Groundhog Day again

Head Rambles Posted on by 7

The excitement here is mounting.

I have an appointment in Skobieville tomorrow.

I did have an appointment last week but they cancelled at the last minute. My appointment is with an optician and apparently they originally booked me to see the contact lenses person, on a day when the optician wasn’t there. So they had to cancel and re-book. Idiots.

There are two aspects of the trip that make it somewhat less pleasant than it should be.

The first of course is that it’s in Skobieville. I try and avoid that kip whenever possible but that’s where the optician resides so I am doomed to endless ramps, traffic lights and crap parking. As Callie’s home town was the Patron Town of Roundabouts, so Skobieville is the Patron Town of Ramps. Every road seems to have them with no escape.

The other lack of pleasantry is that the optician’s gaff seems to be stuck in last year. They’re still on about anti-social distancing, protective shields and clothing and of course the infernal mask. It’s the same at the vet’s. Don’t these people know that the panic is over? Are they stuck in some kind of time warp? I suppose I’ll bring my mask. It’s one of the papery ones I got that age ago when the panic started. I suppose I have worn it less than half a dozen times over the years and apart from being a bit grubby, it’s still in one piece. It conforms with the definition of a mask so they can’t complain. I’ll still pull it down below my nose though so my glasses don’t fog up.

Yes, I know the Virus is still out there. Maybe I have already caught it? Herself and I were feeling a bit rough last week but that seems to have passed. Maybe that was it? It sort of fitted the symptoms but we lust took some paracetamol on top of all our other medications and carried on as normal. If we haven’t yet had the pleasure than so be it.

Confining myself to the house is what I do anyway……

 

Not cutting the mustard

Head Rambles Posted on by 2

So that climate extravaganza is over.

They have finally reached an agreement though apparently some aren’t happy and most seem to agree that they haven’t agreed enough or even what exactly they have all agreed on. Confused? Not half as confused as I am.

Anyhows on my morning trip around the meeja sites I see that the BBC is positively running away with itself with a massive headline proclaiming an “Historic Deal“. Funny how a lot of things are “historic” these days? I pity future kids as their history books are going to rival the old Encyclopedia Britannica in size.

Having had their main orgasm after the big headline they then have sections on “The moment the deal was struck” [where presumably you can endlessly play the moment to lull yourself to sleep], “55 Seconds” of leaders being very very excited [is that a porn film?]. They then include “A Really Simple Guide to Climate Change” for those of us who have been living under a rock for the last couple of decades and “How the deal went down” which also sounds suspiciously like a porn film.

Probably their most interesting piece is entitled “How Earth is dimming because of climate change“. Sadly the piece doesn’t tell us how, just that the New Moon isn’t as bright as it used to be, or something. They do however impart some other nuggets such as mysterious holes appearing in Siberia [maybe caused by errant Russian missiles?] and why there is a shortage of Dijon Mustard. The latter piece is of course vital information for all those mustard aficionados out there who have been tearing their hair out in anguish.

At least they’ll stop boring us rigid with their warble gloaming.

Now they’ll start boring us rigid with the World Cup.

*sigh*

 

In the dog house

Head Rambles Posted on by 8

For the last while, dogs seem to feature increasingly in my day to day affairs.

Of course there was the sad episode last week where we were introduced to Callie and then had to say farewell as things didn’t turn out. I’m still very sad about that.

Mainly though Penny has increasingly developed health problems and in that respect has joined us humans.

When I do my morning nursing rounds dispensing pills I now have to include her. Initially she had to take half a tablet a day for her arthritis. This has become somewhat more complex of late as she has to endure her dose of Calpol.

For those of you not familiar with Calpol, it is the drug of choice for children. Kids not settling down for the night? Pump ’em full of Calpol. Works every time. The trouble with it though it is extremely sticky. It’s up there with honey and marmalade – get a drop on your hands and you have to follow up with a good hand-wash in hot water or else you will stick to everything you touch.

Penny’s dose is administered using a hypodeemic [but not using the nurdle]. 3,4 ml precisely. Not 3.5 or even 3,3. Very specific instructions. Penny is getting used to this as when I approach her with the dreaded yoke in my sticky hands she curls her lip in an Elvis impersonation. I then slowly inject the goo into her mouth while she frantically swallows. We’re getting good at this though there have been disasters. The first time, I plunged the plunger too quickly and the contents shot through her mouth and onto the arm of the couch. It took an age to clean that up. Sometimes a bit leaks out the side of her mouth and she ends up all sticky around her muzzle. I leave that there for her to discover.

She’s also on a monthly injection which [I’m told] will take a couple of months to really take effect. I’m hoping that if it is as miraculous as promised that I can stop the Calpol and the half tablet. That would make life a little easier.

Her deafness is getting worse. She rarely reacts to sounds now. She used to react to a hand-clap or a rap on the glass door but now if she’s outdoors doing her favourite thing – standing on the top step and just staring around the estate – I can only get her attention by poking her arse with my foot. Sadly she is increasingly startled by someone approaching her from behind as she doesn’t hear them coming.

Old age is a fucking bugger.

 

Little bird

Head Rambles Posted on by  

I can’t help but be fascinated at the shenanigans over at Twitter.

First of all Musk buys it for a sum that is frankly insane. I actually thought it was a joke at first but then realised that Musk is just a little unbalanced.

Then he decides to cut his workforce a bit. So without any warning he locks some people out of their work accounts and sends a load more staff an email.

Obviously that wasn’t enough for him as his next move is to send those who survived the first onslaught a mail telling them they have 24 hours to make a simple decision – quit or be prepared to work harder than they have ever worked before. He even gave them a handy little web page where they had to tick the correct box to show what they decided. Anyone who didn’t check either box loses their job.

Having reduced his remaining workforce to quivering nervous wrecks he then just locks all his offices apparently because he is scared that the remaining staff will sabotage the company as they are leaving in their droves.

Now he is sitting there amongst the ashes and rubble with a smile on his face saying he is “not super worried“?

I joined Twitter back in 2008, not because I was keen to “tweet” but simply because I was curious. It was originally touted as “micro blogging”, but if “blogging” is akin to writing a public book, then Twitter was akin to scrawling a few words on a toilet wall. If I have anything of importance to say I’ll do it here, or if it’s directed at specific people I’ll do it by mail or text.

I have now abandoned Twitter and have chosen to experiment with Mastodon. Apparently it’s creaking under the strain as the hoards migrate from Twitter. I joined it for the same reason as before – curiosity. I have set this site to post a notice on Mastodon when I publish here. Whether I “toot” [the equivalent of “tweet”? *sigh*] or not remains to be seen. It looks a little better organised anyway.

In the meantime, here’s a wee catchy tune to calm the mind.

I thought its title was appropriate?