On my way home from work
I checked out the DNF on my geocache..... A DNF is a "Did Not
Find" report made on a geocache. People log one of these
when they look for a cache and don't actually find it. Either people
just can't find it, or it could be a warning that the thing has
actually gone missing.
The supposedly missing
cache had originally been hidden in a crash barrier along a
little-used country lane. It was very unlikely to be found by chance
by any passers-by. And the actual cache itself was squirrelled away
inside a Chinese puzzle box that wasn't cheap.
Sure enough it had gone.
Sandwich box, Chinese puzzle box, the lot.
The person who reported
it as missing had left a rather strange message in her log: "may
be missing - I know how to open these boxes - so ????" On
reading this you might wonder how she knows what sort of a box it was
if she didn't actually find it.
This is the second box of
this type that has disappeared from this location. I'm not saying the
thing has been deliberately stolen by an unscrupulous geocacher, but
I am reliably informed that the last one had been.
Theft of sandwich
boxes... it's all a bit sad really.
Rather than coming
straight home I stopped off at the opticians where my idiot magnet
seemed to be working at full power. One of the receptionists was
asking me the standard questions that receptionists ask, but it was
difficult for me to hear her (and for her to hear me) as some
incredibly stupid woman was also being asked questions. This woman
refused point blank to come to the counter; insisting that she sat
down and shouted across the store. She announced that answering
questions was very stressful for her because she was on benefits, and
then rather aggressively wanted to know why I wasn’t (on
benefits).
Eventually I got in to
see the optician, and I explained that I could be on benefits if it
would help. The optician didn’t actually wet herself, but it came
close. Once the giggling stopped I had the air blown in my eyes, did
the letters and colours thing, and was then told that my eyes have
gone off about as much as would be expected since last time.
The new specs arrive in
two weeks’ time. That's two hundred more quid I'd rather fritter
away on beer.
I came home, popped the
lead on my dog, and we went for a walk. We got as far as Bowens Field
(five minutes away) and then the heavens opened. We turned
round, and by the time I got home I was soaked and my dog looked more
like a seal than a dog.
This rain is a nuisance.
I had intended to mow the lawn today. Instead I looked at my accounts
(and wished I hadn’t), fed my smalls to the washing machine,
had a bag of parsnip crisps and went to bed. I woke late in the
afternoon to find I was cuddling "Furry Face TM"
as though he were a teddy bear.
I was quite content to
lay there, but the strange voices in my dog's head told him to
declare a red alert, and he launched into a woofing fit right by my
ear. I wasn't getting back to sleep after that. Instead I got up and
methodically emptied the contents of the washing basket into the
washing machine.
Once "er indoors
TM" went bowling I ironed shirts whilst
watching "Star Trek:
Renegades". I've been watching rather a lot of fan-made
Star Trek episodes and films lately. Star Trek: Renegades is by far
the worst of the lot and (quite frankly) that was up against
some stiff competition. It relied too much on having famous actors
and heaving blue breasts and didn't actually bear any relation to the
show for which it had been named.
And in closing today I'll
make the observation that today is an anniversary. Thirty four years
ago I started professionally testing blood. Thirty four years....
(glossing over one particular hiccup) it's not been a bad old
job really. The only drawback was that when I first started I was
promised a pension after forty years. I was promised that I could
retire on full pension on September 14 2021. That's not going to
happen, is it?
