Couldn’t be bothered

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99% of the time, when I do a job, I do it properly.
If I’m doing it for someone else, I’ll always give it my best effort.
If I’m doing if myself, I’ll usually give it my best effort.

But there is that other 1% of the time when circumstances (tiredness, trivial job, working conditions, amount of football on the tele etc etc) come together and conspire to make me put it on the back burner or even, in some cases, give up completely.

I know I’m not the only one. And I don’t just say that with no evidence, because look at this town in Porters Lake, Nova Scotia:

What has prompted such laziness? A poor night’s sleep? A perceived lack of respect at work? Sheffield United being on at 4pm instead of 5?

Laurie Lane – Alliterative street name or gentle Celtic poet?
Keizer Drive – it almost rhymes.

Post Office Road – perfect – very descriptive.
(Until you find out that the local Post Office is actually on Keizer Drive.)

And when you’re pointing that out:

No, it’s not on Post Office Road, it’s on That Street.
Well, no. Not That Street. The Other Street.
Which is called Keizer Drive.

And then those abominations south of the main road. Appalling. Lazy. Disappointing.

As an aside, Nova Scotia Trunk Highway 7 (crazy name, crazy road) looks like a very cool drive. And some of the place names along that bit of coastline are superb:

Grand Desert.
Head of Chezzetcook.
Ship Harbour.
Lower Ship Harbour.
East Ship Harbour.
Watt Section.
Pleasant Harbour.
Mushaboom.
Musquodoboit Harbour.
Moosehead.

And the inevitable:
Wine Harbour, and Sober Island.

There’s a whole blog post to be done about the bizarre North American place names I have found while searching on Geoguessr. But NSTH7 really packs them in along just a couple of hundred clicks.

Imagine there’s no gravity…

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…it isn’t hard to do.

Especially if you watch this guy – his name is Shane Griffin – running up the side of buildings like Isaac Newton never did the thing with the apple back in the 17th Century.

I’m not advocating the trespass, endorsing the invasion of privacy or the overlooking of basic health and safety here, but there is something rather impressive about the way he does this.

It’s not just his ability, but his faith in that ability (and some aging drainpipes) that is remarkable. He really does make going vertically upwards look rather effortless, and yet we all know about the 9.81ms-2 constantly trying to pull him vertically the other way.

One false move and he would be fine – if that false move was before he started going up the sheer side of a four-storey building – the rest of the time, he’d be in a lot of trouble, very quickly.

And he’d likely have the ghost of Sir Isaac doing that smug “I told you so” face at him. Understandably, too.

Thankfully though, that appears not to have happened.
So let’s just marvel at just how easy he makes this all look.

It’s that time again

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As the clocks in the UK and Europe “Spring” forward, we here in SA are reminded of our upcoming winter. No surprises that it rained overnight here then, and the day – while sunny – has been chilly. In fact, the whole week looks like it’s going to be much cooler than we’ve been used to.

That said, we’re back into the 30’s by Friday, so maybe I shouldn’t be quite so dismissive of the end of summer. But there is a chill in the air, and so I’m doing my best to ward it off with some brandy.

For me, the benefit of the clocks changing is that European football matches finish at a vaguely acceptable time. When you’re doing the school run early each morning, that extra hour in bed helps.

Last night’s braai (on SA time) went well, thank you very much for asking. And the beagle did get some nice little schnacks. She’s obviously not very mobile at the moment, but there’s nothing lacking in her cunning. No need to move far from the braai dish: that’s where the good stuff is at. So that’s where I’ll hang out.

And I’ll give everyone the puppy-dog eyes. And they can see me limp a bit.

Winning hearts and minds. Not stupid.

Temporarily repaired

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Good news in that the beagle has been temporarily repaired.

A good night’s sleep last night, together with a lazy day today seems to have done her the world of good.

Hopefully, her recovery can now begin again.

And tonight, it’s every beagle’s favourite time of the week:

There’s usually something nice going spare somewhere when it’s braai night.

And I’m sure that the beagle will be right there on hand should anything become available.

Which I’m sure it will.

Rough night, long day

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The title describes the thing.

A very disturbed night with the beagle. Something was clearly not right.

I got in touch with the vet first thing and booked her in to be seen this afternoon, and then I sent them a couple of videos of her trying to sleep. They called straight back once they saw them and asked me to get her in there asap. Obviously, her whimpers and shaking concerned them from a potential sepsis point of view.

But once we’d got her there (25 minutes later), and they’d taken her temperature, they were less concerned. To be honest, I had considered the sepsis thing, but her disturbances were sporadic and far from continuous. Also, they tended to be at the end of her analgesic cycle, which was a good clue.

So she’s spent the afternoon high as a kite on a drip of ketamine, morphine and lignocaine, and we have a new regimen of painkillers for her. I, tired and emotional, asked the vet if I could have any leftover drip, but he said that the best he could do was some gabapentin. Meh.

I’m looking forward to a sleepier, happier (more productive?) beagle tonight. She’s just wandered drunkenly into my office and crashed out in the corner. And some sleep for me would be great, too.
If United weren’t playing at 10, I’d be in bed already. If I’m being honest, I’m really not sure how I’m going to stay up for the match anyway. But we’ll give it a go.

UTB. See you on the other side.