A Very Complainy Post

This is another picture from my trip to Hastings. In front of the battlefield entrance were these bollards, which someone had sheathed in fun knitted coverings. These are only a few of them -- there were similar bollards all around the square. I wish I'd had time to get more photos, but we were already in the car and driving away when I asked Chris to pull over so I could grab a quick shot.

I just heard the recycling truck come by. We've been having some trouble with our rubbish collection. They usually come on Friday mornings, but they've been a few days late for the past few weeks, and last week they didn't even pick up our garden waste (a service for which we pay extra). I went on their web site to complain and found a note that said, "We are currently experiencing recycling and waste collection delays." Which makes it sound like the delays are something being inflicted upon them -- that they're just passive victims. When in fact, it seems to me, it should read, "We are currently delaying recycling and waste collection." Aren't they in control?

And while I'm complaining, let's talk about Blogger comments. Have any of you noticed, while commenting on a blog, that sometimes your comment just disappears and doesn't post? I've had this happen several times recently, and no amount of reloading the page or closing the browser window solves the problem. I can even comment on other posts on the same blog, but not the one I want to comment on. The only thing I can do is wait -- and often, if I go back in ten minutes, the comment posts just fine. I have no idea what's going on there but it's annoying.

Also, remember that kerfuffle earlier this year about how Blogger was going to stop e-mailing posts to subscribers who had signed up via their widget, powered by Feedburner? That was supposed to happen in July. But I'm still getting my own posts in my e-mail every day, so apparently it's still working. A mystery!

Well, geez, I didn't mean to be so grouchy in this post. Here's one of our roses -- we're seeing a second flush of blooms on some of the plants. See the little bug on the petal to the right?

Other flowers haven't performed well this year at all. I already mentioned the cardoon, which only has one good-sized blossom and a few smaller ones that look like they never matured. Our Chinese lanterns haven't done well either -- the one in the pot only sent up a few shoots, and the one in the ground had one or two flowers but that's it. I don't think we're going to get any lanterns this year. Everyone says this plant is so vigorous but that has not been our experience.

My appointment at the dentist was yesterday. It went fine -- just a cleaning, and it seemed a bit perfunctory but I guess it's better than nothing. The hygienist said she'd only worked there two weeks, and she was a bit overeager in her instructions to me. I felt like saying, "I've been brushing my teeth successfully for more than half a century, and I'm not about to change my methodology now!" Old dog, new tricks --right?

Last night I watched "Missing," the 1982 Costa-Gavras film starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, about Pinochet's violent 1973 coup in Chile (backed by the USA). It's one of my favorite movies, but it's surprisingly hard to find streaming. I've looked for it several times over the years with no luck, and finally yesterday I found it on a site called Chili that I'd never used before. I "purchased" it for £5.99, but I'm unclear whether that means I own it in perpetuity or I merely rented it. Anyway, I was glad to finally get a chance to see it again.