2011 — 13 June: Monday
Having noted how well the living room cleans up1 I just may start on another bit of the house, even though it is a bit late to be called "Spring cleaning". Meanwhile, my next photo of Christa and Peter must (I guess) be called either "Figures in a landscape" (a mild homage to that 1970 Joseph Losey film based on Barry England's gripping novel that nobody seems to have seen/read) or "Always keep a-hold of nurse" (for fear, of course, of finding something worse). Your choice:
G'night.
As I await...
... the arrival of my plumbing friend, I'm pleased to report that all is currently dry in and around the vicinity of the tiny burst pipe. It's stopped raining outside, too. So, some breakfast next, I think. It's 08:38 and he's due here at 10:00.
Artisans also seem to be preparing to remove our old, and connect up our new, streetlights — processes that involve both noisy pneumatic drills and one of those cute little earth-moving diggers on caterpillar tracks. Christa and I always had a hankering to drive one of those, but only Peter has done so (as a reward on his last afternoon after two weeks work experience in a local firm when he was still at school).
Jolly Russian music
100 years exactly since the world premiere of Stravinsky's "Petrushka"? Golly! Last time I checked (quite some time ago) I had seven recordings:
Petrushka Chicago SO, Levine 1978 Cassette 144B Petrushka NY Philharmonic, Mehta Cassette 044A Petrushka Philadelphia SO, Muti CD Petrushka Montreal, Dutoit CD Petrushka London SO, Abbado CD Petrushka Columbia SO, Stravinsky CD Petrushka Pollini Cassette 098A
The version just played on BBC Radio 3 (the Cleveland orchestra, conducted by Boulez) is — as you can see — not among them. Pure musical magic. Indeed, it was a strong contender for one of the pieces at Christa's funeral.
Batten down the patches
It seems we will be getting 34 vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft in the next round of bandaging due tomorrow. Still, with one less operating system in the house, that's one less set of updates to contend with. I shall put my XP Gateway machine back on the network "just in case". Perhaps I should do the same with the HP MPC?
Just how sensible...
... was it of my chum Brian to lend me that CPC catalogue...
... with such temptation lurking on many of its well over 3,000 pages?
My hallway is once more a carpeted walkway of beauty, and the rest of the system is checking out nicely so far. Music: Talking Heads "Naked", though how that album can be 23 years old remains a mystery.
I've now got my house...
... back to myself, with clean bills of health for the leak, the gas supply system, the central heating, and the 'plasma' gas fire (which was scandalously receiving only its first service). Since I almost never use it, and don't even have its pilot light on, it was no surprise to find that the 'damage' was basically a bit of dust and a cobweb or several. Nice to see zero output of CO nonetheless. I could have done without having to have the heating full on as it's been rather muggy today. In fact, having grabbed a late lunch I'm now not feeling quite energetic enough to trek over to see dear Mama — I shall simply hope the double ration of chocolate I took over last week is not yet as exhausted as I am.
Maybe it's the age thing. More likely it's all the frantic shuffling of stuff around during the last several days. And the two nights of disturbed sleep. It's oddly unrelaxing to have a sick house. I fear I sent the Battersea Dogs' Home lady away with a mild flea in her ear :-)
Remind me to avoid...
... Park Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan next time I'm over there. This "3-way street" video is amazing.
I've spent some time forcibly evicting quite a lot of the dust from inside my Gateway XP machine (a task that would have been much easier if I could find the mini-Dyson's mini-hose attachment), replaced the two SATA hard drives (the original system drive is, I now note, a Western Digital Caviar that was made in July 2005 so it's doing pretty well for its age), let it update and scan for the latest malware, and will shut it down after it's finished updating the Copernic desktop search indexes. Then it will be time to contemplate an evening meal as it's 18:23 already and I seem to be starving.
Dying wishes
I must say, it made a change to switch from a high-dose of fictionalised medical problems in "House" to the real life examination by Terry Pratchett of the 'Dignitas' operation in Switzerland, followed by quite an interesting 30-minute debate. Much heat; not quite so much light. I still think the law must change. Though I should add that, in Christa's case (an aggressive, painful, terminal and incurable cancer) the palliative options and the extremely sympathetic hospice route thankfully left no need for a trip to Switzerland.
And in dear Mama's case, though she generally states on each visit her wish to take a pill and go to sleep, or simply to go to sleep and not wake up, there is nothing I can legally do except to state "do not resuscitate" (and if Big Bro has a problem with that, maybe I can't even do that much — he is, after all, the other 'attorney' involved).
Quite a tricky business, this death lark. Still, it's the first broadcast TV I've watched so far this year. Not a bad choice.