The Grey Geese are Flying Tonight

Wednesday was a day of deliveries. The very short Field Service meeting had just started when the doorbell rang and I opened it to find a guy with an ENORMOUS sack of oats (our breakfast for the next year) standing there.  "Knight?" he threw at me and fled leaving it jamming our front door open. So I had to wrestle it inside the hall far enough to get the door closed.

Then I did some field service, during which our latest package of medicines was received and ushered in - along with the post.  In the afternoon my new computer arrived. Unfortunately the password which was supposed to precede its arrival had not arrived, so it had to be taken back to be delivered on Thursday - which actually was the day we were told to expect it.  

Penny says she hopes it is not going to turn into a saga.  Which is probably exactly what is going to happen. and that computer - much needed and bought and paid for - will never darken our doors again.

On the slightlydoubleplusgood side, it did remind me of a joke I was told years and years ago by a colleague called Dick Abel.  He seemed very old to me at the time, but of course he was younger than I am now.  How short our lives are.  Dick, who lived alone in a bedsit, must have been gone a long time.  Not forgotten though.  After all these years I still remember this joke.

Anyway - the joke is set in the days of the Cold War, and a foreign agent is being parachuted into Britain to collect the Micro Dot - or whatever the McGuffin is.  He has tried several times to get it, but each time it has gone horribly wrong.  He is assured that this time there will be no problem, and he is dropped just outside a small Welsh village.  Every one here knows every one so this time it will be easy to find the owner of the Microdot/McGuffin, and get  out of there quickly.  When he finds him, he must speak the password of the day, which is: "The grey geese are flying tonight."

As he approaches the village, he is delighted to see the Postman on his rounds.  He will be sure to know where everyone lives, So he approaches him and asks if he can direct him to the house of Mr.Jones.

"Jones?  But which Jones?  Everyone in the village is called Jones.  There is Jones the Milk,  Jones the Baker, Jones the teacher, Jones the Plumber.  And I'm Jones too - Jones the Post."

The secret agent's heart sinks into his boots. He only has a short time to find this man.  So he decides to get started and learns forward and whispers to the Postman "The grey geese are flying tonight."

"Ah!.  It's Jones the Spy you want."

I hope that Dick  - a kind and valiant man - is sleeping safe in "the everlasting arms" - safe in God's memory - and that he has a wonderful awakening ahead of him when the time comes.  He will next open his eyes in an earth with no more wars, no more politics, no more espionage,

The computer arrived on Thursday - 10 minutes behind its password.  I was tempted to try hissing "The grey geese are flying tonight"  at the guy delivering it, but pulled myself together and stuck to the approved numbers.