Today is our shopping day but after a fairly good night’s sleep, Meg and I were up and breakfasted but there I was a little project I needed to undertake before we start on our trip out. I had been thinking about the events of yesterday where I learned by consulting social media that the motorist whose car had crashed and overturned on top of him was pronounced dead at the scene by the paramedics who attended him. Conscious of this, I went into our garden and picked a single red rose to which I then attached a card expressing condolences to any family or friends who might have sight of it. Then on my way out to do the shopping, I revisited the scene of the accident (easily visible because a lot of glass had just been swept into the gutter and the highways authority had not replaced the street light but just reduced what remained of the upright into a fairly ugly stump). I then left my single flower and message on the site of the accident expecting to see that there had already been a number of contributions. But my solitary flower was the only acknowledgement that the accident had taken place. Before I left to go shopping, I left a message on the dedicated voice mail of the investigating police officer indicating what I had heard (a huge and sudden large bang) and more specifically, when I thought about it, there was no screech of tyres an a hot road, horns of other motorists or other signs apart from the fact that the car had evidently left the road and hit the lamp standard a glancing blow which toppled it over and evidently led to the death of the sole occupant, a male driver in his 50’s. The investigating officer responded to my telephone message and thanked me for it, indicating that the little that I had to say was completely consistent with all of the other accounts of the accident. He did intimate to me, though, that the police were working on the presumption of a sudden medical emergency event (such as a heart attack or a stroke) as the probable cause of the accident which actually made it as to the evening news bulletins.
In the middle of the day, we received a visit from the specialist nurse who is an expert on Meg’s condition. She arrived by appointment with a colleague and whilst her colleague diverted Meg, the nurse and I have a chat over how things are proceeding. We did not have a lot to report on today but nonetheless the nurse thought she would activate the OT (Occupational Therapist) as there are two or three little tweaks we can adopt to manage Meg’s condition. It is always good to see this nurse and I know that either she, or colleagues, are available at the end of a telephone were there to be an emergency or an event which would be too difficult for me to handle without advice or support. After they had left, Meg and I contemplated lunch in the event of another really hot day. We did not fancy a salad as such but finished off with quite a tasty dish which was a quiche freshly purchased this morning, supplemented by some tomato and fresh beetroot. As lunch was a little delayed, we were just about to enjoy a little post prandial repose when two young care workers turned up about an hour and a half early to gave Meg her afternoon comfort call. This did not please us at all because the scheduled visit had been altered without anybody really noticing and this leaves a long gap to manage before Meg has her final bednight call at about 7.00pm. So I had to think how to handle this unexpected situation but decided an a three part strategy. Firstly, I took Meg into the back harden and we both had some ice cream which was very welcome given the hotness of the day. Then I brought Meg indoors and we watched a ‘catch up’ programme on the BBC iPlayer about the construction of the Eiffel tower and the life and work of its famous creator. Meg and I found this really fascinating and as Meg was having a rather anxious spell during the afternoon, I was relieved that she found this programme to be so interesting and diverting. The second part of the strategy will be to take Meg down into our ‘normal’ lounge where we might be able to access a classical concert by virtue of our YouTube subscription. We are generally quite fortunate when we try to do this so this is the second leg of the strategy. Then we will go onto either Sky News of the Olympics. I must say that in the early part of the afternoon I was totally ungrabbed by the vista of (male) beach volleyball which was the contribution from the Olympics or endless discussions of either the Southport stabbings with heavy dollops of the Hugh Edwards scandal all of which is somewhat depressing for us both.
The events on the other side of the Atlantic still raise an eyebrow. Donald Trump had decided to address a conference of black journalists and chose to abuse Karmala Harris’s racial origins by casting doubt whether she was ‘black’ or not to the gasps of the assembled journalists. There are indications that Donald Trump is really flipping his lid to coin a phrase and is in a blind panic how to react to the Harris phenomenon. One analyst has asserted that ‘I think lately, Donald Trump has been trying to do his best impression of someone who actually respects women and likes black people. Now that Kamala Harris is the front runner and there is so much energy and momentum behind that campaign and really excitement about someone who represents the future of the United States, a multiracial democracy, biracial people are the fastest growing segment of America, I think now Donald Trump is afraid.’ Evidently Donald Trump has a real problem how to cope with intelligent, black female journalists and one does sense a real turning of the tide that has flowed for so long in Trump’s direction. It is of no surprise that he has refused a live TV debate with Harris and this very act alone speaks volumes. Also, the dollars and the social media campaigns seem to be behind Harris so we are seeing a real fight on our hands. Some recent polls have Harris ahead in all of the key swing states but we will have to see if this trend is both real and sustainable until November, the date of the election.
© Mike Hart [2024]