Little Victories in the Unending War with Entropy

Time's arrow goes one way, from past through the present (which passes in a tiny fraction of a second) to the future. Unlike other dimensions, if indeed time is a dimension. I can walk forwards, I can walk backwards. I can jump up, I can fall down. I can move left, I can move right. But time has only one direction. The reason? Entropy. It's why you can't unstir cream from coffee or resurrect a rotting strawberry. If you have something, it will break. Just a matter of time.

We cannot make time go backwards, but we can slow it down. Take care of your things and they will serve you better, for longer.

My daughter's car (below) has been with me now for over two and half years (she's still the legal owner). She bought it in 2020, just after lockdown (we celebrated its purchase with a curry in Ursynów, being among the restaurant's first customers after it re-opened). Before that, it had one owner, the mother of a boy that Moni was at primary school with. The 1.2 litre Micra was built in 2005, and sat unsold in Slovakia for two years, after which it was transferred to the Polish market where it quickly found its first owner.

It currently has 147,000 km on the clock, just 7,000km more than it did when I took it for its first przegląd techniczny (Polish equivalent of the annual MoT test) two years ago. 

The car passed the test with flying colours, the guy running the testing station could not find a fault with it, although he made the following observation... "You drive the car sparingly; you don't thrash the engine. You slow down using the gearbox and driving on quiet country roads that you know well, you hardly ever have to use the brakes. As a result, the disks have developed a slight bloom of rust. Not enough to fail the test, but enough for me to notice. So next time you go for a drive, apply the brakes hard once or twice just to clear the disks of any rust."  Will do! 

I am grateful to the car. After a drive to the shops and back (in Warka, once a week), I pat the car, say "well done!" to it and thank it for its reliable and economical service. All I need from a car.

Another little victory in the unending war with entropy took place under the sink, which over the past year since the plumber unblocked it, had once again been taking longer and longer to drain. The cause of the blockage - most probably traces of cat food, remnants left in bowls or tins. Ghastly stuff if you think about it - fatty offal mostly. 

Last year's call to the plumber was about three issues, of which the kitchen sink was the easiest to fix, the others being the garden tap and the hot-water tank in the bathroom. Cost of fixing all three - 800zł.

ChatGPT offered me a simple solution to the blocked sink - sodium hydroxide crystals. Sold in Poland under the Kret brand (unavailable in the UK), this is powerful stuff. Clear the house of cats and kittens! Don thick rubber gloves! Open all windows! Following instructions for the use of Kret, I poured 200ml of very hot (but not boiling) water down the sink. Then two and a third cap-fulls of the sodium hydroxide crystals. Then another 300ml of very hot water. Then wait half an hour, taking care not to breathe in the fumes emerging from the plug-hole.

At last I filled the sink with hot tap water.... No difference. The water was going down very slowly, if at all. But I was prepared for this. I wielded a sink plunger (which I had previously used to zero effect). But now... after the application of Kret, with a sinkful of water... Plunger deployed – a couple of hearty pumps, and then a gratifying 'BLGRGRGRGRGLLL' and sudden drainage: the water disappeared as rightfully it should. All good! The Kret had softened and partly dissolved the greasy obstruction, but did not clear it outright. The plunger then supplied the mechanical pressure needed to dislodge the loosened plug. Neither the plunger nor the Kret on their own could shift the blockage, but the combination did. Result!

This time last year:|
The perpetual search for authenticity

This time three years ago:
A dog day's night walk

This time four years ago:
Old soul, new challenge

This time five year ago:
What happened at Monks Wood

This time seven years ago:
Loss, faith and consolation

This time nine years ago:
Summer's wasting away

This time ten years ago:
Warsaw remembers the PASTa building capture

This time 11 years ago:
Drought. It was a dry summer.

This time 13 years ago:
Warsaw's ski slope at Szczęśliwice

This time 14 years ago:
On the road from Dobra, again

This time 15 years ago:
August storm, ul. Targowa

This time 16 years ago:
Warsaw Central's secret underground kebab factory

This time 17 years ago:
Cheap holidays in other people's misery

This time 18 years ago:
Steam welcomes us to Dobra

This time 19 years ago:
New houses appear in the fields by Zgorzała