100 Days: 8 and twenty - hot date

We usually avoid the bank holiday tradition of going somewhere to hang out with a load of other human beings, but today Dunk and I biked along the Floop to Gorton Upper Reservoir. (We took a joint decision not to risk the canal path down to Dunham Massey.) I was proved wrong yet again, in my claim that south Manchester is without hills. I mean it felt pretty flat on the way out, but then it was definitely downhill all the way home. Google maps shows a rise of nearly 200ft (I wrote metres but I think it's feet, 200 metres is huge) over the length of the journey. There were a few other people sitting on the bank of grass at the far end but it was not crowded. I made the rookie error of bringing chocolate on a boiling hot day, it was escaping the packet by the time I got home. Not sure if this counts as our annual date, there was no ice-cream so I am thinking not.

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload

100 Days - 27th : Good and Evil

The "Evil God Challenge" by Stephen Law from Steph Hope on Vimeo.

Stephen Law always makes me think hard about stuff, and I like the way he often relates philosophical problems to what happens in real life (because philosophy is often connected in people's minds with the abstract and abstruse). Here is an animation explaining in layperson's terms his longer thesis challenging the notion of an omniscient, omnipotent all-good god.

In other news today, people died.

Watching the crisis unfold has often felt a little unreal, as if it is happening elsewhere to other people. I have felt that naming people, as happened a lot with the early deaths, and the deaths of medical professionals, is important so that we remember it is real people dying. The New York Times today printed over 1000 people's names, along with some detail about them. Here are some people who  have died: Solomon S. Podgursky, 84, New Jersey, loved to figure out how things worked; Ruth Skapinock, 85, Roseville, Calif., backyard birds were known to eat from her hand; Irene Gasior, 94, Pennsylvania, great-grandmother with a flair for pizzelles; Dale E. Thurman, 65, Lexington Ky., tailor known for his exacting work and strong opinions.

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload

100 Days - day 26

 I tried hard but today got me down somewhat.

Two messages for the great British public:

1 - READ THE FUCKING CARD

2 - PUT A FUCKING NUMBER ON YOU HOUSE

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload

100 Days - twenty and 5 : bees

Mum tells me they are mostly 'weeds' in my garden, but you know what, I don't care because today they were covered in bees. Save the bees, grow some weeds.

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

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100 Days - twenty fourth: volleyball and jigsaws

Went to the park. Played volleyball. Well, we hit the ball in the air a bunch of times, sometimes we managing to hit it to each other. Monkey and Toby were very tolerant of mine and Tish's appalling hand/eye coordination. We laughed a lot, and got a bit bitten by midges. Monkey wants the sports centre open again even more than I want the library open.

this isn't happiness

Dunk sent me this from 'this isn't happiness'. There are so many graphs in the news at the moment but this one tells as much about the current situation as any of them.

Book to Make You Think - Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov from 2013

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload

100 Days - 23 days

I have made a conscious decision not to post depressing things, at least for a few days. Monkey was feeling down so I took her to see the cootlings and cygnets; you can't help but smile at fluffy baby animals. She showed me a path through the trees that I had not realised was there. We sat and watched some kids climbing trees, then the police arrived and scared off the pot smokers, then she made me a daisy chain (pictured with my Nomads dress that mum bought for my birthday). As we walked back we blew lots of dandelion clocks and made wishes. She pointed out how many of the wishes she made as a child eventually came true and we mused about the awesome power of dandelions.

Today's Book to make You Think, the completely lovely 'A Letter to D' by André Gorz from 2011.

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload

100 Days - two and twenty days

TFGM

In the face of all the shit going on in the world, that I started linking to and then was too overwhelmed by, I will just share a photo of the newly pedestrianised stretch of Deansgate in central Manchester. Small crumb of comfort in a shitty world.

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload
(darn didn't make it before midnight again - Monday's post)