2014 — 4 August: Monday
Well, I don't know why I'm awake quite so early this morning.1 Perhaps I shouldn't be reading "Game of Thrones" last thing in the evening? Kids eat when they're hungry; I guess I sleep when I'm tired. No biggie. Though I do feel sorry for the present round of horribly-early commuters I can hear setting off up my hill from time to time. Tee hee. Now, where's that cuppa?
On a whim...
... I decided to glance back precisely 25 years to see if my taste in books has changed:
It would seem not. I even know where the first of these two currently is on my shelves:
Proof!
The devil finds...
... web sites for idle minds to browse. How about an astrology chart for bacteria?
Meanwhile, NPR is running a feature on the game "Diplomacy" which I last played in the mid-1970s. It's been keeping me smiling. And isn't there an irony in the fact that we believe what we're told? Gina Perry has written an interesting-looking book digging a lot deeper into those — in my opinion, unethical — Stanley Milgram experiments on obedience.
Some 7.9 or so...
... miles later, I return, in a light shower, and with a distinctly less-soggy ride, having (with Mike's able help) repressurised all four tyres by about 4 or 5 psi each. I must admit I thought the two at the front had been looking particularly down-in-the-tread this morning. Meanwhile, an email from Big Bro suggests there's been a 4 billion bailout in Portugal since I last looked, too. About all I know about that fine country is that we managed to go for about 800 years without waging a war against them. (And why's it "waging" in any case?)
Mr Toyota...
... is once again trying to get me to have both his annual service and the guvmint's annual MOT inspection of my little Yaris at least eight weeks earlier than should strictly be necessary. This is an annual raindance we indulge in that has been steadily creeping earlier and earlier. The car was delivered on 12 October 2007, after all. This becomes a little tedious. Besides, now that the tyres are properly inflated, what else could possibly need doing? The ashtrays are still shiny. (Actually, I don't think there are any.)
While digging out...
... the 25-year-old book above earlier this morning, my eye was also caught by its immediate shelf-mate (is that even a word?). A book...
... I'd bought in July 1998 on the 'art nouveau' style of Alphonse Mucha. Inevitably, there's a story attached to it. As I mentioned a while back I met a young lady called Kay in Cornwall in 1970 and kept up a lively correspondence with her when she went up to Stirling University. Having told her about the Dali blockprint (Metamorphosis of Narcissus) I'd bought from Athena at some point between 1970 and 1972, I arranged for her to receive a delivery of a similar Athena blockprint of Sarah Bernhardt in the role of Gismonda (1894), by Mucha, for her 21st birthday.
I had little prior knowledge of this fabulously successful artist at the time, what with being a hairy-handed aeronautical engineering apprentice with little time for all (or, indeed, any) of the finer things of Life. Needless to say, my fellow apprentices had an entirely different set of interests.