Sunny Autumn Saturday

Yesterday morning, I woke up from a nice nap on the Northern train to Hull. Looking sleepily at the windows, something struck me as odd. The windows looked fuzzy. My just awaking mind struggled to come to grips with the visual data. The train rocked and seemed to be proceeding unusually slow. I yawned and scratched my head. "Why does the view look so weird?" I thought to myself. Suddenly, it came to me. Fog! We were traveling through thick fog.
By the time I got to Hull, the sun had just risen. Because of the fog, my train had arrived a few minutes late. I rushed to the gate for my bus to Withernsea. It would have to use gate 36! Thankfully, I made it. After buying my ticket, I climbed upstairs to the upper deck, taking my usual place in the front row. I love the view up there and since I ride to the last stop, it's worth the climb.
Once out of Hull, I could see patches of fog hovering over farmers' fields, along our route. The sky was clear and the sun slowly rose, higher and higher. Its radiation would burn off the fog as the morning progressed. I arrived at Seaside Radio and joined the on-air presenter in the studio. He had his 13-year-old son with him and was letting the boy choose music, as well as speak on air. They finished at 10AM and the lovely Susan Dukes took over. She turned up looking even better than the previous week. Her hair was freshly styled, make up immaculate, and she was even wearing a string of pearls. I teased her by reminding her that this was radio, not television. Susan still doesn't feel confident running the board, so she had the Station Manager, Justin, helping her. He closed the door to the studio, so she wouldn't be put off by the rest of us. I decided to walk the fellas out to their car.
Thinking I would only be outside for a moment, I left my jacket inside. During the hour and a half since I had arrived, the sun had made the day bright. It was warm enough that I didn't need my jacket. I walked with the father and son team, chatting to them. They went left, towards the sea, then left again, strolling along the road that parallels the beach. As we went further and further, I began to wonder how bloody far away from the station they had parked? Finally, I asked the father, "did you drive?"
"No," he said, "we walked." No wonder they hadn't stopped! I had inadvertently walked a couple of blocks from the station. I decided not to travel all the way to their house and bade them farewell. Turing around, I retraced my steps, back to Seaside Radio. I enjoyed the sound of the waves crashing against the shore and the smell of the sea. What a lovely autumn day.
The Justin had promised to take me sightseeing, but when I got back to the station, he told me something had come up and he wouldn't be able to, this weekend. He rushed off just after noon, so I went out into the sun again. I visited the outdoor market, which runs every Saturday. Then I tried walking to Tesco, to buy some drinks for my show. Although Justin claimed it wasn't a long walk to Tesco, I found it longer than I cared to indulge in. At least the weather was lovely. I saw a temperature sign which read 18 degrees, Celsius. I'm not quite sure how warm that is, as I was raised on Fahrenheit, but it seemed warm for the time of year. I wished every weekend could be that nice. Even the cashier at Tesco seemed in a good mood. I teased her a bit and she rewarded me with a big smile. So far, the women in Withernsea seem much friendlier than gals in London. I bought myself a cold bottle of Ribena drink, to refresh myself from my walk. I had worn my jacket, which turned out to have been a mistake. It was that warm. Sipping my blackcurrant juice drink, I made my way back to the station again. I'd done enough walking for one day.

An Autumn Day

When I got off the bus from work, today, I felt so good. The weather was nice and I could smell the smell of fallen leaves in the air. It was nearing sunset and there were wonderful colors in the western sky. I'd brought home a free bucket of rice, from work and it just felt good to be alive. It didn't matter that I am 48. It didn't matter that my car doesn't work. It didn't matter that I don't have a romantic relationship, at the moment. Life is just great! So, I wonder why I am in such a good mood?

Bank Holiday and Death of the Box

Today is a holiday in Britain. It's a "bank holiday," which means most businesses are closed. Every year, this long weekend symbolizes the effective end of summer. I have enjoyed an extra day off. Tomorrow, I have a commercial shoot, so I am off from the restaurant. For me, that's like having four days off of work in a row. I went out on Saturday night, but the rest of the long weekend I didn't end up doing much. Just relaxing, catching up on sleep, blogging, and listening to music.
I had planned on going shopping, today. However, after staying up till 3AM, I ended up sleeping till 1PM. By the time I had my breakfast and watched a little TV, it was too late. The downside of it being a bank holiday Monday is that the stores close early. One thing I did accomplish was the death of "the box." It's evil forces seemed to have faded. The weather was lovely all weekend and my agent called me on Friday, with this commercial work for tomorrow. Today, I took a pair of scissors and attacked the box. After cutting open the paper, it was a simple matter to remove the top and get to the contents, inside. As I had suspected, it contained all the items I had left at my close, personal friend's home, during my last visit. Sadly, there was one casualty. She had given me a little figure, which was supposed to honor "the world's greatest actor." The figure's arms broke off during shipping. I suppose that was the box's last, feeble attempt to strike at me. Perhaps this bank holiday can be a celebration of my defeating the evil box. Hey, if the cardboard from the box is recycled, does that mean it's evil influence could return one day?

A Walk in the Sun

Both Nando and I were off, today. We both spent most of the day vegging out. I spent a lot of time in front of the TV. Hitler's Nephew went out about midday, so it was just me and Nando. Nando got up late and came downstairs about three hours after I did. Eventually, I turned the remote controls over to him and came upstairs to write. Between the bus travel and going away last weekend, I had fallen way behind on blogging, this week. I never got around to posting a new Artist of the Week. That was partially due to the fact that my first choice's Myspace page seemed never to load correctly, so I couldn't add their song. Oh well, the world will survive.
After spending a couple of hours catching up on my blog, I had a shower and dressed to go out. I checked with Nando, to see if he was going out. If he was, I could catch a ride with him, but no, he stayed home all day and night. By the time I got myself together, the local bus service had stopped running. I resigned myself to walking to my local Sainsbury's supermarket. I wanted to buy some lettuce and salad dressing, as I was out of both. I left the house a few minutes past 7 o'clock. At these northern latitudes, it's still daylight at that time, in the summer. As I walked up the street, I noticed how beautiful the day was. Long gone were the rain showers of July. The sky was blue and cloudless. It was almost a shame that Nando was missing it.
During my walk to the store and back, I saw children playing, people walking their dogs, a man and two girls on bicycles. My mobile beeped with a text message. It was from Nando. He wanted me to bring him back some coffee, from the store. Other than that, I was undisturbed. It took me just short of an hour to walk to Sainsbury's, shop, and come back. When I got home, Nando was still on the middle couch, unmoved. Despite my successful trip to the supermarket, I still felt like I didn't do much, today. As a treat, I had bought some big, soft, chocolate chip cookies, at the store. They were marked down to one-fifth their normal price, as they had reached their sell-by date. Nando and I shared half the cookies, as well as a couple of bottles of my free beer stash, while watching TV. All in all, it was a lazy, summer day. Not very productive, but enjoyable all the same.

Wet, Wet, Wet

Persistent rains in Britain have caused widespread flooding, this month. I've heard that the floods have even made the news in America. To all of you who asked if I was okay, I am fine. Bracknell is on high ground, so there's been no flooding here. It was nice to know that some of you were actually concerned about my well being. As the end of the month approaches, this July is set to be the wettest July on record, here in Britain. Of course, those who think they are the "government" and who desire to put their hands further into our pockets, are quick to blame the rain on "climate change."
My memory is still fairly good and I remember that last summer, we had a drought. We were banned from using our garden hoses and constantly harangued to save water. The Mayor of London, Ken (red Ken) Livingstone, even went so far as to suggest that we not flush our toilets, if we have only had a pee. He came out with this ridiculous rhyme, "if it's yellow, let it mellow...if it's brown, flush it down." Someone should flush HIM down. Last year's drought was blamed on...you guessed it..."climate change."
Drought one year and flooding the next. Is it just me, or do you get the impression that the terrorcrats will use whatever the weather is in order to justify taxing us more? I think they think we're stupid. Don't believe the hype!

So It Snowed

Yesterday morning, England was hit by "the worst snow storm in..." some period of time. England, particularly southern England, doesn't get much snow. So when they get a little, it's a big panic. As someone who spent some time living in the snow belt, in the northern United States, let me tell you, this was minor. When I lived in Syracuse, New York, it used to snow every day for three months in a row. You wouldn't see the ground for three months. I don't even know how much snow fell, here, because I heard it on the radio news given in centimeters and I don't really do metric, so it just went in one ear and out the other. Maybe it was 10 centimeters, or something like that? I drove to work, no problem. The side roads had a little snow on them, but the main roads were clear and they didn't even need to be plowed. I left a little early, allowing time for brushing the snow off my car. I arrived at work so early, I sat in my car for about ten minutes, listening to the radio. The newscaster on the radio was saying, "it's a whiteout." I thought he sounded like an idiot. A whiteout is when you can't see anything but white. This wasn't a whiteout by any stretch of the imagination. By the time I arrived home from work, it had almost all melted. People were cancelling this and that, like the world was coming to an end. I went about my business as normal.