2010 — 24 September: Friday
Until this morning I only knew one joke1 about Venice. Geoff tells me "Wonderful weather, bright, sunny and warm. Though they'd obviously had a lot of rain before we got there, the streets were still flooded." Given the view here, I suspect there may be a long-term problem with their drains. I've been warned of more rain to come here, too, so I'm off to the (shopping) races before the deluge. In my nice clean car that can't yet get back into the garage...
Friends reunited
A while back, I mentioned a pair of black leather gloves I'd misplaced. Christa had bought them for me (of course) and I was annoyed to lose them. Having returned from my food-gathering expotition, I was just repopulating the car with stuff removed for yesterday's service, and I found the gloves, under the front seat. They were clutching a grey, wrinkled, fruity remnant of (I suspect) a mummified plum. I'd say the corpse2 was nearly three years old.
Time (10:46) for some breakfast, methinks.
Some interesting stats on shoplifting as a career choice across the pond. (Source.)
The conundrums of modern life
Another strike against flying:
Why are humans able to sit in the coach section of an airplane for hours and hours without fatalities? No other primates would be so polite and considerate, especially when someone rolls carry-on luggage across their toes. "What if I were traveling with a planeload of chimpanzees? Any one of us would be lucky to disembark with all ten fingers and toes still attached... Even among the famously peaceful bonobos... veterinarians sometimes have to be called in following altercations to stitch back on a scrotum or penis," Hrdy writes.
The Space-Time continuum is another modern conundrum. As far as I can tell, there's never quite enough Space to hold all the things there's clearly never going to be quite enough Time to get around to. "Space — the final frontier."
I still have no idea of the original purpose for the chest of drawers nestled in the space under the stairs.3 But, for the time being, I shall now use it to house that small subset of my CDs that I'd brought back down from the loft while I clarify my long-term plans for re-housing the entire collection in CaseLogic folders (like my DVDs). I also need time to work out what to do with the associated CD artwork. Meanwhile this temporary relocation (just finished) frees up some space on existing wall-mounted shelves in the living room to which a small subset of my hardbacks can return. Good job I'm retired.
Somehow, it's already 13:07 and looking rather cold and grey out there.
Having just returned...
... from a long and rather fraught visit to dear Mama in her nursing home, I was vastly amused to read my son's email (though he's clearly evil, with a wicked sense of humour, and I couldn't possibly condone the solution on offer):
I blame his mother :-)
Coming home, I also dodged the motorway at the first available exit. Friday late afternoon traffic seems to consist of hordes of non-cerebral speed merchants. It's a mere 11C out there, and not all that much warmer (18C) in here. Brrr. Where's that soothing cuppa? (To add insult, I missed out on a slice of cake in the nursing home.)