Everything is rubbish.
Rubbish research is slow progress lately. In fact it’s taken a backwards turn.
My laptop decided to commit suicide and 3 specialist declared the hard drive ‘goosed’ (technical term) with no data retrievable. Some of my research was backed up, but some I have lost forever – corrupted into scrambled 1s and 0s that make no sense to anyone or anything – including the batch of drawings I recently posted on this blog (the original full size print versions). The hard drive is trash.
Thankfully the laptop was still in warranty so the manufacturer (ASUS) have replaced the hard drive and it’s like having a new laptop again defaulted to factory settings. They wouldn’t supply my with the discarded hard drive.
Also my car died. To be fair, it was ancient and decrepit (over 13 years old) and should’ve been scrapped a long time ago. But it is really is knackered now and the time has come to SORN it and book the scrappers to come and tow it away. Bad timing. I’m already behind in my research thanks to crap laptop hard drive and now I have to deal with all this car stuff.
The company scrapping is Scrap Car Network who say on their website:
“If we can resell your car or its parts, we will, but if the car’s not in a saleable condition, we’ll make sure it’s fully recycled and won’t cause any damage to the environment.
In addition to getting a competitive price for your old car, there’s another advantage to using Scrap Car Network. As well as supporting local charities, Scrap Car Network helps to sustain the Recycling Lives social welfare charity.
The social welfare charity is helping to end homelessness by providing homeless men aged 25 and over with safe accommodation, work placements and training opportunities.”
So that’s all well and good. I considered getting the rusty piece of shit crushed and exhibited it as part of my end of year exam à la César – Three Compressions (1968) but decided against it as the car is not integral to my research, not like the laptop hard drive.
So apart from needing to get a new car and being put back a few weeks with my work, it’s not all complete rubbish. It’s not like anyone I love has died.
Then mid-research one morning my cat comes in acting weird. He slumps halfway up the stairs and is all floppy. Something is seriously wrong. The vets diagnose antifreeze poisoning and put him on an ethanol infusion to try and bind to the toxic antifreeze to stop his body metabolising it. It turns your internal organs to mush – it’s really nasty stuff. A fatal dose for a small mammal is about half a teaspoon and survival rates depend on how much is ingested and how quick the antidote is administered. We don’t know either of these factors and it’s a horrible wait. The vets call at 10pm and say he seems to be responding well to the treatment and will call again in the morning which they do but it’s not good news: He’s back to the same state as when I took him in. Nothing further can be done for him and I go and say goodbye. It’s the first time I’ve lost someone not at the natural end of a long and full life and it’s hard to come to terms with.
I don’t take his body or ask for his ashes. He’s gone and the body is an empty vessel. I’ve got the memories of him instead of his remains. The vets send a condolences card a few days later.
The repair note from the third computer specialists I tried, the spare car key and the condolence card sit on the table and sum up my rubbish week; signifying the losses of computer data, car and beloved cat.
