Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

Oh I can think of nothing worse ! I have done more than my fair share of exam invigilation over the years as part of my lecturers contract. Boredom springs to mind. Although I did quite enjoy trying to answer the papers, especially maths for some reason.

[PanBiker]

Someone has to do it Sue and there are far worse jobs, it's warm and dry at least.

[Sue]

True, but some of the rooms I was in were certainly not warm, and sometimes not even dry ! January mock exams come to mind in an old ' school' hall. It was freezing cold and snowing and raining, blowing in through window frames. Building long since knocked down thank goodness.

[Stanley]

Julie, I have done a White Goods Dance and shaved my head to protect all of us.
Ian, good luck with it.....
Today I shall be looking forward to son in law Mick coming at 11:30 to give me a lift to where the UPS delivery man left my parcel yesterday after not waiting for an answer to the door and ignoring my instruction to leave packet in recycling bin. Would you believe that their version of a convenient pickup point is the Happy Shopper on Coates Avenue? Could be a heavy parcel so no point walking down there. I am not happy.....
(Why is it that if you are waiting for a delivery they come as soon as you drop your trousers.....?)

[Stanley]

CO2 monitor activated and installed, working properly. According to the blurb it will last until I am 87..... Question is, will I???
Today is write an article for January 1st edition of the BET after backing up all this year's data to two external drives. Better safe than sorry! No shed....
Making sure I have plenty of diabetes medication to last me over the holiday.... Can't believe it's Xmas next Friday.

[LizG]

More cleaning at Mum's place. Second day this week, another tomorrow. The estate agent is coming to give us an idea what we need to do before selling. It feels like a never ending story. The expression 'moving the deckchairs on the Titanic' has been mentioned several times. It's awful throwing away 65 years of their life.

Mum will come home for a party on Boxing day. She doesn't seem to recognise the place any more, but it's a nicer place for the 13 great grand children to see her than in the aged care facility.

[Tizer]

According to the blurb it will last until I am 87..... Question is, will I???

If you don't, ask for your money back!

[Marilyn]

Hope Christmas with Mum goes well, Sue...a shame she doesn't seem to recognise her home...we can never imagine being in such a state, can we? Heart breaking.

Well I've done my morning jobs and set the house to rights. Have also made a Potato Salad to go with our Fish and Salad this evening, so I am off to do some Ancestry ( hot day...best to sit still).
Bashed some hand washing over the rocks again....Day 8 without a washing machine...but the mechanic is booked in for late afternoon, so fingers crossed he shows up!
Might have a little "tantrum" if he doesn't....

[Marilyn]

(aaarrrrghhhh!)
They phoned to say that they wouldn't be coming today, as "a part they had ordered had not arrived".
(they haven't been to see the machine yet, so goodness knows what part they have deemed at fault and duly ordered)
Best we can hope for is an early doors call on Christmas Eve...if this ordered part has materialised by then. If not, earliest date will be 4th January!

It just gets better and better doesn't it?

[Stanley]

Commiserations Liz. I keep telling my daughters I shall be watching them puzzling over the contents of my house when the time comes and laughing my head off! I'm hoping they will remember this and perhaps have the occasional laugh themselves as they do it. I talk to them about my death often and try to make them realise that it is nothing really, just turning the page over in an extremely large book! That's why I wrote the four volumes of me memoirs and gave them all copies. Sounds excessive I know but it will, I hope, help them when the time comes.... They all have the files of all the family pictures as well.
Tiz, the way things are going at the moment I shall still be here! Bugger the bloke with the scythe....
Maz, you poor thing! I wouldn't be any where near as patient as you are..... I would have them firmly by the short and curlies!
Today I shall be having a less busy day than yesterday! As near normal as I can manage.

[Marilyn]

I've sent an email of complaint. The fact is, that if the washing machine was my responsibility ( and I had to pay a call out fee and repair costs), I could have rang anyone in the phone book and had it fixed that day possibly.
Just because it is a warranty issue doesn't mean I should be treated so differently...

[Stanley]

Absolutely right Maz and further, I would say that a warranty claim should take precedence in any job queue because in the end, it is the arbiter of future sales.....
Good luck with it....

[plaques]

I talk to them about my death often and try to make them realise that it is nothing really

Some of the old and not so old philosophers believed that that the 'soul' was recycled into a never ending repetition of a continued life cycle. Except for the odd case of 'deja vu' the individual knows nothing about thier previous lives. This cycle continues until the individual gets it right and then drops out of this endless treadmill. Sorry to say Stanley that you may not be out of the woods yet.

[Tripps]

Why are people so reluctant to accept that the possibility that before you are born - you don't exist, and after you die you simply don't exist. I suppose it would come under the category of 'low self esteem', which of course is a bad thing.

W.B. Yates says in Ben Bulben
Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities,

He goes on to show a belief in an after life, and he probably did not intend what I see in it, but I like the idea of the two eternities - of nothing. Has there ever been a state or society which lived without the 'benefit' of religion' ? I don't know.
This is all getting a bit deep for me - maybe I should have stopped Rowan Williams yesterday and had a chat?

[Stanley]

Don't bother digging too far into it, you won't end up any wiser. I work on the assumption that when I die the lights go out. Anything more will be a bonus.... The fear of death has been exploited by coercive religions for as long as we have been around on the planet. I refuse to join the club. All that matters is how you conduct your life while you are here and what you leave behind when you go, your kids and the results of your work. Too late to worry about it but I don't think I have done such a bad job, so far.....
I shall be having a normal day and watching the Xmas frenzy build to a crescendo, I think I have covered all the basics.... Get my morning tasks done and into the shed!

[Marilyn]

Hopefully I shall leave nothing more than footprints in the talcum powder on the bathroom floor...
( and they should wipe up pretty easily)

[Stanley]

No Maz, you will also leave some fond memories....
I have just finished all my jobs.... into the shed now!

[plaques]

when I die the lights go out. Anything more will be a bonus...

Forever the optimist, I suppose you could always do a few steam engine castings if things don't go to plan.

[Stanley]

I like it! That assumes I would have a source of heat!
In the days when my libido was in hyper-drive I used to worry about the loss of sex in old age. What I found out of course was that like many other compulsions, it goes off you and is no problem. There are a lot of advantages to old age! I have the same attitude to death, if the lights go out I will have no interest and nothing to fear. If they don't I have a pretty good record...... I recognise my mistakes in life but can't really identify anything I should be ashamed of. Smug B*****d Eh?
Normal shed duties after completing daily household tasks. At the moment I'm washing my bedding.... Who says old blokes can't look after themselves! This is a well run establishment....

[Marilyn]

I think the majority of men fret about about that, Stanley.
( I think the majority of women wish men didn't waste energy fretting about it! We don't fret about it!) it probably comes down to the greater importance men give to sex in their youth, in comparison to women.

Ancestry today, though not mine. I was helping hubby with his lot ( frustrating at times because we work differently).
Every now and then I had to wander off and make a cup of tea, and take some deep breaths. We got lots done though, so a successful day.

[Moh]

Ref. life after death - Dad & I used to talk about it, I said you will probably go before me so if there is anything there give me a sign. He was in a nursing home and was quite fit, he had a fall but appeared to be OK. However during the night there was a knocking at our front door, I got out of bed and looked through the bedroom window and the landing window and there was no-one there. The following morning when I got up the nursing home sister rang me to tell me Dad had passed in the night between 2am & 6am (I always regret I did not look at the clock) - I told her he had knocked on the door and she said she often heard things like that. I have had other instances too.

[PanBiker]

I have a very vivid memory of stirring in the night when I was 7 years old and seeing my Granddad sat in the chair in my bedroom. I turned over and thought nothing about it and went back to sleep. I found out the following morning that he had died just after midnight at home shortly after going to bed. My Grandma was making bedtime hot chocolate and he had died when she brought it upstairs.

[plaques]

Currently reading a book 'The Labyrinth of Time: The Illusion of Past, Present and Future by Anthony Peake (ISBN: 9781848378681)' Which sets off with examples of scientific studies including our old friend Julian Barbour, Bruff will remember him, but then moves to a number of 'time slip' experiences etc similar to those described by Moh and PanBiker. I shall be returning it to the library by Tuesday. Not really my cup of tea but there you are.

[Cathy]

Marilyn and I have a few stories about visit's and communications from past loved ones.
I'm sure we will be sending signs ourselves to loved ones still here in the physical when we return to the afterlife.
I call it Home. Love is the connection, it never dies.
Love and Light

[Marilyn]

Tap and knock if you must Cazza, but do provide the winning Lotto numbers as well...