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24 August 2024 (Saturday) - Rain Stopped Play

This morning I rolled my eyes as I peered into the Internet. There was a story on social media about a little shop in Cheriton closing after having been in business for twenty-five years. Apparently they couldn’t compete with the on-line market. It strikes me that if you can’t beat them, join them. Several little specialist shops that used to operate locally have closed up and gone to internet sales only; why don’t these people do the same?
And another Facebook friend was posting about how all the school leavers should try running their own business. I sighed. Running your own business is all very well all the time it is a success.  At the risk of sounding negative over half fail within three years. Ending up owing thousands of pounds or going bankrupt isn’t something to be taken on lightly.
Many years ago (forty-five) I had a couple of offers for businesses in which I might like to invest my time and money. Both were going concerns in Hastings Old Town. Both have long since gone bust.
During the week I listened to a radio interview with Bill Gates who was talking about how when he set up Microsoft a lot of other people were doing much the same sort of thing. Nowadays everyone knows of Bill Gates; no one knows of his competitors from the early days. He said that none of them did anything any different to what he was doing, but he was lucky and they were not.
 
Being Saturday we went round to Repton for Dog Club. Despite the rain. As expected the turn-out wasn’t what it might have been. Last week in the sunshine we had over twenty dogs along. Today in the rain we had eight. And one went home in a serious sulk.
Some woman who was on their second week was along. Morgan and Pogo had been being boisterous so we took them off for a little walk. As we walked we saw Sue and Chris in the car park talking with the newbie who was going home. Apparently this woman claimed that “two black dogs” wouldn’t stop bothering her dog and she wasn’t coming back. Presumably the “two black dogs” were Morgan and Pogo. But as for bothering her dog…  I somehow got the distinct impression that this woman wanted to make a fuss. Ironically this woman’s smallest child had been rather preciously screaming in terror whenever her own dog came close, and flatly refusing the suggestions of her older sister to go and stand away from that dog. Clearly this child wanted a fuss rather than a solution. Was this woman in the same vein?
I suppose it takes a certain mindset to understand Dog Club. The whole idea is that dogs socialize. They do this by being left to get on with it, albeit under supervision. It’s not going to work if you keep making a fuss every time your dog finds itself within a mile of another.
 
We made the most of it, but the dogs were soaked by going home time. As we drove home Steve was doing the mystery year on the radio. Immediately I knew it was 1972… but after a few more clues I changed my mind. What gave it away for me was the TV series “Ripping Yarns” – 1976.
Once home. I popped to the corner shop. Almond croissant. Oh yus.
With the rain showing no sign of letting up I thought I might make the most of it being wet. If I were to pressure-wash the front yard the rain water would wash away the muck. In theory a brilliant idea; in practice the rain was too heavy and I was soaked within ten minutes.
 
I came in and with nothing much else I could do I did the monthly accounts. As always I am far better off than I once was, but as always I’d like to have far too much money.
I then looked at Ryobi power tools. The other day I whinged about how the things were misleading in that the price quoted didn’t include battery or charger. Did they hear me whinging? They’ve been advertising a new deal in which if you buy a battery and charger you get a free power tool. Sadly you can get pretty much any tool except the long-handled hedge trimmer I want.
And with the rain showing no signs of stopping I set about solving geo-puzzles which are where we’re going in holiday next month. There weren’t many, and quite a few of those that are there say you need a NATO ID card to be allowed anywhere near them.
 
We then turned the telly on and dozed through Catherine Tate in “The Nan Movie”, then I wrote up a little CPD. By late afternoon the weather had gone from continuous heavy rain through to bright sunshine which every fifteen minutes was interrupted by a torrential downpour lasting less than a minute.
Compare that to last Saturday afternoon when we sat in the sunshine drinking beer and scoffing ice cream.
 
“er indoors TM boiled up fish and chips which we scoffed whilst watching episodes of “Below Deck”. With everyone living and working on the same yacht I was rather reminded of somewhere I used to work in that hardly anyone working there had any friends who weren’t also work colleagues and so people lived seemingly constantly in each other’s pockets.
 
Hopefully this rain will stop soon.

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