Poppy
Today’s work – dropped Julia off at work, made two abortive phone calls to the dentist, wasting half an hour hanging on, booked a flu jab, did 400 words on baseball in Derbyshire (it should ideally have been more like 300 but to paraphrase Mark Twain, I didn’t have time to write less), wrote five clunky tanka and made cheese on toast for lunch.
It’s little more like a proper working day than recent days have been, but it will go in the could do better column of the ledger, where it will fit in nicely with the rest of my life.
Oh, I did half an hour on an Open Learning Unit too, but that’s not going to make a lot of difference. Actually, I also cleaned up my computer a bit, shifting files around and deleting some rubbish. It’s not suddenly become better organised, but it’s a bit less likely to bring on feelings of despair when I look at it.
I’ve also ordered rechargeable AAA batteries and a charger. None of my chargers will fit that size, they re all for AA and various configurations of camera battery. When people look back in years to come, will they wonder why we made so many chargers and cables? At least we have fewer choices in cables these days. In the past I bought of adapters, about six, I think it was, to ensure we could always charge our phones.
Hoverfly on Orange Poppy
The batteries themselves are manufactured without harmful chemicals, and by the time we’ve had them a few years will have repaid the initial cost. We only use them in the TV remote control and my illuminated magnifying glass but even so, we use about eight a year. It’s difficult to tell, but I think I’ve reduced my carbon footprint with this choice.
Do you remember the days when you used to have to get up and walk to the TV if you wanted to change channels? On my desk I have a laptop, a mobile phones and two digital cameras. Thirty years ago I was daydreaming of buying an Amstrad word processor, had a pager issued by work and had to have film developed (which took a week and always resulted in disappointment).
Times have changed.
On the other hand, we are on the verge of war with Russia, worried about having an actor of pensionable age in the White House ( though with hindsight he looks like a safe pair of hands), and were seriously concerned about drug use in the Olympics.
Perhaps less has changed than I thought . . .
Poppy and chamomile
Things change with time, like a painting where details are continually updated, repainted and repainted. So different but very familiar.
I am interested in what you think of those Online Learning Units as you work through them.
The one I’m currently doing – Teaching the First world War – has been very informative on sources but is dragging a bit. Probably because it’s about teaching rather than the war – however, it is useful. I suppose |I have done about a dozen units. I find that most have something useful in them but I tend to do them quite casually. If I had a younger brain and better learning techniques I’m sure I would get more from them. The alternative is to start spending hundreds of pounds on short courses and I’m not sure I want to do that. Maybe, when we move I will do one a year as a treat.
Well done with the rechargeable batteries. I tried to use them at one time but they seemed to run out so quickly that I gave up. Maybe they have improved now.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure whether they have improved or not. the ones I used in my Olympus were quite good but when I let them discharge during lockdown a lot of them died. Time will tell.
Wonderful pictures, especially the last one with the poppy and the chamomile.
After four nights of watching the Democratic convention, I am bleary-eyed but hopeful. The race is still too close for comfort, but I do believe that a woman who has a Black father and an Indian mother, this daughter of recent immigrants, has a decent chance of winning. Quercus, I never thought I would see the day when such a candidate would actually win the nomination, but there she is.
I don’t care what the naysayers say. This is progress.
Good luck. The Democrat partnership looks good now, and seems to talk sense. If only that could be the norm in politics – yours and ours. 🙂
So true! I am going to be blunt. Right now the Republican party seems to be bat-shit crazy. I am so hoping that they will regain their senses. For better or for worse, we have a two-party system, and when one of them has gone off the rails, it is not good for the country.
It’s very different from the American Politics I remember, which always seemed very stable and organised, while we had a succession of weak governments. Good luck with restoring confidence – in years to come historians will look back on this as a time of great uncertainty when the lunatics ran the asylum. UK too. Of course, in the future, people will probably wince at me using a term like “lunatic”. I’m just a linguistic dinosaur.
I think “lunatic” is exactly the right word, a perfect pairing with “bat-shit crazy.” Historians will certainly look back on this time and marvel. Holy cats, what a time.
Yes, we are living in interesting times. All in all, I prefer boring. 🙂
We just keep making the same mistakes
That is the sad thing – my failure to realise my mistakes and stop making them. 🙂
However, we can’t change the past so let’s work on the future.
👍