Category: Uncategorized

The Build 7: Nov 22, 2024

I see it’s been over a month since my previous post about the build. On the 28th of October there was a day of excitement as topsoil from the Banchory-Court-side of the site was piled onto the Carindale-Street-side of the site. One of the large old excavators in charge of the spreading and piling, while the two dump trucks took turns dumping their loads, while perhaps the other old excavator worked the loading.

In that time the majority of the work was done in the section nearest the gate into Surbiton Court. Pipes of several sizes put into the ground … huge concrete pipes in the pic below

And much smaller diameter, some kind of plastic. These often used as guttering drainpipes, in my experience, but here with the red coloring I assume are to house communication and electrical ducting.

Every time it rained work had to stop every second day unless there was a storm as well. The back lot–the parts that I can see from my balcony–filled with puddles and finally a pond-like sheet of water. The pic below is a couple of days later, with grass now growing well.

Birds are starting to congregate though I think it’s more likely that they are snacking on worms rising up and drowning, than fish miraculously appearing in the ankle-deep water and mud. I saw an ibis arrive this morning as well as a stone curlew. The plovers never went away. The approximately forty strong murder of Torresian crows that live in the trees alongside Carindale Street don’t seem to care who visits their grounds, I guess they get enough food across the road. (Carindale Shopping Mall)

 And finally, a mystery object pulled out of the ground?

Well, I know what it is. It surprised me to see one so near to a city center … Cattle grid? I wonder whether when the first village was built back in the 1980s, cattle roamed along the creek?

Another Day, Another Storm

I’m really enjoying them …

Holey moley I didn’t even see this develop

Only a couple of minutes later the outlook was this …

I head to retreat indoors, found the perfect viewing gallery with the windows in front and the dark curtains at my back …

Be warned, it’s a mite long but I dearly wanted to catch a lightning strike …

The sound is good too … and all this before sunset … The following clip after sunset. Even darker

And all this with just an old iPhone!

Cat Diary 18

Tonight, the first time ever, I finally understood what the old woman wanted me to do when she said, “Come on! Come on!” in that high voice she uses to encourage me to do something good.

Just recently she started watching Jackson Jupiter, or some such name, to get a few clues about what we were trying to do.

Training she calls it. I don’t see the use yet. But as I said today I played along. I came. I walked beside her and every four or five human paces she gave me a kibble and patted and stroked my back and said, “Good girl! Good girl!”

Whatever, you know? Just keep the kibbles coming. We went twice up and down the house and then I swung into the den, stood waiting for my supper. The other half of the kibbles that means.

How many days has it been that she gave me a kibble just for looking at her? About a month worth of days.

Anyway, the training is worth it from my end. I just picked up 24 more kibbles than if I’d been stubborn and ignored her entreaties.

This is me on a day when it is sweltering outside and we have the aircon going inside.

Skewed in Favor of Who …?

How is it even a fair election when people can choose whether or not to vote?

Everybody of the voting age in Australia is required to turn up to vote. You can of course mess up your ballot papers, but people are far less likely to do that it seems, than in the US where you can just not turn up.

Hope the Republicans have stacked the wings with a few strong influential honest stalwarts. Could be they’ll be needed.

The article below is the most uplifting thing I’ve read so far about the election results …

https://substack.com/home/post/p-151265805

And just a couple of hours later, one of my favorite magazines opened with this article …

On excitable neurons and how we craft our future

The “Ten Cannots”.

I met William J H Boetcker today, by way of my daily Gisnep Puzzle.
Best known for the “Ten Cannots” apparently. As I read them, I saw several that fly in the face of present day public domain discourse.

Example … “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.”

Aren’t we all wishing the rich would pay more tax, and if they continue to stay recalcitrant on that score, I’ve read that we should just take some of their billions. And, how much good we’d be able to do with XYZ donate just one of his several billions. And, how much can one person spend in a lifetime?

“And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

“You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

“You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.

“You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

“You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.

“You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

“You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

“You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.

Mind you, I do like his seven crimes …

  • I don’t think.
  • I don’t know.
  • I don’t care.
  • I am too busy.
  • I leave well enough alone.
  • I have no time to read and find out.
  • I am not interested.

These are the curse of the times and I’ve been guilty myself of a few. I’ve been too busy. I have left well enough alone when I had no more energy to argue an alternative. I have had no time to read and find out when it’s been a thing that didn’t affect me.

But I would like once or twice in my life to be able to say “I am not interested.” I am, what sometimes feels, as though I am cursed with the curiosity of the proverbial cat. I can usually generate enough interest to explore any arcane, cryptic and/or mind-bending field of study. I used to call it all grist for my writing mill and may it grind finely, but since time is narrowing, I have started to limit my explorations.

Any of these “can-nots” that grab you? [Lol, I put the hyphen in because I kept reading “carrots”!]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._H._Boetcker