Friday, January 8, 2010

Cold

Good Afternoon Children,

The British need their winter woolens this year, it appears


Now apparently this is going to be the coldest winter since records began, with temperatures in the -20 degree Celsius range

Global warming is to blame. This is due to the odd fact that most of the heat that Europe gets in the Winter comes from the Gulf Stream, a conveyor belt of warm water from the tropics.
As the ice melts in Europe due to warming, the salinity of the ocean surface water drops, fresh water will settle on top of salt water, so the water, one it has given up its heat, cant sink. If it cant sink, the conveyor will stop. Once that happens, then Europe will freeze. Swansea is at the same latitude as Nova Scotia. Get used to -20dgrees, and summers will suck even worse then before-Just what the UK needs, on top of all the other problems that have been documented by me over the last few years, we will soon look fondly back at the great summers of the latter 20th century, when temperatures averaged in June 21degrees, and winters were a balmy 0 degrees!Which is another reason why I moved to NZ. The weather here is like the weather used to be in my imagination when I was 8 years old. Nice, generally. I also had the great pleasure of corresponding with a guy I last saw 20 years ago, He was one of my best mates in primary school, but after we went to separate secondary schools we became distanced, to reaffirm our friendship as teenagers, before he went to serve in the Military and I went into health care. In our letters I spoke of my childhood, and how, before I went to "big" school, it didn't suck, and how after it did, hard. The rose tint were on big time, and it got me thinking of how times have changed. Nostalgia is the feeling of fondness for times past, and in many ways I am against it. Music was not better, films were not better, fashion wasn't better, its just we filter out the crap that we don't want to remember.But I do think that society was better in many important ways, the sense of community was very strong with us kids at Gendros Primary, and we all looked out for each other (mostly). Differences didn't matter not so much as what brought us together. I remember the Christmas parties and Sports days being well attended by Parents who would happily help, and compete themselves (3 legged race? Sign me up!) Now it appears that we are so concerned with appearance and being rewarded for our works that we don't do it unless we are paid, look cool doing it or feted for it. Which is sad, as we lose more from enjoyment that we gain from not doing. You only get out of something (like life) what you put in. If you are more concerned with weighing the output before inputting, there will be no input.This lack of community action manifested itself to be by a gradual coarsening of values, a loss of the spirit of comradeship and ultimately a fiercely self centered society, where if it wasn't your problem, then you didn't care. I thought that was only seen in the UK, but apparently it is World wide. Or are we all just looking at the past through rose tints?On Thursday, Jacqui rescued a kitten. This scrap was tiny, looked less that 4 weeks, it was being kicked down the street in a box by a couple of teenage girls. Jacqui confronted them and when quizzed they said they found it in a field. The Cat was ill, coughing, grunting when it was breathing. Its eyes where closed with mucus. It may well have been feral, and rejected by its Mother. I cleaned it up, gave it some water and called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A nice Young lady collected the kitten. Her opinion was that it was too young to be fed solid food, they had no nursing cats, it was very ill and would more than likely be put down. But being humanely destroyed is a better end that being kicked to death, terrified and alone, for the amusement of a couple of unfeeling bitches.What is wrong with people?I could go across to the house where they were playing, to ask the owners who the girls where. I could involve the Law, but I won't, because ultimately the Girls would not be punished, and kids with time on their hands can find all kind of interesting ways to get their own back (and I speak from experience). Am I a coward. Guilty as charged. As the old slogan states:If you not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.Try to be good

No comments: