- Location
- Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
We’re going to go off on what seems like a sunny and interesting trail this morning, although I already detect there are some places where the path could become a bit difficult….
I have what I might’ve previously described as a rich and diverse ‘skill set’. And on reflection, several of the skills concerned are those that I secretly consider a man should have a rudimentary grasp of before he can call himself a man. I do realise that not everyone has the position in life to acquire such skills, nor any real need for them. Indeed, here we are, already at a rather disturbing turn in the trail. I have to confess that I subconsciously judge people on wholly unrealistic criteria.
So, whilst knowing it’s not everyone who shares the same values….I can just about, with barely any adult supervision, heat bits of steel to bend them in something like the shape I might need, and subsequently glue them together with an arc welder. It’s pretty rustic, but there are plenty of things about the place hanging together by my fabrication and repair. My woodworking is even more rudimentary, but I can nail 2 bits of wood together, and indeed have designed and constructed entire structures up to a size to house a large bus or three. I can, when pressed, throw up blockwork, and perhaps unsurprisingly, have a fair eye for plonking granite stones on top of one another, with or without mortar.
And while I know little of tillage farming, my livestock husbandry abilities are a given, although they’re rather more mediocre than I’d want to admit. And due to my peculiar business interests, I can string together whole sequences of connection twixt several disciplines. From the planting and nursing of a sapling, through to felling a grown tree, sawing the timber and building something with it. Or breeding and raising a beast through to its final day, and seeing it then hung on a hook.
Perhaps less work-related, I’ve a reasonable grasp of that vital life skill of spending less than I earn, so as to always feel comfortable, and that it’s probably best not to be rude to people… especially if they have a clipboard. I’m pretty fair at recognising that my little wife is right in every way about everything single thing….or there’s lumps in the metaphoric marital porridge. It is with these modest abilities that I navigate life. And then I’ve lately been slowly acquainting myself with the clunky basics of various sciences, taking in stuff like biology, geology, chemistry and physics - driven by a desire to know how stuff works.
Admittedly household DIY, indoor plumbing, decorating and lectrickery are all complete strangers, much to my beloved’s frustration. And many of the functions of the computers about the place are a mystery to me, which is becoming an impediment, as we’ll see. So far, it’s fine as long Alison is within reach, or a surly youth can be peeled from their own screen. But otherwise, I feel I’ve got a good handle on things.
My problems come with the interface between me and the rest of the world. See, much to my bemusement, being able to vaguely master the above still leaves me hopelessly ill-equipped to get along now. Whole tranches of life seem to depend on having a good internet connection, and a passable grasp of the technology connecting it to my life. The government, the bank, utilities, and indeed almost every supply company we deal with seem to think life will be simpler this way. From my darling little spouses’ phone, she can shop, get directions while whizzing down the road, research pretty much any question, do business with government departments far and wide, move notional money around, and have video chats with distant offspring. And that’s just herself. I’m hearing young’uns can do all kinds of wondrous things, using ‘apps’ I’d never thought to consider. To fix a tractor now, you need the right laptop computer before you reach for a spanner. Twisted priorities place a higher value on the ability to know all these tricks than being able to fell a tree or butcher a beast.
I don’t possess a smartphone, and regrettably can’t muster much interest in acquiring the skills to operate such a thing. I do have a functional understanding of how the planet works, and the ability to feed and house my family from it more or less indefinitely. But apparently that’s worthless now, and I’m a lumbering dinosaur, watching the big shiny thing streaking across the sky, hurtling me toward oblivion.
It’s a funny old world innit?
I have what I might’ve previously described as a rich and diverse ‘skill set’. And on reflection, several of the skills concerned are those that I secretly consider a man should have a rudimentary grasp of before he can call himself a man. I do realise that not everyone has the position in life to acquire such skills, nor any real need for them. Indeed, here we are, already at a rather disturbing turn in the trail. I have to confess that I subconsciously judge people on wholly unrealistic criteria.
So, whilst knowing it’s not everyone who shares the same values….I can just about, with barely any adult supervision, heat bits of steel to bend them in something like the shape I might need, and subsequently glue them together with an arc welder. It’s pretty rustic, but there are plenty of things about the place hanging together by my fabrication and repair. My woodworking is even more rudimentary, but I can nail 2 bits of wood together, and indeed have designed and constructed entire structures up to a size to house a large bus or three. I can, when pressed, throw up blockwork, and perhaps unsurprisingly, have a fair eye for plonking granite stones on top of one another, with or without mortar.
And while I know little of tillage farming, my livestock husbandry abilities are a given, although they’re rather more mediocre than I’d want to admit. And due to my peculiar business interests, I can string together whole sequences of connection twixt several disciplines. From the planting and nursing of a sapling, through to felling a grown tree, sawing the timber and building something with it. Or breeding and raising a beast through to its final day, and seeing it then hung on a hook.
Perhaps less work-related, I’ve a reasonable grasp of that vital life skill of spending less than I earn, so as to always feel comfortable, and that it’s probably best not to be rude to people… especially if they have a clipboard. I’m pretty fair at recognising that my little wife is right in every way about everything single thing….or there’s lumps in the metaphoric marital porridge. It is with these modest abilities that I navigate life. And then I’ve lately been slowly acquainting myself with the clunky basics of various sciences, taking in stuff like biology, geology, chemistry and physics - driven by a desire to know how stuff works.
Admittedly household DIY, indoor plumbing, decorating and lectrickery are all complete strangers, much to my beloved’s frustration. And many of the functions of the computers about the place are a mystery to me, which is becoming an impediment, as we’ll see. So far, it’s fine as long Alison is within reach, or a surly youth can be peeled from their own screen. But otherwise, I feel I’ve got a good handle on things.
My problems come with the interface between me and the rest of the world. See, much to my bemusement, being able to vaguely master the above still leaves me hopelessly ill-equipped to get along now. Whole tranches of life seem to depend on having a good internet connection, and a passable grasp of the technology connecting it to my life. The government, the bank, utilities, and indeed almost every supply company we deal with seem to think life will be simpler this way. From my darling little spouses’ phone, she can shop, get directions while whizzing down the road, research pretty much any question, do business with government departments far and wide, move notional money around, and have video chats with distant offspring. And that’s just herself. I’m hearing young’uns can do all kinds of wondrous things, using ‘apps’ I’d never thought to consider. To fix a tractor now, you need the right laptop computer before you reach for a spanner. Twisted priorities place a higher value on the ability to know all these tricks than being able to fell a tree or butcher a beast.
I don’t possess a smartphone, and regrettably can’t muster much interest in acquiring the skills to operate such a thing. I do have a functional understanding of how the planet works, and the ability to feed and house my family from it more or less indefinitely. But apparently that’s worthless now, and I’m a lumbering dinosaur, watching the big shiny thing streaking across the sky, hurtling me toward oblivion.
It’s a funny old world innit?
