The Meerkat Muse: 20th November 2024
Welcome back to the Meerkat Muse, which as of the morning of the 6th of November is quite muted. Why might that be? Cast your minds back to the 5th of November…
The Tangerine Tyrant Takes Control
Despite four years of failure in his first term, despite plenty of failure as a businessman and as a man, and despite his own clear cognitive decay, Donald Trump has become president for a second time. The likes of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un are probably still holding victory celebrations of their own, which should tell you precisely why Trump is bad for the USA, and bad for the world.
I am speechless. Words have completely failed me. It’s like half of America exists in a bubble, a rose-tinted bubble, with only the most cursory of gestures made to acknowledge Trump’s faults, if indeed his worshippers can bring themselves to do even that. Here is a man who lied about election fraud, incited a riot to subvert an election, whose blunders cost countless lives during covid (not to mention tanking the economy), a man who pays porn stars hush money to cover up affairs, a man with a history of racism and sexism. This man illegally took state secrets home with him too. He should be in prison, yet half of America has been so successfully duped by his deceit and rhetoric that they’ve put him back in The White House. It’s as absurd as it is insane, and there will devastating consequences for the world.
It is tempting to conclude the world is a dumpster fire right now, and it certainly is, but it’s always darkest before the dawn. Those of us who value freedom, equality, compassion and kindness need to stick together, and be the bulwark against hate.
Pointless Early Starts
The 6th of November was Collection Day, so to speak. Having gotten my daughter a new bed and desk, I had to get rid of the old ones. Cue arranging a collection with the local council, then hauling the frame, mattress, desk (and whilst I was at it, an old lawn mower) out to the kerb. I took a photo of the assembled items, and also stuck the council’s reference number onto each item, so there should have been no grounds for doubt as to what was being collected, nor any concerns that it wasn’t ready to pick up. Not that I don’t trust the council, but I don’t trust the council! They have no excuse not to take it, but I am quite cynical where they’re concerned.
Sure enough, I was proven right! Having been directed to have the items out by 7.30am, which I did, they wound up still sitting there come the evening. Would I have a fight on my hands with the council? I had originally been told I would get an email by the 8th, explaining the outcome of my collection request. Considering how it appeared to have failed through the inaction of the council, I was preparing my response in advance. In some ways, following the wake of the events of the 5th, I was spoiling for a fight, and the council might have made the mistake of giving me one. Sure enough, an email came in that stated the items were not as described, or inaccessible.
Since neither of these conditions were true, I phoned the council to make that point, and was subsequently assured the matter would be escalated. Watch this space…
Bears and Buffets
Back on the 8th, my wife, daughter and I enjoyed a trip to the new cinema, where we had the luxury seats, and after some confusion about seat numbers, settled in to watch Paddington in Peru. I have found all the Paddington films to be absolutely charming, very sweet, and at various points, very funny! They are the perfect family films, with plenty of warmth, as befits the titular character. We followed this film with a visit to a local all-you-can-eat buffet, and I proceeded to stuff my face quite substantially! I did however go off the beaten track a little, going more for the Indian selections, though some steamed pork buns, a bit of salmon-wrapped vegetable sushi, some Korean pork, and some sweet and sour chicken did find its way to my plate. So did a lot of jelly, a steamed custard bun, some bananas and custard, some pavlova, and a generous helping of ice cream.
Like i said, I stuffed my face!
Late Arrivals
I swear I seem to write a segment like this in every Muse. Once again owing to lone-trading on a Sunday, I was once again treated to people coming in with little time left on the clock, so to speak. Whilst I am generally understanding of this during the week, when it happens on a weekend it greatly frustrates me. Our opening hours are a known quantity, easily obtainable via various means, so why is it that people still turn up quite late, every single Saturday and Sunday? Why must I remind people of the obvious, namely that those of us working in shops are humans too, and that we want to go home on time?
Technology Woes
My household seems to have some awful luck regarding laptops. Earlier in the year, a very good laptop decided to randomly die, completely out of the blue. The secondary laptop suffers from a faulty power connector, which was repaired but remains inconsistent, to the point where it’s virtually unusable now. I wouldn’t mind if we were careless people, but we’re not. The tech seems to die without much prompting, which is mightily frustrating. It hinders activity, such as editing my books. It makes working on this website more of a challenge. It hampers my wife’s surveys. It’s also a costly exercise in replacing them.
Might it be that our modern-day devices have built-in obsolescence? It would be illegal for this to be the case, but it certainly feels like they do. Even if they don’t, the rapid development of computers means they can seem obsolete within a short span of time, and after a few years they can seem like they are grinding to a halt, assuming they haven’t failed completely.
The Collection Saga Continues
A week after the arranged collection of several items failed, the council had another opportunity to carry out the collection, and it once again failed. Once again, the items were in an easily-accessible location, as per the original instructions. This time I made sure there were no other items bundled in with our collection from other households, lest the council try to use this as an excuse. It turns out I got my dates wrong, and it would be the following week for the collection. D’oh!
The Schism Takes Shape
The sequel to The Awakening is coming along. I am in the grinding process of editing, but I feel like I’ve made some good progress with this over the past week. It helps that there’s a new laptop in the house, one with a reliable power connection, so I can crack on in earnest! There is definitely a feeling of satisfaction of bringing the project towards completion, and I look forward to carrying on with editing it. Alongside this, I am busily working on other writing projects. The creative juices are flowing! I am 25% of the way through The Schism, and aiming to have the edits done before the end of 2024, which should be more than doable.
It all feels very exciting!
Jackets, Continued
You may recall that in the previous Muse, I wrote of a problem with a Linkin Park jacket. It had a glaring flaw, namely the misspelt name of the late Chester Bennington. After a bit of wrangling, I was able to convince the retailer to send out another jacket, which arrived last week. Had they fixed their mistake? No. The mistake is also exactly the same as it was before, so it seems my correspondence with them has been entirely for nought. The next step in this process is to seek a full refund, because as it stands the jacket is unwearable. It also seems to be of generally poorer quality than the first one. I’ve contacted the seller once again, expressing my desire for my money back, and now it’s a case of waiting and seeing. Will they honour my request?
Aaaaaaargh!
I arrived at work the other morning to an horrendous sight. The glass on one of the bannisters had blown over night, coating one of the staircases in cubes of safety glass. Needless to say, this was not a great find, first thing on a Monday! There wasn’t much I could do, other than clean it up. I could certainly do without any form of repeat of this, any time soon! I suspect the glass must have been knocked at some point, though how and when is up for debate.
The Cold Creeps In
There’s no denying that as we reach the middle of November, the mercury has plummeted. Alas, it’s the time of year that any last semblance of warmth vanishes. In fact, just to remind us of this, it snowed for a bit yesterday! Still, we’ll blink and winter will be over. The sunny days always return, and until then, there will plenty of things to enjoy as November gives way to December. I shall leave you all with that thought, as I bid farewell to this Muse. Until next time, all you lovely meerkats!
