She's Electric

Electric cars are here to stay, but for how long?  I wonder if the electric drive(!) is only a relatively temporary innovation if the industry finds something entirely different to power our vehicles.  Electric cars have been around almost since electricity was harnessed and piped into every home, which leads me to think that when someone thought moving to electric cars was 'a good thing', they only thought that because it was an existing technology and therefore little in the way of real innovation to get on track.  This decision then empowered designers to improve the electric vehicle technology and in fact are continuing to do so.  Unfortunately, this has restricted development in other methods of propulsion, some of which may well be more suited to the range of vehicles on our roads.  Not that I'm against electrically driven cars, there will a place for those for may years to come, it's just that our (by 'our' I mean manufacturers) resources are so focused on one thing it drowns out other options that might be more suitable, or maybe not even invented yet.  Watch this space (in about 30 years time).

Winning Ways.

 I'm not much of football fan, but I do have some sort of relationship with my local team Grimsby Town and therefore am disproportionately disappointed when they lose, and very happy when they win.  It was a loss at the weekend that put me on a bit of a downer, not helped by miserable wet weather that did nothing to lift my gloom.  However, we had daughter #2 over for the weekend along with grandchild #6 whilst son-in-law #3 is away in Uzbekistan for 3 weeks so that lightened the mood a little giving us something to laugh at as she now manages to crawl at quite a speed.    

Running continues at a rather intermittent consistency i.e. no consistency, with only 2 runs last week mainly due to the biting cold during the week (went out in minus 5 one morning) and a wet weekend.

Having spare time due to the weather (see above) I was at one point during the weekend contemplating if I could ever write a book.  I think this was whilst driving to get the takeaway and listening to some book related program on the radio.   I didn't reach any conclusion about the book, something to do in retirement I reckon.    

Wait and See.

 Mr Trump continues to line up his stooges ready to take their place at the high altar of the US government.  All I can see are a bunch of ar$e licking sycophants, but I must be over influenced by the left wing journos in the UK.  We'll see.

It's been a cold week, with minus 5 yesterday morning reaching a high of around 2 degrees.  It's warmed up a bit today and when I was wandering round the field with the muck picking equipment it was a balmy zero degrees.  High winds and plenty of rain promised for tomorrow courtesy of Storm Bert. Can't wait.

Don't Stop Believing

 I thought it might be a bit awkward, a bloke putting a cold gel on my nether regions followed by moving an instrument around on them.  But luckily, he was quite professional and although I wouldn't say it was an enjoyable experience I guess it could have been a lot worse.  The good news is that he didn't find any sinister lumps or growths, just some 'scarring' due to my vasectomy which was quite a few years ago now.  I should expect to hear from the GP in about a week, so all will (possibly) be revealed then.

In other news, I have to claim for my missing paniers from the credit car company.  I'm not too hopeful getting anything back, but we will see.  Because I have little proof that I didn't pick them up it relies on them believing me, so watch this space.

Hot Date.

 Just after yesterdays update, I had a call advising me of a scan tomorrow (Saturday) and there was an appointment available at 08:20 so that's fairly quick response I reckon.  I like early, then I can get on with the rest of the day 'in peace'.   I have another appointment at 7 in the evening - going out for a meal at the revamped Cross Keys pub that suffered a fire in the Spring (or was it early Summer?) so they will be pleased to get back in business.

 

Bit of a kick in ..

 Lumps in odd places.  Could be a title to a song, or even a name of a band.  In my case, it's a lump where it shouldn't be, or at least I assume it shouldn't be there.  I first noticed it a few weeks/months ago when it felt like I had caught my tender bits on something, and after wondering if they were swollen came across an odd shaped lump.  After a few days it seemed to subside, the pain stopped and although I pondered a call to the surgery I didn't think any more of it. ...until last Thursday when the 'kicked in the balls' pain returned and a quick feel revealed the lump was once again back where it was, possible bigger this time.  Anyway, I took myself off to the GP after filling in some sort of on-line triage questionnaire which obviously triggered a response and they got me in the next day.  The very pleasant GP had a feel and had as much idea as me so has put me forward for a scan to see what it is - possibly some sort of cyst.  She mentioned there is a possibility it might be cancer, 'so we have to rule that out'.  ..so that was yesterday and hopefully the much publicized waiting lists don't slow things down too much.

In the meantime, I'm as 'normal' as I ever have been with no obvious signs of anything wrong apart from the above which I hope is a good sign.

Hot Stuff!

EDF customers have been promised a months free electricity!  Wow!  If only we didn't need to buy a heat pump we would be delighted.  And what's it doing masquerading as a headline in the Daily Express?  Smells a bit like free advertising to me.  Anyway, it sucked me in and they probably won a few internet pennies on the strength of it.  Maybe they are trying a new slant on clickbait where it's a win-win (except for the customers) where the paper gets advertising click revenue and the supplier gets us to see his tempting offers.  I feel I've been conned, even though a) I haven't got a gas boiler and therefore don't qualify and b) I'm not an EDF customer.    

Play It Again, Sam.

 Well, not for the first time my intuitive guessing about the US election was wrong, totally wrong in fact. I find it hard to believe that so many Americans voted the way they did when to the distant outsider like myself, it was obviously the wrong thing to do.  ..and when I say 'wrong' I mean it was wrong for them.  Or so I thought.  I can only hope that the election debating was so biased against the Republicans that I was sucked into that and I didn't get to see the whole story.

I don't like to think that more than half the Americans who voted are thickos. 

Heating Up

 Genius is quite an emotive word.  I would struggle to think of another adjective to 'beat' it.  To me, it describes the extreme end of inventiveness or creativity.  Therefore, to describe a portable heater as 'Genius' is stretching it a bit to say the least, especially if I look closely at the aforementioned device it's simply an electric element with a fan.  Maybe they are being sarcastic.

Trump v. Harris day today and results so far? 3-3 from a tiny hamlet that evidently gets to vote just after midnight every polling day, let's op it's not as close as that or what the polls think.  Interestingly, there has been a few 'Harris just in front' polls in key states so I await the results with interest.

Tomorrow Belongs To Me.

 Tomorrow sees the US election reach it's climax ...or maybe not if it's as close as the polls would have us believe.  I haven't spoken to anyone who thinks Trump getting back into power is a good thing, but none of these have a vote, so I can't see that featuring on CNN Tonight.  My own prediction is that the majority see Harris as the less worse candidate for president, but will off-set that by voting in right wingers into the Senate (or whatever the other house is called).  This will inevitably lead to problems getting laws into action, but small price for keeping Mr Trump out.

On the other hand, I might be completely wrong and it's just my wishful thinking.