1 June 2023 (Thursday) - Pond and Stuff

I slept rather well again last night, which was something of a result. But I was still up early enough to watch an episode of “Shameless”. It’s a good program, but much of it being based on the amorous adventures of a piss-stained tramp does stretch credulity somewhat.

 

With a few minutes to spare I had a look at the internet. Last night I finally got round to updating the album of photos of my pond, and it had got quite a few comments.

I had two friend requests on Facebook this morning. You can see them here. Interestingly the profiles of these two contained identical photos. What’s that all about?

There was an interesting posting on one of the pond-related Facebook pages this morning. Interesting in two ways. Firstly because it sparked a polite conversation and not a bitter squabble. And secondly because of what it was about. Some chap had recently bought a house with a rather good pond in the garden. Or (to be precise) with what had once been a rather good pond in the garden. The thing had fallen into disrepair and this chap had posted some photos of the work he’d done transforming it from a silted-up mess back to a rather good pond. In the comments someone had asked how much people would be prepared to spend to pay a professional to sort the pond for them. The general consensus was “not very much”. The one who had asked the question then announced he ran a garden pond building/renovation business and had outgoings of seventy quid a day. He then asked if, considering those outgoings, would people be prepared to pay more for his services. Most people (politely) said “no”. The general consensus was why should we subsidise his expenses by paying for that which we would do ourselves for free.

My pond is my ongoing hobby/project. I don’t doubt I could make the thing perfect in a day if I paid someone to make it perfect. But where’s the fun in that?

 

As I drove to work I listened to the pundits on the radio talking about how the American senate has voted to increase their "debt ceiling". I'm no economist, but from what I can work out this means that although the American government already owes an absolute fortune,  rather than paying back what is owed, they are just going to carry on borrowing more and more to keep going.

How does that work?

After ten seconds on Google I came up with this web site which told me that the American government started off in debt (back when it borrowed fifty million dollars from the French to finance the war of independence) and it has carried on borrowing more and more ever since. Now its debts have grown to over thirty trillion dollars... you'd think people would stop lending them money, wouldn't you?

I seriously worry about paying off my credit card each month. Perhaps I shouldn't bother?

 

And then I had a phone call from the most recent fruit of my loin who had found (well, Pogo had found) a dead seagull in her garden. What did I think she should do with it? My gut reaction was to ding it in the nearest public waste bin. She wasn't keen on doing that. She wasn't keen on doing anything which involved going anywhere near the dead seagull, but (as I pointed out) what other options did she have? Pogo wasn't going to leave the thing alone, was he?

I am reliably informed she stuffed it in the bin by Sainsbury's. It turns out that stuffing it in the bin by Sainsbury's is exactly in line with the government's formal advice on dealing with dead birds.

Can you believe it - my plan was right. Go me!!

 

I got to work and did my bit. And wasn't at all impressed when the early shift went home two hours earlier than I did. I like being on the early shift so I can go home early. I get to work far too early to avoid being stuck in traffic on the motorway so early shifts suit me. Yesterday I'd got home, walked the dogs round the woods, got home again and bathed Treacle before the time at which I drove out of the works car park this evening.

 

I came home to find my pond testing kit had arrived. I’d ordered one from Amazon yesterday; I had a theory that high nitrate levels (or something) were encouraging the green algae growth. But I was wrong.

Nitrate, nitrite and chlorine levels were fine. However pH was to the top end of what was good… Mind you the test kit gave the top end of pH as being 8.0, but expert opinion has it quite a bit higher. Carbonate levels and water hardness were a tad high too… but what can you expect living in Kent?

I suppose that not finding anything seriously amiss is a good thing, but (for some daft reason) I feel that a negative result was something of a waste of money.