Dear Diary - Every Day is the Same

 

Today's diary entry says it all.

Every day is a repeat of every other day. Well, it is when one is retired. Not completely, but mostly.

Let me explain.

Most days for me go like this, I:

1. wake up and change into my day clothes
2. look out the front door (to the East) to see what type of day it's likely to be (sun's up!)
3. open the blinds to our loungeroom side door and rear windows that look out into our patio cover and lovely garden full of lilly-pillies, lavendar, wooly-bushes and an oversupply of a variety of succulents (they grow very well and easily)
4. boot my laptop
5. turn on the television (which I later regret)
6. make a cup of coffee
7. jot down a few things in my diary/notebook that I expect to do today - in conjunction with my Google Calendar. I do a lot of volunteering so most days I have something to do for someone
8. check email and the news
9. make a cup of tea for my wife who usually sleeps in longer than I do
10. have breakfast between 10 and 11 am when I get hungry
11. do some volunteer work, much of which is on a laptop (writing grant applications etc)
12. go for a walk, ride, do some rowing exercise in my rower and a few reps of fitness tube exercises
13. have lunch around 2 pm
14. sit down in my comfortable Lazyboy chair and watch some tv after lunch
15. make dinner or help make dinner at about 6:30 pm
16. watch Home and Away (much to the laughter of my daughter who thinks I'm too old for that)
17. view some how-to videos on YouTube: carpentry, cooking, tool use
18. go to bed at 11:30 pm

The next day is much the same. But at the back of my mine, it seems that life is like that. We get into a routine, follow it and it becomes a way of life. Wake up - go to work - go to sleep with a few different thing in between.

Some days I think it's boring. 

#Robinoz

ANZAC Day Tanunda

 

ANZAC Day at Tanunda went well.

Given that Monday was a public holiday during school holidays, we had an enormous turn-up at both the Dawn Service and the late morning Service after our march from the Tanunda Post Office to the Soldiers' Memorial Hall.

I attended the Dawn Service and marched, but I didn't attend the late morning Service.

The highlight of the Dawn Service for me was an address delivered by a senior school student from the local Faith Lutheran College. Given the age of the young man, his presentation was flawless, the content emotive and inspiring, and he didn't appear to be nervous at all.

After the Dawn Service we held a Gunfire Breakfast that many people attended including members of the RSL Tanunda, although most of us who are members had "jobs" to do. I worked in our bar serving beer, large amounts of Coopers stout, and pouring small amounts of Beenleigh rum into coffee, a tradition on this special day.

The Gunfire Breakfast was also attended by a contingent of RAAF serving members who had participated as a catafalque party (you can see several in the image above) or supported them. I managed to take a photo of the group.

Here they are outside our Hut. Those with weapons are obviously part of the catafalque party.

We appreciate and thank them for their service and hope that they will never be called upon to sacrifice their lives for their fellow Australians as many others have throughout the short history of our country.

We are so fortunate to live in a relatively free democracy with a decent standard of living and reasonably sound governments.

Every day I recall how very lucky I was to be born in Australia. If you are reading this and you're Australian, you should feel lucky too.

#Robinoz

My (Most often) Every Day Carry

There are numerous YouTube videos where people discuss their Every Day Carry. I hadn't thought of turning it into a topic of discussion until I saw a few of them, so here I am, disclosing mine.

I must state that I don't carry my Adidas bag everywhere I go. If it's a short trip somewhere to pick up a carton of Hahn Super Dry, low carb beer, I just take my wallet and car keys. Longer trips, I take the whole EDC.

The stuff people carry is interesting but essentially, most of us have a need for the same things, eg car keys, wallets etc. Knives, pens and other "stuff" is optional.

Here's a description of what I carry:

When I lift the front cover (image two from top) I have a few glass wipes because I wear prescription and sun glasses that always seem to need cleaning. This part has a zipper section so inside I can include some coinage just in case I need it and some plastic money eg, a $50 note for emergencies.  

When I flip that part back, it has some slots for credit cards in which I have business cards and slots for two pens. I have a Lamy metal pen and a Victorinox pen and usually do a crossword puzzle while reading the local paper and having a cup of coffee. Of course they also come in handy if I need to write something although these days I put record reminders in my iPhone most of the time.

My car keys (at left) have a souvenir from the British House of Commons on which I've engraved my name and phone number just in case I lose the keys, which is unlikely as I wear them hanging from a sturdy belt clip accompanied by another smallish keychain knife in which the blade is inserted. (Anyone would think I had a knife fetish)

In the section at right are a notebook in another sleeve, and a one-blade Leatherman. The Swiss Army knife I usually carry in my pocket. There is also a torch (flashlight) that has a removable clip that makes it small and easy to carry. 

So there it is, that's me in nine paragraphs.

#Robinoz

How App(lication)s can get us into trouble

 

My iPhone has this wonderful health app 💙that tracks my walking, allows me to enter blood pressure, pulse, cycling distance, BMI, height - that hasn't changed in the past 70 years, and much more.

One of the things it also does is allow one to track sexual activity. Why, I'm not sure.

I do recall when I was 18 to around 20 I had a little book into which I wrote the name and contact details of ladies who had helped me develop my intimacy skills. It was probably a skite book, although I can't recall ever telling any of my friends with whom, or how many women I had been intimate. I do recall that there were many pages spare when I decided it was a childish thing to do and decided to use it only to record names and contact details without any additional descriptions. 

Flipping through my Health App recently, I stumbled across the entry at left in my Sexual Activity log. It appears that at around 12 midday on Sunday, 23 August 2020 I had a "sexual activity" for maybe a minute. I've never been that fast!

Nowadays, I can't remember what I did a week ago, or where I've left my sunglasses, let alone what I'm supposed to have done on that Sunday afternoon. However, if I had had sex with someone for even a few minutes, I would have known. And I'd be surprised because while it may have once taken me a few minutes to ejaculate, it now takes longer.

So, my conclusion is that this is a misrepresented activity cause by something running amuck in the app.

Imagine if my wife was a nosy wife who looked through my iPhone (which she isn't) and came across this. I could be in real trouble.

Stay well and check your apps.

Robin