Inclement weather

I don't think it's stopped raining since Thursday night. That makes getting on for four solid days of rain. No wonder the roads are in such a state.

Driving to work this morning was distinctly scary. There are big patches of standing water everywhere, visibility on the dual carriageway was almost non-existent due to spray, and the verges on the more remote bits of the trip are starting to collapse onto the roads, promising roadblocks later in the week if we're lucky.

One of my colleagues was telling us about a nasty near-miss he encountered earlier today. A car in front of him hit a patch of water on the motorway, aquaplaned across a couple of lanes and smashed another car into the central reservation. My colleague was ok, but pretty shaken up, as you'd expect, having all that happen in front of him.

I am very glad I have a 4x4 with big old half-and-half chunky tyres. If I take it carefully I can pretty much get through anything. Within reason. Well, through mud and puddles, anyway.

Other than the weather, little of note has been going on in the WithaY household. Mr WithaY was supposed to go shooting on Saturday but it got called off. And why was this, you wonder?

Inclement weather? No.
Range too muddy? No.
Lack of access due to waterlogged roads? No.

The range apparently caught fire. Yes, really.

They've started using chopped up tyres as the backstop rather than the more traditional packed sand. Much cheaper. Great idea. But...

1) You can no longer rake out the brass cartridges to recycle them, as you can with sand. So, it's cheaper, but there's no recycling.

2) The bits of rubber end up getting scattered across the surrounding area which happens to be a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest, American readers), so all the little rare creatures end up trying to eat them, or nest in them, or mate with them. I am guessing on that last one, not being a naturalist by profession.

3) And, lastly, and most excitingly, the bloody stuff is flammable. Unlike sand. And, when high-velocity rounds come winging into it, they can set it alight. Fantastic.

So poor Mr WithaY spend a slightly disappointed Saturday at home, in between ferrying me back and forth to the glass repair place, it being too wet to have them come and fix the car outside my house.

We watched Hot Fuzz on DVD on Saturday night. I enjoyed it more the second time around than I did at the cinema, oddly. Maybe because it felt more fitted to a small screen, lower expectations and all that. Last night we started watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy again. Got halfway through the first one before deciding we were too tired to see it all the way through.

Is it only me that wants to give Frodo a good slap every time he goes off into his "Oh no, I'm being summoned by the Dark Lord" fluttery-eye thing? Just STOP wearing the bloody ring! It's not difficult. You have ONE instruction you idiot hobbit, bloody well follow it. Gah.

It's not really a chick-flick, is it?

Still, the new Shrek is out any day now, which I am looking forward to. I love good animation. Maybe that's why I like Second Life so much, now I come to think about it. I'm hoping Channel 4 repeat their Studio Ghibli season soon. I missed some of them last time round. Bloody work. Getting in the way of my valuable leisure time.

Other news: What can I get my Middle Sis for her 40th birthday? I gave her a fab present earlier in the year but I can't turn up at her party without something with a bow on it. Maybe a tortoise? I hear they make great pets. Plus I could stick the bow straight onto the shell, saving on wrapping paper.

Although...Mr WithaY's life-threatening vomit-fest earlier on the year was most likely down to tortoise-handling. I reckon, anyway. So maybe not.