More of the same old same old!

It's very odd that even when you're retired with apparently no real claims on your time - shit still happens!  I suppose the periods of quietude lull you into that 'hammock on a Summer's day' feeling so that even a few minor alarms and excursions suddenly throw you into a flailing shambles.  Such it is with me although honesty insists (dammit!) that I confess it is mostly my own fault.  I tend to leave the social calender to the Memsahib, in fact, if I had my way we wouldn't even have a social calender, and thus those occasional weeks come around in which various people desirous of our company, er, well, mostly the Memsahib's, seem to cluster instead of spreading themselves out amongst all the empty weeks.  Toss in the fact that I have to give the first rendition of my latest military history talk on the subject of the Pacific War which gives every appearance of actually lasting longer than the war itself, plus, on a very much more serious note, the unexpected funeral of a man I did not know well but who I admired beyond description, and the uncomfortable fact, evident everytime I draw the curtains, that my part of the Churchyard grass needs cutting, including the overgrown part which I deliberately leave during the Spring and Summer so that the wild flowers can grow and the strimming and cutting of which will add yet more of my blood, sweat, toil and tears to the graveyard, and, not to be forgotten, a very dear friend's birthday lunch, plus I am poised to change our car . . . and . . . well, shit happens!  So what I am trying to tell you gently, dear reader, is that blogging is likely to be somewhat erratic this week. 

This huge disturbance to my normally placid life-style  (do I have a 'life-style? - hardly!) is poised to become a perfect storm next week.  You see, on Sunday I am taking an enormous leap into the 21st century.  My IT Manager, known to you all as 'SoD' (Son of Duff), is descending and, whilst holding me off with one hand, he will with the other rip away my beloved Microsoft XP and replace it with Microsoft 8 - the very latest all-singing, all-dancing and, no doubt, all-crashing 'thingie' from that nice Mr. Gates.  It could take me several months to get the hang of it so during the doubtless innumerable 'intermissions', so to speak, you must all be very patient and understanding.  I blame my old e-pal 'Fallen Monk' whose site I regularly blight visit because the other day I tried to leave one of my witty comments (well, he's a hopeless old Leftie and deserves everything I hurl at him!) and his infernal machine told me that it could not accept anything from me because I was out-of-date.  ME!  What a bloody cheek!  Anyway, next week I will not just be streets ahead of all of you but entire city blocks!  Even if I may not know exactly how it works.

So, you see, great excitements at Chateaux Duff which I could well do without because I really don't 'do' excitement.  Anyway, please bear with me if things are a bit hit and miss for a few days.

 

Comments

[dearieme]

Oh dear, I use XP. Except when I'm allowed on my wife's lovely iMac.

[Farenheit211]

Microsoft - with added bloat.

I used to use Ubuntu and loved it but for some reason won't work on this machine. Installing software was a bit of a rigmarole though but hopefully sussed in later versions.

[JK]

"So what I am trying to tell you gently, dear reader, is that blogging is likely to be somewhat erratic this week."

David? Do take care with your newfangled technology not to, as my Granpappy used to say, become a lost ball in tall weeds!

[Andra]

Yeah, well, just don't throw your trusty quill pen out.
I know you feel more comfortable with that.

[David Duff]

Oh God, DM, don't catch the Apple bug, it turns people into Moony-like sectarians who never stop going around preaching that 'Apple is Good', 'Apple is Great'!

Good Grief, '211', "Ubuntu", I though tthey only spoke that up the River Niger!

Too late, JK, too late!

Yes, Andra, that delicious scratchy sound as the pen moves across the parchment, ah yes, I remember it well!

[backofanenvelope]

I wish to object to your description of Apple users. There are people who think Apple is a religion, but most of us think it is just a computer. A really nice computer (says he who has an iMac, MacBook & iPad) and a lot better than the crap you are using!!!!!

[dearieme]

Oh, Duffers, I was originally a Mac man; I swapped to PCs under protest and under the requirements of The Toad Work.

Mind you, I'm not entirely comfortable with some of the company I keep as a Mac man nowadays.

Even odder, I was once something of a computer bloke; the sort that other people consulted for advice. Now it all bores me to tears, when it doesn't frustrate me to rage - I just want something that does the surfing, e-mailing and word processing, simply and reliably.

[David Duff]

'Envelope', just a friendly warning but you're in danger of sounding like the sort of man who backs you into a corner at parties and is eager to explain the joys of stamp collecting/the fascination of railway numbers/how to grow prize Dahlias/Steve Jobs was a God and so on, and on.

Thank you, DM, as ever you are an education - have you ever considered being a teacher? - and your obscure comment led me to the Larkin poem which was new to me. However, let me warn you that MS XP is definitely on the way out. I shall report next week on MS8, that is, if I haven't actually chucked myself out of the garret window!

[backofanenvelope]

Parties! If only.........

[David Duff]

Oh, come on, 'Envelope', just brush up that RAF 'tache of yours and the invitations will flow in.

[Backofanenvelope]

I suppose you think I wear a blazer as well?

[What Steven Fry would have said]

Chateaux duff? How many houses do you have Duffers?

WSFWHS

[David Duff]

But of course, 'Envelope', and a cravat, naturally! Doesn't everyone?

Only one, WSFWHS, but the name changes according to my mood and circs. Thus, originally it was 'The Mortgage', when things need doing it becomes 'The Overdraft', when the Memsahib cuts up rough it is 'D-wing' and so on, but when I'm feeling expansive it 'Chateuax Duff'.