Sunday, 9th August, 2026
Incredibly hot morning. As I stood outside Tesco in the carpark waiting for it open at 11.00 am, the temperature hit 29C/84F. I don’t do that out of choice although it beats going to church. I was told it opened at 10.00 by a person I know well. I won’t trust her again.
Week 920, Dear Reader. For 920 consecutive weeks I’ve been connecting with the outside world through my Blog. Can’t believe it. In March 2028, I will have posted 1000 weeks of Blog and I will be almost 77 years old. I really ought to know better.
It is easy to forget people when they are not with us all the time. I try hard not to but things happen and their absence suddenly shocks me.
I was thinking about connections yesterday for two reasons. Firstly, my calendar tells me that it is 9 whole years since Vivienne died. It must be a particularly sad day for Richard and our thoughts are with him. The passage of time comes as a real shock. How those 9 years have flown by for us although probably not for Richard. We are thinking of them both today.
On Wednesday, my wife reminds me, the near total eclipse will be visible for the first time for 27 years. We were in Greece then and they held parties on the island. The next one will not be for another 55 years. I think I will be lucky to see it so I will connect with my solar body around 7.13 pm on Wednesday laying back on the lawn carpet in the back garden. Might even try a zoom photograph so that’s something to come back for, Dear Reader.
Don’t know if they’re allowed to watch the eclipse in Florida. If it isn’t Trump’s eclipse and he likes to eclipse everything, then it will be banned or have a tariff slapped on it …. until the courts rule that he is an utter buffoon and must desist. How lucky are we to have an Andy Burnham!
I was about to write that I was in at the start of computers but that would be nonsense. Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine was first conceived in 1822. Even I can’t remember that far back. The first business computer was launched in the same year I was born – 1951 – and read punch card tape. No, I was using computers from 1985 and learnt on basic software like Wordstar wordprocessor and Lotus123 spreadsheets and the rest is history. In fact I typed my 100,000 word thesis for my MA History on a computer – well, my Assistant did.
Those days were a massive learning curve, infuriating and exciting. To be able to type and not need Tipex was fantastic. Kids now will not even understand that sentence. To be able to save a copy and move it elsewhere to edit was unbelievable. To spend two days working and find the work hadn’t saved or the floppy disk was corrupted was incredibly frustrating. But it was all worth it. I grew as a person. I could feel myself growing as a person. It is what I wanted. It is what I needed. Well, it was one of the things I needed.
In those days, and we are talking 40 years ago, computers were mysterious and unreliable things – made all the more unreliable by my half understanding, growing understanding of their working. In those days, the advice was to to change the computer every 3 years. I rarely bought one for under £2000.00 and usually nearer £3,000.00. My current computer is 5.5 years old and working as well as new when it cost me just £15,000.00. I have software to continually clean it, upgrade its drivers and restore its functions to as near new as possible. I buy HP (Hewlett Packard) for their fantastic value, quality and aftersales service.
Today, Amazon delivered a new, multi-USB distribution block which allows me to connect 7 items of Tech. to my computer and to each other for just £40.00. I have a home cloud memory bank, a travel power bank, a smart phone stand/trickle charger, a set of ear buds, a flat bed scanner and a label printer at the moment. It also recharges them at the same time. It is a world we only dreamed of in the 1980s. I did dream of other worlds but this was one of them.