since you been gone

Yes, Gerry, this has been the longest non-posting period since v v b started. It's been due to various occurrences. Last weekend the Minister for Home Affairs and I went to Fraser Is for a long-ish weekend to celebrate 30 years of armed truce lawful wedded bliss. It wasn't long enough to properly see and enjoy the place but we did get about a little, had a couple of great meals and on the Saturday night there was a bloke playing guitar and singing, just the way I wish I could. But second best is hearing someone else do it well and third best is something recorded. Gimme live any day.

On the way back we called on some good friends who live just west of Gympie. Had a great lunch and one (light) beer on their balcony overlooking the Mary River valley. Grass, trees, cows, bucolic and restful. They are downstream of the proposed dam at Traveston crossing. There are plenty of anti-dam placards on the roads around Gympie so it will be highly exciting to watch the citizenry rise up against the government - particularly in view of their fondness for guns in that part of the world....

At the same time work has been relatively busy, which has meant bringing a little work home, something that I haven't had to do for a while. And it's about to get a whole lot busier with some big stuff coming down the pipeline, which will be quite exciting.

And to add to all that, the elderly relative has gone into hospital and this time he won't be coming home again. Through the unflagging efforts of Mrs v v b, we were able to keep him at home with us much longer than many families would have been able to manage. However, the latest decline in his condition has got me a bit reflective and is not conducive to blogging, certainly without getting far too personal to be either interesting or even digestible for the casual reader.

In response to my request begging, v v b is now listed at Catallaxy. Ideologically, a less compatible site would be hard to imagine. I enjoy the discussion at Catallaxy but the endless parrying about the influence of Karl Popper and similar luminaries simply reminds me of arguments about the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin. Like pure socialism, pure libertarianism appeals for policy purity, but who'd vote for it? The gut level repugnance is what I feel and I imagine I wouldn't be Robinson Crusoe. Anyway, good luck to them and if they want to invite people to link, then this is what they get. However, I did promise to try harder.

In fact, my sadness - cunningly disguised as Vesuvian anger - at what the mendacious little turd (link superfluous) has been up to lately, has in fact led me to boycott the news. The ABC, now in fear for its existence, has become an Australian Pravda in its relentless boosting of the nation's 'leader' and his every thought. Puke. No more. The rest of media just laps up every diversion and inanity the Libs toss out, so there's no relief in perusing the commentariat. We'll be turning to hearth and home here at v v b, particularly the hearth, as the evening temperature drops and warm fires and warm pussycats become more attractive.

Now we're all up to date, the next post will be another in the series of motor cars we have owned. Over at Larvatus Prodeo, discussion of soft top cars in cooler weather reminded me of driving my old Datsun Fairlady around Canberra, in the middle of winter, with the top down, so we might cover that one next.