You dialled by putting a finger in each number hole one at a time, dragging each one to the stop. When I was a kid our town’s phone numbers had just four digits, didn’t take long to dial.

You could opt out of being in the phone book. I had to do this because a crazy woman who had had a teacher by the same name as me, in the same suburb as me, kept ringing me. First call she said, “Guess who this is?” Dunno. By the tenth call that first day she was yelling down the phone that I was a liar, asking me “Why are you being like this?!?” Because I was never your teacher! No caller id back then, so I had to keep right on answering. One time I picked up and shouted “FUCK OFF!” and yeah it was a work colleague, that was awkward.

the old boat has oars

Which no-one is using. It’s the first thing I noticed. There’s a man sitting in the stern with a tiller and rudder, but there’s no visible means of propulsion, no other crew. Weird.

Edit: I zoomed in, and it’s possible there is someone else in the boat, hard to see.

That punch! The whole episode nearly gave me a heart attack.

I’ve just caught up with Slow Horses. The main character is played by Gary Oldman in top form. He’s a spy, so decrepit and filthy you can almost smell him. He runs an outpost of British intelligence from a filthy, decrepit office staffed by a bunch of fuck-ups. It’s the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Lots of character development, back stories, car chases, bloodshed, even a tiny splash of romance. It’s on its 4th series, so I’m very late to the game. Probably because I don’t have Apple+.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Horses

Same here, my body goes to the local ned school. They’ll return to he ashes if you want, but I don’t care. I cleared it with my sister before signing the forms because she does care about cremains etc. Apparently the university has a memorial garden where they spread the ashes.

I’m old and I smell exquisite. I know a lot of old people, and none of them smell of ketchup, let alone armpit or butt. If the man reeks, it’s because he has poor personal hygiene, not because he’s old. It’s you that’s denigrating the elderly by saying we stink.

Allofmp3, that was it! I downloaded the Muse albums too. :-)

The swamps of Dagobah.

There was this Russian website where you could download whole albums for like 50 cents. I absolutely loved it, because as well as current hits it also had the most obscure, crazy stuff, classical music, jazz, and world music. I think they’re all in prison now, the guys who ran it.

Aaaand then there’s slime moulds. Some of which can run a maze…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold

He then shared particular frustration with the sudden change in his opponent, suggesting that the Democrats had orchestrated Biden’s withdrawal to improve their chances.

Gosh, I don’t think anyone else has figured that out! This guy is hella smart.

I was out walking with a friend the other day and he tripped and fell. His watch told him, “It seems you’ve fallen sharply.” He had to tap the screen to stop it calling the emergency services. The other friend walking with us said his wife’s watch tells her to stand up if she’s been sitting too long. “And she does it!” I’m officially a curmudgeon, grumbling about tech taking over.

I’m going with beekeeping as my “field” because it’s my main hobby now I’m retired. So. Many. Misconceptions. The Bee Movie was not a documentary, people! The mating process for honeybees is horrifying and you don’t want to know. Male bees have one job, and then they die. If they don’t do that job, they still die; their sisters kick them out at the end of summer. Plus, I was talking to someone the other day who didn’t realise we let the bees just roam around.

Sometimes it’s couched as “team player”. Some jobs I had it absolutely mattered who you were friends with.

Do viruses and bacteria count? Antibac resistance is building. I imagine a virus that fritzed our brains would give animals some advantage.

One Thing After Another.

Written by LG Lazarus, lol.

Look for volunteer opportunities. In my town I found a litter-picking group that met once a week. Then through members of that group I joined another one that maintains flower beds and planters around the town. Then joined an effort to rehabilitate an environment project on a nearby farm, and ended up in the beekeeping team. Another group I was in for a few years organises gentle walks for elderly folks. I learned a huge amount from all these things, and none of it cost me anything but time.

Stage one: Effortful noise when rising from a low chair/sofa

Stage two: Inability to rise from a low chair/sofa. Beanbag? Nooooo….

My own turning point was finding myself unable to get out of the bath by just standing up. It was comic but also terrifying. I eventually worked out I could lever myself up with my arms. Phew.