End of an era

A day of clouds, sunshine and rain. I posted the link to this week's Morning Prayer upload before getting up for breakfast, then went to the Eucharist at St John's celebrating the birth of the Virgin Mary. A down pour began after I left church and I sheltered in the porch of 'The Corp Market' for ten minutes until it eased off enough to continue walking home. Unfortunately, instead of my jacket getting wet my trousers got soaked by cars splashing through water not draining off the road quickly enough.

News started coming in of concern for the Queen's health as I was cooked a lentil dish for lunch. Members of the Royal Family making their way hastily to Balmoral, suggesting the end is in sight for Her Majesty. After lunch I decided it was time to recycle some old redundant computers, all still working under Linux, but not with the speed and memory capability I need these days. I took three of them along to Davey at Tourotech who acts on behalf of a colleague with an IT recycling business whose shop nearby closed during the pandemic. They all fitted into one laptop bag and its was very heavy to carry. 

This leaves me with five computers of various ages, all used for different purposes and situations. One is twelve years old, running Windows Vista, retained because it drives my photo negative scanner. I would have to pay as much as the cost of a new scanner to acquire software to run the device on a Windows 10 machine. Best to keep the old machine until there are no more negatives left to scan. 

Another machine is ten years old with a solid state drive running Linux. Then there's a Chromebook, a Windows 10 laptop and a Windows 10 workstation with a big screen. Crazy really, but all have their uses on different occasions. It's strange to have a phone powerful enough to use for emails and text messaging in any time or place. I spend far less time now sitting writing at a desk or table because I can do short pieces of business and check information on my Blackberry instead, despite the risk of getting repetitive strain injury from one fingered typing.

By the time we were sitting down to supper, news of the Queen's death was being announced, and all normal programme schedules on radio and telly were suspended and given over the reporting on the event and reactions to it world wide, and no wonder. So much has changed in the world over the past seventy years of her reign, appointing fifteen prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss over ninety percent of my lifetime. The Prince of Wales became King Charles the Third around six this evening. Despite the rain, crowds of mourners are gathering outside Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral and probably Sandringham as well. 

Our churches are opening for prayer, There'll be an extra service at St John's in the morning, a Requiem Mass for the longest serving Queen in the past Millennium. King Charles takes the mantle of continuity, and will wear it in his own way. I hope and pray his long standing advocacy on environment issues will continue. He was right to speak out, and those who mocked him are proved to be the fools, in a light of the climate crisis. May Queen Elizabeth rest in peace. Long live King Charles.