2011 — 13 September: Tuesday
Since I was awake anyway1 even though I'd beaten the sun up, I thought I'd check my email to see if the elderly walkers are going to be a duo or a trio today. Then, since I have a fresh cuppa to hand and the music on BBC Radio 3 is fine, I proceeded to scan the noisome midden that is the content trapped behind Googlemail's spam filters.
I found, and have just replied to, a query I'd been half-expecting. For the last month or more, my server logs show that somebody out there in Internetland is currently showing an interest — perfectly understandable — in the wonderful work of Seattle cartoonist Shary Flenniken.2 Specifically, her "Trots and Bonnie" strips that appeared for the most part in National Lampoon magazine between 1972 and 1990. Sadly, as I already say in my footnote inside the "books" section of molehole, this is currently neither a book shop nor a lending library, though that philosophy may mutate if I need a retirement hobby.
And I've discovered in the last five years (nearly) that I have no current shortage of retirement hobbies, and little or no inclination to embark on a sunset career as a bookseller!
Distaste
The news has just covered our "defence" secretary's pride in being the world #2 supplier of weaponry, more on that "slavery" story, and the suggestion by Libya's newest boss that he intends for that state to adhere to "moderate" Islamism. About as rational as a Xian country saying it will encourage its citizenry to adhere, say, to just five of the ten commandments.
If said trio...
... is to rendezvous as agreed, I'd better stop editing my DVD cover artwork into DVD Profiler and start getting ready for the great outdoors. Or Froxfield, at any rate. It's 09:37 and sunny though with some hefty clouds knocking around.
[Pause]
And, at 16:44, I'm now keeping a wary eye on similar clouds as I have some washing out on my little line swinging in the breeze. I don't want to fetch it back in wetter than it went out, as it were. Meanwhile, Mr Postie dropped off a set of David Leland TV plays from the early 1980s...
... and Mr DVLA reminds me that I will shortly owe him £115 for the privilege of keeping my little Yaris pottering around the potholes of England for another year.
Time for...
... an earlyish night, methinks, as tomorrow starts horribly early, and could well go on for a boringly long time.
But first, this. There's a delightful irony in paying online to relicense your car, receive email confirmation of a successful transaction, plus this reassurance...
The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless Worldwide in partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2009/09/0052.) On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
... be so pleased with the system that you actually choose to offer positive feedback, and then have an error occur that eats said feedback without any easy recovery option. That'll learn me.