [Pink Floyd] is the English way) awaiting the tea-and-a-cake lady. Dear Mama, by the way, has already scoffed all the choccies I suggested Big Bro get her. Typical. So Peter and Peter's g/f (who've taken today off to visit a theme park) are now on their way down here to whisk me out for an evening meal, it seems. Sounds like an improvement on my original plan. In fact (at 17:50) they have just parked on the drive.
And here I am, back at the ranch, replete (at 21:29) and wondering vaguely where the evening went. Nice.