Hi all,
       does anyone know how you worship Thor, the God of Thunder?

 I'm thinking of switching off Ba'al after lightning struck the tree
in the backyard. Bloody hell! There was this god-awful flash and crash
right together, the whole house shook, and as soon as I went to the
back of the house I knew... I could smell camphor. It's a camphor
laurel tree.

 The deaf dummy next door came in to complain. He told me I should
have cut the top off the tree. I took great delight in telling him
that he was talking to the wrong person... go complain to God, he
runs the lightning concession. Silly bastard. If the tree hadn't been
there, it might have hit his house! Who knows what evil lurks in the
heart of God, or what lightning is going to do next?

 Actually, it didn't do too much damage to the tree. The magpie nest
is still there, but I don't think the magpies will be coming back any
time soon. It seemed to run down the *outside* of the tree, and apart
from blowing bits of tree all over the house and scaring the living
shit out of Jess the Wonder Dog, the tree is probably okay.

 But, this is too weird for me.

 I decided to have the tree cut down (bloody thing) last year. I got
Council approval (eventually) this month, and the guy with the
chainsaw and the cherry picker is coming... wait for it... tomorrow!

 That's a mile too weird for me, someone is trying to tell em
something, so I'm giving Ba'al the flick.

 I'd switch to Jesus, but I don't think he's into lightning, is he?
Jesus is more your love-the-poor-people god... a real loser, and I'll
be sorry to see Ba'al go. He's the sort of god I can relate to: human
sacrifice and an utter bastard, but Thor is a bit that way too.

 I hope I won't be Thor and thorry...

 BTW, I always unplug the computer during lightning storms. It paid
off... no problems.

.... [later]

 The tree has gone. Five big Lebbos turned up with a cherry picker
and half a dozen chain saws at seven in the morning, and the whole
thing was gone by lunch! Incredible. I thought I'd been too tough
bargaining him down to $2,000 (it was a *really* big tree, 20m+ tall
and a trunk more than a metre wide), but they'd do two of those in a
day! A 36C day! You've never seen a crew work so hard! 

 But the point of this is the magpie's nest. I saw a nice Green lady
on TV explaining why we ought to plant natives... to let the birds
forage for twigs to make their nests. Bloody hell! This magpie nest
was industrial quality! It was mostly wire... I have no idea where
they got so much wire, galvanised mostly, or how they wove it into a
nest, the  lightning strike had no affect on it whatsoever, plus a
plastic mesh that usually holds up a vine, a plastic lid, a few
plastic bags (it was waterproof), and just to show that the nice Green
lady really knows her nests... a few twigs.

 I wonder why she didn't tell us to leave twenty metres of soft gal
wire lying about. Wire is a magpie's preferred construction material.

 And it's funny. The poor dopey doves are hanging around the back
verandah, looking for a place to roost! Some bastard stole their tree!
 

Regards,
Bob


--- BQWK Alpha 0.5