Rain

Hi,everybody. It has been a rainy seven days or so in our new hometown, Hamilton, with no let up in sight. An interesting characteristic is that it comes in spurts, and that it will be not raining, then suddenly raining, as though the clouds had finally gotten overloaded with moisture and said "Hey, that was alright up until now, but now you are too heavy to carry this high," and so they rolled over on their sides and dumped some of the water, and down it came, with an occasional clap of thunder which is worrying to Charlie (I think she just digs her burrow in the carpet deeper if inside, and who knows, outside, with trembling and shaking). She has a bump on her nose, or a growth of some type - will get her to the vet's tomorrow afternoon. The plus side of the rain is a very colorful Spring, with many blooming trees, lots of flowers, including one we did not plant, from a bulb, known in at least some quarters as Sprixia, purple with a yellow central part of each leaf, and no easily seen at least, stamen. Book of the week/month: La Vie en Rose, with a web site, www.extremelypalerose.com. Nice escapist reading - Wife and husband are off to France to sell Rose wine to the populace, setttle in, meet interesting people, write about it, make a little money, and then set up a blog. Memories of Provence were triggered for me. I will try and take some new pictures and see if I can figure out how to get them on facebook. Joseph Manford Barber resides there. I discovered a fairly close winery this weekend, taking kids to a Quaker youth camp in a park to our west and south, near Mount Pirongia, if anybody wants to look. Roast chicken for dinner - sometimes it is still a challenge to decide and cook and clean. Emily sends her regards. Carrie and I say hi to any readers. We hope you are well and that your lives are going good. Sincerely, Manford

Charlie and some other stuff

Our dog, a bearded (stubborn) collie, is now somewhat over two years old and has moved gracefully and rapidly into adolescence. She likes to supplement her diet whenever the opportunity arises - at home by raiding rubbish cans or the garbage bag in the kitchen or food on the counters there (she seems to especially like chocolate, which (unfortunately from some points of view) is only fatal if ingested in fairly large amounts, amounts which so far (hmmmm, there's an idea) have not been that large (hmmmm). Oh well, its all part of the circus. Which i so far have been unsucseccesful in convincing her that running away to one would be a fun and gratifying thing to do. She has developed some new fears so that walking her, which used to be a straightforward thing to do now becomes one of those random walks statisticians like to talk about (about which statisticians like to talk). Carrie gets to hear some interesting lectures at work - a classicly trained psychologist who showed movie clips to highlight various types of disorder, for example, showing parts of Annie Hall for neurotic, and (I think this is the correct title) Grizzly Man for psychotic. Wonder what he thinks of the real Kiwi blokes who start running around in boots or gum boots, singlet and shorts any time the temperature is above about twenty degrees Farensheit? Or not. I became a semi- unlicensed one this weekend, wearing shorts, but cheating with three layers up top. And sun glasses. And a cap. My chest now being harier than my legs perhaps I should reverse that???
I recently purchased (to shift topics) a new string trimmer, much more macho than the el cheapo I bought a couple of years ago, and what a joy it is to use as it chops up weeds, grass, trees, Charlie (woops! not yet), the back porch, our new fence, etc. Only complaints - it is loud, and drinks fuel like Charlie drinks spilled juice, etc. But enough about Charlie (unless something terrible in the future happens to her, etc.). I trying to remember some of my passwords for various places in the internet universe, sometimes without success, so go through the forgot your password (or pissword?) stich, and then forget the new one. So I finally wrote them in code in a one book, which of course I have forgotten the location of and which code I was using. Oh, well, gives me something to do. I believe that Kiwis in general (human type) use periscopes in driving, as when one stops at a red traffic light, or (sometimes) sign, one is supposed to be able to see the back wheels of the car in front of one, and as best I can tell they do that, by mounting a periscope upside down in their vehicle and thus follow along with at least the spirit of the law. If you are reading this, as you go ALONG if you see a word in caps makes it looks like a shout, not? But not here, where to shout means to buy a meal for others. How about or ?? You got me. Well I must be off to shout (or is it shout out?) tweedle dum and tweedle dee. Sorry to be so negletful a writer, and here is a promise (if Charlie does not eat the computer, which she seems disinclined to do as long as Joseph keeps feeding her his partially done homework)to try and write more often. Love to hear from any of you readers, here or facebook or manfordb@gmail.com or manford_barber@hotmail.com. Etc.