We watched a show last night called “Around the World in 90 Minutes”.  It showed the International Space Station doing one complete circuit of our planet and highlighted what was going on in countries below and what happens on the planet in those 90 minutes.

Whether it’s trees cut down, carbon dumped into the atmosphere, increase in population, plastic dumped into the sea all of it makes for very depressing viewing.  What was more depressing was the assumption that the world is a great place and nature will fix these problems and everything will be hunky dory.  You can bet your bottom dollar that nature will fix these problems in due course but expect half the people on the planet to disappear in a major spring clean.

I could rant on for ages about how stuffed our planet is but you’ve heard it all before.  If you need me, I’ll be out the back banging my head against the garage wall or down at the beach. 

I’ll be easy to pick out.

Don’t read on if you want to avoid a vicious Dogbait rant.

What is it with me and people.  I must have a face that reads, “Use and abuse me”.  I have a few computer skills which attracts calls from friends, friends of friends six times removed and even strangers (they’re 7 times removed) who are on the blower requesting that I fix their computer problems. 

I spend hours driving to their house, fixing their computer, giving lessons and sometimes can barely crack it for a thank you or a coffee.  I don’t charge nor do I ask for payment and leave it up to the goodwill of the person.  If they ask, I profess a fondness for fruit cake for a small job or movie tickets for something more than plugging the power cable back in.  For bigger jobs like building a computer, reformatting and reloading all the software or long sessions of tuition, lounging in the Gold Class cinema is appealing.  I’d like to inform you that I’m not getting fat.

If I tell you about the latest effort I’ll end up in an apoplectic fit and Dogbait frothing at the mouth isn’t a pleasant sight.  If you really want to send me into a maniacal rage, ask me about the former good friend, who for no reason, no longer wants to know us.  I know, that’s one no, no, know, too many.

I’m so pissed off with people at the moment that I’m even starting to feel sorry for the next person who rings me wanting something.

Thanks, doctor, I’m feeling better already.

That’s what I call the period between 3pm and 4pm.  It’s a time I refuse to be on the roads, either running or bike riding, without a serious death wish.  It’s the time when mother’s scurry to schools in the area to pick up their little treasures.  

Like most kids of my era, we walked to school, usually with friends, and we thought nothing of the 6k return trip each day.  The dangers lurking around were prevalent in those days too yet it seems mandatory for children to be driven to school these days, usually in massive 4WD’s with matching chrome bullbars.

While most parents are responsible and cautious on the road, you have a minority who use it as a race track, or worse, doing it while on a mobile phone even though the penalty for this is quite severe.  Even worse are those who nibble the bottle through the day and then head off to pick up their kids and this isn’t an isolated case either. 

A couple of days ago, I made the mistake of running on a quiet, back road during Death Hour and was confronted by a Ford Explorer being driven towards me by a woman on a mobile phone totally oblivious to my existence. Since there are few footpaths in OG, you run towards the traffic and cars usually give you plenty of room when passing but this cretin drove straight at me and I had to dive into the bushes to avoid two tonnes of rampaging metal.  She at least had the grace to stop after I gave he a verbal volley and a waving fist and got out of the vehicle and said,”Sorry, I didn’t see you”.  I told her to tell that to coroner when she kills the next person.

Going west for the weekend to ride the Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail which we’ve been told has just been completed. 

Probably get run down by a drunken Thomas the Tank Engine!

Our thoughts go out to our friends in the UK who have suffered another senseless mass murder.  Of course, we are quick to criticise the Americans for their lax gun laws when they have their spate of shootings, but remember, the UK and Oz have some of the toughest gun laws around and yet we have had some of the worst massacres in history.

The Independent writes a good article trying to rationalise these paranoid people with their low self-esteem and a petty grudge who want to take their shitty little lives to the grave along with as many innocent people as possible.  While we live on such a violent and screwed up planet, it won’t be the last.

To top off a depressive week, we have the Israelis going about what they are best at; the suppression, violence, subjugation and the annexation of the Palestinian people.  So what’s new.  It’s been going on for 62 years with complete impunity from the West and they will continue to do what they please when they please.