currency

 Not so late today, up and out and about, early breakfast just past seven. It is not quite so cold today, and everything is in order, the breakfast that has become usual, and the clothing all found in the drawers of the cupboard. The news that Russia is about to forcibly annex territories so as to enlarge the country is worrying, and the stupid threat of the use of atomic weapons or biological weapons is a final idiocy.

The long walk through town is pleasant, take a picture of a seagull by the water. Wait a good ten minutes for the lazy bird to take to the air. Whilst waiting, a pigeon alights on the right shoulder. This is the first time that such a thing has ever happened. Who knows why the bird did this.

The cup of coffee in the café goes down well, hope that the tiny café is a success for the owner.

End the walk in the early afternoon in the bookshop, and resolve to buy a book about blockchain currencies sometime soon. So many people talk about these currencies and nobody seems to know exactly what they are talking about.

so late

 Sleeplessness mutates to laziness, there is the sound of a distant telephone and voices outside. The neighbours builders have arrived. Now that sleep is possible, give in and continue sleeping. Any reasons to get up have been forgotten, that is opportunism for you.

Later, dare a look at the watch. It is nine in the morning. Go downstairs and make the usual high speed breakfast, note that the cat is not anywhere to be seen. The wife is still asleep, and the son is away on his seminar. All is nicely quiet. 

Upstairs, settle down to read the news. There is not much, there is the daily briefing from the Handelsblatt which is just light reading for German businessmen, sneering at anybody who is not a self made man, and the daily briefing from the New York Times, really quite worth reading. Google for any further information on the state of the war, but there is nothing really worth reading . There are all the usual informations where one look at the source adress will tell you that it is probably propaganda and of little value.

And the cold of the day is seeping through the dressing gown.

There is post to be brought to the post office, it is time to get dressed and to start the day. 

It is so late.

stop

 The sound of rain is pleasant, the rain itself is cold and wet. Coffee is welcome in the morning, as is the first food of the day. 

The news on the machine is sad and bad. America has another storm to contend with, Cuba is soaked. And the Russians are trying to legalise robbery, using democracy to enforce autocracy.

And sleep was deep and sound in the night, and that is something of great personal worth, an invaluable asset.

At five past ten the rain has stopped.

time elapsing

 Yesterday, a crash course in Swedish and elderly shop assistants with poor manners. At the end of it all sit down  on a pile of Kallax, all ready for sale in their flat boxes. Think of a Dubliner saying that is is all a heap of Kallax. Four times around the display just to buy a bed and a few things. That was yesterday.

The new bed is higher than the other one, and more comfortable because of the wooden springs. The other one was just a wooden box with a mattress on top. It is seven, and time to get up, it is bright even though the sky is a turgid cloud covered grey. The workers in the house next door have already started with their hammering and angle grinding.

Coffee and poached eggs on toast.

Water the plants

shower

clothes

start ironing all the clothing washed on Sunday

And realise that this week is speeding away too, it is now Tuesday. Time is going faster now, if it is all in the mind there must be a way to slow it. A neologistic sort of anti-elapsement.

Nonsense thoughts are more frequent now.

choice, no choice

 Slakt or Neiden?

These are two simple bedsteads by Ikea, and which to choose should not be difficult. And Ikea makes it easy, Neiden is only available in Berlin, which is a long way away. These are the problems of a Monday morning with the decision to buy another bedstead made. The last one was insufferably complex with its three drawers and not really comfortable for all of that.

Make a larger breakfast today, with some extra toast. This seems sensible, it should save coming down again. When the news has been read, write, get dressed for the day, collect the clothes from downstairs from the dryer, take the clamps from the freshly glued table and place it in the bedroom, now clean and repaired.

And now it is ten in the morning. It will be necessary to go.

NOW

tick

 Today is Sunday and it was a day of simple forgetfulness. The blog was forgotten until evening. This is not the first time that this happened. The reason was a sudden burst of hunger in the beginning of the day and the making of second helpings for breakfast. This break in routine was compensated for by the omission of the morning blog.

That is how it goes.

Sunday was just a day spent reading and writing and putting clothes into the washing machine. There are always more clothes than expected, that is probably normal. Make the division between black white and coloured. That is ok with clothes, it prevents the white things becoming grey and the coloured things retain their colours.

Yesterday was Christopher Street Day. and the son was in high spirits because of all the events around town. He only returned this morning, which is all right for an eighteen year old.

There is nothing left to write about, sorry. The clock is ticking on the wall and it is getting steadily darker.

shameless

 Success at Wordle, a new interest. A simple game a clever puzzle. It is probably good for something. 

Go downstairs to make another cup of coffee. The old coffee maker is barely working any more, since the time that the son forgot about it and left it to boil dry. The sieves inside and the seal never quite recovered. The machine cannot pressurise any more, at least not to the degree that it used too. The result is less and more bitter coffee.

Downstairs, the wife and the son are up, and the cat is mooching about wondering where the next full plate will come from. Fill the coffee maker and put it onto the gas cooker, turn on the gas. The spare parts for the coffee maker have been ordered, they should arrive on Tuesday. Then it will be possible to make proper coffee again.

It is a delight to have a personal, private, room again. It has been twenty years now sharing space, and being in a position to care only for the personal objects and surroundings is a great and worthwhile joy. It bears thinking about that had it not been for those years living in other's conditions this joy would not be nearly so great.

Perhaps it will be possible to have a heating system installed, then the cold during the winter would not be such a problem. At the same time, let the bathroom be plumbed as well. This would all be pure unabashed lxury. It is nothing to feel ashamed about any more.

miscount, forget

 The light in the top flat is nice at seven too, get up, go to the loo. There is no point in rhyming at this hour,  really. The son is in the loo, his gruff voice makes noises through the glass pane. Go into the kitchen and start preparing breakfast. There is a thought that the son might like some too, but an independent growl confirms that this is untrue.

Argh! Comic-speak for "it has happened again".

Take the eggs and toast upstairs, and the cup of coffee too.

Look at the news, see that Putin's way of organising a democratic vote works just the same way as everything else that he does. If he wins, it is good. Trump is having problems again, let us see if his brutality and indecency will knock over the opponents again. If he is successful then the whole American government will have lost. But they are probably bad losers too.

Miscount the morning pills. Be very careful to recount them accurately, let there be no mistake. The last time that happened sleep took over for most of the day.

And forget to measure the blood pressure.

the underside of luxury

 Sleep is good between bouts of coughing, things are getting better again. The weather having turned cold makes life more complicated, it is no longer possible to leave the verandah door to the balcony open at night. But the fresh air in the morning is marvellous.

The October exhibition will definitely take place now, yesterdays meeting seems to confirm that, and there really should be no doubt now. It is strange to have the arrangements taken almost completely out of the own hands, the framing will be done, the prints will be made, the invites will be sent out, nothing to do but to sit around and wait for it all to be done. Perhaps that is the underside of luxury.

The light in the top flat is lovely today, and there will be time to carry on with the repairs to the chairs. This is slow work for a pensioner.

The news has been read, the United states system of justice is working hard to show that it is not a corrupted pack of busybodies looking for a sinecure. The Russian support for their leader seems to be dwindling as soon as there is a suggestion of serious personal consequences. A superficial view of the world allows the question whether when all is complete the Ukraine may not turn out to be as corrupt a state as Hungary.

health

 Thhe neighbours have hens and, by the sounds that they are making one of them is laying an egg. The two eggs for breakfast have already been eaten, along with the two slices of toast and the four pills, two vitamin pills and two ant-blood pressure pills. Despite all warnings to the contrary, the sun is shining out of a clear sky today.

The only sound now is the sound of the hen, making regular squawks. The sound is not disturbing.

The news reports that Russia is resorting to conscription to fuel the human requirements of it's so called special operation in the Ukraine with human resources. Quantity has always been an answer to lack of quality. The Americans are still unclear about what the rule of law means. How can there be a rule of law when those with different views just take to the streets, all armed and dangerous? The politics of the day are not exciting, the liberal party here are wreaking havoc with the objectives of the greens and the socialists. The liberal party in Germany takes particular care of the self employed and the small and medium sized business interests. They are the reason that there is no speed limit on highways in Germany, they believe that personal freedom is more important than social responsibility.

There is still a cough, but the short bout of sickness that overshadowed the last few days seems over. And now it will be necessary to measure the blood pressure.

sore throat and cold

 The papers in the pub last night were interesting to read, just sitting there reading newspapers and hearing the conversation of the other guests in the pub. The barman shouted "Sandwich" and put a plate on the bar. A young woman came over and collected the plate, bouncing up and down whilst she was talking to the barman. She bounced by standing up on her toes and then going down onto her heels again. She had her arms folded on the bar and was chatting with the barman as she paid.

This morning, a sore throat, and a mild stuffy feeling in the head as the reminder to ring up the plumber occurs to the brain that is concerned with other things. Ring up the plumber, and receive an assurance that the installations will be done this year. He is a nice man, but the general situation with the energy shortage means that the plumbers are occupied almost all of the time, he says that he will try.

Stay in bed late, trying to cure the cold quickly. Put on a small electric heater to try to heat the room with that. It is a noisy thing with a small fan. It is surprisingly complicated to operate, it even has a small remote control. It has three modes of operation, and an adjustable thermostat. Turn it on and leave it. The display shows the steadily rising room temperature, and it also feels warmer. Therefore the device works.

Leave the thirty page manual to one side.

All the arrangements done, and a shave and a shower later sit down to write this blog. The throat is still sore.

cold

Listen, bells sound, the near ones and those that are a little further away, and then the distant ones. Finally the ones in the villages further away can still be heard, maybe they are late, maybe it just has to do with the speed of sound.

It is five, go downstairs and make a small breakfast and a pot of coffee. Make a point of remembering to ring up the firm of plumbers to ask them whether they would not mind installing the bathroom. Heating would be nice as well. Even though the current price of gas could be prohibitive. But a bathroom would be pleasant, and a small space for a kitchen unit. That would enable life in complete independence from the family until tension relaxes a bit, and it becomes possible to make further steps.

The builders next door have started again, they are hammering on the other side of the common wall. They will hopefully be finished before Christmas.

It is very cold now, go back to bed and cover up to warm up again.

wasted day

 Sore throat and snivels, and the weather is cold. The flat is not heated, this is not yet possible. It has been impossible to get plumbers who will do the work. Stay in bed, that is nice and warm. It is Sunday, a day to be lazy on, and the flat is not inviting.

After a few hours the snivels and the headache and whatever other  ailments are bearable. The shoulders are stiff and sore.

A late breakfast with the same ingredients as usual is helpful. Humanity returns, read the news, reports on the intense evil in other areas of the planet. How much is one part of this? Is this everyone, is this just human? "Is it mine or is it them?" The eggs are just right, The toast is good. That is all. The son is up and has already filled the washing machine with his clothing. He has developed a habit of washing and drying his own clothes. Where this passion came from is unclear, he is unable to clean up his room at all.

Both heels have blisters, there are still two patches left in the emergency box. These patches provide relief, they are left over from last autumn, when a similar injury was incurred. It will be necessary to go out and buy more of the things.

This will be a wasted day, a day on which things are done that are of no great account.

meeting

 Climb up the stairs to the upstairs room of the local pub. There are people gathered there already, all seated around the tables that have been pushed together to make a gathering. It is all the local owners, and they want to protest against the bus route being changed to run through the street. The street is narrow, and the busses would make a change to life there.

The meeting is disorganised, there is little structure. Everyone just starts to speak when they feel they can. It is chaotic. 

The waiter comes and inquires for drinks. Drink the most expensive cup of coffee, which is just not really good. The italians make better coffee.

Listen to the arguments being put forward, everyone according to their priorities. And it is all very private really. Hardly anybody has a business which would be seriously affected by the changes. And the arguments are increasingly hopeless. And the anger is steadily greater.

Try to take notes, but this does not work. Try to listen, and then a very loud group of younger men take over one of the tables in the corner of the faux 1908 interior. So even that does not work.

Go downstairs to the basement of the building and use the lavatory there. Then return, and find that the meeting is breaking up. Sign up on a list for future information, and pay for the coffee.

Outside, it is a horribly rainy morning.

The whole effect is cheerless.

sleep

 The pain of the day overtook the sense of duty to write in the morning, now it is late afternoon and the duty is almost forgotten. But only almost forgotten, there is still that sense of duty to carry on, at least until ten years are done.

Freedom from the arms of sleep was difficult this morning, the weather was cool and the bed warm. And a peculiar headache kept working on the mildly conscious brain. The question in the front of the mind was a query like the letter before zed. And really, why bother at all.

But there are things to do and small projects to complete. But somehow, all these things are just out of focus, as problematic as the failing eyesight. The pictures that were made should be delivered.

Walking through the town today saw that the preparations for the evenings event were in full swing. The town has taken in a lot of money licensing vendors this year, there is more space taken up by these vendors than there was taken by the performers in previous years.

The headache is now worse, now that evening has come.

inches.

 At a quarter to eight hear the son run down the stairs and leave the house. By the sound of things he almost but not quite stumbles.

It was saddening not being able to speak to him at all yesterday, he and his mother seem to have become antagonised towards this only father. This is almost heartbreaking, and it is  understood that complaining about the sordid state of the flat is just not a good idea. His mother is still asleep, and will continue thus until eleven. Retire to the top flat to escape this mess, clutching the breakfast and a cup of coffee. Read the news, see that the Ukrainian leader has been involved in a minor car accident. And the Queen is slowly going underground in a lead lined box.

Things are moving in this world.

Take the plate and the cup back downstairs, and fill the watering can at the tap in the kitchen. Take it back upstairs and water the plants on the balcony. They will dry out and die if proper care is not taken. The weather has turned a steady grey, after yesterdays sudden cloudburst, a liquid catharsis producing inches of rain inside minutes.

wish

 Sixty-seven years old exactly today and that is one of these annual events that are no longer good for joy but just serve as a reminder that time is passing and things are not really going any where. And the weather is getting colder, as it should at this time of year.The luxury of sleeping a bit longer leads to a waste of time, but there is not so much to do with the time any way. There is simply not enough to do in any sense of cooperation. Everything has to be done alone, for it is understandable that nobody has any time to waste.

And there is no wish to impose upon others, as an old bloke getting on everybody's nerves. That is not the way to go either.

The son left for work earl today, but he will not tell what is going on, or whether or not this work is any kind of a pleasure or not.

Let us get on with this day, perhaps there will be a letter in the mail, expressing kind regards from the bank.

Mechanical wishes are better than no wishes.

mail phantasies

 Before writing, stop writing, go downstairs for another cup of coffee.

Downstairs, the postman rings the bell. He has a package that needs to be signed for. Sign with a smear on his device, all is in order. It is a package for the wife. She is awake and drinking tea.

Make the coffee, bring it upstairs, and take a small ice cream from the deep freeze. A small luxury with the coffee is no harm.

And there is nothing to say, it is a blue sky day, not even the weather is worth a comment.

The second cup of coffee is now finished. Measure the blood pressure (doctor's orders), one hundred and twenty-four slash seventy, this seems normal, not high. For a sixty-seven year old depressive male a perfectly good result. There are no problems here. Note it down on the page anyway, it can join all the other daily measurements.

Perhaps it is time to start writing letters.

for all to see

 The small room at the top of the house is an ideal bedroom, the light shines from the risen sun through the balcony door in the morning, and last night the evening light shone in throught the windows on the other side of the room. During the day it is bright. It is a room to be remembered, one that gives an experience to be remembered and to be thankful for.

Monday breakfast, and the news is good or bad depending on who you are and where and how you are situated. The Americans are allowing their lawgivers to be run by the judiciary and the Russians are realising that their military power alone is insufficient to fulfil their desire for power. The British are learning that they will not only have to make a tombstone for their queen but for their empire too. So much for the news.

There is no movement any more, the depressions seem to be going away. It is strange to be like a bystander observing ones own condition, but it is like that. There will need to be a written answer informing all of the possibility of a meeting on the twenty first of the month, then there will be a months time to deal with the arrangements.

Then it will be done in a day and forgotten in a month.

Not everyone can show their work for all to see.

social commitment

 Gurgle and splash outside the windows of the top flat, it is raining and the gutters are noisy. It is early on Sunday and that is the only noise from outside. The town has shut up because of the rain and because it is Sunday.

Go back to sleep.

Later,  go downstairs and make breakfast. The top flat is unheated, wonder how long the luxury of living there can last, how long the warm weather will last, and when will winter freeze the place until it is uninhabitable. It is just a matter of time. And if the plumbers find the time, it will be possible to install a bathroom on the same floor. What a luxury that would be.

Read what news there is, it is not much, today being the day of rest. The happy steady sound of the water in the gutters drowns the noises that the town must be making by now. It will do to go out for a walk later on, then it will be time to clean the flat of the dust incurred during the renovation of the back room.

The lack of social commitment is strongly felt now, now that it is no longer necessary to go to work. It will lead to loneliness in time.

nothing at all

The repaired bells sound in the background of the dreams.

Get up, go downstairs, the same procedure as yesterday.

Read the mail.

Spend an hour answering a letter to the brother.

And the cat vomits in the hallway. A feline expression of something, why do cats always do that? Later, she jumps up onto the lap between human torso and table and purrs happily.

So what? The division of all the property has been driven by selfishness.There is nothing to reply to in the letter

nothing at all

byebye

Up early today, to the sound of feline complaint and the bells of Landshut. The big bell of Saint Martins has been repaired, and it is as loud as ever. It is a bright day with blue skies covered in large white cumulus clouds, little storm cloud on their way to a change in the weather somewhere.

The house appears deserted but for the cat. The son has gone reclusive, since he has started to work doing his years social service. He has difficulties speaking with his father, the writer of these daily notes. The house is pervaded with an air of insanity. Knock on his door to check whether all is well, then try the door. It is locked. This is his demand for privacy, and it is to be respected. 

The large coffee maker is no longer functioning correctly, the seal is broken. There is water dripping out of the joint between the upper pot and the lower pot, and the whole thing will not pressurise correctly. And the coffee tastes strange.

It is typical of this pensioner to take hi shower at nine, that is three hours later than in now bygone times.

bye bye, tempus fugit

past

 If it is not the pills against the blood pressure then it is something else. It must be the pills, there is nothing else, not really. The one and a half pills at seven  and a normal reading at seven thirty. All is probably in order, and this will likely be confirmed at the doctor's appointment this afternoon. 

The sons alarm sounded at seven, and there was the sound of him hurtling out of the house just before a quarter to eight, in today's attempt not to be late. It is saddening that he does not now wish to speak with his father, but that relationship is a victim of current circumstances and hopefully it will improve as time goes on. It is saddening, for the realisation is there that any amount of people will explain what is wrong with a particular practice of being a parent, but there is little instruction available as to what needs to be done. There is always the guilty suspicion that something vital has been omitted on the way.

The attempts to withdraw from the perceived chaos that is the life of this family is only being successful in minor ways, it is a path accompanied by constant guilt. This can only be written here, for an admission would be an invitation to all kinds of suggestions of well-meaning solutions, or simple evil minded spite, neither of which are helpful or even comforting. But the slow withdrawal into a personal physical space, a private area, brings the comfort of the minor daily irritations being kept at bay. A small mercy, one that holds salvation from the dark spectre of drug induced isolation and deception of the self. It is just luck that the house, the family dwelling, is big enough to allow this.

There is the realisation that there is not the time left to realise those wishes that were held in the past.

pressure

 Following the doctor's order take the blood pressure pills early in the morning. The blood pressure measurement some hours later is extraordinarily high. This is all very paradoxical but there it is. The news is strange today, the rules of the American court room appear strange. Judges appear guided by their tastes and opinions and not so much by the law itself. The whole thing is like a game where the law is interpreted to suit the judges preference rather than the opinion being based on the law.

The cost of the war in Ukraine is upsetting the rest of Europe. It might be good for them to consider the cost  that will ensue if Ukraine is taken over by the Russian state as if it were so much real estate.

Reading the news at four this morning was good for sleep. It was barely possible to hear the son hurrying off to work, rushing down the stairs. The state of drowsiness was ridiculous, there is a general feeling of chaos setting in now. 

The high blood pressure this morning is worrying, it was not expected. Perhaps the measurement was faulty. Maybe the pills had not functioned yet. There are too many maybe questions now.

Take another pressure reading. The result is entirely normal, even low. This is only two hours after the previous reading, the whole business seems uncontrollable. 

There is the sound of angle grinders from the next door building. They are having a new floor put in using heavy concrete tiles. This has been going on for a week. 

And now, just before midday, the sun is emerging.

prescription day

Sleeping is no problem  by the open door to the balcony, even if the light bed covering is slightly too thin for the cool air in the night. Perhaps a second cover will solve the problem. 

The cool air is refreshing, the winter is icy, the summer is stuffy hot. None of these things matter to the way things in the world work but they are a delight, a comfort. Taking care of the own breakfast, early in the morning, is a pleasure too.

This morning the son is late for work, it is his second day and that is a bad start. The son is his own man now, and it is not a thing that his parents may interfere with. 

Consider whether a trip to France next week would be worthwhile, a short leave of absence from home, from the situation here, from the situation that is becoming untenable.  The area around about Besancon would be nice.

Many things would be nice, and there is no difficulty now in affording them. Today is the day for the doctors appointment, a new prescription. Life is still going on, even at this age past retirement. Age has come unannounced, it is suddenly there That is the way these things go.

mon

 Monday morning in the kitchen, the kitchen has been cleaned and tidied. This is strange. Take a cup from the cupboard, and look inside. There is a stain inside, the cup was simply put into the cupboard without checking it first. Nobody is perfect, and who cares?

Today is the first day of the sons internship in a kindergarden, that will be work for one year. It is six in the morning, hear his alarm sound. He is taking a regular and early appearance at work very seriously indeed. There is no need to do anything further. 

Make the small breakfast and take it upstairs, like yesterday, and Saturday. The light is steadily increasing outside, it is a quarter past six in the morning. Waking up was automatic this morning, and things are better than last night. The tinnitus white noise hiss on the right hand side of the head is loud and present, it will go away at some stage today, or just no longer be noticed.

There is no news but bad news, an atrocity in Canada, something to do with a knife attack. People will find ways to kill each other and spend a lot of time inventing tools to this end. The news from Ukraine is not in yet, and whatever other news is available has not been read yet.

This is the beginning of the week, let us see what happens.

Like any other day.

Lie down in bed covered in a blanket, the arm of a hoodie over the eyes to protect from the light. It is another one of those morning dizzy spells, and as there is the possibility of just lying down until it is over, do just that. Words flood through the mind in a disjointed fashion, words and phrases in no particular context to any reality. Realise that this is what happens when loose phrases are just tied up one to the next with no concept to bind them. They are just words following one another without much allegiance to sense or import. A sloppy heap of sentence, a pile of disassociate meanings combining to form a portentous heap of rubbish devoid of meaning.

A short sleep and the vertigo is gone, commence to write here, this account. It is read by few people, and it may be said that their patience is admirable.

Today's offering is not up to much, for there is nothing happening but for the realisation that life is not going anywhere. The end of the  daily imposition of having to go to work each day has left a void that is hard to fill. This realisation comes on Sunday, a day of rest.

Like any other day.

old work

 Six chairs were bought five years ago, they had all originally been made with cane seating. The seats must be more than one hundred years old, and the cane had given up on most of them. The seats had been partly replaced with green padded seats, a modern simplification which destroyed the elegance of the old "Wiener Geflecht". They were bought as a job lot, the old owner claimed a high price for them, but finally they were sold at a reasonable value. The chairs do not all match exactly, they were all individually hand made.

All these years after the original purchase the padded seats have all been removed again, unscrewed, unglued. The struts with the holes drilled in them to hold the cane have been repaired as far as is possible. Finally, a quantity of split cane was ordered, and duly arrived by post.  In what amounts to weeks of intermittent work the cane was slowly and inexpertly woven into the first seat with the help of informative tutorials from the internet. Each tutorial had a different approach, and each one was only partly applicable to the real existing problem.

Three months later, and the second last chair is nearing completion, the hands have learnt how to deal with the split rattan canes allowing a steady slow progress from one job to the next. There is now one chair in the process of having the seat weave made, two waiting for the beading around the edge to be finished and one that has not been started on yet. Two are finished and one was still in good original condition. It is strange work from another time, it would cost one hundred and seventy euros to have each chair done commercially. The work is from another time because it would not be possible to include that amount of work in the cost of new furniture and leave the furniture maker with any profit.

There are things which are just not possible to pay for.

who knows?

 Friday, again it is Friday, the second day of the ninth month, the month called September. Schools are starting soon, in the middle of the month there will be a birthday to celebrate. Ot not to celebrate, this depends on whether the live spent was good or not. Europe seems to be drifting towards an armed conflict, the old enemy is making ugly noises and seems to believe that it has the power to just take what it wants without question. Friends are not friends any more.

Privately, it is the same, control is everything, friendship is not worth so much any more. Life is returning to a structured society, the sort of thing that existed in the middle ages, with powerful groupings protecting their own, thereby furthering their interests. It is all a matter of standing and influence.

Breakfast and the coffee is done.

Sleep is over.

The extra room needs to be decorated, and the plumbers have to be called.

Winter will come, and who knows how that will be.

murder

 The ticking of the clock is maddening today,it is a sign of live and a measure of time elapsing. Time slipping away, slipping being a good word because slippery things are hard to hold. In the news it becomes plain that Russia holds its past premier in low esteem, unlike the rest of the world. 

There are no great things to write about today, even the details are of little account. The stupid radio which is supposed to talk to you is silent but for a steady flashing, which irritates. The cause for the yellow light is most likely a poor connection to the Internet. But maybe the machine is simply defective.

No, the answer is simply to kill Alexa, at least to remove the software entity from the radio. Now the light does not flash any more. The machine is not smart any more, all it does is play the transmissions it is supposed to do. That is what the machine  for. There is no need to have an extra voice in the room.

Having breakfasted, and silenced the robot in the room, it is now time to proceed with the rest of the day.