Coincidence gone mad

There are times when you can't help being struck by the way coincidence rears its head.

As you know we heard of the Bat's death earlier in the week. Last night I get a phone call to let me know one of my cousins has died.

Once more I feel in a dilemma. Once more it would be a funeral I would be going to support the living rather than to grieve for the dead. As far as I know I have never even met my cousin Muriel. By the time I re-established contact with my cousins, she was already in a care home suffering from Alzheimer's. However I do know & care for her sisters Trudy & Alma. You may remember we went down to Stoke in June to help celebrate Trudy's Golden Wedding anniversary.

I'm going to have to play it by ear. I've said I will ring at the weekend. Trudy was due to have a cataract operation last Monday - indeed that's what I thought the phone call was going to be about. That has been postponed until tomorrow Friday - that is if her blood pressure has settled after the upset & extra burdens laid on her with Muriel's death & having to arrange a funeral, hopefully for the following week. I want to see how Trudy's done anyhow. I'll see if she can by sufficiently supported by phone before we make any decisions about another trip down to Stoke. After the June trip, the Fox is still nervous about such a long drive - he's not done such a long drive since then - especially when it would be to attend the funeral of someone he never even realised existed, let alone met.

Meanwhile, at home, we are being inundated by firms, ostensibly wanting to come to check our double glazing for fuel efficiency reasons. We suspect the reality is that it's more about giving the hard sale on new double glazing.

I wouldn't entirely mind changing our present windows. I don't like the design - too easy to climb through for burglars, hence the reason we always have to leave them closed & locked if we go out. But we don't want to be bludgeoned into buying new windows. And we just know any checks will prove we need new windows. If it was a separate company, unrelated to window manufacture & installation, we would be more tempted to have a survey done.