This story resonated with me. Its about Ron Avitzur at Apple Computers who was let go in 1993, but decided his work with them was not complete so he kept showing up for work, unpaid and occupied unused office space. His swipe card still worked to get in the building. We're talking months and months here. He was assisted by other legitimate Apple employees who were sympathetic, and they leant their technical expertise to his projects. He paid sub contractors out of his own pocket. Eventually when the software was complete it was shipped out on millions of Mac computers. Apple started paying him again.

It reminded me of a film made in the 70s called Bartleby where the employee gets fired but still shows up for work. He won't go away. Unfortunately this one has a much sadder outcome as the worker is mentally ill, ends up in hospital and fades away.

I removed the handy dandy country site counter as it was, well, not working. The site where you get the code seems to be kaput too so I suspect they are on holiday.

Life on the ocean waves

We were out on a boat this weekend. I'm not the best sailor; its slight exaggeration but sometimes I feel I could get nauseous in the bathtub, so you may understand some of my reticence when it comes to setting sail on the ocean. A friend of ours has a 29 foot sailboat which was our transportation system for the day. Anyway we had quite a pleasant ride out - no sails in sight and motored for about half an hour. We were buffeting the waves but my blueberry pancake breakfast stayed in one place. We stopped on an island and spent the day listening to some live folk music and getting warmed by the late summer sun. A friend, Cordelia and her little dog, Toto came and visited with us for a while.

At lunch a flock of pigeons flew by. One of them got caught in the wires of a sailboat. The pigeon plummeted to the water but managed to fly on somewhat shakily and settled on some rocks opposite us. A cloud of feathers wafted down in the air where the bird had hit the wire. As far as we could see the pigeon was not harmed, no broken wing or anything. I envisioned, in our litigious world, the pigeon sueing the boatowner for negligence for not putting out warning signs about the dangerous wire. I was thinking, on an island in the middle of the ocean, why should a pigeon have to worry about high wires as it goes about its business. Then I realized perhaps my second beer was kicking in.

As set off again, we saw what looked like plastic bag in the water, just outside the harbour. I was quietly grumbling about litterbugs on the ocean, but on closer inspection, it looked very like a dead baby seal. Which made me sad. A bit further along I saw what looked like an otter and proceeded to have a cheerful (one way) conversation with it, each time it appeared above the waves.
"Hello!"
"How do you feel about the price of gas?"
Again, appearances are deceptive. My little otter was a log, a deadhead as they call them in these parts.

We decided to sail back as there was some decent wind. I was a little on edge and wondered if I would toss my lunch but once I relaxed, it was fine, as we sped along at five knots. I can see how sailing helps people forget about their daily cares. I've not been in a boat for quite a while. It reminded me to take things easy - you can get so tied up in day to day cares, like e-mail messages, phone calls, and all the darn chores you meant to do today. To hell with it. Go sail for a day. Feel the rope in your hand, brace yourself and watch the sails fill out as you steer straight into the wind. I feel a sea shanty coming on. In South Australia I was born, heave away, haul away....

So with the handy dandy counter I installed recently, I find that the top visitors to this blog are from the US, Canada, Portugal, Chile and the UK. Which makes me a little embarrassed at my language skills, which are limited to English, some French, a smattering of German and Japanese, and a smat of Latin. But welcome everyone, I am honoured to have you visit. I'm delighted, boardering on ecstatic, for folks to leave me comments. Just don't advertise your products and services with links or I get a tad tetchy and turn a vivid green and my t-shirt starts splitting at the seams and you wouldn't like that.

We were woken up by a smell last night. This doesn't happen very often. You're sound asleep and in your dreams you're being invaded by an unbelievably obnoxious odour, so bad it wakes you up. Then you realize it is not nightmare. The truth is I fear, we have a most unwelcome visitor. There is a skunk living in our neighbourhood.

I've checked around but not actually seen the creature but even in the day time round certain edges of the garden, its been there for sure. I hope it is not living in our crawlspace. Mice, rats, skunks, what's next?

We had a bit of a ruckus in the neighbourhood last night. Gregoire and I were cleaning in the backyard around seven thirty when we heard a really loud motor spring into life. It was some kind of cutting tool but it sounded like a Harley being continuously revved up. It was if it was right in our yard. Still we were busy, so ignored it.

About five minutes later we heard a man's voice shouting. "Shut that damn thing off. Do you know what time it is? My baby is trying to sleep." Initially the motor just kept revving but the man continued to shout and it sounded bad. He was swearing at the top of his lungs and we could hear him over the sound of the motor. A crew were cutting down and removing a tree from a neighbour's front yard. The slings and arrows of outrageous language were hurled across the road.

Eventually the motor was shut off. A vitriolic slanging match continued between the two neighbours. A member of the gardening crew tossed in unhelpful jibes, adding fuel to the fire. The complaining neighbour seemed to make more noise than the offending machine. It sounded like things were going to come to blows. After a few minutes they ran out of steam and both parties disappeared back into their own homes, fuming as they went. The crew picked up the remaining branches of the downed tree and drove off.

I checked the noise bylaws. Reasonable noise between 7am and 10pm is ok. Unreasonable noise appears to be above 55 decibels continuously for three minutes or more. The output from the motor was definitely unreasonable.

A little later on in the evening after all was quiet on the western front, I ambled out and spoke to another neighbour, Harry as he tended to blades of grass on his immaculate lawn. He agreed it was loud but it was only for a short time. Everybody complains at every little thing, Harry said, gesticulating at the sky. We all have to get along together. Harry should work for the United Nations.

I was somewhere in between. If the guy had a baby in the house, he's going to be pretty protective. The noise was ridiculous. However he could have negotiated his way to some quiet time without stirring up world war three. Effing and blinding at the neighbour isn't smart. Now he's made an enemy where he could have had a friend. It wasn't clever for Flossie to bring in a tree cutting crew well after supper time. Somehow I doubted whether she was even aware of noise bylaws. I'd never clapped eyes on Flossie before, she's a bit of a recluse and keeps indoors.

Anyway the tree is down, the crew is gone. The neighbourhood is quiet. For now.

I walked into the elevator the other morning and a dark haired man bounded in after me, talking loudly to himself. I politely examined the decor on the opposite wall. On closer inspection, he had an earpiece and was talking to an unknown acquintance.For all I knew, his phoney friend was probably sitting in the blogtrain surrounded by a dozen people equally as displeased as I was at this loud intrusion. Suddenly the bounder looked round and realized he was not alone in the elevator. Looking a bit sheepish, he said quietly into the receiver, "Excuse I'm in the elevator and I look like an idiot. I'll call you back." In my book, he shot from annoying villain to decent human being in about 5 seconds flat.

So a couple of months ago I bought two baby chilli pepper plants. Feeling very pleased with myself, I tucked one of them very comfortably in a pot surrounded by other herbs and stuck it on the deck. The other I gave to a friend. Here is my mine.... feeble green leaves, thin as a rake and only one chilli in view.


...and here is my friend's, utterly bursting with life, chillis all over the place. Hmm, I'm thinking she watered hers, and probably read some of Byron's poetry to it every day. Yes, I can see a tube there, she had some automatic system in place. I gave mine the watering can treatment, but I admit it was rather sporadic, and we've had some fierce hot weather the last month. Anyway at least I know what can be done. We'll invite her over supper and she can bring the chilli sauce.

This crop circle appeared in Avebury in the UK this July. I'm a sceptic as to who actually creates these circles. I don't think its Farmer Joe and his dog. Some are very intricate and beautiful. Whoever is creating them must be having fun and I appreciate it as art.

I'm playing around with photo editor again; maybe this will be my new logo for garbage collection. This is a different take on the fries on the sidewalk shot from a few days ago....

The neighbours down the lane are fabulously optimistic. This white 1973 wonder with flat tyre, all sorts of rust, surrounded by a tonne of other junk, is for sale. We had been wondering what was hidden in this yard as for the past couple of years there was a large rectangular wooden box covered in black. We were hoping it was something mysterious and exciting. Pity. I don't think there is much gold at the end of this particular rainbow.


The laneway was scorching hot today, but the high hedges provided some respite from the sun. I didn't see too much litter today - maybe litterbugs don't like the sun, but there were the usual dumpings of deckchairs and bicycle wheels and Lord knows what in the undergrowth.


It beats me why folks do this. So you don't want your old bicycle wheels and other items. So you stuff it in a cardboard box and shove it down under the trees beside the blog train. Why? There were loads of places to take unwanted items - in our neighbourhood, leaving goods in the alleyway with a FREE TO GOOD HOME or equivalent usually means they are gone with a day or so. I don't understand folks who chuck them in the undergrowth and make a mess.


I passed a large hornets nest suspended from a tree on my walk today. I wasn't very comfortable getting too close to this one as there was a lot of buzzing around, but here we go.


Well if you make a negative of the hedgerow picture this is what it turns out like. Somehow I don't think I am missing my calling as a photographer but what the heck.

I have always liked masks. I wore this to a Mardi Gras party a couple of years ago and had a lot of fun. And when I'm not wearing the mask, we keep it on the wall the rest of the year.

I was walking along the street today minding my own business, as you do, when all at once I espied a host of French Fries, spread along the side walk. It looked like a gourmet game of "Pick up Sticks". Being naturally curious, I stopped to take a shot. Why were they there? There are many hungry people in the town. Nobody wants these fries? I saw a discarded McDonald's wrapper nearby, and instantly it all made sense. This is not food. This is garbage.


I don't know if you ever saw the movie TRON but this reminded me of that - as if life is in a computerised mesh This is a construction site quite near to where I work.


No particular reason for this photo, I just like fire hydrants.

I spotted this in the park the other day. There is a lady with a bike helmet lying on the bench. I've seen her walking round the city pushing this contraption. The sign says - Happiness, Relaxation, Emotional & Physical Back Pain Technique. Donation Good Karma.