fog blog

 I've looked it up. 

 If you can't see through it further than a kilometre, it's fog. If you can, it's mist. 

 That seems quite far.

 

 Yesterday evening I headed out into the darkness and walked along the towpath from Ladbroke Grove to Acton, heading towards Perivale even though noone I know lives in Perivale now, but there's a lot of night these days so one might as well do something with it and I was surprised to be home before eight.

 I love mist, and so did Badphone. The last time I'd strolled down a canal at night I remember resolving with some excitement to get a replacement far better at recording my surroundings, but it really took to the mist last night.

 

  It could focus now there were no points of light to dazzle, just shades in harmony giving way to each other, autotuned by the mist, every shape picked out against the absence of darkness, sorted by its distance.

 

 I reconsidered Badphone's replacing. Maybe it's good to stick with something that doesn't work, to learn its foibles and grow old with it. Do I "need" a new phone? I'd never given a phone a name before. And my own eyesight's going.

 Nothing drastic. I'm just getting old. Nothing glasses couldn't solve completely. But do I "need" glasses? For some reason I don't want glasses. I like how I look in glasses so it's not vanity that's stopped me. Is it the faff? Pride takes other forms.

 

 But why not be proud? Why not just say I have bad eyesight now, and I have bad phone. Let's see what this is like. Why should everything be useful? I looked again at this delineated scenery. Form following function. Even in the ducks. So hang on, when did I stop wanting to be useful? 

 When did that become something I questioned? 

 Of course. I'm getting old.