NOT MISSING A BEAT..
(begun Tuesday 28th February at 3.55am)
I'd have said mid-sixties is a bit early to start losing your marbles, but what do I know? Between us, we're going downhill at a rapid rate, although his old man was pretty sharp right into his nineties, and my old lady didn't drop the ball until she finally croaked in her eighties...
Do we have our Area Controller to thank for our express ride to Gagaland? What do you think? *winks...
Geez, I remember dreaming in the early hours that I was in extreme pain, but I couldn't wake up, and it doesn't take much imagination to figure that Sir Vicious was as busy as ever in the hours before dawn..*nauseated...
Although the GW runs the Kaspersky Critical Updates every day, we've not been able to complete a full scan for over twelve days.. The darned thing has been taking a regular three and three quarter hours to finish, so I started it off yesterday afternoon at 4.16pm, assuming it would be finished before the GW went to bed.
Wrong again. I see here now that the old man has made a note that Kaspersky finally completed the full scan at 11.45pm..*blinks.. You do the math and ask yourselves why our proxy ISP and Network Admin feels free to cause such mischief quite so openly, and why the sudden massive increase in time taken? It's pretty obvious that my pushing-middle-aged PuppetMaster needs to lighten up and take himself a chill pill... Too many late nights has led to a serious sense of humour failure?
They'd held some sort of jolly celebratory gathering at the Chickencoop last Friday night, and alas, the GW had taken offence when their sound system was still pounding out the doef-doef bass well after 11pm. I'd slept right through it, and he'd told me the next morning that he'd tried unsuccessfully to call both Missus C and the Metro cops, and had then gotten himself dressed and gone all the way up to unchain the gates before buzzing the Courageous Couple's intercom... (Her phone had been answered by one of her guests and the line dropped *winks..)
The GW said that she'd responded to the buzzer, but had simply kept saying she couldn't hear him.. Well, I should think not.. *chokes... I'd missed all of this, though at 2.30am I'd gone and sat out on the verandah to listen to the music for a bit... Judging from the surround-sound effect, Balliram had kindly hauled his speakers out of der Bunker and onto the deck itself, to ensure that nobody missed a beat... *falls over..
I was asleep again when they apparently packed it in at 3am, and unlike my old man, I was none the worse for the wear... *grins.. I'd be astonished to find that most of you hadn't already googled our stretch of Harris Crescent ages ago, and seen for yourselves that our homes are literally only yards apart...
Anyone bother to check out the re-evaluation of our properties? I'd found the link on durbanite.co.za, but when the GW had tried it, he'd said that the properties from Kasim's at No. 2 up to No. 14 weren't showing on the roll.. *blinks... No surprises when they showed up without a problem on the Aviator's laptop.. Our delapidated and humble abode has, in the years since Warren Sutcliffe made his millions and had done a runner to Oz, gone up from roughly R690,000 to R770,000+ !! A fact that had me grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat when you think we'd paid a mere R21,000 for it, back in the seventies...
The Good Man's palatial mansion up at No. 16 now shows a valuation of R1.3million, and somewhat surprisingly, our Controller's much smaller palace next door at No. 6 weighed in at R1.4 million..*falls over snorting.... Man, I know Balliram had the ChickenCoop out there on the Internet some years ago, at R1.2 million, but he was never serious about selling up, and is even less so today.. I can only imagine that it was the addition of der Bunker that's been reinforced to deflect the hugely increased emissions, that's made his little property worth R.1 of a mil more than all the vast additions and alterations carried out up at No. 16. *yawns...
After reading yesterday's Daily News, Feb. 27th, BackChat, on Page 7, I'd asked the GW whether I should donate a grand to Booysen's defence, and for once he hadn't shot me down in flames, but said he didn't know.. A grand would be no more than a drop in the ocean, but I guess in this case (!) it's the thought that counts.. Besides, the advice I gave Johan yesterday was worth a bucketload, unless he's truly on the inside and is already aware of every last magical option that the surveillance technology can employ....
LATER at 5.20am
The hadedas have just announced an increase in wireless activity even before Millie was aware of it.. I'd gone out the front at sparrow's yesterday morning, to find one of my ancient gardening shoes lying on the grass at the foot of the verandah steps... Later on I'd asked the GW, my kid, and the Aviator whether they'd tossed it there... Nope..
So - anyone care to ask Balliram who it was, and why there was someone on our verandah during the night? I'm well aware of the easy access to ours from the ChickenCoop, and judging by our sagging front gates, from the street as well.. It only needs for Balliram to disable our motion-sensor garage light to make it dead easy for a hireling to hop on over in the dark.. *shrugs...
Will he lie as usual and say he saw no-one on our property the night before last, or will he concede it was a visit he'd arranged for, in order to raise a few badly needed laughs? When you consider that I can't so much as pick up the landline to make a call,without my first attempt generally being dropped, while he hastily checks the number, you have to know the level of his obsession, and that there ain't so much as a twig that snaps on ours, that he doesn't follow up immediately... Why didn't the little dogs raise the alarm? The appalling heat has us running several noisy fans overnight, which answers that question easily...
It's light out, and I must get on. It's interesting to speculate whether I'll be permitted to access my gmail account and send the CPF Minutes off later today.. You're ALL having problems with gmail? Sure you are... *shrugs...
The GW had forgotten to pull the PC plug from the jackpoint after shutting down at 11.45pm.. An omission I'd only discovered and rectified at 4am, though I'd hazard our Controller made good use of his freedom of access during the hours between... I guess few of you are aware of the irritations I now cause for my once genial Area Controller.. My insistance that at least two plugs are pulled from their jackpoints each night, and what I suspect is the ruination of a regular live satellite feed, since I've taken to drawing our bedroom curtains closed at night.. I've no doubt my practise of writing notes has also led to this latest increased bubbling spite, and that I'll be enduring serious payback on that score for some time to come.. *yawns..
Is Collin P. Balliram the poster boy for Area Controllers around the globe? Are what I consider to be huge flaws in his character, precisely what the telecoms industry require and prize so highly?
It's now 6am, and from nowhere I'm suddenly assailed by a fierce headache, and I curse aloud.. Another day in wireless paradise is all...
LATER at 6.45am
I've just unlocked the garage and walked into a wall of BackFire..*blinks.. I asked out loud WTF Balliram had been up to in there, but as usual he stayed silent...
I then spent five minutes doing my now obligatory search of the courtyard walls, while muttering to St. Anthony that it was time he helped me.. Some habits are harder to break than others..*winks..
Despite the sophistication of the technology, it would appear that the HardyBoyz-type practise of flashing lights manually from point to point, continues all these years later..
What if it isn't a liquid after all, that V. uses to mark specific areas around our property? What if it's something as basic as a piece of chalk-like substance that's picked up easily by a laser or infra-red camera?
Despite that it's highly unlikely I'll ever get to solve this particular riddle, I sure enjoy thinking about it...
Whatever it is, is probably also applied to the boundary walls of all the properties in both Garbutt and Harris Crescent, and you can often hear them activate as you cruise slowly up or down with your window open to hear the wireless crickets give a single chirrup as you pass by each gate...
Want to bet there's a long-life cricket device at the Mast Fighter's front gates? *winks..
It's set to be another stinker here today, so take it easy and
peace..
---oOo---
Tuesday 28th February 2012 at 11.34am.
