This content is protected against AI scraping.
I omitted a very important detail from the crayfish party yesterday. My only excuse is that I wrote the post quite late in the day when I normally write it half an hour after I wake up. The reason for that was because we stayed at Nicoline’s place rather than drive home. Obviously, I didn’t take my laptop with me. I guess I should have taken notes.
Anyway, what happened was reminiscent of the day Carmen let known her feelings about hot air balloons. I can’t find the original incident but here’s a later example from 2011.
So, I was just finishing up making the bed when the two dogs started barking incessantly. This generally only happens when cats appear. Fearing that they may have bailed Selma up against a wall or something, I stopped what I was doing and headed up the garden to investigate, telling them to shut up as I approached them.
They had not bailed a cat, or any other creature, up against anything. No, they were barking at an inflated crayfish balloon. This inflated crayfish:
It was flapping around in the slight breeze and causing the girls to warn us that a very scary monster was about to devour us all. It was so horrendous, they refused to get any closer than 200 metres.
Eventually they calmed down but remained sceptical and unconvinced.
Then, later, while we ate inside, the inflated crayfish kept bobbing around outside the windows, causing Freya to regularly emit her distinctive and completely ineffective gremlin growls at the monster.
That, however, was yesterday. Today, there were no scary creatures for the girls to worry about. In fact, the day was a bit laid back as we all got over our various party ailments.
Late in the day, Mirinda headed off, returning to Nicoline’s where she was engaged in delivering acting exercises to some Friskis&Svetis people. She said they went over very well.
For my part, I managed to walk home from the ICA after shopping, given my gout has abated. I then pottered around a bit before heading outside for Reading Hour, where I managed to narrowly escape a soaking.
I had just reached the end of the hour, packed up the outdoor cushions and the various other bits and pieces, and went into the kitchen to start dinner. As I reached the French doors, I looked outside. The deck was now dotted with rain drops. Shortly after, the deck was drenched and rain fell full force onto the spot I’d vacated mere minutes before.
That was a lucky escape.
Not so lucky are some Florida school children…
I read today that The Diary of Anne Frank has been banned in some Florida schools. Apparently the book is unsuitable for kids to read. The paragraph below comes from a piece in the Florida Phoenix following allegations that the people who select the books suitable to be read are, actually, child abusers for allowing them to be included on school library shelves.
Here are some of those child-abusing materials: “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “What Girls Are Made Of,” “The Bluest Eye,” “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Slaughterhouse Five,” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Florida Phoenix August 25, 2025, available online at: https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/08/25/book-bans-reflect-conservatives-fear-of-a-changing-world/
It is claimed that Anne Frank contains sexual material. I read it a very long time ago and remember only the awful truth about the Nazis in World War Two and how the book paints a picture that never needs to be painted again. I don’t remember the sexy bits.
In fact, there are far more sexy bits in the bible, but I bet they won’t ban that.
Not for the first time, I am so glad I’m not American.
