Thursday

I can't believe we missed the lunar eclipse! It was the longest in a decade and it was a total eclipse which people in Western Australia woukd have seen from start to finish but here, had we seen it, the moon would still have been totally in Earth's shadow when it set. The first I knew about it was when they were saying how wonderful it was on the radio show I was listening to on the way in to work. I'm taking this to mean that I am not reading enough - or watching television enough, especially at news time - although, quite ironically, last night was the first time I had watched the news for quite a while and it didn't have the story of the eclipse nor the story of one of the MasterChef contestants being removed from the show for having a smart phone (which can connect to the internet and be used for looking up recipes). Smart phones are apparently forbidden and Mat had apparently managed to keep his secreted for six weeks - if the reports are true - they have not yet been verified by the show's producers. Coukd it be a ruse to raise ratings? (How are their ratings going this year?)
ROM is back. That would be the ride-on mower finally back from the Deere hospital. The problem with the cutting deck seems to relate to a spindle something-or-other which meant the drive belt wouldn't stay on. This we knew - not about the spindle - but about the belt not staying on. The question: if the belt wasn't staying on the last time it was at the mechanics - why didn't they pick that up then? Could it have been because it wasn't the Deere hospital who last had ROM? In any case, hopefully it will be fine tomorrow afternoon or on the weekend because it's time the rest of the lawn was mowed (M has done a great job with the motor mower while ROM has been away).
Maggie gave me a look this evening - who are you and what are you doing there?. it was a fair call - in S's absence when Tink took my chair this evening, I was able to sit where S usually sits rather than disturbing Tink. Maggie has obviously never seen me there before so when she was looking for a place to be, she was surprised to see S missing and me in her place. But that didn't stop her from allowing me to straighten out the blanket for her and she soon settled down and snuggled in - which was surprising because M thought Maggie would have been out scouting by the light of the full moon. And it is a spectacular moon - big and bright and lighting up the whole valley. It doesn't get much better than this!