My grandson had a serious accident last week, a spiral fracture of the femur, and has been in hospital for six days. I’ve been too worried about him to feel like doing anything much at all, let alone blog. Happy news: he’s coming home this afternoon! So that has put a silver lining onto an otherwise very cloudy week.
It also happens to be my eldest son’s birthday today. He stayed over last night so that we could journey out into the Blue Mountains to capture the golden hour before dawn. It wasn’t the worst or the best of conditions, but at least we weren’t rained or clouded out. I haven’t seen his pictures yet, but I’m not unhappy with this:
I’m into my third week of annual leave. My first week was filled with Christmas, the second by the little elf’s accident, and the third? It’s raining hard with more to come, so the chances of an overnight hike are slim. But now the elf’s coming home I feel more optimistic, so I might squeeze in a wet bike-hike overnighter anyway. Go hard, or stay home!
To kill some of the excess time I never expected to have, I started a jigsaw puzzle. Initially it was an ambitious 2000 piece panorama of NYC, but I spilled my gin & tonic and killed it dead. So I’ve replaced it with a 1000 piece jigsaw of “Going to Work” by L.S. Lowry. It amuses me to see the streets on 1959 industrial England filled with hunched workers when the streets of 2020 Sydney are so empty.
Mostly I’m just exasperated and bored with the news. News that The Loser Donald Trump is still trying to steal the election. News of new viral strains that are proving even worse than the one already bringing us to our collective knees. News of China’s continued aggressive expansionism and bullying. News of … I’m bloody sick of the news!
So I guess this is ennui. I thought only teenagers and/or pretentious artsy university students suffered from ennui. Guess I was wrong? But I need to snap out of it. That means getting out of the house. That means I am definitely going for a hike. Not tomorrow, because I want to visit the little chappie at home and give him a hug. Wednesday!
I’ll be on the bike early Wednesday morning, headed for the hills. I’ll be back by dinner the following day, soaked to the skin and grinning. You’ll hear all about it on Friday, with pictures, assuming I don’t get nibbled to death in my hammock by water dragons.
I’ll catch you then, in a much better mood.
Hope your week is wicked.