2012 — 26 April: Thursday
If I didn't know any better1 I might think that God's bladder is temporarily empty. But the Beeb is still talking of showers later. Tea, Mrs Landingham?
Yesterday evening's 'entertainment' started with another pair of episodes of "Life" (which I'd now class as quirky but OKish) and then I relocated to the books warehouse and discovered (rather more than an hour later) that I'm now too old to sit on the floor in a cramped space without moving. Who knew? I should have. Just as I should know, by now, that grapefruit can be quite a shock to the early morning system.
Speaking of which... some things need a light touch:
None of that beating around the, erm, bush, if you please. Just a light pressure... (Link.)
Whatever happened...
... to Thomas Kuhn?
I bought my copy in July 1993. I'm almost sure I could find it — if I tried. After all, I managed to find Beverly Whipple's little tome about an hour ago.
My fridge is developing an echo. I think I'd better set about topping it up again. [Pause] Done. And back to find that despite dear Mama's postal redirection, she got one of her annuity P60s before I did (from the same provider). Death and taxes, heh? Nothing else seems to be quite so long-standing. Time for a spot of (just) still morning "lemonses" and a cuppa while I contemplate the ineffable whichness of the why and listen (for who knows how many times by now?) to ELP's first album...
... the one I was playing when I destroyed Dad's bass speakers one sunny afternoon in 1972 :-(
At least my present audio system can cope with Keith Emerson's synthesiser noodling. It ought to, considering the changes in audio technology2 over the last 40 years. (40 years? Inconceivable!)
Right. Time to go and play "catch up" with dear Mama, assuming the care-home's "deep cleaning" has now completed. Ho-hum. [Pause] And back, after staying long enough to top-up her chocolate stash. She's now in a "walled" bed, propped up on pillows, but more than somewhat comatose, and barely able to register my presence, let alone presents. What a very grim end-game this Life business encompasses. She's certainly and sadly no longer in a position to be able to "rage, rage, against the dying of the light". What a bummer.
Ever onward
I've just agreed to meet Len for lunch tomorrow. That should cheer me up. I really should make more effort to work my way through the stack of viewing he's palmed off on me, too. The top of one of my living room bookshelves is basically a buffer storage zone for his stuff :-)
Tea. I need tea. Lunch, by the way, was a delicious new concoction: prawn mango masala, to which I added a splash of lemon, some raisins, a couple of spoonfuls (spoons full?) of mango chutney, a thick honey sandwich, and an extra 120g of prawns, having belatedly realised they were merrily swimming a couple of days past their "Best Before" date. Long time no sea and all that. I expect I shall live.
This video aerial view of London by Jason Hawkes is well worth 1m 53s of your time. (Link.)
It's not every...
... day that you download your second album by The Books — having just listened to the only one you currently own ("Lost and Safe", from 2005) for probably only the second time since you bought it when it was first released — and, choosing (quite by random) "The Way Out" (2010) you encounter a perfectly-titled 22-second track that is simply a recording of Gandhi:
I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, there is, underlying all that change, a living power that is changeless. That holds all together. That creates, dissolves, and re-creates.
"Use the Force, Luke!"
Tonight's 'entertainment' — episodes #5 and #6 of "Life" — has me moving it up from OKish to really pretty good.