completely without problems

The man arrived shaking water from his umbrella. Took him upstairs to the verandah door, the one that he had said that he would have a look at. He had a small tool in his pocket, and started fiddling about at the hinges of the door, occasionally pulling it and pushing it. He was amused, he said that it was a bit more than the usual jammed door. He said that he did not have his adjusting kit with him, but if there was a small wood screw available. 

Then the door that has been blocked for the last three months simply opened, he inserted the screw  to hold down a part that needed holding down, and after a few more twirls with his small pocket tool he said that he would be back at a later date with his assistant to do a proper job. This would have to do for the moment.

It is marvellous to be able to walk out onto the wooden balcony of the old house again, completely without problems.

which would help to make this summer a better summer

 Breakfast is done late, and there was too much beer consumed last night, there is a smell of mildew from the clothes worn on the job yesterday.

It all sounds bad, but the light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel may be the view of the trees at the top of the hill visible over the red tile roofs of the town. The tips of their branches are turning green with sprouting leaves, that seasonal metamorphosis  that signals the end of winter and is the harbinger of summer.

It will be necessary to tidy things up a bit today, in preparation for the artisan's arrival tomorrow. He may be able to repair the door to the balcony, which would help to make this summer a better summer.

more difficulties than it deserves

 Drove down to Landau to help a friend who needs picture of mouldy window frames. A western flat built in the seventies, thin walled, well sealed. A  young muslim family who turn up the heat and never open a window. There is mildew and damp, and they do not know what caused it. Take pictures of the window surrounds, covered in mildew. The air in the room is thick and moist. A man holds a lamp to show the fungus growing everywhere. Their clothes, on a clothes horse in the middle of the room, adding more moisture to the air.

It is just a dense smell of mildew everywhere, there is no help for it.

But the friend wants them out of the flat.

Shut up and do the job, just take pictures of the mould every where.

Be sorry for the family, the family has more difficulties than it deserves.

Drive home in the evening, and then go out for a night out in the pub.

There is another job next tuesday, more pictures.

Free drinks.

too many, no time, Artificial intelligence has come a long way

 The day is  now nearly over, and there is only the sensation that the day seemed wasted. Time was spent repairing the key for the car, the plastic casing of which had fallen apart.Time was spent touring about town trying to find a double sided tape. Time was lost in the café, and the coffee was not even good. Time lost, not to be regained.

A picture or two prepared for the internet, to show the friends there that there is life in the old codger yet. Things will have to be done about fixing the heating and making some kind of cooking arrangements upstairs.

Many pictures prepared of the recent events, perhaps there are just too many.

The town with its ice cold walls and eternal brick buildings is closing in on the mind, it will be necessary to get out of this.

Ask the artificial intelligence what it thinks of this text and it types:

This passage describes the speaker's feelings of dissatisfaction with their day and their environment. They reflect on the time wasted repairing a car key and searching for double-sided tape, and the disappointment of a bad cup of coffee. They also mention the need to make improvements to their living situation, such as fixing the heating and creating a cooking area upstairs.

The speaker also mentions taking pictures to share with friends online, perhaps in an attempt to find some small sense of accomplishment or connection. However, they express concern that they may have taken too many pictures.

Overall, the passage conveys a sense of frustration and a desire for change. The speaker feels trapped in their environment, represented by the "ice cold walls and eternal brick buildings" of the town, and expresses a need to escape.

Artificial intelligence has come a long way.

three score and ten

An early awakening or the nightmare of the same, and then awakening again later to think about this. A synopsis of a bad night following yesterdays unbelievable mistake and trust in electronics and the GPS. Both worked perfectly, but there are two places with the same name. But the dreams were chilly, it was just a meeting of the son in the corridor, and he looking for a lotion. There is no notion why he should be doing this so early in the morning.

Awaken later again, and hear the sound of  things in the bathroom.

And all the time, these thoughts of self destruction and hopeless feeling, a wish to be done with it all. Perhaps this is a sign of ageing, but another thought reminds that this happened at almost every time in this life, a life of nearly seventy years.

Vils is old German for Fluss, which means river

 Jazz concert last night, a local pub turning cultural centre. The concert was well worth listening to,  a trio playing drums, bass viol and bass saxophone. The musicians were illuminated using multicoloured LED spotlights, which rendered taking pictures difficult. But the conversation with the bass player was great during his break. He spoke about his songs and why he had left the copyright agency.

The planned journey to Vilshofen went wrong today, even though it eventually succeeded. There are at least two rivers in Germany called the Vils and therefore there are two towns called Vilshofen. The navigation software selected the wrong one and therefore gave the wrong directions. Paris Texas instead of Paris France. 

This was resolved in a few hour's pointless driving along motorways in the rain. A pleasant time was spent at the collecters house near Passau, in that Vilshofen at that end of the world

To make matters spicier still, the cars key fell apart.

And during the day, it became clear that winter time had ended so that a full hour appeared to have been lost. This means that getting up will be more difficult tomorrow.

pigeon

 This morning, they are back. In this case "they" are a group of figures standing around the bed emitting accusations and giving pitying and angry looks. There is still the sound of screaming from the night's dream, screams of hysterical rage. There is a memory of having woken at four, and looking to see if there is anything on the computer. It was dark, the bedside light was illuminating the computer's keyboard. The group of figures are all in the mind. But still, they are there and make their presence felt.

There was nothing new then and there is nothing new at seven thirty, but for the fact that there is no need for the light. This was shining in through the verandah door and the window at the end of the bed.

Make breakfast after visiting the bathroom. The son is awake, he is preparing himself for a car journey to visit his grandparents. His grandfather had given him money to pay for the driving school, and he wants to say thank you. 

Breakfast is the standard production, take it upstairs when it is done.

The cat creeps around, and then demands to be let out.

Let it out.

Go upstairs, in misery, it is just a bad day. There is a pigeon cooing outside.

daylight

 This morning check the results from last night's printing tests in daylight. The differences to the originals is not as great as might have been imagined, still a more well defined contrast between the colours is to be seen. There is a large discrepancy between the monitor view and the printed result.

This will require more analysis.

This morning there were the sounds of the wife frantically searching for the cat. The cat had been there for the early breakfast, had been fed and had gone back into the sitting room to find a place to hide in the mess there. Tell the wife this, she goes back downstairs and finds the cat asleep in the sitting room.

All is well.

The welcome warm rain is coming down steadily outside, all the tiled roofs are glistening. The light is flat, the sky is grey.

Things are better now that it is daylight, the aches and pains of yesterday's efforts are going back and there is the knowledge that at least something has been done to alleviate the situation on the ground floor. Things are simply nicer in daylight

forgetfulness

 After midnight the body has recovered from the days exertions trying to clean the corridor and the tiny yard at the back of the house. It was necessary to take the trailer to the various dumping grounds twice to get rid of all the accumulated waste. The plaster waste from the upstairs walls has been waiting to be removed for nearly a year now. And now it is gone. The work removing the heavy black plastic containers full of waste was hard enough, the time spent in the car was relaxing. The air filter in the car needs to be replaced. It is probably the original one, the air inside the car is stuffy.

The early evening was spent making discoveries  using the printer. Sometimes a simpler device would be a pleasant thing, one that has no further features in it,

It is now four in the morning on the twenty fourth of March. Yesterdays entry to this blog was a victim of forgetfulness.

a worthwhile buy

 The doctor is a fast talking man, he trips over his words. It appears that he forgot his suggestion of the last time. He stil recommends an operation.

Leave the practice with the papers in hand, the operation is to take place on the first of June. It would be good if it was earlier, but that is the way it is to be. The young woman behind the counter is pleasant and kind in manner.

Walk through the town much like on every other day, have a cup of coffee in the mall. The woman serving there seems to have a problem, she is not friendly. Perhaps she is simply not happy in her job. Walk home and resolve to start clearing the mess in the hallway, the things that have been left lying around and the general dirt in the place needs addressing.

During this work the new used coffee maker arrives. It is an Ebay purchase and is a bright red boxy machine with a grinder on one side and a coffee maker on the other. It is like an amateur version of the machines used in bars, just much smaller.

The work clearing up the mess is really quite major, the son never tidies away the tools that he is working with. They are just lying on the floor where he last used them. The son is a keen tinkerer, he will try to repair anything. He is not particularly neat with his things though.

In the late afternoon make an espresso with the new machine. It seems to work as expected, the coffee is good on the second attempt. Perhaps the device was a worthwhile buy.

someone will fix it

 Another morning spent waiting for the parcel to arrive, but then it just did not arrive. An email arrived informing that it was not going to arrive. There was a strike of postal workers recently, that is probably the reason for this. The sun is warm today, it feels good to sit at the side of the street and to relax.

Walk through the town, the everyday activity since that dose of covid last summer and then again in the winter. Now, with the steady recovery, it will be possible to take up longer walks again. Tomorrow is the day of the doctor's appointment, hopefully he will have nothing horrible to say.

Today was a warm day, but the night is still cool. The small whirring heater is heating the room up to eighteen degrees centigrade, a reasonable temperature. And now the thermostat has turned it off and it just makes a humming noise.

A long telephone call with a friend, and she says that she had forgotten to ask for someone to repair the verandah door. The stupid thing will still not open. Now there is hope that she will remember and that someone will fix it.

bad

 sitting in the pub today ,  beer number 3, and there is a bearded man in a pink hoody at the end of the bar with a friend. He has a loud voice and he is explaining the worlds problems to his friend. In the course of the conversation it transpires that he has marital problems. A turd like that in pink has destroyed what would otherwise have been a nice quiet Monday evening

too bad

At home.later

Typing things into a mobile 'phone is possible, as is visible and readable in the previous paragraph. There is no point in getting wound up about shouting Germans, there are just a few around who do that. The man was drunk and his friend was desperately trying to find a decent source of conversation in the almost deserted bar. Even the barman was irritated when the pink man started going on about the nitty-gritty of the rights of inheritance contra his wife and his kids. 

Perhaps there will be some luck and he will never turn up again

that is a dramatic rise in costs

 Tske a short walk about town, an evening stroll. The day has been spent trying to finish work on the pictures taken at the artist's party last night. There was talk and music, all was pleasant. It was almost disturbing to hear the high praise for the photos, it is not as if the people had anything to gain by their approbation. But it was good for the sense of self-esteem. If only they knew that it was no bother at all.

The pictures needed fiddling with, they are all in colour this time. No longer the ever so fashionable black and white, the deadly monochrome. Now there are colours everywhere yet again.

The walk along the river to the Italian cafe was nice.

The single cup of coffee costs three Euros and forty cents now, that is a dramatic rise in costs.

Walk home, sobered. Go back to the work on hand. Remember the stunning woman yesterday, from Brazil.

ignoring all of the attractive manhole covers and access ports on the way

 It is strange walking around in a small town how suddenly familiar faces appear around corners. Step aside for a man approaching along a narrow passage under some scaffolding, he looks up and gives a friendly greeting. Where had he been met before? Had we met before? There are no idea available on this business at all.

Today is the day to take a few pictures of  cast iron access covers on the pavements . They are worn and polished by the many soles of shoes walking over them daily. The red crumbly rust is only there were the flat soles of the shoes cannot reach, the polished areas are a warm shiny black. There are foundry marks and patterns on the surfaces. The patterns are probably there to provide grip and to prevent pedestrians from causing themselves injury in the wet. It is dry today, this improves the contrast between the polished metal and the rusty metal.

The supermarket is full of old age pensioners, the younger people are possibly all still asleep after their Friday night exertions. Buy eggs and bread and cheese, more things are momentarily not needed. Look at the apples, but the only variety available are small Braeburns. These taste noticeably different from the larger variety, so leave them alone today.

The bathroom in the mall is still locked. It is ten, and the note on the door says that the toilets open at  nine thirty. Acccept that all things German are not necessarily Germanic. Leave the mall and head on to those public lavatorys at the Rathaus. Hurry on, ignoring all of the attractive manhole covers and access ports on the way.

Walk around the town until it is dark and go back home

The son asks for the car this morning, he says that he would like to have it for practice. It is pleasant that he is talking again, and that his new abilities are giving him pleasure. Today it is cold, there is just an icy feeling. Not even the electric heater will bring the temperature up to a bearable level.

Bring the washing downstairs, fill the washing machine.

Then go up and wrap up in a warm blanket and read the new novel. It is by Amor Towles and is called "A gentleman in Moscow". It is good and entertaining, both.

Stay in bed all day, there is headache, tinnitus and discomfort. It is all just not worth it really. The son rings at five, he is lost. This is funny, because there are no maps in the car and his telephone is a telephone only and does not have the ability to consult online navigation services. Try to help him as much as is possible. Decide to go out for a walk.

Walk around the town until it is dark and go back home.

Maybe just to finish the book.

a succession of silly sentences

 Stay in bed to wait until the son has gone to work. He gets disturbed by his father hanging around making breakfast in the morning. Therefore it is a good excuse to remain in the warmth of the bed for longer.

Another word for all of this is just laziness,

At eight, breakfast, and then read the news. Read that Russia has knocked an American aircraft out of the sky in international air space and that this will have no consequences. It looks as if the Americans are, to use their own expressions, pussies. But that is how things are, perhaps they will knock down a Russian drone now as a sort of tit for tat.

Read that Poland will supply fighter aircraft to the Ukraine.

Read that Credit Suisse is going bust, but is too big to fail.

The weather outside is pleasant and warm, let us hope that summer is on the way.

Today, nothing comes to mind but a succession of silly sentences.

stress-free, and not really slower at all

 After yesterday's disappointment, the pictures did not meet with approval, well so what, that is the way it goes. Winning all the time is boring, take the car for a longer drive. Cruise down the road to Passau, and when there, receive a call from the son, he would like the car. Well, too bad. The car is in Passau, the son is in Landshut. It will be dark before returning. 

Walk through the old town admiring the old buildings and the windy streets descending to the Danube on the ones side, and to the Inn on the other. Stop off in a coffee shop, and the woman explains that she cannot make a Cafe Crema, would an Americano do the trick? I say it would, and it is one of the nicest cups of coffee ever. And a really nice Apfelstrudel to go with it.

Ok, so it was not cheap.

Return to Landshut, take it easy on the country roads, go no faster than a truck would. There is a long line behind the car every now and again, but it always dissipates quickly. Driving this way is stress-free, and not really slower at all.

deliver Saturday's work on Tuesday morning

 Downstairs, it is good to be early today. The cat is desperate for food, and examining the tins see that perhaps she was forgotten yesterday. Put some food from the tin onto her red plate, and hear her eat with gusto.

Fill the coffee maker with water and coffee and put it onto the gas stove. Also put on the small saucepan of water for the eggs. Get a cup, a saucer and a plate and put the whole lot onto the kitchen work top, waiting until the water boils. Take an egg out of the container in the fridge as well as two slices of white bread for toasting.

The coffee machine starts to burble and then the water in the saucepan boils. Put salt and vinegar into the water and turn off the heat under the coffee maker.  Crack the eggs into the water and  wait until boils again before putting the toast into the toaster.

Whilst waiting for the toaster to pop clear up the waste bits and pieces on the work top and take out some cutlery. When the toast has popped up in the toaster butter it and then take the eggs out of the water with the holy plastic ladle from Ikea. The water drips out through the holes leaving the eggs more or less dry. Then put the eggs on the toast, pour the coffee into a cup, and balance the whole ensemble all the way up to the bedroom.

Enjoy breakfast, read the news, and sort the pictures, then copy the files onto a stick drive.

It will all be finished by nine in the morning, and then it will be possible to deliver Saturday's work on Tuesday morning.

work and purpose to distract from all of these personal weaknesses

The feeling of being unwell persists. It is not possible to tell whether it is just a cold or some other infection. It seems a good and comfortable idea to lie down every now and again.

Today the printer worked hard to produce reasonable pictures of the fifty files left over after several successive inspections. The prints are all right, they are glossy, and there are more than enough of the man who gave the commission. There is no knowing whether or not that is what he wanted, but even without this there are enough pictures. 

Fifty six pictures all told, to tell the story of an evening, a family entertainment with a few extra persons thrown in. The man was sixty, after all. And it was his own restaurant.

The town was dreary today, even though the weather was warm. Exhaustion and the ice cold feeling in the legs set in almost at once.

It would be so great to have work and purpose to distract from all of these personal weaknesses.

That is far enough.

In the morning, it was snowing. the red roofs had white flakes on them. A warm shower and then work all day sorting through the pictures taken the night before. There are too many, and it was dark. Sort and sort, take time on the side to get dressed. Sort and modify the pictures until the eyes hurt. Lie down for a while, the legs start to freeze. A doctor a long time ago said that this was on account of an infection. Maybe he is right, and maybe it is just because it is cold.

No more than that, it may just be a reaction to the cold.

Lie down on the bed until the sensation goes, and then recommence working on the pictures.

Lie down again later, and wake up when the phone rings.

It is the brother. He has sad news, one of the great Irish artists, Camille Souter, had died last week. That is saddening, she was very old, and she did so much work.

But otherwise, he is well, the brother. He has to hang up when some customers visit his garden centre, which he is minding today. Go back to editing the hundreds of pictures. Later, move on to selecting the good ones, then the better ones, and the ones that are better still. A small star for every round. After five rounds the number has been cut down from nearly three hundred to fifty. That is far enough.

It will be a good idea to go to bed early tonight.

easier to go into the cold rooms

 Having been up and about and out already return at nine minutes to eleven and Glen Gould is just playing on the Piano, Bach, tinkling along like a stream through the woods. The announcer, then more music, more music of the most extraordinarily high quality sounds from the small speaker on the console halfway up the wall.

Pack away the rolls of absorbent paper, and the sanitary pads. Those were the last minute purchases before Saturday takes control, later on to meet in the gallery and listen to the opinions some understandable, but mostly simplistic views of political and military situations. But that is now only in one and a half hours, in the mean time there are other things that can be done.

There is no reply from the people that will supply the profile for the printer. That is not surprising, they have their weekends to recover from work. Perhaps that will be here next week.
The announcer has stopped his cant. He is an announcer who talks too much, there seem to be too many words padding out his message. Now they are playing Beethoven's second symphony. And now that is passed again and the talk is back. Yap Yap, leading questions all the time.

The next thing to do will be to do some further tidying.

The weather is warmer today, this makes it easier to go into the cold rooms and start to clear up stuff.

Wonder if the laxative effect of figs counts for dried figs as well

There was a long time spent writing in the gallery today, waiting for people to come and visit. For some reason the writing was not saved, and upon checking there is only a single letter left.

In a draft.

It is a curse that the systems seem to expect you to be online all of the time and will not store anything offline..

Today was a strange day, starting with a phone call from a young woman jubillant that her work had been accepted for an exhibition. She talked a great deal, and just sat there and heard and tried to listen. We had talked two weeks ago, and now we can talk again.

Go to the shops and buy a few things. Cat food and pretzels, eggs and dried figs. Return home, and put the eggs in the fridge with the butter and the tins on the place where the cat tins are kept. Take the tins and the small containers of yoghurt upstairs. And try one of the figs upstairs too.

After all has been done, and the small carton of figs is empty it is time to go to the gallery to mind the exhibition. 

Wonder if the laxative effect of figs counts for dried figs as well.

gallery duty tomorrow

This is boring for it is not going anywhere. Write to the people making the profiles for the printer, let it be questioned whether it is the fault of the system or the fault of the user. Well, we shall see, shall we not.

Then there is the matter of the remote control for the loudspeaker. This arrived in the post and just did not work. So write back and ask, they say it is the wrong kind. It is strange, for the shape is identical to the other one, just the colour is different. Both are made in Mexico, they have come a long way.

There is an older loudspeaker of the same type downstairs, complete with a remote control. Take the battery out of the older remote control and put it into the newer one.

Now the newer one works.

The newer one was sold new with a flat battery. That is the solution to the problem. Give the older remote back its battery, and take the battery of the newer one into the wallet as a sample for the purpose of buying a new one.

After having prepared the stuff for the post go to the post office and post the things. And then go to the shop to buy a new battery for the remote. Then go to the supermarket and buy a supply of apples and some sausage.

In the café think that life cannot go on this way.

Go to the gallery to collect the key. There will be gallery duty tomorrow.

It is impossible to do everthing right

 At three in the morning Hypnos goes away, he is off on a walk, he is insulted because there is a litre of beer inside his patient, his subject. That's competion, he is disgusted. Maybe he is going of to have a date with his colleague Somnus, the one from the other side of the Adriatic.

At three it is dark, the eyes hurt, and there is no concentration possible on any kind of reading matter Go downstairs to the bathroom, nearly fall down the stairs. It is not worth while, go back upstairs, lie down, and think unhappy thoughts for hours.

Awaken at nine, go downstairs, the son has gone to work and left the washing machine running so that those clothes  may be washed in the evening. Then he will put them in the dryer and forget about them until the weekend.. Breakfast, eggs on toast, is quite delicious, a cup of black coffee to wash down the blood pressure pills is only perfect. Try to set up the printer again but the resullts are unsatisfactory.

The cat wails for attention.

Put food on her plate.

she sniffs

and walks away.

It is impossible to do everthing right

not overnight

not ever

A pointless drive and money wasted.

go to the doctors practice  for the first thing after waking today, walk down the Kirchgasse, then up the Neustadt and finally to cross the Bischof-Sailer-Platz . At the door to the building don the mask and climb the stairs , enter the practice after pressing the door buzzer.

Go to the reception counter to get stared at by the Iranian woman, the practice manager according to her badge. Tell her the name, give her the card and leave her to mutter to herself whilst she is trying to make sense of the things that appear on her screen. Then, at great speed a young oriental woman invites her new patient into the laboratory, sit down upon the seat as demanded.

Bare the arm, roll up the sleeve. The young woman comments that this patient is a regular, the last time blood was taken was only two weeks ago. Say that there is plenty of blood there, especially if all she needs is the little bit to fill up that plastic tube. She laughs. Then in almost one motion the arm is needled, the tube attached, then filled with, as she says, that very red blood. Then in the second part of her routine sequence the tube is numbered, the plunger broken off, the tube is put in a rack and the pin is covered by a small white pad. Hold the pad down whilst the needle, the plastic piping and the plunger belonging to the sample tube are all disposed of in three separate bins.

Leave the practice with a small plastic plaster covering the hole left by the needle and an appointment for the twenty-second of the month.

At home, all is unsatisfactory. Go out to find the car in the huge municipal car park where the son left it yesterday, and decide to go for a pointless drive.

At Landau in the Isar enjoy a coffee, and return to the car to find that there is a fine for parking incorrectly. A pointless drive and money wasted.

long drive for no purpose

 The day started well, everything was fine, and then a general collapse after taking breakfast and the pills for the blood pressure. Maybe the breakfast, maybe the pills caused this. It is odd to lie down on the made bed covered by a spare duvet.

At ten, this episode is over, leave the house and walk down to the supermarket to buy butter and apples. It is a strange combination, but these are the things that are missing. Also cat food, the animal should not starve.

It is cold in town today. There is no desire to go to the café, yesterday it was full of men pompously solving the problems of Ukraine and politics in general. Surely people must realise that politics are more complicated than minding the garden. The men constantly jumped from one theory to the next, it was painful to listen to the expertise of those who have no idea as to what they are holding forth on.

So do not do that again.

Return home and try to find the manufacturer of the balcony door. It would be lovely to get that going again. Nobody answers the 'phone, but for one who says that he has had nothing to do wiith this system for years.

Decide to drive the car to Regensburg, just for practice, and to visit the central office of the firm. Ariive there and find a company selling kitchens, not windows. And the firm selling kitchens seems to have just gone broke as well. Perhaps there will be no way to repair the door, just a big wish that it had not been so incredibly complex with all it's hidden catches and ratchets and things.

Returning from Regensburg recieve a telephone call from the window merchant. He is busy trying to be most helpful, explain that the door was bought as a surplus item from a firm that had gone broke and that there would realy be no claim for warranty.

He asks for an email, ask him for a short message with his email adress.

On the return journey, realise that there is a truck chasing the slow diriving car. Push the cruise control up to a slightly higher speed, and now that idiot does nto dare go faster.

That is it.

He is a show-off.

 The glass door on the right hand side of the room opposite its only window is broken. The highly complex mechanism which allows it to tilt for airing or to open for walking is broken, now it will not open. It is good that there is other access to the balcony.

Outside, the sky is grey, it is a bleak-weathered day.

Consider that it would be sensible to pack a suitcase with clothing and toiletries necessary for about a week, to enable a rapid departure at the next bout of depression and panic. This might prevent the drift into pure misery at the thought of having nowhere to go. It is not as if a suitcase was anywhere to go to, it would just lessen the sense of panic at being unable to change clothes or anything at all.  Maybe such a suitcase would be good to have. A spare suit, underwear, shoes, and toothbrush with sleeping clothes, perhaps a few extra day clothes and a pullover. Such a case would have the function of the bucket beside the bed when plagued by the fear of vomiting and of not having anything handy. When such a bucket was around, there was never any real need.

The light outside has turned darker now, even though it is still just before half past one in the afternoon.

Think about the reply made to the email received recently, a reply to the man who starts every sentence with "Ich" and repeats this at least once in the course of the sentence. He is not narcissistic. He is a show-off.

despairing evening

The Saturday meeting is in one quarter of an hour, and it is time to leave the house. That regular Saturday meeting has taken place since the exhibition of the pictures from the neutron source. It is an attempt to pick up contacts to try and gain some work, doing things for other people and maybe even recovering the costs for the materials. 

Look into the gallery on the way, the two owners are there sitting side  by side with a narrow table between them. Comment that this would be a worthwhile picture, but they show their 'phone, it has been done already. Next week they will need somebody to take care of the gallery, and that should not be a problem, not at all.

Across the yard between the houses there is the café, run by men from Croatia. They make good coffee. Sit there drinking coffee and talking shop. Listen to the people at the next table talk slop. No that is not nice, but it is the usual gossipy conversation about others in their absence. Continue talking shop and drink two cups of coffee.

And then the meeting is over, the architect and the property owner did not arrive. The property owner has just turned into a grandfather, and his daughter is probably keeping him busy with the grandchild.

Walk about town, the whole atmosphere is miserable now.

It will be a despairing evening.

Jupiter and Venus

 The son knocks, and we decide to go on, to go for a drive. He is driving, that is the difference, he has his new licence. Unparking the big car is difficult, it is an awkward place. It is between two vans, it is just difficult to back out.

But the son manages well, and he drives of into the sunset over the Bavarian countryside with his father. He drives for an hour, and then he has had enough.

We return, and there are two spots in the sky as a guide.

Using the program on the phone, gain understanding that these are the planets Jupiter and Venus.

Two bright reflectors in the sky, and a short drive of more than fifty kilometres each way.

cover will be good as of midnight

 In the big store look to see whether they have circular black labels approximately 12 millimetres wide. They have them in many colours, but not black. Buy some white labels for another purpose and leave the shop after paying.

Cross the road, it is a pedestrian zone which has been taken over by cyclists using electrical bicycles. They are fast, and they believe that they have the right of way. Since a contact would be painful, stop walking and let them pass. Visit a roadside cafe and take a cup of coffee and a sandwich. Then go to the mall to use the public toilet there. There is nothing else worth getting there today. Leave that overheated consumer's paradise and head on towards the school for ceramics, admire a vase with many spots on it and some ceramic apples with a bright red glaze on them. The spots are nicely arranged but badly done. The apples are fantastic, they would lead to starting an art collection.

Walk through the park, take a picture of some snowdrops. And then just go home.

Later, there is a knock on the door.

It is the son, and he is very pleased with himself. He has a small credit card sized document in his hand, he is now licensed to drive a car. He is very pleased with himself.

Ring up the insurance company and extend the insurance cover.

The insurance cover will be good as of midnight.

play detective.

 Walking about on this Wednesday morning after a sojourn in the cafe. The cafe was boring, full of pensioners with nothing to do in the morning.

Looked at the phone, played a game of Wordle, and gave up on llama. Two letters L and two vowels A are difficult to solve.

Walk into the big clothing store, see that they have a nice trench coat, at long last a coat in a length that will cover a jacket decently. Try it on, and then decide to return later with a jacket on and a shirt too, just to make sure that the thing fits. It is too much money to just waste without trying it on properly.

Go all the way to the supermarket hidden under the city centre mall. The mall is a huge heated space, think about how much that must cost to heat for the relatively few people who use it. It really is very warm inside. Take the escalator down to the shop, all the pensioners who are not in the cafe appear to be shopping. Buy apples and eggs and cheese. There is no big reason to buy anything else. Put the stuff into a big bag and then leave for home.

At home change the hoodie for a shirt and put on a jacket, the hoodie remains on the bed. Go to the clothes store and try on the coat. It fits nicely over the jacket, it is a respectable sort of short trench coat. It covers the jacket, that is important, and the sleeves are long enough too.

Ask the shop attendant for her opinion, and she checks a few things and says that it is good, especially if it is going to be worn over a jacket. It is size extra - extra large, that is pretty big. Pay for the coat and take it home all wrapped in a plastic bag.

Perhaps it would have been good to buy some kind of trilby hat, then it would be possible to play detective.

oil on the last day of the month.

 Leaving the art shop see that there is a light on the dashboard, a small orange symbol of an oilcan  over a liquid type surface. It is a heiroglyph, and the only way to find out what this means is to look into the manual. Resolve to drive to the service station and to let them explain it, Tell the navigator to find the shortest way to the service garage near Bruckberg.

The system cooperates nicely, and after a quarter of an hours drive arrive at the little motor shop. 

The woman at the reception knows her regular customers, and calls for the boss. He gets into the car and starts the engine.

There is no light there, and there is no place where it could have been. 

Still, he is humourful and opens the bonnet of the car to check the oil.

There is no oil on the dipstick, this is a poor sign. Meanwhile. the research in the manual has led to the information that the light is an indicator that there is insufficient motor oil in the engine. The mechanic calls one of his minions who goes and gets a one litre can of oil. This is carefully poured into the engine.

Pay the man for his trouble and for his oil, and leave.

The car's engine is much quieter now. Could it be that there was insufficient oil left over from the last oil change?

Nobody will ever know, and it is an old car

This was all on the twentyeigth of February, and it is now past midnight on the first of March