After breakfast, I went out with sweeping brush and spade to clear some of the accumulated leaves, twigs and soil clogging up the gutters and making the drop kerb at the end of the street filthy and treacherous for pedestrians and wheelchair users. There's been a message about this on our local WhatsApp neighbours group recently.
The city Council, short of resources, is encouraging people to clear the gutters near their homes and leave the detritus in piles where it can easily be collected by a lorry. The road sweeping machines are not much use at clearing streets when they are full of parked cars most of the time. I worked for an hour or so on the worst side of the street and left the other side to the promises of others. It was vigorous exercise. I expect to be stiff and aching tomorrow as a result.
I received a letter in the mail from the Church of England Pensions Board, notifying me of their switch to digital communications entirely from next year. No more paper documents, not even the annual P60 for tax purposes. Now I have to open yet another on-line account to access all information about my pension, although I believe it is possible to plead for an exception. I happen to be digitally literate, but what about all those older people who aren't? My knowledge of the digital world leads me to believe that it's utterly foolish to place total trust in electronic communication, especially when it comes to one's personal finances. There's no system that's not hackable, no system that doesn't break down, and many systems that make fools of users by forcing changes people can't understand and in language that makes not sense to them. There may be trouble ahead ....
We went to St Catherine's Christmas Fayre after lunch, looked around and chatted with people. I bought a paperback of a Patricia Cornwell novel I'd not seen before, although it's been out for some time. I started to read it after supper and continued reading until very late. It's a long time since I could read for so long without getting tired eyes. An unexpected bonus of last month's cataract op!
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