An Unfocussed Day

Hi everyone,

It's been a good day here, if rather unfocused.

Day started with a foggy drive to work (that is, actual fog and mist, not me not thinking clearly).  The morning at work got absorbed mainly by a somewhat involved water licensing issue that goes to court next week.

Lunchtime had another interesting moment: I kind of got sidetracked by the free books that archive.org  puts up.  In short order I downloaded PDFs of two of the more revolutionary tracts of seventeenth century England: Abiezer Coppe's A Fiery Flying Roll (1649) and the anonymous A Door of Hope (1660). Some of their ideas seem more timely now than ever before.  For one thing, the core Ranter belief (that is, Coppe's) was that a member of the Elect was incapable of committing a sinful act: if it was an act of the Elect it was inherently proper.  This has an oddish analogue today in the idea that if someone "is a good person" then it's not right to criticise their acts on moral grounds.  Hmm.  The other interesting notion was that the Ranters especially seem like part of the same  'no rules' culture that leads back to the Dutch painter Torrentius and through him to the 1629 Batavia massacre off of Western Australia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(ship)).

There you have it: my life is a shambles, but I can stil find time to ponder abstruse point of seventeenth century philosophy..

After work I went to the hospital.  Happy to report that mum was in good spirits, although she did seem tired.  It was good, though, to have gotten there in time to watch Letters & Numbers with her.  She loves solving puzzles and to the extent that she was off her game tonight I think it was due to tiredness rather than illness.  She still feels she's making progress physically. Progress is progress even when it's slow.  Fran came in while I was there. Will be interested to get her take on it all.

After the hospital I went to the gym for my first workout in a week.  I went in hard and had a good session.

Sisters are coming up this weekend.  Will be good to see them for sure.

Hope all is well with you!

Catching you up

Hi everyone,

 

Quick catchup post before I leave the office.  Sorry I've been e-communicado for a few days.  Truthfully, it's simply because I've been dead tired in the evenings when I usually post: I fall asleep before I can write.

 

Anyway, by way of an update (and because I'd already uploaded a bunch of photos to a draft post):  The most exciting bit of Friday was a walk around town during lunch hour, to try and walk off a farewell morning tea for a member of the legal unit who has gone to greener pastures.  These were the sorts of things I saw -

 

Street out the back of work 

 

The service station I usually go to

  

City Limits

 

Anglican Church near work

 

The day finished, predictably you might say, with a trip to the gym to try and sweat off the aforesaid morning tea!

 

On Saturday, Second Oldest Sister came up with her husband for her birthday lunch and dinner.  She's doing well and it was great to see her.  The only odd thing was that somehow little sister's now-ex-partner came over for dinner - I think Dad invited him.  He was in a pretty sulky mood and was still bossing little sister about in the way he did when they were together (I don't think he quite understands why she left him!).  Frankly, it was awkward with a tincture of weird, and honestly I thought it was inappropriate for him to be there.  Certainly if he keeps trying to bully little sister it might be necessary for someone to speak with him about what is and isn't appropriate.  I express myself tentatively because the family politics are a little fraught.

 

 

 

Sunday the weather turned cold, but nevertheless in the afternoon the parental units, little sister and I went over to her ex's farm to load some of the parents cattle to send to market.

 

 

It was blowing a stiff and cold wind the whole while.  I can tell you that a hot cup of tea was the most comforting thing in the world afterwards.

 

Today has been a straightforward day at work: bills being paid, files reviewed, and generally living that paralegal life.  I'm about to head back to the farm now and hopefully for a solid night's sleep tonight.  God willing I'll get to the gym tomorrow.

 

Will probably post again later this evening.  Hope all's well for yourselves.

A book and a dinner

Hi everyone,

It's been a remarkably successful day here in my world.

There was some rain last night and the warm air hung about into the morning, which meant getting underway this morning didn't take an effort of will.  Hurrah!

On arriving at work I found I had an email from FEMA confirming that I'd passed the online subject I tackled yesterday.  They offer a stellar range of emergency services courses so I can see myself doing a lot more - this afternoon I managed to find time to tackle the HazMat course as well.

The morning was taken up mostly with a somewhat knotty irrigation dispute and sorting out a billing issue.  At lunch I went for a walk to the opp shop, which lead to my second win of the day: picking up a pocket New Testament for the princely sum of $2.00.  What made this special is that it (a) is in very good condition and (b) was printed in 1855.  It's a beautiful little thing and I think I'll put it by as a future Confirmation gift for the girls, perhaps. 

The evening was spent in the Legal Unit's mid year dinner.  As always, I had mixed feelings: my workmates are good and friendly people, but regular readers will know how I tend to feel about social things and how I don't care for talking about myself much.  I deployed my justly obscure skill of dodging conversation (the knack is in always looking like you're just about to say something in response to what someone else is saying: this means that people will tend to either leave you alone and go back to their own conversation, or interrupt you - if your goal is not to talk much at all then either will do).

Dinner itself was very good and had plenty of flavour, and the Boss certainly knows how to select a good wine.  By the end I was rather craving something simple and swapped out desert for a cup of English Breakfast tea.  It was a surprisingly good way to end the meal - I must do it more often!

There was just enough time for a quick workout at the gym after dinner.  Really good session: I especially enjoyed the turbo cycling workout from Wellbeats.

And now, bed.  Hope all is well at your ends too!