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11 October 2018 (Thursday) - Another Late Shift


I slept well, for which I was grateful. I came downstairs and said “Good Morning!” to Fudge as he lay on the sofa. He looked up with one eye and continued to doze. He didn’t budge when "er indoors TM" and Treacle came down five minutes later. As time goes by he is becoming less and less a “morning” dog.
I sparked up my lap-top and peered into the abyss of cyber-space. I saw a cousin and a colleague had a birthday today. They share it with Nicola Bryant;  arguably the best reason to have ever watched “Doctor Who”. She could teach Jocelyn and Demelza a thing or two about heaving bosoms!

Pretty much nothing was kicking off on Facebook this morning so I had a look in my in-box. I had a few frankly meaningless emails from LinkedIn. Have you ever read the drivel they post out? Do people *really* lap up this corporate bollox? Management-speak really is “the emperor’s new clothes” of our age.
I did have an email from “Go Outdoors” but now they aren’t on my way to work I very rarely go there any more.
And I had an email from ViewRanger. About five years ago (when things weren’t that good in my world) I signed up with ViewRanger. I published a few walks on their website. The idea was people would pay to download them, and I would get rich. Five years later I have made an astounding fifty-seven pence from the deal.

I got the leads onto the hounds and we went for a little walk. We had a minor episode just up the road. One of the normal people was doing some sort of building work and had set up a cement mixer in the middle of the pavement and had comprehensively blocked the way with bags of cement and sand and shingle. As I and a mother (with push chair) walked past (in the road) the chap was full of profuse apologies, and he said he didn’t realise he would be in everyone’s way and he had no idea how many people walk up and down the road on a regular basis. I smiled sweetly; there’s not much else you can do with idiots of that caliber.

We walked round the park (mostly) without incident. We met OrangeHead in the co-op field. We came home. Once home I got some boot polish onto my boots; you know you are old when there is something strangely satisfying about polishing boots.
I then played a little “Bubble Witch Saga”, settled Treacle and took Fudge to the vets.

Some dogs have problems with their anal glands; some never do. Periodically Fudge starts worrying at his bottom; sometimes biting the base of his tail bald. At these times he has a very distinctive odour. It is all because his anal glands are full of gunge and his poops aren’t solid enough to empty them. The cure is for the veterinary nurse to shove a finger up his bum and empty them manually. Eeeeww!!!
We got to the vets; Fudge tried to escape because he don’t like being there. We didn’t wait for long before we were called in. Sometimes they “do” him without me. Today I got to go in with the nurse and I got to hold Fudge. I prefer that – it is more reassuring for him. He didn’t struggle *that* much, and it was soon all over.
All over the nurse that is.
Her nice uniform was obviously spattered with dog anal gland juice. Eeeeww!!! The nice nurse tried to keep a straight face as she told me his glands were rather full. I tried not to giggle as I said I could see that. Fortunately for all the nurse laughed it off. I suppose getting spattered with dog anal gland juice is an occupational hazard of shoving a finger up a dog’s bum.

We came home; I settled both dogs and set off to work. As I drove west up the motorway past fifteen miles of road works with not a single person actually doing anything I could see gangs of workmen closing off the slow lane of the east-bound carriageway. And after a rather busy day at work (and another curry) I was faced with serious delays as miles of motorway had only one lane open for no apparent reason.
What half-wit came up with this idea? Why is there any work at all being done on the eastbound carriageway where there is still clearly fifteen miles of work still in progress on the westbound one? Surely it would make sense to concentrate the effort on one job at a time rather than knackering both lanes and delaying me both going to and from work? 

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