Tuesday 22nd Jan 2008

The rain has abated for a time bringing a clear and cool day, which just happens to coincide with turning down the thermostat on the radiator. I’ll resist the temptation to turn it back on because I sleep better in a cool room. Tonight I’m listening to Donna Summer (vinyl of course) and wondering why.

Not looking good on the worlds money markets at the minute...so just as well that I haven’t got any. It’s hard not to think that somewhere there is a cabal that decides all these things are going to happen this way.

I’m busy at work at the minute as we have some important assessments coming soon and everything is half finished. Poor old Amy is in the paper for some drug related thing. She’s dyed her hair blonde, become more anorexic and looks absolutely dreadful. She’s either very, very clever or not long for this world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7202310.stm

I just bought the entire series of Deep Space Nine on e-bay. Think it is because they have been showing re-runs on TV and I realised how much I enjoyed it all. Wonder why I like sci-fi so much? Answers on a psychiatric evaluation on a postcard please.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Nine

Just listening to the Mike and the Mechanics song ‘The Living Years’. Just turned the Garrard 401 on and spun the vinyl and it sounds fabulous through the Tannoys. I can smell that old vintage aroma the equipment has. It’s been a miserable day with more or less constant rain and wind. Lots of areas in Britain are on flood alert (some area even flooded) including the Ribble valley where the aptly named river Ribble has burst its banks in several villages. I am not a big believer in global warming but something isn’t right. Even if the weather proves to be just a blip in the long span of the world then the world of man seems to be entering a phase of great change.

Everywhere we look it’s all coming apart.

While some make millions on worthless art

I take a new look around and begin to see

The de-evolution of man began recently to me

15th Jan 2008

Haven’t posted very much lately sorry. I keep meaning to write stuff on my lunch break but always feel guilty. It’s been rather quiet and the weather has been mostly windy and wet. Well apart from one morning last week when I awoke to a heavy fall of snow. It was so amazingly unexpected and I just had to take a picture. Which is just as well as it didn’t last more than a couple of hours. On my way to work I head downhill and it was like travelling through different seasons. By the time I had got to work it was like being in a different country.

Work is quite busy at the moment but has different less enjoyable dynamic...hard to explain. The forecast is for a rocky financial year ahead with rising food and energy costs. Quite sure a lot of industry will be hit by at some stage. Not that there is much industry to hit around here anymore.

Still good things I have done include still feeding the birds and not buying any meat. Smoking well that’s a sad failed affair but I am resolute in determination...I think. Nick has managed to stay stopped though so well done. Hope you’re well and warm and that snow is not too deep in Pa.

Thur 3rd Jan 2008

It must have been much colder last night as the bird food was frozen solid in the bowl. Luckily it is still dark so I can defrost it before the birds are up and singing. I would think there would be more shivering than singing this morning. Even now after all these years it never ceases to amaze me that these creatures spend the nights outside in the fiercest of conditions. Animals and insects make nests and burrows but a bird is basically exposed to everything the weather can bring. Sure it can sit within a tree but even there it can’t escape the elements.

Right now there is a battle raging between me and Mr Nicotine. He hammers away within my cranium and I for my part try to ignore him. He tries to show me a world of calm that would exist if only I would get some cigarettes. Yet his lie is apparent as I breathe deeper once again. He is losing the battle and that seems to make him hammer away all the more. Despite all my rants on health fascism etc, I do realise they are right. Smoking is bad!

There was a promise of snow but only briefly did any flakes fall from the leaden sky. Far too few to cover all the dirty pavements and roads with a thin dusting of white. I would have liked that. We haven’t had any snow for the longest time.

Enjoy the picture of Nick feeding geese and ducks New Years Eve at the lake.

I’m just having a quiet moment at work waiting for some data to load and am wondering what this year will bring. A pair of clean lungs and a heightened sense of taste and smell will be good. Will I finish the year healthier,richer and wiser. Probably not, but I can keep trying. Life, (in whatever shape it takes for each of us,) is I think more a matter of continuing to move (regardless of the direction one is actually carried in) for it seems we only become truly lost when we stop and begin to question things. So I guess for me I shall be losing my way a few times over the coming year ahead. Is that one of the enigmas of life do you think? That the more we try to understand why we have been given such a brief and painful existence the briefer and more painful it becomes. Who knows?
Watched some great programmes on Sky HD over the holiday. Some of the natural history programmes are absolutely breathtaking. I would never have believed a few years ago that we would be able to watch such sharp images on a TV. Where will it stop I wonder? At some point the resolution of new equipment will exceed our very own eyes capability to see it and will there be any point in going further. At some stage we must have to say that we have bettered our perception of perfection and that has huge ramifications for so many things we now take as mystical.

Hope you enjoy the 2 pictures...went for a few walks around the lake over the holiday and around thirty of the small trees along the path have been decorated with baubles and tinsel. It looks both surreal and yet strangely beautiful. The other is of the stream that enters the lake just to show what a mild weather spell we have had. Back to work tomorrow and the weather is forecast to grow quite cold with a hint of snow. I would like to see some snow as we haven’t had any yet this Winter. Hope you had a good holiday.

Christmas falls away so swiftly and soon are forgotten all the things that were so eagerly awaited. Now arrives the New Year and with it sincere pledges that I would hope are all kept. For a better world is created not by wishes but by our deeds.