Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Slow Weekend for Me.

Thursday Night was one of those rare occassions of lacked sleep. I may change my name to Tyler Durden and attempt to start an exclusive society......

Which led to Friday night being a unsocial event. I came home, got some food in my belly and slept through the audio commentary to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Saturday got my haircut. I now no longer look like I've been on an island for months on end (laughs). Also, the weekly bleck laundry chores. Finished taping the last of the ductwork together (after being sealed and screwed.....see if the ductwork dares to fall apart again.....). Watched The Bridge on the River Kwai (kinda bummed though, I found out Sunday that Saturday Night was the JailBlazers opener.....be good to get some nosebleed tickets and catch a game....last minute).

Some lessons from Sunday. Taking apart a faucet requires patience (unless you want to utterly demolish the finish). 9-1/2 inch channel lock pliers are only good for a maximum 1-1/2 inch grip. A bath faucet is likely 1-3/4 inches. If a gutter has a spot or two of rust under it, don't bother cleaning out the gutter.......at least there's something to look forward to this spring when the weather dries. But do take the time to drive the spikes back into the fascia (there's an archictectural term for ya) so the gutters don't fall off the house during winter rains.

Oh and I finished my latest read.

Breaking Ranks by Peter Cabban and David Salter

At Ozzie recommended it to me when I was at the Maritime Museum. It a book about the collision between a destroyer and aircraft carrier in the 60s. Written by the Officer previously XO (executive officer) prior to the collision. The captain was found to be a rummy.

Warning: As usual below is a spoiler last passage of the book!

The RAN also survived, but still appears to have learned little about loyalty and the absolute obligation of officers to their men over forty ensuing years of periodic calamities. Two sailors were lost through neglect from Oxley; four young people perished through negligence in Westralia. More recently a sailor was inexplicably lost overboard with not even a hint of suspicion that it might have been murder. The whole system of order within the service depends on the notion of unquestioning obedience, inculcated from the moment of enlistment and fostered by idealism to manifest itself in loyalty right up the chain of command. But there it stops. This duty of care and respect is purportedly even stronger towards the lower echelons, for those seamen and women do not enjoy the briefings, the specialised knowledge and experience, the education or the privileges of their senior officers. It is unquestionably right that the junior officers and the sailors look to their seniors for support and guidance, in the confident expectation that if they are in peril then they will find protection and comfort from those who command them. But to my mind there is no evidence, except evidence just as poor as the evidence that I witnessed from the majority of serving personnel in the royal commission, that the men and women of our Navy can expect any better.

Next book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World.

My latest joke: "I'm relearning how to wear layers. I'm teaching myself that what we wear inside is not what we wear outside." And becoming a weather wimp, am already to put the gloves and tuque.....its only in the lower 40s.....



Easter Island Statue, Bishop House Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i, January 2005, by LHD