Monday 5 October 2020

Would Raving and Ranting Help?

 

The ancient Greeks had a word for it, they called it HUBRIS, closely followed by NEMESIS. I can’t say that I was surprised when the long-expected news broke. Contrary to the reaction from some (only some) parts of the international media I am also not going into hypocritical overdrive. Does anyone think he is going to learn from this? Probably not. Our pound shop version said at first that he now knew the score, but it looks like he has long forgotten it again.


So, it’s autumn now. At first I didn’t want to believe it, I carried on digging and forking and pulling up, but then it started to rain. And rain. The days drew in markedly and there’s a definite chill in the air. In spite of the rotten quality of the photos (oh, damn Google, will they ever get it right?) you can see the difference in colouring.

I am staying in bed much longer in the mornings and going to bed ever later in the evenings. Some days I will have a nap in the afternoon. The weekend was dismal, I didn’t see a soul. Whatever am I going to do with myself for a whole dark winter? The PM  has warned us all that it will probably go on until Christmas and beyond. After feeling no serious ill effects during spring and summer I believe winter will be a whole different kettle-of-fish. Enough already! While the weather is awful I read, and read, and read. A book a day is nothing, sometimes I finish one and start another within hours.

I feel like constantly moaning and complaining, except that fulminating without letup is so tiring! Do you know what I mean when I say I mutter curses under my breath, slam around in the house, find fault with everything and everyone? The other day I got cross when collecting medication from the surgery. They’d left out my lifesaver COPD inhaler and I had to go back to claim it. “We had to wait for it to be delivered”, said the woman at the window. Not a bit of it, I don’t believe it; at other times somebody would have made a note on the packet telling me so.

There’s something else which annoys me every time I open a new packet of pills: they stick sticky tape over the ends now. Both ends.You fumble and fumble to get this tiny bit of tape off, if you succeed the bit of tape then sticks to your fingers and you stand over the open kitchen bin trying to get it off and deposit it inside. Of course, it won’t come off, it’s too small and too sticky. You have to go and find a piece of dry kitchen roll and transfer the remaining fraction of tape from your finger to the paper. You could, of course, just cut through the tape while it’s still attached to the pill packet but what do you do with that? Plastic sticky tape is not meant to be recycled. 

Oh, dear saints in heaven, life is getting ever more complicated. And Google definitely isn’t helping. Getting these two mean and fuzzy photos on took ages. Grrrr!



51 comments:

  1. I think that ranting with a few curse words thrown in for good measure does help! The fuzzy photos look lovely, so good work. :)

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  2. Sometimes a good outburst is healthy.

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  3. Thank you.
    I am a ranter, a raver, a mutterer and a curser. And retreat to books for solace and sanity. Often. I am so grateful to know I am not alone. And don't get me started on childproof pill containers that I strongly suspect a child would have much less trouble with than this aging and grumpy adult.

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  4. I'm glad you managed to get those two photos on there, since they are lovely to look at. And no, that awful man has not learned one iota after contracting the virus. Grrr!

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  5. He has proven with his recent ride by that he has learned nothing. Sigh.
    Bad enough humans give us grief but blogger does also. Glad you conquered it. So far I haven't run into the sticky tape thingy. Hope it stays over there.

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  6. I hope America will give you something to be hopeful about within the month. Sending you my affection and respect as usual

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  7. Sending you hugs, Friko!

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  8. If ever the word incorrigible applied to anyone it is him. I slip in a small sharp knife to cut the sticky tape on a sealed package and leave the tape there. It is those clear plastic blister packs that cause me real problems. They can be dangerous as you cut away at them with scissors.

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  9. Very pretty garden shots, so it was worth persevering. Is that a viburnum in the first? And packaging today is the Devil's Work.

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  10. Somethings are more rant worthy than others, but this year it seems like it's one thing after another that deserves major melt downs.

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  11. Let go, I say, rant, curse, swear, throw things even - whatever works! But, it bothers me that you are lacking human companionship. There is something especially debilitating about that.

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  12. I find muttering under my breath very satisfying. There is so much to rant about and I believe that a good swear word or two (or three) helps enormously.

    What he did yesterday was beyond contempt. However, I know he will find a way to top that today.

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  13. We all have to rant sometimes! I find that Blog reading and commenting has helped me so much during this crazy time. It is great to know that others feel as I feel. Thanks for posting (and your garden looks lovely)!

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  14. I'm a huge fan of the big rant. And it always involves a tiny thing like sticky tape to send me over the edge. The tinies mount up to screaming. My pharmacy drives me around the twist. They get nothing right. After numerous requests for delivery the last time I walked in there and asked the clerk to type in front of me "Delivery Only". In the last two days I get texts telling me they have scripts awaiting my pickup. Argh!!!!!!

    XO
    WWW

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  15. better to vent than to stuff it inside where it will affect your health and not for the better. especially if no one is around to hear.

    and no Trump has learned nothing. he is incapable of learning. all he cares about is if something makes him look good or bad. already he is back, contagious as all get out and still refusing to wear a mask in the White House while he carelessly infects everyone around him.

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  16. I am not surprised he has learned nothing. Incapable. Thinks he knows everything in the first place. One trick pony. Image is paramount.
    Ranting does some good sometimes. All your trouble was worth the pictures. I know what you mean about blogger right now. Annoying and I am an old dog.
    Hang in there! Winter is on the way here, too. We are survivors. :)

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  17. Hi Friko, I've been ranting about the new blogger lately too. Finding my way, but not without a bit of cussing. Of course it may be that this pandemic is beginning to get to us. It has been almost a year now... unbelievable. And we sure aren't ready to let down our guard here. As for our latest popular Covid patient, the man is too arrogant to worry about those around him. It is a sad situation. Sending you virtual hugs. It may be a long cold winter... but hope springs eternal (for this Spring maybe?)

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  18. Grrr indeed ... halten Sie bitte die Ohren steif! (wie meine liebe Mutter immer sagte!)

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  19. Things here are so bad politically/covidly and otherwise, I'm relieved I can duck into blogland and find kindred spirits. You're right about winter. I worry about that too. I will read and read a lot this winter. And paint, probably. I can only hope we have a new president by then.

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  20. There is plenty to rant about these days. Our provincial Premier called an unexpected election - in the midst of Covid - and he's wondering why so many people are requesting mail-in ballots. Some people just don't think.

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  21. Methinks you’re a bit out of sorts. You’re entitled. We all are. I long ago ceased expected our unworthy leader of doing or saying anything that makes sense as that’s not what he is about. Chaos creation is his game as a means to an end.

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  22. Let it go, friend Friko, hmmm? Much love, cat.

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  23. Some things can be so very annoying even if, looking at them rationally, we know very well that they are not really important in comparison with the life-and-death decisions and situations many people are faced on a daily basis. Still, they are tiny pin pricks, and enough of those can lead to real frustration.
    From what I know of you - your love of reading and music, for instance - I think you will be able to counterbalance the negative effect of the many small-scale annoyances with the good in your life. And the occasional rant is only human, isn' it.

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  24. Go ahead and rant.

    I'm irked at Blogger as well. Tried to upload a video to no avail. No problem with pictures, and no problem with a video in the past. I'm over it.

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  25. I understand how you feel. I dread the onset of winter, but the politics is really getting me down.

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  26. I'll not criticize anyone for ranting -- particularly when it comes to today's packaging methods! -- but I find myself less and less inclined toward it. To be honest, I've never been a ranter. It might have done me some good at certain times in my life, but on the occasions when I feel the urge coming on these days, I just disengage until it passes. It's not any better for our physical health than our mental health, and I'd hate to undo all the good I'm doing with healthy eating by unhealthy rants!

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  27. I did a little yelling just yesterday. I was in Tucson all summer where the temperature was over 100 degrees nearly every day, and now I am in Seattle where it's in the 60s but sometimes it's cooler and rainy. I'm now officially an arthritis owner and I yell because I WISH I DIDN"T HAVE ARTHRITIS. It's always something, isn't it?

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  28. It's always helpful to vent your mood, Friko.
    I think this pandemic will last until summer. Thus, we all have to wait for spring in a dark and cold winter.

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  29. First is the rant; second it the action. don't stop at the first step.

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  30. My mantra is: Tomorrow will be a better day. This pandemic is driving us all a bit mad. No joke. A good rant is healthy. Just let it all out and do not hold back. Bottling things up is no good. Take care. Stay safe that's all we can do for now.

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  31. Hi Friko - love the photos of your gorgeous garden. Life is a bummer's muddle - to put it mildly ... and I do think of you from down here. I'm bumbling along - no garden ... but finally am getting to read a bit - and of course the blog, which I started because I knew I'd need something to engage me as time went by - before covid days. Still keeps me overly occupied now. All the best and with thoughts from the south coast ... c/o the Beeb now in West Sussex! Ah well ... we need a laugh - yes I'm staying in bed longer too - not good for me ... but those morning extras are a treat. Take care and safe - Hilary

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  32. I just posted the most wonderful Mary Oliver poem over at Lagniappe. I think it's one you'd like. Note especially her anthropomorphizing of firewood at the end -- it's just perfect!

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  33. Friko, I think most of us are feeling the Fatigue of Pandemic. Hubris is the perfect word for this Lunatic we have in Office and he learned not a thing from his close call with the Virus, tho' he got the best Socialized Medicine he didn't have to pay a Penny for, while trying to do away with adequate Healthcare for the Citizens he Works for and should be Serving and Protecting. It's all disheartening enough to Deal with a World Pandemic, Civil Unrest, Economic Collapse and then Incompetent Leaders... then each of us has our own Issues and it tends to dominate our thoughts and actions, doesn't it? I try to Post some Fluff and have diversity of Blog Topics so that I don't end up with too many Rants in a row. *winks* Keep the Faith, remain up by it, know that it will hold. Virtual Hugs.

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  34. I assume you are talking about the cretin running my country. It seemed karmically wrong that he had such an easy go of the virus. Of course, he had access to experimental treatments and top-notch care not available to the rest of us.

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  35. I'm also thinking that winter will be harder yet... and looking forward to hibernating and visiting with bloggers like you, rants and all!

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  36. https://www.holdenqigong.com/
    https://secure.holdenqigong.com/immunity-emergency-kit/?_ga=2.61879467.601063612.1603995104-962178492.1603995104
    try it!!! it will change your life!
    a hello from renée

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  37. Thinking you should write long angry letters or daily journal...get it off your chest and then write down one postitive thing you are going to work on a the shorter days set in.

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  38. I'm not sure ranting and raving are Helpful or not, but I indulge in them anyway, can't Hurt, right?

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  39. I don't see why you shouldn't rant... everyone else is. It's either that or apathy verging on catalepsy.
    I've done the soup making, now I'm contemplating hibernation.

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  40. I feel for you, sounds like you're a bit out of sorts. Understandable and not easy to get yourself out of it when you live alone. That's when a rant can help, get it out, verbalise it. Sometimes I even write it down, try to express what it is that's bugging me. I really can help. Keep smiling!

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  41. Hehehe! Those drat sticky patches are the pits, I agree, and they appear on more packaging than than just medical products. Perhaps one day, the factory that churns then out will run out of 'sticky-stuff', and the world will be a cleaner and less fraught space to inhabit.
    Till then, rant away Blogpal, so we can sympathise.

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  42. Thank you for your comment on our Anniversary.

    Like any marriage, it has not all been a "picnic." -smile-

    But we are quite proud of arriving here, and both still pottering around. And both, still taking care of each other.

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  43. Nearing the end of November when Advent approaches all I can say at our place in Canada we are also in for dark times and we too seem to stay up longer , sleep in more and nap., We had a beautiful snowfall but I cannot post photos as you mentioned Google makes it a challenge.
    We all wonder what the next era post Trump in USA and post Covid will be like. Canada and UK have managed post Brexit trade deals so that is good but who can tell what businesses will survive the long lockdowns?
    Please do post again just to stay in touch.
    I watch a fait bit of German TV these days and some Frech all on my tablet. It helps to feel better in my case.

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  44. I am hoping all is all right with you. I check frequently; I so enjoy your posts. Hopefully you'll give us a "Hello" soon!

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  45. Hi. I am getting worried. Do hope you are all right, It's been awhile since we heard from you, I check frequently; your posts are always a treat. Hopefully you will give us a "Hello" soon?

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  46. I came to check you are okay? Hopefully so.

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  47. I hope that everything is OK with you, dear Friko. It has been awhile since we heard from you and I am concerned.

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  48. At the risk of sounding like Pollyanna, the days will soon be getting longer and the garden will wake up. We'll all be vaccinated and the world will open up again.
    So let's raise a glass to 2021 and a Happy New Year!

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  49. Perhaps a friend or relative will leave a message in the comment section letting us know if everything is alright. Hope all is well.

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Comments are good, I like to know what you think of my posts. I know you'll keep it civil.