I had a quiet little cry this afternoon

It sorta snuck up on me just a bit. You see I got this double CD from the library this morning & thought that i would have a listen to it while I was building herself a frame to protect her strawberries from the predations of our avian friends. Anyway, I put it on & started listening to it. Its full of tracks that I haven't heard anyone else except me play for a whole lot of years. It took me back to times when I was under 20, had just bought my first 12 string, was a member of a folk music club, had heard Dylan for the very first time. Arlo Guthrie singing Alice's Restaurant right through (with feeling) & a whole raft of other things including people that I thought I had long forgotten. I
t all put me in mind of one of the most poignant songs that I think the Beatles ever recorded. Here are the lyrics for you, so you can shed a quiet little tear or two & feel just as maudlin as I do at the moment..


There are places i'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends i still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life i've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When i think of love as something new
Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more

Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more
In my life i love you more

I dont think I have to tell you the name. Heres to all my friends past & present. I love you all

Ooops........

Flat straight road for about 3 km's in both directions..... No other vehicles involved....... Beautiful fine morning........ Ooooppsss......

This is Tiger

he works for Environment Waikato at their Paeroa branch. He has been there about 2 years now. He was a bit of a street kid when they got him & very wary of men with boots, so I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why. he didnt even know how to play when he arrived there. He has made up for lost time since so they assure me . He is now master of the "in" basket & making sure that all folders in the bookshelf are right way up & in the right order. he also does a very good meet & greet routine. The human staff there just love him to bits & are very proud of him.. Not bad for a street kid from the wrong side of the tracks huh ?

I love a rainy night

Yep old Eddie Rabbitt had it right there alright. There is something very satisfying about lying in bed at night listening to the rain falling on a corrugated iron roof. In our house, the insulation in the ceiling muffles the noise just enough that you dont have to raise your voice to be heard, or be woken up when it starts.

The other thing about rainy nights is that I find them very romantic. Even outside in the spabeque watching the steam drift off from under the gazebo is relaxing.. Did I mention that I find rainy nights romantic ???? maybe I did..

Well, its Labour Weekend

And typically for Labour Weekend its currently pissing down with rain. But thats not really of much account . basically we have had a good weekend. Sharon & Richard came down with the grandkids & thats always nice. They really are growing up fast. The grandkids that is. Sharon & Richard do act mature on occasions as well. Didnt do a lot, but it was nice just for them to be here & to spend quality time with them. I couldnt get down & play with them too much as I banged my ribs up somewhat last Thursday at work & two visits later to the hospital later am still sore. Coming right though.

Alf's family came down to tidy up & clean out his house & tidy up & have a garage sale.. Damn a lot of stuff got sold at bargain prices. Two big rubbish skips of crap have also gone from the property as well as all but two of the old car body's so its all good.

On a sad note, my friend Jeff has been readmitted to hospital. He has terminal cancer & i dont think that he has much longer to go somehow. Just wish I could bundle the three of them up & make all the hurt go away, but that is only possible in story books I guess . All we can do now is be there for them now. Other than that, its been good to have extra day off. Its helped the poor old body along substantially, so happy labour day.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Labour day

A Labour Day is an annual holiday celebrated all over the world that resulted from efforts of the labour union movement, to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers.

The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and May Day.

Labour Day in New Zealand

In New Zealand, Labour Day is a public holiday held on the fourth Monday in October. Its origins are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesman to also only work for eight hours a day and in October 1840 a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On 28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910 the government "Mondayised" the holiday so that it would be observed on the same day throughout the nation.

Apparently its a pretty big thing in Canada as well. It does seem strange that we "celebrate." I feel that it might be more appropriate to spend the day in mourning somehow. We seem hell bent at the moment on giving away all the hardfought benefits that our fathers worked so hard to obtain. Like who actually works a 40 week any more ? I wouldnt know what to do with my spare time if I only worked 40 hours. And who belongs to a union any more ? I dont , but I am lucky enough to be employed by a company with a heart. There are those who arent though. I guess one of the good things to come out recently is the extra weeks holiday after you have been employed in the same company for 10 years. I have just qualified for that.. yay...

Reading.. The Gospel of Judas by Simon Mawer, fiction, with the interesting concept of a scroll found in the Dead Sea area written by Judas that starts off by stating that he saw Christ die & that he didnt rise & he had viewed the decomposing body. All this is being translated by a Roman Catholic priest.. Hmmmmmmm......

Listening to. The Best of Jethro Tull Kick ass rock at its best.. I just love what Ian Anderson does with the flute..

Work things

This is the truck that I am driving at the moment. Its a Nissan CH 350 six wheeler. This means its 350 turbocharged horsepower. It has a 10 speed Eaton Fuller Road Ranger gearbox. The deck will hold 18 standard pallets & we have fitted it with a mezzanine floor so that we can carry long stuff like packs of timber. It is fitted with a lazy axle, which means that we can raise the rear of the two back axles. This puts more weight on the drive wheels which gives more traction. This is helpful as we do a lot of farm deliveries with it.Its one very nice truck to drive, & will be sad to return it to its regular driver...

We finally made the big time !!!!!!

A New Zealand man who drove into a power pole after using dishwashing liquid for brake fluid has been honoured with a Darwin Award - given for idiocy.

Darwin Awards recognise "individuals who ensure the long-term survival of our species by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion".

Author Wendy Northcutt has gathered them into a book highlighting unintentional, foolish, bizarre, avoidable injuries or deaths.

Three New Zealanders appear in her latest book.

The dishwashing liquid man did not actually kill himself, so had to be content with a "notorious" award, for those who do foolish harm to themselves.

He opted to use dishwashing liquid as a cheaper alternative to brake fluid.

Perhaps predictably, his brakes failed as he tried to steer around a bend. His car slammed into a powerpole.

He was washed up: his car was not registered, and his licence had been suspended, so police charged him.

He was sentenced to 220 hours of community service and further licence suspension of a year.

Two New Zealanders won posthumous awards.

One man jacked up his car to repair it, using a car battery under the jack to create more height.

The battery collapsed, the jack toppled over and the car crushed him.

The other was killed when he apparently overrode the protection system of a food processing plant by putting a weight on a lever which shut the machine down. He suffered fatal injuries when he was pulled into the machine.

Past award winners have included terrorists who set their bombs on daylight saving time and delivered them on standard time, blowing themselves up.

People who tried to put garlands around a tiger's neck have been honoured, as have Cambodian men who took turns to stomp on a land mine they had brought into a bar.

Thank you to The New Zealand Herald for this one. It really is difficult to believe that folks can be so bloody stupid, but there you are I guess..

Thanks a Billion

My cousin Shirley sent me this email ....

A billion in perspective


The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a
casual manner, think about
whether you want the "politicians" spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising
agency did a good job of
putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate
our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at
New Orleans . It's amazing what you
can learn with some simple division .

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the
Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild
New Orleans . Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every
man, woman, child). You each get $516,528.

B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your
home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C . HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??

This is too true to be very funny


Kinda makes you stop & think.......


Dont it ??

Bye Bye Blackbird

Its ironic I know, but as I am posting this, I am listening to Max Geldray his Orchestra actually playing that particular song as part of The Goon Show. Anyway, on to the reason for the picture & the post.

I guess you remember me telling you about Mr Bird & his nesting efforts ? Well this is Mr Bird. As this picture was taken, he was in the process of fossicking about in our garden & on our lawn for his dinner. Not 30 seconds before, Fattums, one of the Ginger Ninja's had just stalked pass not 10 feet away, to the complete unconcern of Mr Bird. If he maintains this level of nonchalance, he is going to end up as an integral part of an old nursery rhyme, namely 4 & 20 Blackbirds...


This is Mr Dog. I didnt get his christian name, but he is the self proclaimed managing director of a motorcycle shop that I delivered to this morning. He strolled out to meet me all full of his self importance. After the proper formalities, a handshake, he proceeded to list his qualifications in the closest way he could to talking. What a lovely friendly dog.







This was the view from the cab of my truck this morning.. What a glorious day it was. A real pleasure to be out & about. a lovely spring day. It was very difficult to imbue myself with the sense of urgency needed to get all my freight kicked out in time to get back to the depot in time for the change over. Unfortunately the forecast aint so flash for tomorrow.. But I guess thats spring for you...

Subterranean Homesick Blues

I had occasion to go up to my Mum & Dad's old house today. I had to. You see I received a notification from the noxious weed inspector that there was an outbreak of a noxious plant called mignonette up in one corner. I havent been up there in a while. Its a head thing regarding my Mum I think. After paying my respects to Pip & Toby, who are both buried between the lemon tree & the orange tree, We went up & checked. Turns out the mignonette is coming through from the neighbors place, so we dobbed them in when we got home.

Although we didnt take keys with us, we had a look round & herself has earmarked a few plants that she wants to uplift. Its a weird feeling walking round a property that you grew up on & feeling like a stranger, seeing someone elses crap lying there that they cant be bothered taking away. Seeing the grapevine that Mum so lovingly tended running wild, & a whole heap of other shit. I think I will be happy to see it change hands finally & get the care that it deserves. It was my home as a child, but I havent had the time or the resources or the inclination to do anything to it over the years. I've been too busy fighting my own personal dragons I guess.

So we eventually came home. A sleep & a long soak in the spa helped. So did a yummy tea of homemade American Hot Dogs. After 7.30, TV was crap, so sat down & watched Cross Roads, a movie I hadnt seen for a long time. I had forgotten how spooky Stevie Vai can look & how damn brilliant Ry Cooder & Sonny Terry are. To me, Ry Cooder is the unacknowledged start of that movie.. I do love slide guitar blues. The movie made a whole lot more sense to me now that I have cd's with everything that Robert Johnston ever recorded on them. He was just an absolute master, & the crossroads thing is really in fact part of his legend. Who knows ???


This bit I copied & pasted from Wikipedia. It says it a lot better than I can ever put it...





Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous Delta Blues musicians and arguably the most influential. Considered by some to be the "Grandfather of Rock-and-Roll," his vocal phrasing, original songs, and guitar style influenced a range of musicians, including Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, U2, and Eric Clapton, who called Johnson "the most important blues musician who ever lived."

Of all the great blues musicians, Johnson was probably the most obscure. All that is known of him for certain is that he recorded 29 songs; he died young; and he was one of the greatest bluesmen of the Mississippi Delta.

There are only five dates in Johnson's life that can undeniably be used to assign him to a place in history: Monday, November 23; Thursday, November 26; and Friday, November 27, 1936, he was in San Antonio, Texas, at a recording session. Seven months later, on Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20, 1937, he was in Dallas at another session. Everything else about his life is an attempt at reconstruction. As director Martin Scorsese says in his foreword to Alan Greenberg's play 'Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson', "The thing about Robert Johnson was that he only existed on his records. He was pure legend."

On Conspiracy theories

I have a friend who is really big on conspiracy theories. You name it , he is in to it; Alien abductions ,ley lines, area 51, the possibility that we didnt actually get to the moon, Angel Hair, cattle mutilations, you get the picture. The fact that between us, we maintain the Southwest Pacific Division of the Confederate Navy & are the sole members doesnt really speak volumes about the mental stability of either of us I guess. Anyway back to the conspiracy theory thing, as the actress said to the Bishop.

He is of the opinion that the reason the North Korean nuclear test was a flop is that they tested at the wrong time of the month. No, nuclear devises dont menstruate. It appears that they do detonate much better if you light the fuse & retire to a safe distance when the moon is waxing. at the moment the moon is waning. he has the figures to back it up & all. I dunno if he is right, but I am discreetly wearing my tinfoil lined hat at the moment.

You can never be too careful you know......................................

My Bete Noire

If I have a Bete Noire, it is pretty young blonde women. I have been reduced to a state of speechlessness by one or more of them on one or more occasions, the latest being today. I am at present doing the delivery run out of Hamilton that encompasses Morrinsville, Te Aroha & Paeroa. At present I have a helper, but that will cease next week when he goes on holiday. We had a small pallet of some 10 or so cartons to deliver to one of the liquor stores in Morrinsville today. As it was a small quantity, we decided that rather than go through the drama of getting the fork hoist out & all the resultant rigmarole, it would be easier to strip the pallet down & load it into a shopping trundler or two, which we were doing.

So, out comes this rather pretty young blonde lass who works there . Not only is she extremely easy to look at, but she is wearing very tight jeans. Now Herself will attest as to my weakness for a shapely bum in tight jeans, her own having been groped on numerous occasions while similarly clad. anyway, back to the blonde.. Out she comes, sidles up to me & says, "So, its just a hand job today is it ?" I of course immediately responded with such conversational gems as, " ah... uhmmm I errr yes uhmmm Ok." Ohh yes. I am the absolute model of suavity & coolness.. Meanwhile, my sidekick is hiding his face, but I can see his shoulders shaking, so I KNOW he's laughing... Revenge is sweet & a dish best savoured cold.. Meanwhile, remind me to stay away from blondes for a bit.. They aint as dumb as they seem you know..

Gross

There really are some things a woman should stay the hell away from & leave for men to do. Body building is one of them.

Happy Birthday John

We really do miss you. Thankyou for the music & the joy you have brought to the world in your too short lifetime. We really do wish you were still here doing it. Your heart was that big that you loved the whole world.. Oh & happy birthday Julian as well. I hope that you love your Dad & are as proud of him as we all are

Is there no hope whatsoever at all?

Had a lovely night out with herself last night. We got invited to a themed 21st Birthday party for the daughter of a dear friend. The only stumbling block was that the theme was Ken & Barby. Initially, i wasnt going to have a bar of it, but some thought came up with the idea that we would go as Geriatric Ken & Barby. The second pic is what we won for the best costume.. Neat huh?

On a different note,(E flat minor) I was out giving the edges a trim with the dreaded petrol powered edge trimmer this morning. As i was working a male Starling was following me along selecting bits of long grass & carrying them off to who knows where for his nest. During one of the frequent breaks to allow for the changing of linewrestling with the vagiaries of the fuel system & the ever important swearing, this little chap hopped right up to within 3 or 4 feet from me & stood & stared. I'll swear he was trying to say thankyou for the free building materials. I gravely informed him that that
was ok, but he better watch out for the Ginger Ninja's, because they regard ground bound avians as legitimate prey. He gravely took it all in & then went on his happy way. I for my part gave up on the blasted weed trimmer & went inside to watch a Star Trek rerun..

Groovy

Nice to know that i'm not the only Robert Palmer fan. Was doing some deliveries in Whangamata & saw this outdoor plant shop.. Really DIG the name. Love the song as well. Do you Know that the town of 29 Palms is home to the Marine Air & Ground Combat Centre.. The worlds largest Marine Corps base.. Its also that freakin hot that 29 palms is all that grows there hence the name

There is hope for the young ones yet

I was as is my accustomed duties, doing deliveries in Waihi today. Specifically, to one of those shops that sells cheap junk. Amazingly, they sell a lot of it, so we deliver there with regularity. Anyway, I was walking out to get the next carton when this young lad walked by with his equally young (15 or 16) girlfriend. Clutched to his skinny little chest were two slightly dogeared LP's. (You know, those round black things that were all the go before cd's) Being a dyed in the wool vinyl addict with an extensive collection, I made comment on them.

"Yeah, look what they are," he said, holding them out like the Holy Grail for me to inspect. Two very early AC/DC albums that he had paid damn good money for at a local record exchange. The condition of the vinyl was immaterial I guess, as they were destined for pride of place on his wall at home. I then told him about some of the discs that I have in my collection. he stopped short of actually kissing my feet, but not by much. he then turned to indicate his young lady & said with reverence in his voice, "She can play Smoke on the Water."

How absolutely bloody awesome.. What a neat couple of kids. It really did me old ticker a power of good talking to them.
This is a not particularly good pic of our Tigger Puss taking time out to smell the flowers. Not very good quality I know, but with cats one must sieze the moment.. If they think they are the center of attention, they will cease forthwith in their endearing activities. Tiggs really likes those flowers. keeps going back to them. Herself is of the opinion that its the stocks she likes..

Happy Birthday to us...

Last night marked the occasion of our annual work conference & evening meal & get together. It was a little bit special as it marked 10 years for my bosses ownership of the company, so there was the usual speeches about where the company was heading in the future & what our roles in it would be.
I wasnt really prepared for the next bit though. You see, I have been working for them for 10 years as well. I was inherited as employee/slave/general rouseabout when they bought the company. Quite nonplussed I was when presented with the gold watch in the picture. Its a Citizen, & not one of your crap digital ones. Nice & slim, nice & light. I will treasure it.
Herself wasn't left out either. She was presented with a lovely bouquet of flowers, (other pic) Compensation I guess for being understanding of a Hubby that chooses to work in an industry where regular hours & being home at a set time for tea is a non existent thing. Sometimes the only way we get to spend time together is for her to come & ride with me
in a bumpy draughty old truck at all odd hours of the day & night. For that tolerance I love her dearly. She never complains about it. Dont you think that's pretty great?