11 February 2023 (Saturday) - Before the Late Shift

Being wide awake far too early I gave up trying to sleep, saw to the puppies, and scoffed toast whilst watching more of my Coursera course. This morning I revised lymphoproliferative conditions before having a little look at the Internet. It was still there and squabbles abounded.
The atheism Facebook page I’ve started following was good for a laugh; there were no end of religious crackpots coming on to either spread the good news of their particular religion, to warn the godless that they are all going to burn in hell fire, or to confuse atheism with satanism. There were also no end of very aggressive atheists all laughing at the unsubstantiated arguments made by the believers, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their arguments abut the non-existence of a god are all equally untenable. But it all makes for entertaining reading. There was also some amazing drivel about how prayers are more likely to be answered if they are directed via the Middle East. I can’t help but wonder how you send a prayer on such a little diversion.
For myself I’m rather embarrassed that I really did use to believe in all that rubbish. These days I find myself thinking along the same lines as Sir David Attenborough, and he gets hate mail from the righteous. I remain an apathetic agnostic… there might be a god, there might not. All the evidence I have is that if there is one, it is completely indifferent to us.
 
I loaded up the washing machine despite Morgan and Treacle trying to steal grubby socks, and then we all loaded ourselves into the car and set off to Saturday morning dog club. The actual name of Dog Club is “Ashford Dog Socialising Group”, and much as the puppies love it and have a whale of a time, surprisingly the dog who is perhaps benefitting the most is Treacle. Despite always having had other dogs around her, she’s never much cared for other dogs. In the few months we’ve been going she’s got noticeably more tolerant of other dogs. She still don’t like them very much, and we still have little “episodes” (like we did today) but slowly we’re making progress with her.
Whilst she mostly kept herself to herself and grudgingly tolerated the other dogs so Morgan and Bailey had great fun. It was a shame that Morgan had to try to pull lumps of fluff from Fluffy Luna, and it was also a shame that I found one of the other dog-keepers trying to fend Bailey off so that she could gather her dog’s poo before Bailey ate it. But on the whole, dog club was a resounding success. As the days are getting warmer so attendance is increasing, and as spring is in the air, so the boy dogs were all getting “fruity”… mostly with other boy dogs.
And the little pug Sharkey tiddled up a few legs too…
I took a few photos whilst we were there.
 
As we drove home Steve was on the radio doing the Mystery Year quiz thingy. I got it right… 1988. “er indoors TM” said I’d guessed right. It wasn’t a guess; it was skill and expertise (!)
We got home; “er indoors TMtook the dogs inside whilst I popped up the road to the corner shop for a couple of pastries to scoff with a cuppa.
Eventually I got to hang out the washing when the washing machine finished. That machine is strange. Several times each week I load it up on setting number two and press the “go” button”. The numbers “1:50” appear on the thing’s screen and count down. But what do these numbers mean? Today the thing took just over two hours to finish; other times it is done in just under an hour.
 
With laundry hung out I set off to work and had a rather busy day. When I first started professionally testing blood, half a dozen blood samples all afternoon would have been thought excessive. Today I (quite literally) didn’t stop at all.
Certainly not how I’d rather be spending a Saturday afternoon and evening…

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