Winter is here

Winter is almost upon us, the Annuals are out in the shops for those of us that recieving them at Christmas is boyhood ritual we've kept with for all our lives, the Christmas Trees will be arriving in our town and village squares with illuminations and guess what happened?

Photo credit W-T-O at UR Forum/A.I. 

It snowed late Monday night here - believe earlier in the East Midlands - and kept up Tuesday morning as I was out attending the bins given our collection day this year is Wednesday as I decided it was sensible to move them earlier ready for kerbside collection.

I couldn't resist gathering the snow from the top of the bin a good one and half to to two inches up and throwning snowballs as the children were getting ready to walk to school in their thick coats and wellies.

Yes, this weather brings out the eternal boy in short trousers doing boyish things!

I also trimmed the size of the cds a bit as some new compilations came and I ordered up some special wallets that hold all the cd book and rears plus the disc taking up much less space from Slim Disc in Telford, Shropshire.

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Reminders

Strange things do happen like for instance last week I recieved a stuff A5 envelope from D C Thomson, the publisher of the Beano which turned out to be the 68 page Christmas special which is odd as I had only a fortnight before a pack of this years Annual and the very same special.

That comes as part of the Beano Fan Club a collection of goodies delivered to your door with a membership pack and welcome letter.

Mine was close to renewal so I got a reminder email with a link but there's no one shot renewal only a recurring subscription via a direct debit so Ijusr bought another year.

We'll see if we get a whole new membership or not!

The 1979 rebellion

Somehow after this weekend I feel about talking about one of the more important years in all of this life after playing games and that and really it was around the time I started getting back to being me.

The year had began as Rat Trap started it's climb down the charts, the pounding Y.M.C.A. was right at the top and I had on paper at least advanced two years on from formally being a teenager and music was a massive interest of mine to the point that record was a Birthday Present earlier in 1979.

The thing around that teenage period was that peoples idea of what you "really" were started to change, they tended to see you as less of that boy, being more serious, engaged with your O level studies at school, the many nudges around girls and careers to the point you felt you were pushed down one route.

But in lots of other ways things were similar like you read comics rather than life style or current affairs magazines, the very same ones you had when you were seen as that boy and you watched children's tv mostly.

As it was I was still being spanked (not that I minded, wordy lectures just confused the hell out of me so a sore bottom worked better at getting the point over) very much a child so it was a bit confusing really.

"It'll never happen" - I just love that Toots playing with her dolls or Teacher selling off his canes (as some of us ahem "know" ours didn't sell them off....) but there's a frame missing from that  and it should feature Dennis with a caption saying "He'll never get over ten" which would of been very apt for me.

Beyond the world of dressing you like a mini Dad and pushing you into men's spots really I just hated that whole thing because simply nine times out of ten I didn't feel teenaged at all - hardly having a teenaged life as such - just pushed into tight clammy denim jeans when not at school and as punk was in its ascendency 1979 was the year this battle came to its head so by the Summer hols I demanded (gosh!) shorts in public going around outdoor markets as the previous year I did still have a couple of pairs from two year before that fitted and I had had a growth spurt since then.

While I didn't gain what really wanted - tailored short trousers aka "School Shorts" - I did win having bought for me short sports shorts and an understanding that unless we were going anywhere that needed formal attire, I was to be dressed in shorts.

I looked like that one and half or two inch seems even!

That to me when the slow start towards extended boyhood just respecting the existance of legal age and any conseqences and I started then to look into getting new formal short trousers as the formal school days edged out.

Looks and plays

 Well I'm a little pressured for time this week as I should be away for a few days holding sparklers and doing spooky things  so I need to sort stuff out for that - more smart casual little boy of the late 70's - rather than full school uniform or anything super modern while dealing a few things arriving.

Really that's the kind of look I go for, a modern version of what I wore back then interecting with members of the public like picking up me parcels at the door.

I was looking for a better copy of this classic 1985 Xmas compilation that misses all those so-so 90's and 2000's xmas songs as my copy was a bit the worse for wear and it arrived just needing a good clean  and the record itself going in a new inner sleeve to keep it clean.

Just the Xmas hits I grew up with, actually two more than the next years cd version!, ready for the Christmas season to toss on to the turntable for a retro crimbo.

Calming your mind

Let's face it, it can be a very noisy, distracting old world out there not least for those of us who are autistic to the point it drives us cranky but while are some things others can do to reduce these things that leace us unsettled (and it may even help them) what about those situations we aren't in control of what is winding us up?

This is a useful little chart of steps we can take in that situation to get back some control of our emotions so while we may not be able to prevent the situations existing, we do have choices about responding from cutting ourselves of from them to doing something we can be more involved in so our responses are better and we have a better day.
 

Ten-Four You Copy?

It's amazing just what a good number of decades can do when we moved from the era of the red or grey phonebox on every other street corner or set by prominent buildings such as post offices or community halls to having everything at the end of a wafer thin device at the end of your hand.

Amazingly it is 43 years in the uk that Citizen's Band radio was legalized after a few years of wide spread illegal use, protests and marches whose banners made little sense to those who weren't into radio.

I had one and did operate illegally in my mid teens which bearing in mind dad's work was a bit akward to say the least as he knew people who looked into complaints about illegal usage but in a way it was the internet of it's day where you' put a out a call "For a copy" and you'd move to another channel for a conversation generally with other boys and girls about various interests and places you might meet up at.

While it was never really a part of what the hobby was supposed to be about I did work a couple of stations in Italy who were using really high power although I almost got outed when my transmission interferred with my older brother's tape recorder playback putting a loud hum and click on it.

In time I got one of the new "approved" hand held transmitter recievers and used that during the winter months after school  for several years.

Today with your smartphone, the world is your oyster pretty much.

Reading while recovering

Well we're still working through this period so mind does need to be kept a bit occupied of sorts which does take us into this weeks entry.

For some strange reason around the summer, I noticed my subscription to AdventureBoxMax seemed to got a bit messed up as one issued didn't arrive but then sometimes the odd issue is  bi monthly.

That run on for a bit that having triple checked all my emails I found no "Your subscription is ending" one I hunted online to the France based publishers website and redid it.

What I loved about was it had a short story, cartoons and various facts and games in a single package.

Fortunately it arrived in time to be read during this recovering period.

Also this months Monster Fun, now monthly arrived themed around Halloween which was a lot of fun

I also tidied up my comic rack  after the excesses of the Summer Hols.