Chances

Whenever I wake up in the morning, I am always astounded at how different the weather can be. As I was driving to work, the skies were overcast. There seemed to be no sunlight breaking through.

A little further on, I could see the vaguest patches of light whose presence could only be seen because the trees, still clutching on to their summer green, had changed to a different colour.

Clouds, (taken here on a different day), often have the capacity to surprise. Who would have thought that there would be a woodpecker cloud? I've seen countless Poodles, quite a few British Isles and Ireland has been shown on different days too, no doubt sensitive to the Republican cause in Northern Ireland, but riding roughshod over the feelings of the Loyalists.

Today, although you would think it would be very cold, mostly because it's October, (because it's England) and because the Sun is shielded behind these thick clouds, raining down indecisively upon us, it is unbelievably mild. It's also that weather which throws the settings of your windshield wipers into horrible confusion.

I can't help but wonder, how much longer than the 63 years I've already spent on the planet, do I have before it becomes less surprising? 100 years, 300, 500, 1000? I'm also very aware that I spend a lot of time looking up at this odd weather and I'm always surprised at how many other people don't look up. Am I on my own here? Or is it that other people are quieter about it, because they feel it would be a bit odd to talk about it?

Life, generally, is very weird, when you take time out to think about it. It's very much more like that movie 'Sliding Doors' than we often think. I did very badly at school. I had a succession of retail jobs. I drifted. However, I am within months of retiring, having been able to secure continuous employment since August 1965. The choices I'm made, appear to have been brilliantly inspired. I may have been found wanting in that I failed to achieve my dream job, but I came amazingly close.

Now then, coming to how I come to write these words, on this particular morning?

I wonder, I thought, if I can produce an entry on my blog based solely on an idea, that I get from browsing through forgotten pictures on my digital camera? The woodpecker pic was the Genesis. I would not have written this otherwise. That is amazing, isn't it? Hope the Blog is too!