Some sad news

 

DAY THIRTEEN: Wednesday 13^th January  2021:

Yesterday was a confusing and frustrating day, today I have to sort all that lot out !  Then my 4am moment exploded my head with so many ideas which have to be turned into reality. Today. Wednesday 13^th January, is going to be a busy day. Then as I checked the local news ahead of writing today’s diary page I learned that two bin men who serve our community have died with the virus and several other have fallen ill.

I am on record saying just how highly I regard our bin men, who work so hard.  I have said that if everyone worked as hard as our bin men we would all be living in Utopia. At the beginning of the year I went out and made a gift to the bin man collecting the rubbish at the front of my home. I hasten to say we social distanced. This man was so lovely, he kept thanking me and expressing his gratitude on behalf of the team. I stopped him and said it was I who needed to say Thank You.

Yesterday across the country 45,433 people fell ill with the virus and 1,243 died. To readers of my diary I have asked they spend a few moments as they put their heads on pillows to sleep to send out love to all those who are represented in the numbers. Families, friends, NHS staff caring for them all. I am doing this myself, today our friends from the bin team will be close to me all day.

SMILE OF THE DAY: Today’s Smile I want to particularly dedicate to our bin men.

I’ve suffered with depression and anxiety and if someone was kind to me I felt better. So I decided to always be nice to everyone because you never know what they are fighting.‘

Yesterday I coined the phrase A SMILE IS THE VACCINE FOR SADNESS – VACCINATE SOMEONE TODAY.

So what was frustrating yesterday ?

I am working on a fun home schooling book for my granddaughters centred on Rivers, Lakes and Bridges. When it is finished I am going to take much of it to use in another quiz sheer. Every week we are sending a few hundred fun quiz sheets out to residents and workers in care homes, to families in need via the Dreamsai food parcels, parcels packed with love as well as food. Each week-end Dreamsia distributed these free of charge to people in need. Quiz sheets have been sent to Police teams and teachers. Every week we feature a different hospital up and down the country.

I needed a picture of London Bridge so went to Google. Repeatedly Google insisted that Tower Bridge is London Bridge. Doh !  Inward looking stupid, thick geeks ! Within my granddaughters’ work book I have used this to make them aware that you do not trust everything you read on-line.

Within the book I am using some music related to bridges, rivers and lakes. YouTube, which of course is part of Google, makes money from kiddie rhymes. Wanting something singing London Bridge Is Falling Down I searched the video site. There it was being sung over cartoon images of Tower Bridge !  I reported the ad, not that YouTube will lose any sleep over it. If you are going to educate children with videos on YouTube you DO NOT lie and educate them with false information !

I am having a bit of a battle with Amazon Publishing over my book POETRY FOR TEENAGERS – TEENAGERS OF ALL AGES. The review system can not put a tick in its little box because I have said I do not own the copyright of the poems I am sharing. I have explained but still the tick will not fit into the box. I am going to have to change the title, explain that I did not write the book but edited content to put it together and then hope some box ticker can understand.

Microsoft, we all hate Microsoft don’t we !  I set three pieces of work on WORD to auto save. STUPID thing to do. I had some time ago downloaded a trial of Win-zip. Once upon a time that was a free standard tool but not now, it is something Microthick seeks to rip you off with. I do not want Win-zip and have been frustrated by the constant begging pop ups asking me to give poverty-stricken Microthick some of my money. I decided up uninstall all Win-zip rubbish from my laptop. I could not do this as I had Microthick Word open. I closed it. Then when I reopened the pages I was working on I found I had lost everything since the time I turned auto save on – almost one hundred thousand words ! You would think would you not that Microthick was intelligent enough to save work in the folder where I had placed it but NO.

I thought I had lost hours and hours of work but after another hour of work I found it hidden far away in a folder Microthock had created and not told me anything about.

Facebook !  I have complained, not that the geeks of Mr Z will care, that a local group had been advertising among its members for matters which broke the covid-19 government guidelines AND there was one in particular which broke the law by asking for a supplier of illegal cigarettes.

Google Ads. I am particularly being targeted with a product which can ONLY have been registered by the geeks that is of interest to me by my filling in an on-line form with my GP, the form opened in Google Chrome or from an e-mail sent using G-mail. There is NO OTHER WAY.

So you can see yesterday was a FRUSTRATING day for me.

With that out of the way I will move on to my daily feature ON THIS DAY:

13^th September 1950: Finland forms diplomatic relations with The Peoples Republic of China. DOH !  That was an intelligent thing to do. I do not think.

13^th September 1951: The Battle of Vinh Yen in the First Indochina War begins.

13^th January 1968 Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison. I’ve been there. Not as a resident, Folsom is not only prison but also a tourist attraction. I have in my garden some windchimes made by a prisoner and sold in its gift shop. I also have a painting on the wall of my summerhouse.

13^th January 2012: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are thirty-two confirmed deaths.  I remember that so well.

Wikipedia lists dozens of people who were born on 13^th January but I’ve never heard of any of them !

13^th January 2017 Anthony Armstrong-Jones First Earl of Snowden and one time husband of Princess Margaret died aged seventy-seven.

So how is the writing coming along ?

Three thousand one hundred and seventy-four words yesterday bringing me to a total since 1^st January of 171,416. Today I will finish Jukebox Jury, hopefully check it and submit it to Amazon for publication but I may sleep on it and submit it tomorrow. I need to rewrite the poetry work then I can get my teeth into By The Pricking Of My Thumbs. Speaking metaphorically there as I have no teeth ! I want to put together all the quiz sheets and begin work on Who Needs A Pub To Have A Quiz. Today I am going to work on three new quiz sheets: Postman Pat, Poetry In Motion and Bridges, Lakes & Rovers.

Before I do any of that, once I have blogged out today’s page I am going to make a note of thanks for our binmen and put it on the gates to my home.

Speak again tomorrow,

Dave