Weather-driven programming ability?

A real mixed bag of sky conditions has interspersed my morning through the square windows today:  heavy, dark and brooding clouds; mid-grey, scudding low clouds; blue sky with scattered cotton wool wisps; and now, a selection of light- to dark-grey clouds, fairly high, driven by a blustery west wind.  Very few birds so far, mainly pigeons and crows.  Yesterday's kite absence made me smile as I drove out of the gates after work, and there was a low, circling kite right over the road, flashing its bright, white, underwing patches; keeping a level course with delicate twitches of its arrowhead tail.
At last, the sun makes a brief appearance from behind me, lighting the top of the distant horse chestnut, the tallest tree in my line of sight, as it thrashes in the wind like an escaplogist, wriggling his shoulders to rid himself of a straitjacket.
Anyway, as the sun lit up the treetops, I think I've worked out how to maintain retest periods and dates in my database, so I'd better apply myself to that instead.

The birds

No kites again today. Wrong weather perhaps.  I could understand their viewpoint, as we've had a blanket of dark cloud today, with a very heavy downpour at lunchtime.
The absence of kites was more than made up for by crows and swifts though.  The crows, just after lunch, looked like they'd been sent by Aldworth Bomber Command, on a mission to obliterate East Ilsley.  There must have been fifty of them, all heading right-to-left past my window, low over the trees, with a grim and portentous determination about them.  The swifts, possibly up to a hundred of them, arrived ten minutes ago, and have just left, as if to go and tell the crows what I've been saying about them. They were focussed on the furthest trees in my view, a flurry of dots buzzing around like flies.

Ten or so have just returned, with a single crow.

I'm worried!

After's yesterdays wandering...

I'm not sure what prompted yesterday's largely aimless ramble into the analysis of beer prices over the last 27 years, but today I think I'll be much more focussed, although I have about 6 different subjects on my mind.
I mentioned birds and views yesterday. Not only do I get to enjoy watching raptors flying outside my office window, I get to see them at home too.  It's only 5 miles away, so it's hardly surprising.  Yesterday morning, while walking the dogs, I got buzzed by a buzzard. To be honest, it just flew within 50 metres of me, but I like the phrase, so I'm sticking with it. The weekend before, Bob and I discovered a field that's used for grazing by some roe deer, about half a mile from our house, less than 100m from the M4. Red kites, jackdaws, crows, finches, tree sparrows all abound in the area.  Alas, they are almost all outnumbered by magpies.  Am I allowed to shoot them, and are they edible I wonder?
Yesterday, we spent a few hours gawping at wolves, including the only three arctic wolves in the UK.  The UK Wolf Conservation Trust is just 7 miles from home, and has seriously caught my attention.  I'm very tempted to pay the £100 for membership, that allows me to go for a walk with them.  Sod swimming with dolphins - taking a wolf for a walk has got to be a bit "closer to nature".  The "howl evenings" sound fun too!
The aforementioned Bob picked up his GCSE results on Thursday, and has achieved the results he needed to do the A-levels he wants to do, so that's a job well done. He needs a hobby for the next 10 days though, as he doesn't know what to do now he's stopped worrying about his results. Actually, he might fit on my bike now, so he could borrow that to go exploring a bit further afield.  I'm not sure his navigation's up to it though...it might be the last we see of him as he sets off saying "I'll be fine" with his usual insouciance.
Lunch is over, only one red kite spotted outside in the last hour, so I'll get back to work.

Where's the inflation?

So beer has rocketed up in price lately, eh? That's what I thought until I started thinking about three pints I've drunk.
Here are the figures - all for a pint of Batemans XB in The Red Lion, Nettleham, Lincs.

• 2nd August 1985 - £0.68
• 2nd August 1993 - £1.36
• 26th August 2012 - £2.90

That's a 100% rise in the first 8 years of my legal drinking life, and 113% in the next 19 years.  What is reassuring is that the beer and the pub are still as excellent as they were 27 years ago.
Anyway, let's knock off VAT and the prices are:

• £0.59
• £1.16  (97% increase in 8 years)
• £2.41 (108% increase in 19 years)

If beer had gone up with inflation, in 1993, my pint would have been £1.00 (inc VAT) and £1.80 now.
If we start with the £1.36 price in 2993, it should now be £2.30

I'm not quite sure what my point is, but it's probably something like "How the hell do I remember the price of beer?"  I'm also a little disconcerted that I remember VAT rates too.

Some time off...

Given that I'm about to have 5 days off work, I'm surprised nothing drastic broke at work today.  The most dramatic moment was when a flock of around 100 crows came careering over the trees towards my window, with an air of the Riders of Rohan appearing over the horizon in line abreast.
Off to Leicester tomorrow to "be there" for young Robert, as he picks up his GCSE results.  Not so young any more!  Fingers crossed...

4 Music Lessons in a Bed - well, 2 in a boat anyway...

My life down south became more bizarre this evening.
I don't know how many people are aware of the Channel 4 TV show, "4 in a Bed".  I have seen several episodes, which I can largely blame on it being on the TV while I'm in the room, plus a latent interest in the catering and hospitality industry.
The episode linked above shows the delightful Jane and Alan, who run a boat on the Thames as a B&B.  I was on one of their other two boats this evening, as they are my son's and daughter's new bassoon and French horn teachers, respectively.  Killing two birds with one stone, as they'll be taught at the same time, at opposite ends of a narrow-boat, currently moored in the marina in Reading.
If you watch the episode above, particularly around 5-10 minutes from the end, I can assure you that the dog is every bit as gorgeous as he looks.

Resolution

The swifts have gone. The clouds are a little darker, and I changed my code to allow for partially-insane users who use two different supplier numbers for the same supplier.
And so the program runs again. 9000 documents done so far, at a rate of 2500 per minute, this should only take 25 minutes to run, and then it'll be time to eat.   Let's see what Tesco's 11p noodles are like

Nearly lunchtime

While my program is half-way through processing 61,000 documents, I thought I'd mention the view.
If I peer over my reading glasses, out of the window, I see the tops of trees, looking northwards over the Downs to Oxfordshire.  A few swifts are scooting about, as if flinging themselves from one invisible to trapeze to another.  I was hoping to mention a red kite wheeling about, but I haven't seen on yet today.  Plenty of time yet though.
Some clumpy low clouds, light grey to white, are drifting from left-to-right; the trees are moving very gently, as if stretching their shoulders after a morning hunched over a laptop.
And now my program has stopped running, but it's only done 37,800 documents! "Type mismatch" error. Why would someone have created a document with two company references on it? Why? One document out of 61,000 that doesn't fit the template. Options are: edit the duff document; change my code to allow for it; or simply bypass it.
At least 12 swifts are unaware of this dilemma.  I wish I was.