Something funny going on - this is the second morning recently I've come in and horrified to see red lozenges at the top as if I didn't check yesterday. But I definitely did. In fact, they were green ticks earlier this morning and now they are red lozenges again.

It was Indi's fifth birthday today (24th). She was not at all impressed with the weather but we managed to get a fairly sheltered walk in the woods, The boys were saturated, of course, rolling each other over, belting through the puddles like Naval destroyers (remember them?) so I had three drowned rats to dry off afterwards. I took the boys to class at midday, but only three of us turned up, and the weather was sheeting down, so we spent a lot of time under the lean-to, teaching them how to socialise nicely, and just shooting out to do recalls etc when it eased up a bit. Back home and more drying off. the trainer said if I want to bring Indi as well, just to sit at the side with my friend, so she doesn't keep getting left behind, he's more than happy to see her again, so next week she'll be coming with us. Around teatime I rounded up Indi's three waterproof coats, lassooed the hounds and fitted one to each - not great fits, as they swamped the boys a bit, where they are so narrow, but better than nothing. Off we went for our evening walk and in no time at all the coats were filthy, where they were bombing through even deeper puddles then rolling each other over. Indi was joining in too, mad fool, so the coats went straight in the wash when I got them home. Indi was given a big pack of dried sprats treats by dogwalker for a birthday present, which all three loved. I was not so happy when the boys decided I really must have big kisses afterwards to say thank you.

Lovely to see some water in the streams and ponds after the summer drought. Our pond had dropped badly in the dry spell up to a few days ago - I put the hose on in the evening and forgot to turn it off overnight. I think the fish are still there!

Now got power lines down, trees down, 250 homes without power. Much worse than Austin earlier on this week. Fortunately our block is on the Priority Services Register, the lights have been flickering for the last couple of hours.

Sure there's plenty in a worse position than us though.

Ever heard the phrase "Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?" I don''t think Google has.

Much of Google's revenue come from advertising. As we've already seen here, and in many other places, Google ads are becoming increasingly polluted by AI generated scam ads. I get ads on my Google Android phone advertising "M&S jumpers in big letters, or pharmaceutical products with "Boots" logos stamped all over them, and they're nothing at all to do with those brands.

As the scams proliferate, and Google fails to do anything about them, more and more people will learn to discount all Google ads as worthless trash. When this becomes widespread, the genuine big names will refuse to pay for advertising on Google, and a vicious circle will form, where only the scammers will use Google ads, and eventually they too will realise that they're not getting the clicks they need to pay the advertising fee.

Not a good long-term business model, Google!

I'm sure my wife is pouring glue over my antique pistol collection.

She says she isn't but I'm sticking to my guns!!😜😜