short

 Mixing mortar and filling holes, trying to spread the things evenly and not really knowing how.

But the wall in the bathroom is repaired between eight in the morning and one in the afternoon.Take a break and go to the coffee machine, the family is up and about. None are leaving the house, in respect of the lockdown restrictions. So many people dying, so many fallen seriously ill. The son is working in his bedroom, trying to tidy up his mess.

It is the last day of the year, there is plastering to be done, and rooms to be tidied.

This is all so that next year may be even better than this year.

1x 40 K grammes

 Sweep. Sweep away the dust and dirt left over after the plastering of the entrance to the bathroom of the top flat two days ago . Gather all the stuff that had fallen upon the floor, bits of mortar, bits of wall. Use a shovel to put them all into a bucket.

Examine the work done, and then unscrew the piece of wood that had been fixed to the wall as a guide. When the plank has been removed, the new plaster has a neat edge, just there where the doorframe will be. The main thing is that the work is straight and plumb.

Take the piece of wood, and with a level fix it to the opposite door jamb. To act as a guide for further plastering. Shorten it first with a saw, five millimetres, it is a couple of millimetres too long. Cut further bits of wood, jam the vertical guide in place so that it will hold.

Six litres of water and forty kilogram of mortar, all mixed up with the electric mixer for mortar bought from a foodstuffs chain. Mix it up, realise that the result is too dry. Add two hundred millilitres more water, and that is better. The new mortar smells different from the older stuff, probably a difference in the manufacture. It also takes more water.

Make up a small bucket of extra sloppy morter, and spray it onto the naked wall behind the new guide using a mortar trowel. The sloppy stuff sticks to the wall, the dirty white surface turns gray, almost lunar. Keep it up until the whole surface is covered.

And then, to the other side of the wall, use the normal mortar to plaster over the rough layer left from yesterday. Cut another guide and put it on the floor, and repair the that area, covering a wooden beam. Using the power screwdriver fix many screws with to act as anchors for the mortar. Fill a few holes, and that is the outside done. Then the inside again, throw mortar at the wall filling the gaps behind the guides.

When all the mortar is finished, wash the tools and sweep the floor.

What a waste of time, it would be better to take pictures on the street. Leave plastering to plasterers. But there are simply no builders available, and the plumbers will be there to look at the heating in two weeks. 

3x 40 K gramme

 all attempts to reach the building suppliers by telephone have failed, they have taken their device off the hook. They are open for business customers only, and that is that. No time for questions.

The wife has a business permit. And to finish the work on the  upstairs bathroom mortar is needed.

Drive through the deserted town, there is hardly any traffic and practically nobody on the sidewalks. At the big store, join the queue. Name and address are taken. The wife has turned into the boss, the one running everything. She seems to enjoy the deception, coming here with her husband in her employment to collect some urgently needed supplies.

Go out to the back of the store, three bags full of mortar, a mortarboard, and an electric light switch

That is all, and for the trouble it all took to get those few things, not a lot of money.

Later on carry the three forty-kilo sacks up to the bathroom in the second floor. One at a time.

The back pain has gone, and that is something to celebrate.

pain

 there will be no going to the builders suppliers today. That is a message from the back, from the vertebra or the vertebrae which is or are causing the problem. The pain that will not allow a proper errect gait, not even to the bathroom. 

It is too early, anyhow. Still dark outside, but there is no sleep now. Go to the kitchen and make a cup, and return to the bedside table with it. Read the news, read the stories about lost and found dogs on facebook, why has everybody suddenly become interested in canine welfare? This is a reminder to see to the cat, get up and go to the living room to see how she is. She is lying on a seat in the corner of the room, looking. She is not entirely her usual self, perhaps she is ill. She was quieter and more reclusive yesterday. Therefore she is a bit improved today.

The back is blue murder. Take the pills, and a pain killer. Keep on reading all the politics, the British losers trying to make their silk purse out of some poor sow's ear, and Don, the silly bully with his futile power plays.

Sudden tiredness strikes, and return to bed after having dealt with the mail. 

Must be the painkillers, they are not killing pain much yet.

Wake up later, have a shower, the hot water on the back does good. Take another painkiller.

Fall asleep again. What is going on? Awake much later, the pain has gone.

pain killer

upon trying to get out of bed in the morning realise that yesterdays activities have resulted in a vicious sore back, standing up is sore, and walking to the bathroom is sore too. It is not a walk, it is more of a stagger. There is no way that it is possible to bend over the washbasin to wash the face in the usual way. There would be water splashed all over the night clothes and the floor.
Therefore, do not bother. Leave the layer of sleep on the skin as it had accrued during the night, spare the skin the refreshing cold water in the morning. It is a small discomfort compared to the pain of bending over the basin to wash.
Return to the bedroom, struggle to put on the clothing. Trousers and shirt, hoodie and warm socks. Lie down on the bed again. To be recumbent flat on the back was not a good idea. It is agony, Pull up the knees, the pain is less. Sit up, the pain recedes to a throb, a steady warning not to bend over or to straighten or to even think of doing anything with the back. Straighten it anyway, walking about like Quasimodo is not on. The pain increases, then it fades back to the old throb. Take the pills, the one for the blood pressure, the one for the pissing system, and a robust painkiller, an ibuprofen six hundred, to be taken no more than thrice daily. Sit and read, read the news, read about King Don in the final throes of his madness, and the Anglic delusions regarding sovereignty. Voted to power by the people for whatever reason that those voters may have had.
The pain will not go away, every movement a punishment. There will be no walk today, that is clear in the morning, there is a desperate fear that these back pains are permanent. Remember the last time, and the fears then, and hope that the same will happen.
That the pains will end and all will be well again.

The painkiller does not do the killing it was supposed to do.

Not even slightly.

winded

 Climb the  stairs up to the entrance to the park with the son. The stairs are of red brick, the gate is a handsome wrought-iron affair. There is a crack running up the centre of the stairway, this may have been flood damage, washing the soil supporting the steps away.

The path up through the park is steep, feel the breath coming in gasps, there is just not enough air getting into these now more than sixty five year old lungs. Rejoice at having given up smoking a quarter of a century ago. The steep climbing footpath now has steps, made of wooden beams backed with gravel. Now the lack of wind is getting worse. panting for air. The son suggests sitting down, refuse. Another fifty metres, then stop, breathing like a steam locomotive at speed. The son is concerned, and hugs his father. He is very kind. Another fifty metres, another short stop. Talk to the son about the light falling on the trees, he is taking pictures. Ask him to look carefully at the contrast, and to find the best angle to show what he wants people to see in his photograph.

And then the air flows into the lungs without effort, is this what they call the second wind? The need to pant has gone, it is possible to climb the rest of the pathway up to the top of the park, there were the animal compounds are.

The son goes over to watch the ducks swim about in their smelly pool, go around the corner to watch the crows.

See the camera collector walking in the distance with his wife. Greet them, the camera collector starts and comes over, he has many thanks for the picture put into his letterbox on the day before Christmas eve.

It is good that he found it there, and it is good that it gave him pleasure. The son, who had seen the picture, recognises the man.

Continue on our way,  talk about trees and later about the war monument. The son is astonished by the amount of names on the monument, the youth of two generations wiped out in two world wars.

Later on, leaving the park, see the camera collector and his wife in the distance. Wave.

They wave back.

Christmas, and the cat

 Awake, the cat is outside the door, doing her best to make a pitiful mewing sound. It works, it sounds pitiful. So get up and open the door, let her out. Hear the cat door clatter, and see the dark shadow hurry across the covered balcony to the cat door to that part of the balcony where her cat tray is. Open the door and go to the bathroom, the cat has started the systems working.

Return to bed.

It is seven in the morning on Christmas Day

Get up again, make a cup of coffee take the pills, a bit of bread and salami.

Read the news.

There is nothing profound happening today, it is just another Christmas, the family asleep, the cat back at the door.

Let her in.

She jumps onto the welcome lap and lets her head be stroked. She does not care that it is Christmas either.

last minute

 over Christmas there will be need of a metal bottle of carbon dioxide to make the tap water fizzy. The water from the taps is supposed to be some of the best in Europe, so it seems silly to buy water in bottles. But to make it fizz it is necessary to inject a squirt of carbon dioxide. And the metal bottle is empty. Now, before Christmas.

Leave the house, walk masked down the street. It is quiet, there are few people about, there are only a very few shops open, those with essential services. Just like the drug store, were things like soap and perfume and so forth are sold. The toy department has to be closed, the music department too.

The bottle sold by the drug store is in the camera bag

Go downstairs, that is where the household stuff is.

Search.

Search more, polishes, mops toiletpaper.

Teapots.

A person dressed in the uniform of  the house, ask.

The woman points, says "over there" in German, and then interrupts herself to say that they seem to have been all sold.

Return home.

Put the empty bottle from the drugstore into the shelf. Take out the similar empty bottle from the supermarket. Take the longer route down to the supermarket, downstairs, underneath the deserted shopping mall. A covidular silence everywhere. 

Neologisms rule !

There are the bottles of  See oh two. Pick up a bar of chocolate and a baguette and a small salami too, check out and return the empty metal carbon dioxide gas flask. Get a credit and wish the woman working at the checkout a happy Christmas.

On the way back, remember that there is no shaving foam at home. The scratchy pain shaving yesterday overrides the dislike of the drugstore. Return, there is a different woman counting the customers now, putting a coloured plastic cube from left to right as each customer enters and from right to left as each customer leaves. When there are no more cubes on the left, no customers may enter.

Until somebody leaves.

Go to the back of the store, hair care. Then painkillers, then dental care. Pedicure.

Ask.

Shaving cream is at the front of the store. Ask again.

A blonde woman shows the way to the shelf.  Reach down, take the cheapest

Then, one set of shelves farther over, a bottle of perfume.

For the wife. It is Christmas, after all

diy

 Press the button on the mortar mixer, hold it with both hands as the of cheap mortar powder and water mix to become a grey damp mass, keep on working the mass with the mixer until it is mostly homogenous. It seems a little bit on the dry side, the mortar.

But never mind, the instructions on the package had been six litres and that is how it had turned out. Go downstaire to find the small stepladder, to be able to comfortably reach the top corner of the room.

Now , because of the corona virus closing down the place of work, there is finally time to do the construction work in the little bathroom to-be on the top floor. The slits cut into the walls for the electric wiring have to be filled, and a few holes too. Also the area around the door has to be fixed. It is all a string of silly small jobs, some areas can only be half done in order to let the mortar set. It is a job in preparation for plastering. And it needs to be done before the firm comes to fit the heating.

It is all so that the son will have a space all of his own, for some years.

Throw the mortar into the slits, scrape the surplus off with a trowel.

This is no work for a photographer, it would be better to have someone skilled at the job. But these people are all employed elsewhere.

Three hours, then clean up the mess. And there we are, it is wintery dark again. This work should have been started earlier.

Not a professional builder at all.

finch

 The flap of the mailbox is a metal casting, counterbalanced and heavy. It is at the entrance of the small restored farmhouse up at the top end of the park. Put the envelope in, it contains the snapshot of the camera collector. He had asked for the picture, now he has it . If that is the correct mailbox, the name is slightly different from the one understood,  A CH instead of double T. The difference between a judge and a knight in German.

Take the back way down through the park, that is the area that goes down behind sons school. The school and it's playing fields are deserted today, and will be for weeks to come, until the problem with the virus is solved.

Along the steep path there are enormous tall sycamores, just before the steep part two especially straight and tall ones stand on either side of the path. They are like sentinels standing guard. It is a valley down to the town, the stream that used to flow here has been put into a pipe for whatever reason.

There is a rustling sound, it is the wings of hundreds of tiny birds, maybe finches, who have all taken to the air at the same time and are flying between the treetops. They are like winged leaves, but flying upwards. Their activities dislodge some sycamore seeds, which fly slowly down to the ground, their wings rotating at high speed. If the wind were stronger the seeds would fly further. This would probably be the more efffective thing for them. But these were just dislodged by small birds, fluttering wildly between the trees, alighting on twigs, only to start fluttering around again.

psychologic

 wake in the morning, achieving a sitting position on the edge of the bed is so much more difficult than usual.

The back pains have grown, standing up is difficult, bending down to pick up something from the ground is just a horrible thought. A thought that causes pain.

Carefully proceed to the bathroom, every step is sore, is a pain. But at least it all still works. Brush the teeth, and bending down to the tap to rinse is hard. Should use a glass anyway, the pain is deserved- a reminder.

Back to the bedroom, it is nine, sit down, read the news. Britain has  seventy percent more infectious virus, and all the ports are closed. No one comes and no one goes.

Start to put on the clothing, every stretch and turn, normally unnoticed, now an effort. This is awful.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling on socks, the feet seem a long painful distance away.

Later on, ring the doctor. Because of the pandemic, there are as few personal visits as possible, to stop contagion. An appointment is made for a telephone conversation.

Sit down again, carefully.

but the pain has gone, there are still aches to remind of it, but the actual pain has gone. It is as if the action of calling for help had brought alleviation.

Remain seated, this will not do. This is too close to delusions.

But now, movements are possible that were not possible before.

late light

 The son is finally ready for his morning walk, it is three in the afternoon. The son is a teenager, one that works best at night. This is not unusual.

Walk through the deserted town, take a short cut down by the river, look at the oddities that the town has to offer. There are not many, but he says interesting things about the war monument, errected just before the second world war. He has learned about it in school.

It depicts an oak tree, a so called "Deutsche Eiche", which has had all of it's branches sawn off. Out of the stump various Germanic human figures grow. The symbolism was that, though defeated in the first war, Germany will recover.

Pathetic.

The text around the monument has been changed, a more modern and historically correct text replaces some pre-war sentimentalism. 

A relief on the base shows a man, naked but for a coal scuttle helmet, loins covered by a cloth, lying on the ground, probably dying.

The son agrees that the street would be nicer without it.

Walk down by the river, for a couple of hours.

Until the light fails.

red nose

 There are two children running down the long path from the wooden bridge in the park. It is a steep gravel path. They reach the bottom and look up whence they had come. There is a smaller child running down the hill, shouting for them to wait.t

Walk on past the first two, they both say hello, say hello back, ask them how they are. This confuses them, and they come out with a shy german "Good". Or "Gut", they are going well. Pass them, and the third one, the small one stops and asks "why do you have a red nose". Try to explain that this is a bacterial infection, but watch the little guy's face go blank with incomprehension. I suppose it would have been better to lie and say that it was from the cold, or invent a fairy story.

Further up the hill their parents. A family walk. Say hello, a smiled hello. Wonder what they are going to tell the little one when he asks about what a bacterial infection is. 

Walk all the way to the top of the hill, try to avoid the shortness of breath by going slowly. It is getting better, but it appears to take a long time to heal.

On a park bench, watch the crows. One of them has a strange round head, as if he is wearing a fur hat. Perhaps it is not a crow at all, but why is it hanging out with the flock?

Then the man who collects cameras walks around the bend  on his walk. He is with his wife today. He says to her that this is the person with the nice camera, by way of introduction. She says hello.

And then she walks on to their home, which is up on the hill somewhere. She does not seem to share her husbands enthusiasm for cameras.

the goats

 The trees in the park are all bare now, but for the few that are never bare. The park is full of mainly deciduos trees, there are very few of the other ones. Climb all the way to the top of the hill, out of the valley containing Landshut town. There is pleasure that the shortness of breath experienced a year ago has become bearable.

The rheas are picking away in the distance, they do not seem to like the food provided by the visitors. There are no visitors anyway. There are no children hanging about this cold Friday.

At the duck pond see a man at standing at a hedge, putting things into the hedge. Wonder at this unusual behaviour, then look away for it is rude to stare. The man approaches and explains that he had hidden provisions to feed the animals with in the hedge, and that he planned to return later to feed the goats with salad. The sense behind this activity was mutually agreed.

The man appeared familiar, but he was difficult to place exactly.

Walk on through the park, there is a photographer and a bridal pair, taking pictures of the pair posing.

For the album.

Wish them well in passing.

Farther on, there is the man again, he walked down the hill and is coming up the hill now. Recognise him as the collector of German rangefinder cameras met on a walk in the Spring. Converse with him again, show him the camera at his request. His collection is of non digital cameras, but he immediately likes the sensation of holding the modern camera. He says he might buy one.

For a spontaneous decision, that is a lot of money. 

Then he goes on his way. Presumably to feed the goats.

end of an era

 

luminous hands on that watch say that is five twenty five, so get up and go to the small bureau and turn off the alarm clock, probably seconds before it started to play it's music. It is an alarm clock on an apple tablet, a tablet that only functions more or less. But it keeps time and sounds alarm.

Stand in the kitchen, fill up the coffee machine. There is no sleep, so it is as well to get up. The cat comes in and rubs her head on the human legs, she could be hungry, or at least perhaps she could eat. The animal is quite plump, not in any way undernourished. The coffee maker spits and hisses, the grinder grumbles.

Make a cup of coffee and a slice of bread and butter, and go and look at what the mail has brought today.

The mail on the computer screen.

Nothing but silly news.

A picture of a fat man on a golfing cart.

h.office

 the dizziness in the darkness of the bedroom clears to the sound of the early alarm. It is five twenty six in the morning, that is the usual time to get up at. If there is a need to go to work.

But there is no need to go to work.

Thanks to the virus, all is being kept at home. If possible, remain clear of work. Do not join crowds.

There is no difference between staying at home and going to work. Except for the travel. There are hardly any social work contacts at work any more, there are none at home. There are no requests for private prints at home, as there are at work, supposedly that is a difference. 

The cat seems disturbed that there are so many in the house, perhaps this is exciting for her. Does the cat know the difference between a regular weekday and a normal weekend? Probably not, probably does not care so long as she gets her food and amusements. 

felix domestica, panem et circenses.

and set up the computer from work in the bedroom. It will be possible to deal with all the problems from there. And in case of urgent need, it will always be possible to drive to the institutes.

What the Germans like to call home office

letter from the präsident

 lying awake in bed, listening to the wife's sleep noises, and the alarm sounds over on the small bureau in the corner of the room. Put both legs out from under the duvet and hook the let ankle under the  wooden bed frame. Lever the body into a vertical position, then get up on the feet and walk over to the glowing device. Silence it before the fourth bar of the melody is reached.

Turn about and get dressed. The old body had been showered yesterday and feels awake enough to go ahead today. Fresh underpants and socks, a fresh shirt. That will do.

Open the computer, give the little machine time to start. Spend this time in the kitchen, check the water content of the coffee machine, refill it, and press the button on the coffee grinder. Then clean out the sieve, flushing yesterdays coffee grounds down the sink. Put fresh coffee into the silver sieve, tamp it down and use the bayonet mount on the sieve to fix it into its proper place in the machine.  Wait for the machine to heat up completely, put two slices of toast into the toaster whilst waiting. Start the pump on the coffee machine, with a pop the water overcomes the resistance in the brewing unit and coffee flows into the cup.

After the coffee is made, the toaster pops. Butter the toast and cut two slices of salami and place them on the hot toast. A strange breakfast.

Carry the coffee and the toast to the computer, type in the password and read the mail. There is news of the president (US) and a message from the president (university).  The president appears to want to reduce the university down to essential services only. An endless string of conditions, even what may be understood as threats, and the ironic message that those who had wanted holidays can take them. Seems most confusing, but all the trouble only starts tomorrow. So that means that there will be work today.

Ruminate the contents of the letter, there are references to laws that could be looked up later.

Make another cup of coffee.

Meet the son, he gives a hug. He is barely awake, but wanted to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to work.

And three quarters of an hour later, park the car at the tree. The Autobahn had more drivers driven to road rage than usual, speeding, flashing lights, a sense of emergency everywhere.

The university is quiet, and at this hour, deserted.

waste

 find things to do for there is practically nothing to do at work apart from clocking in. Finish the prints for the professor, do the prints that the colleague wanted, and print out the fake postage stamps for the man playing in the punk rock band. At fifty five his deafness probably an advantage.

And that is it.

Upstairs again edit photographs for that blog thing that they think they can tell me that they need. But all they want to do is to keep the man occupied so that stupid things don't happen because of boredom.

All done, all finished

What a sad way to kill four hours, four hours that will not come again.

Leave the building, go down the stairs by the swinging pendulum, clock out.

And in the car, realise that the glasses are in the office on the table.

Driving without glasses is a bad idea, so go back in.

More time wasting.

so full of electronics

 The wet road ahead seems to unspool into the space below the windscreen, a few cars come the other way  and slip past on the left. The lights of the filling station ahead glow red in the blue grey of the sky and the tarmac, the dull wintery green of the fields is hardly of any account with regard to the total impression.

Hum along, now the traffic roundabout is ahead, slow a bit, there is no car on the roundabout, pick up speed again and this functional construction is left behind. The traffic lights ahead are red, slow down and let them turn green and the standing traffic pull away. Never stop, just go slower and faster. The slip road for the motorway, and then the motorway itself.

There is hardly any traffic at this time of day on this Sunday. A clothes drying machine bought online has to be collected. It is a distance of some fifty five kilometres, and somebody has to do it. The son and the wife are still asleep at home, and the cat is most likely still snoozing on the window ledge exactly as before. The messages from the navigation device on the mobile 'phone tell the way to the small village where the item is waiting to be collected. Take all the lefts and the rights as recommended and then arrive at the way of Cloves, as the street appears to be called, and the correct house number. 

Put on the mask, and press the doorbell.

Press the doorbell again. This time a voice answers, explain the business.

Wait a moment, then a man comes down without a mask. After greetings are exchanged, he opens the door to the garage and shows the machine. Count out the bank notes, and he helps load the surprisingly light machine into the back of the car.

On the way back home the brother calls on the telephone, stop the car at the side of the road and have a lengthy conversation. It is raining, a police car passes with all it's horns and lights blaring. Police errands on a Sunday morning.

And then back to letting the road spool by underneath the car, driving slowly so as not to use too much petrol. 

On the way out there had been an orange light on warning that the anti-skid system was not working properly. It is off now, there is no reason apparent as to why.

Modern cars are so full of electronics.

cat tin

 it is in the morning still, before midday. Suggest to the son that a walk would be nice, he agrees, point out that it would be necessary for him to put on day clothes first on account of the cold. He, agrees, and says he will. Shortly.

An hour later the enterprise is near complete, he has become distracted by something on the computer, He is near dressed up, only the shoes are missing. He points out that it is raining outside.

Attempt to understand the connection, the correlation. Suggest that shoes might be a good idea anyway. He can barely hide his irritation. Just suggest that it should be done in time before the shops close for the weekend.

Leave the house, he is wearing his face scarf mask ersatz. A normal blue paper mask will do for his father. The first stop is at the oriental foodstuff shop, there are sacks of rice and bags of seaweed, and gilt pottery cats waving their right arms mechanically bag and forth. The son is looking for coconut cream, find it for him hidden on a top shelf. It is cheap stuff, and seems not to require refrigeration. Buy three packages of instant soup, it is silly stuff with little nourishment value, but it is spicy and good against the cold. Pay, leave the shop to cross the small park in front of Saint Jodok's church. Go down a narrow lane and to the supermarket in the basement of the shopping centre, the son searches for tofu. Buy bread and apples, they seem fresh out of tofu.

Cross the river, admire the flight of the gulls, all come inland fleeing - heavy weather elsewhere. They often seem to stand still in the air.

At the next supermarket, find tofu and the son is satisfied. It is stuck in the delikatessen corner, surprising for something so bland.

Later on , pass the drogerie, the shop that sells everything from perfume to sound recordings. Cat food is sold there too, but both father and son forget that there is only one tin left at home.

Leave the son with the shopping, go up the narrow street to the photographic store, and ask them to compare the small part that had been bought online with an original part. They do, and then out of kindness check an original part from the shelf on the camera. The original part is loose, just as loose as the bought part, so that it is not difficult to deduce that the fault is with the camera.

Go home, to find that the son is just about to go out again and to go to the drogerie.

To get food for the cat.

no events

A day at work with the hydraulic sounds of the digging machines outside, rumbling away at the walls of the huge pit that they have dug, their compacting machines making all the surrounding buildings shake.

A day at work, starting in the morning looking up that problematic illustration that needs fixing and tweaking, then tweaking a bit to try and fix it up in such a way as make the man who ordered it shut up finally, leave the choices to him.

Otherwise, there is nothing happening here at all. Nothing.

Sit in the office. Go out to keep an appointment, realise that the man who made the appointment has forgotten about it again.

Who gives a shit? It is Friday, and there is nothing anybody wants to do.

One of the secretaries tells me that Saturn and Jupiter will be close to each other on the twenty first of December.

That is really most interesting. Apparently the last time that that happened was in the middle ages sometime.,

inmate

It is all dark outside , turn off the lights, the radio, stop the engine, pull the brake. Another day has started, press the button on the key and hear the locks on the car make their closing noises. There is still snow on the ground, snow from yesterday. Take a shortcut over the slippery grass covered slope. The building workers are hard at it, digging in the dark by the light of their machine's headlamps. Apart from the pools of light it is pitch black dark night. The feet are wet and cold, and the entrance halls dim  fluorescent lights give off a depressing yellow light.

Clock in, hold the chip under the timing device.

A voice wishes a good morning. There had been a colleague in the corner, all wrapped up against the cold with a mask against the virus. Quite unrecognisable.

Chat. She needs a print made. Ok, so that is not a problem.

The office is tidier than usual, the big printer is away, it is being repaired. It is turning into a place of boredom, now that the last five months of the inmates working life have started.

Two thousand and seven hundred days elapsed, two thousand and seven hundred postings, and all with seventy thousand visitors over the last seven years.

Thank you all, thank you for the round numbers and your perseverance.

sludge

 The car's windows are covered in salt spray form the road, as the water evaporates a white saline crust remains. A short spray with the windscreen washing system causes near blindness as the wipers spread the sludge stuff on the glass. Another spray, and the alcoholic solution wins, wiping the grey dirt away.

This all at the beginning of the tunnel, a truck approaches spreading more salt from the device fixed to it's rear. The truck is orange, and is equipped with flashing orange lights.

All of this in the tunnel, all this activity. The car heater's ventilator motor is making a rushing noise, the inside of the windows are being held clear of condensation, the car ahead is braking at irregular intervals in a seemingly unnecessary manner.

All stressful.

Turn on the radio, classical music, relax. At the end of the tunnel follow the traffic onto the main road, a sharp left, and pass the traffic lights.

A few kilometres outside town, it starts to snow, the snow is much heavier by the time the fifty kilometres to work have elapsed.

But there is never a blizzard, that would have been the final straw with the day just begun .

unreal

 the slow drift down the Autobahn, let the others drive on the left, they will be ten minutes later and so what, the same old truck from Romania driving steadily at ninety kilometres in the hour. Then the fog on the country roads. trafic lights with a red fog halo about them. Turn on the fog lamps in the car, the traffic ahead is visible much later than would be expected, suddenly a twin red glow in the fog and then they are bright lights. It is tiring,  the lights of the oncoming traffic are a diffuse glare in the fog. Turn off into the university campus, now there are people in dark clothing everywhere.

Park beside the fence near the tree.

Go upstairs past the pendulum, which has stuck.

Read the mail, the repair person for the printer is already in the building. 

reply

two minutes later a knock on the door.

Try to help put lift  the printer down onto  the trolley.

And the IT person takes the printer away, leaving all the cables there.

Roll the cables up, and as an afterthought move the furniture,

Then read the news, suddenly things go dark, the eyesight goes, what is happening? There is no concentration, it is like a sudden collapse of blood pressure.

Everything went dark for a while, there is no idea as to what that was.

Make a cup of coffee, maybe the hot drink will help. Back to reality and the present now.

favour

 sit in the lab, do a favour for a colleague. Copy some stuff onto his computer, a small program. He interrupts all the time, he knows it better, he has demands and wants safeguards. Remind him that this is a favour, a recommendation, and if he is going to talk about liability then it would definitely be an idea to do it himself.

Rather than complain any more, he lowers his tone. Then he starts to talk about immigrant low lifes. A short sharp word informs him that he will gain no friends here with that kind of talk, prepare to leave. He changes the subject to his feelings of being discriminated by the computer firm using the symbol of Adam's and Eve's downfall, point out that his machine is nearly twelve years old, it cost a lot of money then and todays computers are cheaper. 

Why do conversations have to be made up of complaints? Resolve a path forward, suggest a method for a backup. Leave it until tomorrow.

In the big hall go to the dispensing machines. The cleaner is going over the office, there is time for a cup of coffee and half an hour to kill. Sit down at a table, take off the mask, and sip the coffee from the paper cup. Hear a voice from off right. Look over, that is the man from the lab. He followed. Oh no.

Listen to a rant in repeat over the evils of dispensers and the sugary things held therein. The unhealthiness of it, the poor quality of the nourishment. Explain that this is all courtesy of the students catering services, this is the way that they earn money.

That makes the rant worse.

Who needs enmity in the face of such friendship?

l&f

 The gate with the fancy wrought iron is the gate at the top of the brick stairs. It is the entrance to the park. The park is bare and cold, the ground covered in fallen brown and yellow leaves. The paths are partly iced over, the cold of the last few days is taking its toll.

on the shallow gradient up the hill a small dog approaches, a black and white king Charles cavalier type spaniel. The dog is carrying a branch that is twice as long as he is. He is walking ahead of his mistress, a woman puffing and blowing a polite  greeting as she reaches the top of the low hill, with the flat road ahead and the steep path staying to her left. She is not a very fit person, she is overweight as well. Say something to the effect of

"the dog is working hard with that big stick" She laughs between gasps, she says he always does that.

Holding his head high to stop the stick dragging on the ground, the dog looks very proud.

Go on up the hill, all the way to the top. The wooden bridge half way up is the worse for wear, the wood has rotted badly over the last summer. Be careful not to break any struts, all brown and greasy with green moss upon them.

Sit on the bench at the top, and take out the camera. This is an opportunity to see if the addition to the focusing system works.

It works, a one point two X enlargement helps the rangefinder with longer lenses.

Wander on around the park. There are the usual families taking their children out for a Sunday walk.

It is still miserable. Changing the lens on the camera drop a lens cap. A short while later, notice that it is missing. Return, there it is on the ground, nobody stepped on, it is still in one piece.

That was lucky, those lens caps are costly.

apples

 An early awakening, the cat wishes to leave the room. She makes noises, and experience has shown that it is better to let her out than to ignore her. She pauses outside the door, then uses her cat door to leave for the balcony. Go to the bathroom, it is half past five in the morning, no time to be up on a weekend. Leave the bedroom door resting ajar, thereby permitting feline reentry. Return to bed, return to sleep.

It is light, and the cat has returned. She is lying on a cloth supermarket bag left on the window ledge, is fast asleep. Get up, the cat opens an eye, only to reseal it forthwith. It is warm on the window ledge, the heater is directly underneath it. It is cold, so take fresh underwear and get dressed at once. The wife is fast asleep, and supposedly the son too. It is nine in the morning. Read the mail on the computer, nothing awful has happened, other than the usual dire things.

Read for an hour, make coffee, be silent in this land of nod, Now it is just ten, the used shirts have been sorted out from the other washing, and the cat has been removed from the cloth bag.

With the shirts in the cloth bag and the camera bag on the shoulder head off for the shops. First, the shirts to the cleaners in the basement of the shopping centre, all seven, fifteen euros. The man with the short hair and the friendly expression is working there today. the organisation seems to have changed.

Go to the supermarket, two baguettes, a salami and a loaf of bread. And a plastic bag full of apples.

and then broken

 not that the misery of winter will go away on it's own, but yesterday the soles of the black shoes broke. Cheap plastic, expensive leather would have just soaked.

and then broken.

The other shoes, a piece of trim is coming adrift. But these are the only winter shoes left. And a piece of fake seam missing is better than an ice cold leak in the centre of the foot when stepping into the slush left by the salted snow.

The morning, early awakening, and dark and cold, Winter is moving in,

The car starts, and then the steering falls asleep. The trick is to turn off the engine, reboot the system, and then it works again. The days of intelligent cars are not far away.

Misery, repairing old pictures which nobody really wants to see.

The man turns up, looks and goes away again.

What is there to be happy about now. 

There is sorrow that this is another bad day.

snaps

It is good that that those scanned negatives may be digitally freed of their dust marks, fixing every spot with a brush and ink would be a curse. That took place forty five years ago during training, hours on every print, every tiniest scrap of dust. Now, it is easier, and faster. Also, in case of a reprint, you only need to do the work once.

Pay the man in the electronics department a visit, he is desoldering thick boards. That is what he is says- "dicke Platinen". And it is hard work, for the little electronic widgets will not let themselves be released from the solder, it dissipates it's heat too fast, Leave him to his work, and return to the spots on the photos. They are the memories of some professors youth, the man is sure that they are works of genius. Well, he is smart enough, but he cannot be a genius at everything,

Remember the near accident on the way to work this morning, some kid in a delivery truck being aggressive, blocking, doing things on the road that should not be done.

Finish the picture, a boring view of ships in a grecian harbour. It might be Athens, It is a filthy old negative, and if the professor would have to pay a lab for the work, he would break his bank. But it passes the time, the time created by the virus.

It is growing dark, work started as it was growing lighter this morning. That is the way of things, do not think about it too much.

buzz in the brain

frosty, the instrument in the car shows a temperature two and a half degrees Centigrade below that point at which water freezes. Still, the windows on the car are clear of ice, clear of frozen condensation.

A snow plough approaches, it is spreading salt on the road, an exercise for which the temperatures would really need to be colder still, but they do it because they get paid to do it.

There is barely room to pass the wide vehicle, it is wider than half the street.

Cars are driven slowly today, out of fear of ice on the roads.

It is still dark after having parked the car, there is a bare patch in the snow where the car had been yesterday. Leave the car,

At work, an incredible sense of drowsiness. There is little ability to concentrate, there is a hiss and drone noise in the head. A particularly ugly little headache starts, close the eyes and concentrate, it now seems to go away.

Will this carry on all day?

Caption a set of pictures, taken yesterday, two men on a roof with a document, two scientists. Send the pictures to the editor  with their metadata in place, ready for use.

and today is  a lousy grey day.

beg to be excused

cannot be bothered to do more for you all

psycho

 push the card through the slot, a slow swipe, the gate beeps, and the turnstile is released. The ground is covered in soggy snow, it is half past one in the afternoon, and the first thing is to try and take a seasonal picture of one of the glass balls attached to the Christmas tree that is perched on a stone pedestal. It is a large tree, but it is dwarfed by the reactor,  and the flagpoles, and the streetlights. It is silly and tricky to take a pretty postcard picture.

It is grey, the sky is loaded with snow.

At two o'clock two scientists arrive, punctual. This is an appointment, the two of them have won a prize for their work, and the press people want a picture of the two of them on the top of a building with a good view of the reactor in the background. It is snowing, too.

At least the light is soft, no hard horrible sun shadows.

The arrangements with the owners of the building have been made. So walk on up to the towering building, all five stories of it. It is the highest building in the area, apart from the weather measuring tower.

The lift does now work. Of course, a tight space for the virus!

The roof is open, it provides a clear wintry view of the reactor. What more could they want?

Everything.

So neither of them will laugh or smile,

It is icy and cold, and wet too.

Tell them to imagine-

They do, tell them to forget the old photographer behind the camera and think of the Bahamas.

Supposedly that must have been funny

it worked

time

 Turn into the parking spot, away from the tree, close to the wooden bar that makes up the boundary of the pebble parking area. It is barely turning light, the fog is thick, and it is Monday. The building workers have not started yet , but the pendulum in the hallway with the stairway around it is swaying steadily, as it has been all weekend. A day with nothing particular planned, apart from an appointment to make for tomorrow. Go to the loo in the corridor, then climb the stairs.

Halfway up, remember that checking in has been forgotten. A memory of forgetfulness. Down the stairs again, and hold the chip under the scanner, a beep sounds. thirty hours. There is almost enough time on the chip now to be able to take the time off between Christmas and Epiphany, that will be almost the last time to take time off.

Climb the stairs again, and cross over to the other building using the bridge between the two.

The office is the same as it had been left last week, the computer failed to update on it's own. So what, there is plenty of time to waste anyway anyhow someway

to Hell with it  work is a drag, the last seven years a purgatory in limbo, the supervisors just waiting until the uncomfortable employee leaves.

Their problem, but it is painful

Make a cup of coffee using the small machine that the son had given his father for christmas.

Start to retouch pictures, that is one way to kill time.

It is already dark outside, the pictures are finished. Conversation today was had with one person, not counting the email busines. One conversation face to face, mask to mask.At least, healthy, non contagious.

white patch

 The son has put on his coat, and his shoes, and now he can go on a morning walk with his father. He is wearing a mask that he can pull up over his nose and mouth, not one of those that has bands running around the ears. There is hoar frost today, and it becomes more noticeable as the path climbs the hill to the top of the park, there where the animal enclosures are.

There is a sign up identifying the flightless birds as south american nandus. Google says that that is the same thing as a rhea. They are in there enclosure, one is being chased by a peacock.

Walk around the complex of enclosure, there are families everywhere here,  much like any other Sunday. Many of the children are wrapped up against the cold, even though it is not as cold as some of the clothing would imply. 

The moisture from his breath has frozen on the son's mask, a white patch has formed. 

Go down by the aviarys, in one there is a very large owl, an uhu, perched there looking at the passer- bys through one eye, and rotating it's head owl -fashion. A young girl watching tries to do the same thing, but has no success.

Walk down the hill again. There is no way to tell the son that his father is depressed, it is not a thing to be done.

arse moonwards

the telephone on the chest of drawers in the hall buzzes, pick it up out of habit. The message says

"ur anus is near the moon tonight". Is this a threat? an insult? no it is the astronomy  app. leave it on the sideboard, still attached to it's red cord.

The warmth in the bedroom is welcome, sort out some fresh underpants and socks, and dress, and turn on the computer. 

No new news, Donald in Denial, Bibi in a panic, Boris hoping for manna, Angela trying to keep the federation in line, and Emanuel with his racist cops to worry about.

Facebbook has all the friends getting worked up about cruelty to canines and felines or showing cute pictures of either or both. Nothing happening there.

The wife is snoring again, a sure sign that she will wake up later complaining of not having slept.

Cat claws clutch the black denim clad knees, testing to see whether it is possible to jump. It is, she does, stroke the tawny fur to elicit a purr. It is Saturday morning, it is late. But why not be relaxed.

There is no need to go to work today.

Clear the table, take the spray can of polish, spray a coating over the table, wipe it dry with the duster.
That is something dealt with that had been long thought about.

relevant announcement

 The news is just finished on the radio, and now the traffic announcements. Traffic jams and blockages everywhere. It would be good to hear music again and not these reports on the 

"Autobahn 92 , an accident Munich bound at Freising, the road is closed"

Now that is relevant, the music starts. Pass the one exit from the motorway, see the tail lights glow red in the distance at the next exit. They have their indicators on, all four, and that traffic in the distance is pulling to the right and to the left to allow emergency vehicles through. There is one more exit, leave the chaos behind, drive up the ramp.

There is a long country road now, drift along behind the car in front which is doing the same to the one ahead of  it.

A roundabout. and then a left turn.

Lost.

It is foggy, and it is still dark.

Stop at the entrance to a field, and ask the mobile 'phone to give directions to work. The device picks the shortest route, a long narrow tree-lined avenue. Five kilometres, then the third exit from the road, and straight on. That is all in order now, now the path is known,

Found, not lost.

At the silly junction, turn left, this is the usual road to work again. 

Think of the long straight road, the Geräumt through the woods along by the river. It was eerie in the fog, there were no other cars there.

The road works in Dietersheim have been completed, the traffic lights dismantled.

And the building site is busy, the loader is loading the gravel from the ground onto a truck, they all have their headlights on, making white cones in the fog.

4,5,6, 7

 The day begins in silence, then the ears pick up the snores from the other side of the bed, there, it is much to early now.

Go to the bathroom,  and whilst there look at the watch, four.

Four.

go back to bed. The tune from the tablet an hour later. 

Bathroom again, watch, but why? it is five

Five

Shower and dress, make coffee and a slice of toast. The coffee machine needed filling with water first, it all takes time when half asleep. The cat is attentive, but the animal can go elsewhere for it's food.

Start the computer read the news. Like every day now. Flint has lost the fifth amendment.  

Then the sons alarms, hissing and popping why does he have so many? Don't worry, there are worse problems, there will be worse problems in the future.

Pick up the bag, head out of the house to go to work

Six

and work at ten to seven.

boiler

 Under the shower, realise that the water is getting colder, perhaps the heating has failed, rinse away the soap as quickly as possible- there is no point in being covered in soap and only cold water to rinse it away with. After putting on the day's clothing go up to the attic to check the heating. It appears to be working.

Go back down to the bathroom. Now, being more awake, see that the bathroom is in an utter state of disorder, more than the usual mess. There are clothes over the heater, and also draped over the air dryer, which is going at full speed now. Take the clothes off the airdryer, the compressor stops almost  at once.

Somebody must have had a shower during the night, either the wife or the son. They used up the hot water in the boiler, that would explain the water being cold. The water heater only starts to heat at six in the morning.

Make a cup of coffee.

And when the son's alarm clock sounds, leave the house with the mask and a black coat.
And a bad humour

The car is nowhere to be found, not opposite the police station.

Then remember, there were no  parking spaces available yesterday, it is opposite the museum today.

cold

unlock the office door with the electronic key, hang the coat on the hook, It is chilly today.

Pick up the bag and go again, lock the door. Climb the steel stairway beside the library building, look down into the reactor area, over the fence. There are trees in the way here, this will not work. Reenter the physics building and go upstairs. There is a hidden passage up onto the roof there, a ladder behind a door. Climb the ladder, at the top open the small door. Step out onto the flat toof, sealed with tar and covered in coarse gravel. Walk over the roof over to where the passage to the library is. There is another ladder here, going down to the roof over the passage.

And here there is another ladder, that goes all the way to the roof of the library. Climb up, walk across the roof avoiding the newly-made lightning conductors, they are just the right height to function as trip-wires.

Look down over the area in front of the reactor. There is a big truck there, with a large grey box shaped thing on the low loader trailer. This is supposed contain a Castor, a safety container for the transport of nuclear waste. Take picture, but the instructions were not entirely clear. So take a few more, from different angles.

Then go back down again, resolve to take pictures from inside the restricted area. Use the pass, go in via the small gate.

Take a few pictures, a man from the transport firm arrives and asks for information on whom the pictures are for. After a short conversation he goes his way.

A safety engineer approaches, he says to put on safety shoes. Return to the office, go one better and put on safety boots. 

 

Return to the reactor, there are many people there now, people from firms and the like, now there are people from the press department there. A press officer approaches, and informs that really, only pictures from outside the area are required, they will do the other pictures themselves.

Well, so much for that.

The one hand is in ignorance of the others actions.

The cover is removed from the castor container with a giant crane, the crane is driven by a young woman. The heavy cover is lifted and then placed in a especially prepared area. Now the ridiculously small container is visible. Take a few more pictures, why it is all digital, and they are free, aren't they? The publicity manager continues to look annoyed, she will just have to wait until the person who requested that the pictures be taken.

Later on take more pictures from the roof. The transport company is working very slowly, but after a while the trailer is dismantled, and the many tons heavy container stands there alone. It will be wheeled into the reactor building later for charging with nuclear waste.

And it is cold on the roof. Standing there waiting, frozen to the bone. The day is even a bit foggy.

This is a lousy Tuesday. Why can they not transport their things in the summer?

And those safety boots are uncomfortable.

lost tag

 sit at the screen all day

all day filling in black spots and grey spots and long streaks but mainly white spots.

the negatives where old and it is difficult to clean them up. The automatic systems have failed miserably.

a small caps day.

late in the afternoon the woman from the reactor telephones

they need pictures of a truck

tomorrow.

Put the gear together, it is all there.

Check for the identity tag. 

It is not in it's place.

It is nowhere.

Gone.

Panic.

Search frantic, turn things over, pull the desk away from the wall.

look into all of the drawers, the storage cupboard.

Then see it!

usually it is hanging on the one side of the inbox.

Now for some reason, on the other.
invisible
in
plain 
sight

harp

 lazy, lazy lazy

lazy day it is terrible it should have been a day for a long walk but  it is all just cold and uncomfortable so lazy

Self criticism like this is probably a psychologically questionable activity

lazy psychologically questionable but still lazy. Edit yesterdays picture for facebook, at least it is nice to edit personal things.

Think of the woman playing her harp on the bridge in Regensburg yesterday.

she played so nicely it was good to hear.

Put some money in the hat before her, she had a rope spread on the ground so that people could keep their distance. Ask her if it was all right to take a picture.

But she had no card, to send the result.

Too bad.

There are other pictures too, put them all on social media. Who cares?

The day flys past

and now it is evening 

some of the things planned 

have now worked out.

But the headache and tinnitus will not go away.

help from a stranger

 The mobile phone pings, a messaging system notification.

Get up, put on the clothes. There is no wish at all to have a shower today. Read the message, it is an adress in Regensburg, and instructions to telephone once there, so that the doors may be opened from the inside.

Potter about at home, read the news, feed the cat. 

make a cup of coffee.

The son gets up, he makes a cup of coffee too.

Then decide that this will not do. Say goodbye to the son, tell him that his father will now take a trip to Regensburg. To visit old friends. The car is still parked where it should be, opposite the police station.  Take it to the shopping centre, drive down into the basement parking spaces, and leave the car there. Go to the cleaners to collect the shirts left there last week, and then go to the supermarket and buy pretzels.

The road to Regensburg is short and easy now, they have turned it into a dual carriageway, wide and straight. It is foggy today, and the other road users are confused.

Arrive in the town at eleven, and with the guidance of the 'phone, arrive at the destination. Dial the number - and the phone goes dead. There is no chance of making a successful contact now. Walk about, wondering what to do next. Go into a tobacconist's shop, and ask him if he could help with loading the 'phone. He was a kind young man, and he helped out. In two minutes the phone was loaded enough to make the call, and the meeting was saved.

all knowing

 Nothing there to write about, a blank in the mind.

Again. The weekly talk with the boss at work, passed. Provided the man with something to talk about and answered his questions.

Continue prettying the pictures taken years ago.

Untill midday.

A professor turns up with some fifty year old pictures which he wants scanned. Sit there and listen to him talk about composition. The man knows it all, and that is important to him too. The scanner is a slow machine by Nikon, but it produces better and cleaner scans than whatever the professor used.

After a while he gets bored watching.

He excuses himself, and goes away for an hour.

He comes back, gets bored again,  and goes away.

Telephone with a friend whilst the scanner is working, watching masterpieces of the Athens fisch market get their due process..

And when that is over, plan to go home

stop and go

 Leave the small town of Grüneck behind, take care to maintain the speedlimit on the long straight wide  road untill the yellow sign marking the end of the built up area is left behind. A short distance on, see the tail lights of cars in the distance, they are standing still, there is a traffic stoppage ahead. Approach the lights, let the car just roll out. There is no hurry, there will be no passing them and they do not appear to be going anywhere.

The last car is a small modern Fiat 500, a luxurious make over of what used to be a workers car, Then small and cheap,  now it has put on weight and is expensive. Move up close to the rear bumper. The driver drives forward a few metres and then stops. Wait untill the queue begins to move again, and roll on slowly in first gear, there is no hurry.
The little Fiat is now a good fifty metres away, driving along slowly. Then it stops with the traffic ahead of it. Just keep on rolling, there is no hurry, nobody going anywhere up front. Let the car roll up close to the Fiat's bumper, and stop. The Fiats driver drives forward a few metres and then stops. Wait untill the queue begins to move again, and roll on slowly in first gear, there is no hurry.
The little Fiat is now a good fifty metres away, driving along slowly. Then it stops with the traffic ahead of it. Just keep on rolling, there is no hurry, nobody going anywhere up front. Let the car roll up close to the Fiat's bumper, and stop. The Fiats driver drives forward a few metres and then stops.Wait untill the queue begins to move again, and roll on slowly in first gear, there is no hurry.

The little Fiat is now a good fifty metres away, driving along slowly. Then it stops with the traffic ahead of it. Just keep on rolling, there is no hurry, nobody going anywhere up front. Let the car roll up close to the Fiat's bumper, and stop. The Fiats driver drives forward a few metres and then stops. Wait untill the queue begins to move again, and roll on slowly in first gear, there is no hurry.

The little Fiat is now a good fifty metres away, driving along slowly. Then it stops with the traffic ahead of it. Just keep on rolling, there is no hurry, nobody going anywhere up front. Let the car roll up close to the Fiat's bumper, and stop. The Fiats driver drives forward a few metres and then stops.  

This game continues for some time,  traffic joins from the right, the Fiat waits to let it join the queue. There is no more traffic coming from the side road, so stay behind the Fiat. 

Untill the red traffic light ahead turns green. The Fiat demonstrates a great ability to accelerate, and just  follow through the road repairs that have reduced the traffic to a traffic light regulated single lane thing here. Let the little white car speed ahead up to the junction for the university campus. Take a left here and drive all the way down to the end  of the road.

Slowly, avoid all the people walking not to mention those on bicycles.

Half an hour late today.

ask the son.

 A day that was not constructive, just a few telephone calls, the answer to some ridiculous mails and an attempt to get hold of a big scanner. The loan service has been discontinued, the scanner is unavailable.

Write a mail telling the professor that things will take a bit longer.

He writes back to thank for the trouble, anyway.

The pictures taken last night are in order. Thank all the holies for that.

The cameras can be collected from the reactor.

Help a colleague install new software on his mac computer. That does not work right either, it turns out that he is one of those people who constantly interrupts with better ideas for doing things that he has no idea about.

And then the woman with her Christmas Card thing, the snow has to fall slower and the resolution has to be greater. Phoey, this is real kitch. Perhaps a  version should be made with virus' dropping out of the sky and not snowflakes. Or maybe those ubiquitous radiation trefoils. Now : stop being nasty.

The safety people from the reactor ring: the camera has been ready for some time now, cleared for use. Go on over, collect the camera and start thinking about Javascript.

Javascript snow, that would be easy and not a lot of bother.

But the woman wants a gif type file and this is getting silly.

Just go home early, ask the son.

another small job

 the phone call came in the early afternoon, after a frustrating morning making the snow fall in an online Christmas card. It is good that google exists.

The pictures taken yesterday afternoon in the reactor are not what is required. In what is now seen as wise foresight the camera equipment had been left in the restricted area, no complicated time wasting checking it all out and then in again.

Go in through all the security doors after making sure that the two dosimetric badges are in place. Walk all the way around the reactor core using the metal walkway attached half way up the wall, having collected the camera case and tripod from the place where they had been stored yesterday.

Use the wide angle, try to get everything onto the picture. The area of interest is an empty space between a pile of lead blocks painted salmon pink and a neutron spectrometer in natural silver aluminum. The floor there has been tiled in black granite, and is absolutely even. Big machines can be moved without wheels using air cushion feet. The weight is carried by a quarter of a millimeter of air.

Like a hovercraft.

When the pictures are done, return the borrowed ladder, and take the camera gear to the exit. Fill out the form on green paper so the nuclear safety people know what is to be done. Monitor the hands and the feet for any contamination.

There is none.

Operate the heavy lead doors to leave. Outside, return all the dosimeters, go to the changing room, toss the shoes in the white washable shoe bin and the lab coat into the lab coat bin. Both will be washed, even though they have only been worn once.

Leave the building, and take off the mask in the fresh air.

That is such a relief.

Notice that the keys for the office are not in the pocket where they should be. Turn back. Identification tag into the slit on the door. 

The keys where in the pocket of the lab coat.

It will be time to go home soon.

small job

today is a soft day, a day for the Dublin Mountains a thousand miles from here.

Take the camera out of the case, that wondrous do it all Nikon wide angle zoom, the normal lens so oversized, and the tiny fisheye.

More is not needed.

Pack it all into the shoulder bag.

Leave the office, lock the door, use the stairs to the first floor, which is also the top floor. The corridor is very long, it goes the whole width of the building, maybe one hundred metres. 

In the last wall cupboard on the left, a metal ladder has been fixed. This is the ladder that leads to the roof.

Climb the ladder up into the attic, there is a low door there that leads out onto the flat part of the roof. The roof is surfaced with tar and small pebbles, in places the rain has made puddles. The wooden construction below the tar is probably starting to give away, this is a flat roof construction from the fifties of the last century. At some stage it will need replacing, but not this year nor the next.

The objective of the exercise is now clearly visible, a clear view over the building site for the new Institute for Physics. They are digging a huge hole for the basement. There is one loader there, and after a short while a huge truck arrives and is loaded up with earth from the hole.

Take wide angle pictures of the whole scene, it is still quite early, the sun has not risen too far.

Take a picture of the new parking garage, a building that took almost four years to build because the specifications were changed many times.

Take a few more pictures, enjoy the fresh air. The level indicator in the camera is not as accurate as would be ideal, but small failings can be corrected later.

Walk back to the access point, that is that small job done.

grob groß gross

 Why clean up other people's mess?

Because they are the wife and the son.

The cat's mess was cleaned up too, this morning, she had vomited on the floor. Cats do that now and again.

But now it is afternoon, a few uninteresting photos made, all good for practice with the small camera. A crow on a path, and a gull on a railing. 

And a sudden bout of icy weakness, lie down on the bed, untill it passes. A voice, off stage in the next room, starts yelling that the surfaces should be cleaned. The son is probably the target of all the shouting, but he will never do it, he does not know how.

Go into the kitchen, and get to work. Clear the crud off the worktop, some has been there for the past week, there is a jar with a cultural event taking place inside. All of the things onto a tray.

Scrub the worktop, watch the water in the bucket go dark twice. It really is awful. Groß gross. And grob as well. a mixture of German and American usage here.

Replace the items on the top, throwing away the waste and the empties, and start on the small table with the coffee machine. That had been done last week, it is not too difficult. Then the worktop beside the sink, that is GGG again.

Then empty the first shelf of spices and mustard pots and tubes of ketchup and everything that is used for adding to the flavour of cooked food. Put all of this onto a tray, then take down the glass shelf and wash the dirt and the dust off it. Then replace those things which were worth keeping.

Then the other glass shelf

and then tiredness sets in, but enough has been done.

for the day, the lousy Sunday.

whirly

 Hello! to the neighbour and her young daughter. They are out on the street, both wearing masks, loading bags of leaves into their car. The mother gives a bright greeting, and the daughter mumbles something into her mask.

Turn left at the junction, and then after a few metres cross the road. The shop there is having it's front redecorated, there are spots on the wall where the fixtures for the previous owner had been. These will probably be painted over by next week.

There is a tiny alley to the right, hear the sound of voices, people approaching.

A loud exclamamation

"Ow whirly" 

Uncomprehending, glance into the alley.  A couple approaching, a woman to the left of the man looking at him in contemptously. Sinister. He puts on his mask, they are just entering the area of town where masks are mandatory.

They converse further, as the woman dons a mask too. Realise that they are Americans, with a particularly strong accent.

The man had probably informed the woman that she would need to wear a mask after the signpost with the signpost showing the picture of a person wearing a mask.

really

Carry on, bring the washing to the company in the basement of the shopping centre.

code forty one

 There are so many pictures left to work on, they are all just snapshots of the situation on the building site three years ago. But the tools for editing them have improved, and the original data was stored. So pride makes the photographer work over all of them again.

An email from a friend from long ago, almost twenty five years ago. Her young daughter then looks just like she did then. That is the way of it. She is shy, perhaps she is worried. There is no saying why she makes contact now, but it is good to hear from her. 

Walk through the building on a short break from the constant staring at the screen. Visit the bathroom, it is stinking of well used drains and non-functional flushing systems. Be thankful for the corona mask, it keeps the stench down a tiny bit. 

In the big concourse of the physics department there are people sitting down who have collected their takeaway food from the big  dining hall. The hall itself is closed because of the fear of contagion, so they take their food away and sit down together in the physics hall. It is hard to tell what the difference is, whether they sit together here or there. The analysis of these questions can be best answered by virologists and epidemiologists.

Buy a bar of chocolate at the vending machine. There is a strong smell of sauerkraut here, it is all the people eating at the nearby tables that cause this smell. The display says that there are only ten cents credit left on the card, so put a ten euro note into the slit of the machine, which sucks the money in and starts to flash blue lights. Wait until the note has been checked, more blue flashes. Press the code forty one for Snickers, and a "please wait" text appears in the display. The spring supporting the selected bars of chocolate starts to rotate until the chocolate drops down behind the glass front into the padded collection bin. 

Check the credit on the card, it is now nine Euro and ten cents. Bend down and open the metal flap on the vending machine and remove the paper wrapped bar.

Go back to the office, back to the many pictures.

marks in black rubber on dark asphalt.

 The key is different, the key with the buttons to unlock the car from a distance. In the dark of the alley the symbols on the buttons are invisible, and as a result there is only a single flash from the lights and the doors remain locked. 
Try the other button, there are two flashes and a loud clicking from the lock. Now the doors are unlocked.
Do a three-point U-turn in the narrow alley, pass the police station and then later pass the monument to the fallen of two world wars. Take care to avoid pedestrians, they all seem to be wearing black on this dark morning.

The glare of the lights in the tunnel, the care upon reaching it's end. The traffic lights there are green, no stopping and waiting, just roll into the left hand bend. But then, see the lights in the distance turn yellow and then red, so drift along slowly and slower still up to the white line and halt.

With the town now left behind and the day lightening pass the turn off for yesterdays diversion. Farther on there is a pattern on the road done in firm strokes of black rubber on the dark asphalt, and the remains of oily patches covered in oil absorbent the colour of sand.

A sombre pattern marking the scene of what was a serious accident yesterday, to be passed today, hardly seen.

divert

 Another accident on the road, a fireman diverts the traffic. It is pitch dark, and a quarter to seven in the morning. In the distance there is a whole collection of blue flashing lights.

Follow the small road, following all the other cars.

All diverted.

Two accidents in two days, and all because people have to hurry. All the way to work, think of the unfortunate fireman waving his lollipop at cars so that they will use the diversion.

Arrive at work, park the car under the tree. It is not a huge car, but it is harder to park than the tiny car.

From the window in the office, admire the work on the building site. The workers have dug a deep hole, the borders of which are all neat and vertical, much in the shape that the building will have. They are now five metres down, wonder how far down they will go.

Read the news before starting to work.

There are hundreds of pictures to be edited.

And nowhere to go to for lunch

grau

It is dreary today, the weather outside is grey clouded misery. If it were brighter or raining or snowing or something it would be nicer. But this day has sunk into a grey cloud. The foggy time of the year is here.

It is impossible at work, there are pictures needing processing or editing or whatever people call it now. They are all grey too, low contrast linear curve pictures of building sites with lots of concrete.

Grey is the colour of the day.

Fill out a form, and take it through the building to where it needs to go to. Knock on the door and open it.

Good morning.

Would it be possible to speak to the person in charge of inventories?

She's working from home

Oh

We are not open today.

Sorry.

What should be done with this list?

Leave it on her table

ok

Now you are to go

Oh?

It would be better for you if you left!

What?

This could have serious consequences.

duh.

Ok. bye bye.

Leave. There is a suspicion forming that people have gone completely Covid mad. The interpersonal distance was in order. A mask was worn.

Why all this unfriendliness?

It does not help at all.

Return to the cheerful grey of the day.

three failures

 Leave work at eleven thirty in the morning today, a short day. Later on. a person is due to show up at home and to take a blood sample and a mouth swab, to help a study of the corona virus. There will be no news returned, that seems important for the study. They say that they will inform if any of the tests are positive. 

Drive the big car steadily and slowly all the way down the Autobahn, there are not so many cars there at this time and it is important to be careful of those passing at higher speeds.

It is pleasant to arrive back home during the daylight, and it is easy to find a parking spot. 

Arrive home and the wife looks as if she has seen a ghost. It is far too early to be home on a Monday. Explain the business with the testing people. She looks vaguely surprised now. Shortly afterwards, the son comes home from school, and he looks surprised too. Really, a day of surprises.

The woman from the testing company arrives, all dressed up in plastic protection gear.

A swab in the mouth, then packed into a test tube.

Three attempts to draw blood, three failures. The veins have retracted, or have started to roll around the plase. After the third attempt she gives up. She says that there are thousands of others taking part in the study, so that one less will not matter.

Now there is one less, and that is that.

Go back upstairs and make a telephone call to the man who took the small black car, to ask him for the number plates. They might be important.

drone

 A walk in the park, shaved washed, a few chores done, proceed up the path, loose wind and breath on the first steep bit.
it is embarassing, the feeling of incapability to make the steep bit without having to stop and to catch the lost wind in the lungs. Never having had great stamina, no good years ago at long distance running, absolutely out of the question now.
Take the path with the shallow incline as far as possible, then sit down on a handy park bench and look down over the fog-bound town.  Slowly, the pace of the heart becomes less, the breathing rate returns to a decent normal.
What is to be expected, a sit down job eight hours a day does not help.A younger couple passes, both look at the old git on the park bench in passing. Let us hope that they never feel as weak as this, and remember never to be so arrogant to those suffering this same misfortune.

The leaves are mostly all yellow, and brown, or ochre, with just a few  deciduous trees still holding on to their chlorphyll based solar energy plants. Still green, but not for long. There is a minority of evergreen trees in the park too.

Up at the top of the rise, the fenced in space for the birds, all foggy. Families walking with their well-wrapped children, standing at the wire fencing, looking at the rheas in the distance. The big flightless birds  seem intent upon minding their own business today. Farther on, a family is feeding salad leaves to the ducks. The ducks are not interested at all, but after a while a cock comes by and starts to pick at the salad, and then to eat it with some enthusiasm. He is joined by the hens, who do likewise.

There is a crow high up on one of the nearly-bare trees, and it seems to be trying to eat something from a thin twig too thin to bear its weight. Watch as the bird looses it's grip, then it is just hanging there from the twig, an alarming sight.
Another crow flies past, the one hanging from the twig realises same and flys away after the other.
More crows arrive, and all start to worry the branch, but none daring to hang from it like the first.

On the way back down the hill hear a buzzing sound. There is a small drone in the middle of the path, flying about six feet above the ground. There is a man standing beside the path with a control unit.

Start talking to the man who is taking his drone for a walk.

This will be the first conversation of the day.

FOXP2

 there is a sound from the door.
A cat calling, something like me ow p

Then silence.
Mee orp.
The cat makes strange noises, but that gene that governs language and speech is not developed in cats.

but it tries. Mee ow, and then a scratch at the door.

Get up and let her in. Business like, she runs across the room, through the open door to the kitchen.

There is food there, left over from the night before.

Now that the door is open, the one to the corridor, use it to go on to the bathroom, to use the toilet, first rites that never change. And then come back and get dressed. Look at the news on the computer, there is a falling star, a lump of dirt burning as it falls.

And read some more, Biden is doing better than yesterday.

The cat returns, makes a sound again, then she reaches up and digs her claws into the cloth of the black jeans, just behind the kneecap. Then she jumps up onto the knees and settles down.

Pet her on the bony head between her ears.

Purr

End of an era

 leave the house and go down the alley, away from the church and towards the police station, the night has just turned grey for the day. Today, turn right at the end of the church lane, that is where the parking spaces that are reserved for residents are.

The small black car had to go to the car repair place, to see if there was any hope at all of it's passing the road safety tests.

That is the reason for turning right, and  that is the reason for using the family car today. The family car is a small five door four seater Opel General motors machine. And it is hardly ever used now. since the time that the son has grown and the wife has started to use a bicycle to go for the shopping. The battery has lost some charge, the starter motor is slow.

Spend time getting used to manual transmission again, and leave the town driving less steadily than usual, there is no cruise control and the radio is still.

Slow down to find out how to adjust the radio.

The radio has a better sound in this car than in the small black one.

But it is a small consolation later on, upon hearing the news on the telephone that the little car will never pass the test. 

So that is the end  of that little era.

short life product

 Open the paper bag from the bakery shop and feed.

Feed on the two filled bread rolls. or buns, or just call them belegte brötchen in German or semmeln in Bavarian. One is filled with cheese and the other has salami in it. They are moderately satisfying, both. And a cup of coffee from the private office dispenser.

A corona breakfast, after having spent the early part of the morning fixing a computer for a colleague.

There is so little work to be done, that is the drawback of incompetent superiors. Why, there would be work in plenty, but they make the regulations, and would be insulted should one go to look for work elsewhere.

So be bored, redo the pictures from the last years, this is one way to enhance your skills. If you do not talk to yourself, at least you can write to yourself and let the rest of the world read it.

Much later, just after the usual lunch break, watch a few students and post grads outside pass the recycling bins with the takeaway food containers provided by the canteen. Due to the virus, nobody may sit in the enclosed space of the canteen any more.

They all gather in a group around the yellow lidded bin, and throw in their plastic cutlery.

That is good, it is the bin for waste plastic products and pacckaging.

Then they move over to the household waste bin, as a group, all discussing, and dump the uneaten remainders in there. 

The food had already been eaten

That is good to, just small amounts of damp waste.

The last station for the group, on the other side of the pavement, is the bin for cardboard waste. The used cardboard containers are thrown in there, one by one.

That is good too, they will be recycled, and turned back into some kind of packaging cardboard.

The canteen is one hundred and fifty yards away, all those products did not last long.

mishap

 Save away the last picture of the set, pictures taken three years ago. The colours need to be edited again, and they need to be presented again now that the new building is being completed. It took long enough to build, and now it is nearly finished.

Look at the available results of the American election, and see what happens to a nation that lives from soap operas and television drama. The lies and the fiction cannot be separated from reality any more. It will do, get the coat and the mask and lock up the office after leaving it.

Time for lunch.

The paths are being paved anew, there is a fence around the building in which the café is. Take the long way round and realise that the café is closed. The new restrictions must have made business so poor that the owner closed his business. It is not worth opening, he says. Walk around the building, realise that they have now put up fences everywhere, the old food hall has been fenced in in preparation for demolition.

It is like being a sheep, kept in by fences. Find a gap, step through the pile of dirt there, and enjoy the new-found shortcut to the building with the office. There will be no food today. One mishap after the next.

accident.

The car runs smoothly, the cruise control works again. It seems to sometimes not work when there is less than five litres of diesel in the tank. This is not really understandable.

There is a delivery van ahead, it is hard to see past it. 

Then it takes a left turn, into the village of Schlossberg, and then see that there is a blue flashing light in the distance. 

Keep well to the right of the road, maybe the police need a free path.

Some way further on there is a police car blocking the road at a junction. Take the exit, and follow the other vehicles through a village, and then take a bridge over the road. The side road does not have much traffic, and it runs parallel to the road usually taken. See that the main road  over the fields, and see that there are many vehicles together, all with blue and orange flashing lights. There are ambulances, fire brigade, and police vehicles and  tow trucks. Going by the commotion alone, it must be a serious matter, probably a road accident.

The small road  continues parallel to the main road for some distance more, then take a right turn, and arrive at a roundabout. Take the small black car around towards the third  exit.

At the second exit a sudden crash, a car in a hurry has entered the roundabout and has nudged the small black car.

This is not meant to happen.

safe distance

2nd of November 2020

The small signal in the small black car

is blinking. It is showing that there are only

five litres left in the tank.

And also, the cruise control has ceased function.

But there is no bad traffic, it is all really

quiet.

Later on, in the cafe at work.

There are no seats left indoors, they are

not allowed anymore.

The proprietor makes a cup of coffee,

and for the regular customer he makes it in

a cup. Not a paper mug.

That is kind of the man.

It is a sunny day, the cyclone over Ireland lets the weather warm up just north of

the alps. sit outside the cafe, safe distance from all others.

Listen to people talking about the American

election, listen to them discussing the strange

habits of those people who live there.

other than

 it is Sunday and nothing is to be done today

other than ironing the washing

other than helping the son with his projects

other than telaxing and cleaning out the dishwasher

other than sorting out the summer and the winter shirts

other than rearranging the potted plants in the yard 

other than 

sitting down and doing nothing

It is Sunday

washing

 There is a grey plastic rectangular basket full of washing, still damp, on the floor in the hall. The basket would be needed to collect the dried clothes on the line in the attic, but it is still full of wet clothing from yesterday.

It is still quite early in the day, take the basket upstairs with the wet washing and hang it carefully on the line. It takes a while, but at the end of the process the grey plastic basket is empty. Start to take down the trousers that had been carried up on Monday morning, now dry and cold. Fold them a bit in order to save space in the basket. Then there are two hoodies, both clean now. A blue one and a red one. But first, take down all the socks and underpants, small things that have to go into the bottom of the basket.

Cover them with the hoodies, and go back downstairs. Put the basket at the end of the bed, take out the two hoodies and hang them on the back of the door.

The wife is still asleep, the son and the cat are active.

The son brings in a cup of coffee, that is the third one today

day's dose

Five to eleven in the morning, twenty four hours later, climb the stairs to the doctor's practice. Just press the door this time, it is open. There is no need to make noise.

Inside, the assistants on reception duty look up, and one waves the patient over. Explain that the blood pressure monitor installed and started yesterday has to be removed today. Today they are immediate and fast, a young woman leads the way into one of the side rooms in the practice.

Take off the jacket, take off the shirt.

The trainee removes the pressure band from the arm, unwinds the tube that runs over the back and over the right shoulder, and takes the small device out of the pocket on the web belt. Then the web belt is undone and put onto the table with the other parts. The written notes are asked for, and the measuring device is attached to the computer and the data transferred.

In the waiting room there are few other people, sit there and wait until the doctor calls.

In another room the doctor interprets the data, and advises as to the necessary medication, sixteen milligrams a day.

It is because of increasing age and weight 

this is all rather depressing

this is all most depressing

Thank the doctor for her time.

Go home, take the other eight milligrams to make up the days dose.

twenty four hours

 there is no need to get up early today

not at all, just to write the reminder of an excuse, and to send it on with email.

To the place of work.

you used to have to telephone,

now a one-liner will do, and it is probable that the supervisor will have forgotten by next week.

Take the pills, take a shower,

The son has left for school already.

Get dressed, the doctor's appointment is hours away.

Sit at the table in the corner of the bedroom,  read a book on the computer. A book to kill the time.

The cat puts an exploratory paw onto the jeans clad knees, then she digs in the claws and jumps up. Stroke her back and her head, she purrs as a sort of assent. Move the hand down towards the tail, the tail starts to switch back and forth, the purr goes quiet. Move the hand back up to the head again, the tail calms down and the purr starts up again.

Around this time, the wife wakes, and the cat turns her head to look. The wife and the cat observe each other across the room.

When the wife has got up, and dressed, the cat jumps to the floor and follows her into the kitchen.

Put on the socks, this is easy to do now that the cat has gone. Shoes and jacket, also the overcoat. A short discussion on lockdown politics with the wife, and then leave for the doctor's practice.

The receptionist at the doctor's asks whether it has been raining, looking at the wet brown jacket. 

Say that it has, quite heavily.

That is why the jacket is wet, and the hair is soaked too.

She is an observant person, who just wants information.

A young man puts his head around the door of the waiting room later, and directs the way to a side room down the corridor. He say that the shirt must be taken off, assume that applies to the jacket too. Hang them both on a hook behind the door,

The man straps a tube to the bared left arm, puts another tube over the shoulders so that it hangs like a necktie, and fixes a device to the waist with a web belt. 

He hands over a piece of paper and says that that is to be filled in hourly.

For the next twenty four hours.