Time trundles on. Been doing more XP64 work, but I’ll spare you the details. Got my vacuum cleaner back from repairs. Now I can hoover the floor again. In theory.

How are the goats? The goats are just fine. The other day Tyson stepped up on my leg. And in my pocket I had my cell phone, which I had forgotten to turn on. I guess the little guy stepped up on my pant pocket and stood right on top of the on/off button. So after a few seconds the phone turned on and sang a little tune. That was quite amusing.

A little video.

A rainy summer day. By the way, I am not sure the boy will be named Tyson, as I suggested, after all. I think i heard a couple of employees call him Mikkel. I’m not sure though. So I’ll have to investigate further. But Mikkel is a nice name. It’s good for an animal. It even has a little connection to Mads, my best goat friend may he rest in peace. Because in Danish the Disney movie The Fox and the Hound was called Mads & Mikkel. Plus of course Mikkel starts with an M like Magnethe and Mio. So I do think it would be a good name for him. But I like Tyson. I’m still hoping for that. Maybe I can call him Mikkel Tyson. As long as I get to see him grow old and healthy and happy then I’ll be content.

Other than that there is not much new. I happened across some Don Rosa videos on youtube. I don’t know why it never occured to me before to look him up there. After growing up with his Uncle Scrooge comics. Loving all his work. It was fun to actually see him in live action. Too bad there are no videos of Bill Waterson around. I was sad to see that Don Rosa was suffering eyesight problems, though. Some of the things he talked about sounded like my own experience. I don’t think his eyesight has gotten as bad as mine. But it has made him stop drawing the long Scrooge serials. So that’s quite sad. There is someone with lots to lose. In a way I am lucky that I didn’t have much of a life before I went almost blind. I did not have so much to lose. Most of the things I did before I can still do to some degree now. With help and patience and lowered expectations. I haven’t lost something as great as my livelihood or art or such. I have lost the ability to read comics though. Which is a bummer because the complete Don Rosa collection was just getting to the stories that I have never read because I got “too old” for the Donald Duck magazine. I was so looking forward to reading them. Now I can’t. Although I might still buy the rest of the collection just so I can at least read through the little articles written by Rosa. With a magnifying glass I can still get through those somewhat. Or my CCTV. I don’t use my CCTV much anymore. The slight improvement in my eyesight means that I can usually get by with the old magnifying glass okay. So that’s quite nice. And I can walk around without a cane mostly. So compared to losing the ability to draw comics that have made thousands and thousands of people happy… that’s not so bad. You can only tax the poor so much.

Of course I still wish I could see.

I actually wrote an email to Don Rosa some years ago. Asked for a personalized drawing or autograph or something like that. Because I had read that he would do those kind of things if you emailed him. I never got any reply though. I guess either he didn’t get it or he had stopped doing it by then. I also vaguely remember reading something about him hurting his hands in an accident. And then with the eyesight. No wonder. I never held it against him. Seeing him draw for people at comic signings in Scandinavia brought up the memory though. I wonder if he’s ever going to come back to Denmark? Oh well, I probably wouldn’t be able to go. But you never know.

I do miss my old Donald Duck magazines. And the Jumbo books that were so good for traveling. When the present and future gets bleak then the past always seems so rosy red. And I have always been prone to nostalgia. Now more than ever.

Quack quack. That’s all, folks.

The rain came down today. Typical Danish summer weather. It almost made me stay home instead of my planned trip to the playground. But I ended up going after all, and I’m glad I did. I had a good time.

The goats were inside of course. They don’t like the rain at all. I took Magnethe’s boy out of the goat pen and sat with him on the bench inside the goat house. While Magnethe and Mio were at the wall trying to get my attention. And then Sigrid came by. Nice to see her again. I asked her if they had settled on a name for the boy. And she looked at me surprised and said “no, we’re waiting for YOU to pick a name for him”. Haha. Okay. I’m not sure if she was completely serious or not. I don’t know if they have all sat around and said “let’s let Plume name him” or if she was just trying to encourage me to suggest something. Last week I was talking to Per and he said they were all sitting at the main house discussing names and that they were thinking of calling him Preben. I kinda thought they would have settled on that. To be honest I don’t know if I think it’s the best name for a little goat boy. I do like the name, and it reminds me of one of Denmark’s best footballers of all time, Preben Elkjær. But for a goat boy, I don’t know.

In fact I have had an idea for a name for him. I have had the idea for weeks but haven’t told anyone. Because of my social phobia and insecurity. Even when they directly ask me if I have a suggestion I go “ehm.. ah.. not really.. hmm..”. It’s so dumb. I get afraid that I’m going to say something stupid and they’ll laugh and on and on. And I did the same with Sigrid today. Didn’t say anything. But then as I was getting ready to leave I manned up and went outside where she was working. And I told her that DID have an idea. And the idea? It’s “Tyson”. Like in Mike Tyson. I hope it’s not too stupid. But Sigrid seemed to like it. I could just about make out her face lighting up in a smile. And she said it suited him. So that was nice. Nothing certain yet, she will discuss it with the others and we’ll see. But I like it. It’s a potent name, isn’t it? He’s already a big boy, and when he grows up he’s going to be the big, strong leader of the flock. A big, black fighter. A trouble maker. Plus I bet he’s going to be trying to nibble my ears off. So it all fits perfectly, doesn’t it? We’ll see if everyone’s onboard with it.

It would be nice if I got to name him. I’m not good at naming goats. It’s too big a decision for litlte insecure me. But I did get to name Hans and Grethe. And I thought I was going to get to see Grethe grow up and have her around. But that… didn’t work out. Hopefully Tyson, or whatever his name ends up being, will be around for a long, long time. And if I could have a little “claim” to him by naming him, then that would be great.

Fingers crossed.

By the way, I really like the colouring of our current goats. We have one black, one brown and one white. Okay, maybe the black one isn’t quite black and maybe the brown one isn’t quite brown and maybe they have some spots and white socks. But still. If you line them up next to each other they kinda look like a flag for some cool country. Or a tripple flavoured scoop of ice cream. With a white tipped tail. They sure are a sweet bunch.