2011 — 22 December: Thursday

Only another three months or so¹ and the clock in the Yaris will be right again. I started listening to the main BBC radio news this morning but, within three minutes, I seemed to find the music choices elsewhere far more compelling. No wonder I'm so lamentably ill-informed.

I shall be toddling over to see how dear Mama is getting on later today. Given the tendency of the care-home staff to contact me, I'm currently operating on the assumption that no news is good news. Not that there's anything I can do about her ever-growing frailty.²

Personally, I still see a good case for coin-operated suicide booths (à la "Futurama", perhaps) but maybe that's just me. It must be past time for my next cuppa :-)

One of our...

... "chat" topics yesterday (at least when one of the 'kittens' wasn't climbing up me) touched on SSDs. Here's an interesting place I fell into while linking through a series of tales of woe and "gotchas".

I was just about to head out on a little shopping and petrol jaunt but Mike's had a much better idea, so we're going to blow away a few of our cobwebs on a walk instead. Excellent wheeze, and it's not even too cold out there.

Quite a bit later...

... I've completed the walk, topped up the car, had my lunch, been over to the care-home to sit with dear Mama³ for an unfruitful hour. When I got back, I then popped over to the bungalow for a spicy cuppa before they depart to sunny Cornwall. I also caught up with last week's excellent HIGABMNFY. Had a shower. And am now (18:55) more than ready to contemplate my evening meal. Enough for one afternoon, I feel.

Saline solution

Not just the title of one of Keith Laumer's amusing 1960s "Retief" stories of a galactic diplomat. No, my water softener recharging cycle has just sprung into audible life, and the thing is also saying "Refill". I stirred the salt reservoir around a bit and, sure enough, the salt level dropped by around two inches (so it had crusted up, in part) and now (in its 'dwell' phase) has about two inches of clear water above the salt with the countdown timer showing 20 minutes. But the reservoir is still over half full. I shall have to keep a beady eye on it.

Footnotes

¹  Solstice-wise.
²  I find myself wondering how many other people are in, as it were, a similar boat. Coming towards the end of one's life is perfectly natural, but the inevitable accompanying physical and mental decline is nothing to write home about, is it?
³  Her chest infection has more or less cleared up, but she remains as weak and befuddled as ever. We sat together in companionable silence for the most part. She occasionally asks why nobody else visits her. I've basically given up trying to explain each time.