MWNews 274

Once again, I am going to say I will not have time to do this. I am over-worked and need something to break up the day and even though I have a lot to do, I am going to ignore it until someone tells me to do something specific. I am tired. This job is getting to me and has for a few months now. I don't want to do this anymore. But what can you do. I will forge ahead.

On with the show.

We arrived to this huge house to stay for the next few days. The first day, I think we went out to a restaurant for dinner, but I am not sure which night that was. Had to have been the first one. We were tired from the trip but had a lot we wanted to see so we went to the restaurant district. Some special place that has a lot of restaurants and bars. We walked past them all before picking on that was ok. Nothing to write home about but apparently it was good enough for me to mention it here.

The next day was a big day. We had plans for Hobbiton and some glow-worm caves. Hobbiton in the morning and then another hours drive to the caves. Hobbiton was an hours drive away from us, although I think it took an hour and a half. 

I wasn't too sure about Hobbiton. I expected a few fake Hobbit houses and some fields or tourist shops

or something. It was over priced for that. Or so I thought.

Hobbiton is worth it. It really is. I think there are over 40 hobbit houses and gardens and trails and all kinds of things to look at. It really was interesting. Far beyond my expectations. Lots of hobbit holes, lots of walking also, up and down hills, but they were all interesting. You could only look from the outside, which was kind of disappointing, but it is a movie set and not meant to be real.

At the end, they had two hobbit holes you could go into, although you were only allowed to go in one since there were 40 people in our group. I have to mention you can only go through Hobbiton as part of a guided tour. I am assuming they range in size but 40 is the maximum. I had booked the second tour of the day, months in advance, and it was full. That is another thing, not only do you have to book, but you have to do it at least two months in advance as they fill up quickly. I did mine three months in advance and most of the later tours that day were already full when I booked. We wanted the early one anyway, so it didn't matter to us.

The hobbit holes we went in were packed with all kinds of stuff. I think it would take at least an hour to look at everything in there. We only stayed for 20 minutes, but you could have stayed longer I think. Then again, they have tours following you, so they might have kicked you out at some point.

This was the last thing on the tour, unless you count the Dragonfly Inn, which is kind of a bar at the end of the tour where you get one free drink, beer or wine, and can pay for more if you want. They have food, but we didn't really look at it. I don't know how long you are allowed to stay at the Dragonfly. We were called back to the bus after about 20 minutes, but I am sure you can stay longer and come back on a different bus. I should say you have to get to Hobbiton by bus. No one is allowed to drive there. There is a parking area with shops and restaurant across the street from where it is located. You catch your bus from there and return when your tour is finished.

The shop is typical tourist souvenir shop. A lot of Lord of the Rings themed things. I think we picked up a few things. The restaurant was not bad. Not really anything special about it, although they did have a different variety of the usual pies and sandwiches. I might have liked to try some of them, but we were not there to eat. We did get some chips and a couple of different sandwiches to share after our tour was over. Since we were headed to the caves for the afternoon, we decided to eat when we got there.

All in all, Hobbiton is really worth the price. There are other more expensive options where you get a private room at the Dragonfly to have lunch or dinner. The tour is no different but the end of the tour is where you would get the extra meal and celebrations, whatever the celebrations are. I would recommend the tour, can't say anything about if the other meal is worth it. I can't imagine it is, but then I thought the tour would not be worth it and it turned out to be great.

I am going to end this entry now and go into the caves in the next one. That will also probably include what we did the next day, which was in the town of Rotorua. Tree climbing and go cart racing. We never made it to the spas or the lake, but we had a good time. More about that later.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 273

 Maybe, maybe not. I don't have time, but I will make time. It's a quandary.

Well, I was thinking about Hobbiton. I had misgivings because it is kind of pricey for what I thought was not a great reward. It is located near a town called Rotorua. I had a look at what else was there or what else was near by. Turns out, it is quite a destination place. Lots of things to do. I didn't like the drive, but once there, if we stayed, there was plenty to do.

I made the decision to go for it. Spend the money, spend more money, and then spend money again. It was going to be a costly trip. I knew Anna and her boyfriend had never been there, or I assumed they had not, so I included them on all the tourist packages I was booking. It would be a busy time with adventure filled days, but I thought I could make it worth our while.

I was going to go into the entire itinerary, but I will just hit the highlights. Probably mention everything we did, but not in the detail of what we did every day. Just what we spent time on.

We were to arrive in Wellington around 2 in the afternoon. I rented a car, so we had to pick that up at the airport. A van so we could haul six people and Maeghan's wheelchair. We got the KIA Carnival like I used to drive. It was different than I remembered, but not too much. The plan was to pick it up at 3 and then drive to where Anna was. I had rented a room there, so we were not staying with her.

The problem was, they had big storms before we arrived. The main road between us and them had been closed due to the road being washed away. I kind of thought that was a big deal, but according to the locals, it happens all the time. There is an alternate route around the mountains that takes about 4 hours to travel on, instead of the 1 1/2 hours the pass over the mountains takes. 

We didn't actually get to leave until around 4 because the car was not ready, and then we had to get dinner in Wellington somewhere. We ate at Burger King, which was a treat because in Australia, Burger King is Hungry Jacks. Same exact menu, same exact store, just a different name. Basically, we ate there because it was the first place we came to and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us.

Other than saying, it was dark and we crossed the mountain passes on very narrow and winding roads, we got to the hotel around 10. I had already called ahead to say we would be late due to the road closures, so they left the door open and the key on the inside for us. It worked out well, and we were only staying the one night, so even though the room was nice, we really didn't see much of anything when we arrived and before we left the next day.

We went to pick Anna and the boy early the next day. We wanted breakfast and I didn't want fast food again, I was trying to avoid fast food for most of the trip, so we ended up in some Indian/Arab place. Not really a breakfast place, but we went anyway because no one knew what was on the road ahead of us. It was different, but we managed to get away a bit after 10, so not too bad. I wanted to be on the road by 9, but that was never going to happen.

Not a lot to the trip. We stopped for coffee at some point and I wanted to get to the lake town we would be passing through. It ended up being a lot farther than I thought it was. We didn't stop for lunch until around 2. But we did have a reward waiting for us. The have a Popeyes Chicken in New Zealand. I insisted we go there. Mainly, because I had heard about the chicken sandwich for a long time and I had never tried one. I am not sure everyone else wanted to go there, but I'm driving so it was dealers choice. Turns out, it wasn't all that great. I don't think they actually cooked it like it should have been. Probably because it was not that great of a fast food restaurant and the staff really did not seem to want us there. They probably don't get a lot of business because I know Australians seem to think KFC is good fried chicken and I have always told them, in America, it barely ranks as fried chicken. Lots of KFC restaurants, in America and Australia, but the ranking for KFC is never high. The workers did not seem to like the idea of 6 adults showing up at 2 in the afternoon to order a lot of food. 

When we got it, some of it seemed to be a bit over-cooked. I ordered a bit of everything so everyone could try it. I was not impressed, especially by the chicken sandwich, but they seemed to think it was ok. Better than KFC, at least. The one thing I found disturbing was the lack of Cajun rice on the menu. They did not have it. I thought, and my memory is old, that the Cajun rice was the main reason I choose Popeyes when I was in the states. They had none. I have no idea why. I never thought the chicken was that great, but what made it nice was the rice and we didn't get to order any. A big disappointment for me. Not so much for the others. Overall, it was a good experience and it got us out of the car for a while, so all good from there. We only had about an hour left to travel, maybe 2, but we were ready to go when we left.

Nothing more to report about the rest of the trip up there. I have already reported more than I had planned. I'll end with the house I had rented for the next three days. It was an Airbnb type thing that I had arranged for. Kind of expensive, but as the trip was expensive, one more addition didn't seem to make a difference. It was a four bedroom house with a large kitchen and three baths and a huge rec room. I have to say, it was a huge house. Very, very large. It was a hike to get from the back bedroom to the front of the house. We had an ensuite and there was one in the front bedroom, plus another bathroom in the middle. The kitchen was nice also and I would have liked to cook a couple of meals there, but we were not going to have the time for that. Just a very large house we stayed in for the next three nights. And kind of centrally located. Still an hour away from Hobbiton, but there are no places to stay closer to there. I will go into that with the next entry.

So long for now. I am going home from work. I have to take online courses the next few days, so I won't have time to do this, although I have typed this entry in the afternoon, so maybe I will.

Later 

MWNews 272

Back for more adventures. 

As a side note, before I get into the actual entry, I have been re-reading and trying to correct all the previous blog entries. I am up to about 120. I got over the missing years. Only a few posts over about a 5 year period. A sad time, as I recall, and some of the entries reflect that. But I hope it gets better as I read. 

Back to this entry.

I was talking about the New Zealand trip. We had decided that was where we were going. Juanita wanted to visit Anna, so it was a good place. Now I had to come up with an itinerary. 

She lives near Wellington, which is the south end of the northern island. It looked to have a lot of good things there, but nothing that was going to take any time to go see. They lived about an hour outside of town, but it was across the mountains. Going back and forth from where they were to Wellington was not really an option. We were going to have to stay in Wellington for most of the time. And while there were things to see, it was not really the big touristy things in New Zealand. Most of that requires hiking or backpacking to see the picturesque parts and we are not really the hiking kind of people. Plus, I don't think I mentioned, I was taking the kids with us, so Maeghan has her wheelchair and everything would need to be wheelchair accessible. Staying in Wellington made that possible, but was not really exciting.

Early on, Juanita mentioned that she had friends somewhere in the north of the north island. Near some famous bay or something. I am not going to look it up. It was a six to eight hour drive to there and she was not sure what part of the bay they lived in, so that could possibly add another two hours to the drive. I did not think this was a good idea, spending at least two days of our total of seven days traveling. And on unfamiliar roads and unfamiliar weather. Seemed like it might turn into a major issue. I said it was a last option, but if we found nothing else, I would consider it. Fortunately, her friend said they might be going away during that time and we would only have one day to visit, so that encouraged Juanita to agree it was a bad idea.

I was trying to discourage it and I had looked it up, but there is one major attraction on the north island, and it was only six hours away from where they lived. That of course, is Hobbiton. It is about midway between Wellington and Auckland. Auckland was out of the question, unless we flew there. I wasn't going to waste that much time driving. Hobbiton is in, or near, Rotorua. Turns out, there is a lot of things to do in or near Rotorua. So much so, I decided to make that our base of operations. It was a good decision.

I have to step away now. It would seem someone found me some work to do and since I do not work on Mondays and it has to be ready Monday, I am going to spend the rest of the day doing work. It means I will forget my train of thought and the rest of the entry may not fit with what I have done so far, but I will attempt to do this at home. Have to switch the keyboard to one I can type on, but William is not there this weekend, so he won't notice, unless I forget to switch it back. He says he got the new keyboard for me, but it is more for Juanita as she likes those types of things. Me, not so much. 

Be back soon. I have to go to lunch before I do all this work.

Ok, several days later. Been busy and not up to doing this. Might be more to talk about on that front later, but for now, I am going to end this entry and start another one. I think I was deciding or describing making plans for the New Zealand trip. I will complete that maybe today, but work is kind of busy, we are losing another person, so there is more work to do. We have lost four in the last month. I had a meeting about two months ago trying to tell them that people were not happy. I don't mean hating their work, most of them like what they do, but this place is not providing any incentive or joy to come to work. I tried to tell them that it was not just a few people, it was almost everyone, in all departments. They wanted an example and I mentioned an incident I had recently witnessed. Instead to listening to what I was telling them, they took it to mean that this one person was a problem and they needed to do something about it. She quit two weeks later, along with one of the people I had the meeting with. I will say it in here, but I have said it many times to people up here, they just don't get it. I have always, or for the last three years, said it was not my problem and I did not need to fix it. I am retiring soon, and taking on more responsibility is not what I want to do. I want to pass on responsibility. So now, I am treated like I don't know anything and my opinions or suggestions don't need to be listened to. Maybe that is right, but maybe it isn't. Not my problem, not my issue to resolve.

How I got into that when I was just going to close this entry, I have no idea. Maybe it was because I might have insulted some people last night, we had another good bye drinks excursion. I can never hear what it going on because it is just a too loud environment, but I thought they were talking about one thing and I made my comments about warning them about it again, but they seemed to think I was talking about them. I was, but not in any insulting way. I think they might have taken offense. So I had to try to clarify myself.

And there I go again. I am going before I start another diatribe. Is that the right word. I have no idea, but the word I wanted I can't think of. Mental issues that doctors say are just normal. Makes it hard to work.

That's it.

Later

MWNews 271

 Remind me to tell you about New Zealand. I put this note in here, so when I actually do make this entry, I know what it was about. I’m on my phone and don’t have time to type, so it will have to wait until later.

Well I am back on Tuesday. Not knowing when I did the last paragraph, that probably doesn't mean a lot to you or me. But I am back to work and ready to type.

I wanted to tell you about our trip to New Zealand. It was about six months ago and we did quite a bit while there, so it might take more than one entry. Depends on how much I type, or remember. I am hoping I have not already mentioned it in my latest blogs, but that is a possibility. I seem to recall typing something, but since I just started doing this again, I don't think I did that. Enjoy the ride.

We were planning, or I was planning, something for our anniversary. Nothing special, or actually something more special than what we usually do. Now that I have access to my retirement fund, I can plan things and not worry about saving the money. That is replaced by the overwhelming worry about spending my retirement money. But that is another story.

At first, I was just going to plan a short, five day cruise. We have never been on a cruise and three days seemed do short and seven too long, so five was it. The problem with that is, you don't actually go anywhere. Not a problem if you like being confined on a boat for that long, but I was not sure I would not just get bored after a couple of days and want to do something else. Which, on a boat, is not possible. I was afraid I would just spend all my time eating, or drinking or just sleeping and not really doing anything that was really fun. And, you have to do it all with a constant crowd around you. And, I did worry that Juanita would be spending all her time in the casino. That was a very strong possibility. Bottom line is, I don't think a cruise is for me. Maybe I am wrong and maybe I will find out someday, but the prospect of spending five days confined to a boat just does not really appeal to me. Of course, next time I bring it up will be to tell you how our latest cruise went, but that will depend on how much money I spend from my retirement between now and then.

I started looking at other possibilities. I would like to go back to Tasmania for a bit. Or even go someplace else in Australia but that didn't seem all that special and it was something we could do on a normal basis after I retire. Not really a vacation I should plan. 

I considered Bali or Vanuatu or one of those type places, but I hear so many mixed reports about them that I was not sure about those either. They are cheap and close, but that means they are cheap and close. And hot, or so I understand. I know people love to go there, but then I hear reports of all the problems they had when they were there, so it kind of puts me off vacationing there.

I even considered Japan but that was too much and not enough time to go there with the limited amount of vacation I have. Two weeks would seem good but that is kind of expensive for that long and Japan is relatively expensive as it is. Speaking of expensive, I thought of going to Dubai, but that is one of the most expensive cities to visit in the world. I would love to go, but Juanita does not. I might plan a trip anyway, someday but I want the kids to go with us and that doubles the price, so I am not sure that will ever happen. If I have one great vacation left in me, I want it to be Disney World. I would have to do that before I get too old to enjoy it and work around the kids schedules, if they have schedules. Right now, they do not. That is a very expensive trip, but if I only go one place, that would be it.

I then thought of New Zealand. It's close, it's cheap, and we have family there. Seemed like a good fit and Juanita thought it was a good idea. So we went, with the kids, and spent a week there with Anna and her boyfriend. Probably could have spent ten days, but I only had a week and I think Juanita had less, so I made it a week. We got to see a number of things, but not everything we wanted to see. Maybe a return trip someday.

And now that I have spent time telling you all the places we considered, people have come into work and I think I am going to cut this short. Start another entry tomorrow, maybe. I tried typing these at home again, but I cannot type on William's new colourful keyboard. It just has too many problems that I cannot handle. So for now, it is work when I have the time. 

Hope to talk again soon.

Later

MWNews 270

Hard to make entries, or continue my effort to cleanup all the misspellings and mistakes from previous entries, during the holidays. I thought I would have more chances, but I am being forced to sit at my desk and I am surrounded by people who will wonder what I am doing. Trying to get this one in before anyone arrives. Not that I mind them seeing it, just not letting them know I do it at work. 

Been pretty uneventful lately. Maeghan is currently at camp. We sent her to camp for the summer, or winter, or whatever season it is right now. It is Queensland, which means it is hot, all the time. I think we had a day when it was 8 degrees Celsius. By the way, how do you make the little degree symbol on the numbers. I think I looked it up once but I don't remember and can't be bothered to look it up again. So I just wrote the word degrees. But it was 8 as the lowest I think. It was around 10 in the mornings for about a week. That is all the winter we get. I am thinking Queensland might not be the best place to retire. Since that is a number of years from now, I don't have to think about it now.

The lights just went off in the office. I am hoping it is just because I am not sitting under a sensor to tell it someone is here and don't turn off the lights. I am assuming since my laptop and screens are still working, it is not a general power failure. Yesterday, we got an email that they had shut the power off to one of the buildings, after they had shut it off. You would think that is probably not that big a deal, but we are IT. We have equipment in that building. It should not just be shut off without warning. I haven't heard if they have turned it back on yet but when they do, we have to go over and turn everything back on and make sure it is working. And I say 'we' but really, it is everyone else. I am not required to do a lot at work. With no students, I am not really required to do anything. I am not sure if that is by design, or preference, or just an accommodation to my advancing years. I never get asked to do anything. I make it plain that I prefer it that way, but I also say I will do anything they need me to do. I guess they don't need me to do a lot. 

And I am typing this into this blog that no one knows about or no one reads, but if they come in and see me typing in it and ask what it is and then go to it and start to read, they will see this entry and wonder why I am telling everyone this. Maybe I should wait to publish this entry until after any initial acknowledgement of the blog takes place. You know they will go to it, read the latest entry, nothing else I am sure, and see that I talk about work and maybe discover any secrets I might have put in here. Have to be careful about what I say, I suppose. But when has that ever influenced me. More than you will ever know, I am sure. Enough of that, back to your regularly scheduled program as I think someone just came in. They are probably wondering why the lights are off. 

It was just the maintenance workers. They asked why I sitting here in the dark. I told them it allowed me to sleep easier. They just took a cabinet out of the bosses office. Maybe I should have said something. Hope he emptied it out first.

Maeghan is at camp. I think I wrote that sometime ago, but can't remember. And I have lost the ability to type. Maybe a stroke. I am going to take a break. If I don't come back, think happy thoughts for me.

Been longer than I thought it would be, but apparently it wasn't a stroke. Or, at least, it was one I am ignoring. Really strange. I was typing but the keys just seemed to be random keys. I knew what I wanted to type, but it would not do it. I typed the last message before I left with one finger. Even that was hard as I had to look at the keyboard and deliberately pick the letter I wanted to type. I am ignoring it.

Maeghan is at camp. Just in case you missed it. It is some church camp that she has to pay for but she is a councillor there. Not sure what exactly that involves. I think she has fun, but it is camping, so how much fun can it be. Old man talking I suppose. I know we used to go camping quite a lot but I would never have called it fun. Or at least, fun for me. Everyone else had fun. I had to do all the work, so my back was always sore, I was always bent over, and there was dirt and grass and wind everywhere. Not a lot of fun, but enough fun that we did it multiple times. And it told me that I spelled councillor wrong, but when I went back to check how to spell it, it gave me three different spellings that all look right. I picked the one you see but I am still not sure it is correct. 

I don't know when Maeghan gets back. William is planning on staying at his friends this weekend. That means I have the weekend free to do what I want. Not that William being there ever stops me from doing what I want, but I am thinking Juanita and I might go to one of the new American restaurants that has opened. Bubba Gump Shrimp recently opened. The is also a Firehouse Subs opening soon in the mall. I don't mind taking William, I would prefer it, but he is so picky I always feel bad when there is nothing really on the menu that he will eat. I mean, a sub sandwich, he only eats ham and olives on it at subway. Not really worth the price for just that. And a seafood restaurant, forget it. He might eat the fries but nothing else. I am not sure what to do about that. He doesn't eat anything and that will be a real hinderance in life, especially if he has a girlfriend. They are not going to want to restrict their diet to what he eats or places he will go. I have no idea what he eats when he is at his friends place. He is almost 21 years old, but what can I do to make him at least try other things. He never does. He won't even eat spaghetti sauce because it has onions in it. He will eat pesto, and cheese sauce but no tomato sauce. I think he has even stopped eating it on pizza. BBQ sauce only. What can I do. I know I didn't eat onions until I was about 18 or 19, and there are several things I eat now that I never used to eat. Brussel sprouts, cabbage, spinach, lots of things that I love now but never used to when I was a kid. I keep thinking he will grow out of it, but no signs of that happening anytime soon.

This has gotten way too long. I should probably go, maybe do some work. And, there are some very large leaves or branches falling outside my window and I need to find out where they are coming from. I am assuming someone is trimming the trees outside the office, but it seems kind of strange and merits some type of investigation. 

So I will be going now.

Later

MWNews 269

I was thinking. Same day as the last entry but I thought I would start this one with this new thought I am having.

What if I let the kids do their own entries. I could give them access and they could write things in here that they are interested in. It's worth a thought. 

I have always worried about what will happen to this after I stop writing in it. Some one will need to save it, or print it, or maybe they can just take over. Do their own thing. It would have to be Maeghan or William as that is the only thing that would make sense. It is worth thinking about. I enjoy it so much and I think they might also. If not this one, then start their own. putting these things down and getting to go back and re-read them is a really good way to make yourself cry. It also allows you to really miss the old days. I cannot recommend it enough. 

Well have to go. I will continue this entry later, if I am not in the hospital. I am just about to leave work but wanted to write this down somewhere and this seemed like the best place to do it. 

Next day. I am feeling fine. Don't even have the lingering pain I was having in my upper chest that I have had for about two weeks. And yes, I did tell the cardiologist but he said it was nothing to worry about. It wasn't related to the heart. Now I am not so sure, but who am I to disagree with the doctors.

I have been thinking about the idea of the kids taking over the blog. Not really taking over, but giving them the ability to add their own entries. I am not 100% sold on it yet, but I will give it some more thought. I think Maeghan might do it, but she has a lot of her own things to do, so she would be more likely to start her own. I would encourage her to do that. William, I am not so sure he would have any interest in it. First, he is not the best speller or writer there is and I think it embarrasses him. I would say the only way to get better is to do it. I know he has at times written things and had Maeghan read them, but I have never seen any of it. So, maybe he does like to write. After I think about it for a while, I will discuss it with him, or them. 

I just read an article about what has happened to the blog. In general, not this specific one. You don't hear about them anymore and you certainly do not see them unless you know a specific one you are looking for. There aren't a lot of places you can go to look for things, or maybe just look for a random blog. There are specific topic blogs, but they are usually part of something else. Like something that is written in support of a video or web page or a business. Not just a random blog about a random topic. They do exist, but no central place you can do a search for them. 

Used to be, I could go to a web page, I think it might have been this one, Blogger.com, and I could hit a button that took me to a random blog. Then hit it again and go to another. Maybe that still exists, but I have not seen it in a while and don't know how to do that anymore.

I do know they do not show up in searches. Or they are not high in the algorithm to show up in someone's search. Or, at least, that is what the article was saying. You can still monetize them, but the methods appear to be outdated and replaced by other ways to make money at it. I suppose that is the real cause of the death of the blog, no way to make money at it. You can only make very little money writing these. There are better ways to do it now. I've never looked into it for this blog, so I am not sure it would be something I would want to do. Maybe, but I think the only way is to put adds in it and I am not a big fan of that. And besides, who would read it. I think what I saw was around $2 for a thousand views. This blog has had 8000 views in 20 years, so I would have made $16. Pretty much a bargain if you ask me. That is something I will think about, for my later years.

Right now, I am just waiting for all the students to go to class so I can get a coffee. They should have already gone, but I am getting a steady stream of late commers asking for things. I think I might be sage now, so I am off to the break room.

My coffee is not hot anymore and more students have come in. I was stopped by the director who seems to have a fascination with baseball. I like baseball, but he thinks since I am from America, I know everything and follow everything about it. His son plays and wants to play professionally, so he keeps asking me advice on how he should go about doing that. Since I have no idea how to do that, I don't have a lot of advice, but he keeps asking. So I spend 15 or 20 minutes every time I see him answering questions about what I think of different things. I don't really mind, but I don't really have anything to say that would really help him and my knowledge of baseball has severely waned since I have been here. I only get to see YouTube highlights and I don't follow any of those except the major headlines and the Rangers when I get around to it. I enjoy it, but don't really follow it. So my coffee is cold.

I have spent the last couple of entries talking about myself. That will probably be a trend, or more than a trend, going forward. The kids are grown and I don't have the daily interaction with them. I'll try to keep this up to date with what is happening to them, but in order to keep this blog going with more entries, I will probably have more to say about myself than anything else. Probably talk more about the past as well. I enjoy writing it, and usually have interesting tales and stories to tell, even if I have to make some of them up. They might seem made up, but they are real to me and I am assuming most of them are based in actual fact. I just don't remember all the details.

But I enjoy it, and I will try to keep doing it. For as long as I can, and probably for some time after I cannot. Maybe I will write some entries that can be published after I am gone. Might be a good way to say some of the things I cannot say in here but should be said somewhere and if I am gone, there are no consequences to me afterwards. I will just allow others to be amused while I am not here. Sounds like a plan.

I am going to close this one now. Without saying anything about the kids. I'll think of something soon. Might even be later today as I do not have a lot of work to do and it is the last day of school, so I will get bored and probably start a new entry. Just a gamble on my part, but if you stay up late and eat ice cream, you might be entertained by some other nonsense I report.

Until next time,

Later 

MWNews 268

 I'm starting this without any real idea of what I am going to write about. I know, you thought that is what I always did. But really, I normally have one or two things I want to get to each time. Not that I always get to them, but I have a vague idea of something. This time, no idea. Just thought it was time to write and I started. Have to go open the doors in a moment. In fact, someone just walked up to the door, so I have to go let them in. Give me a chance to go get my fruit and nut bar I set on my desk for breakfast and then forgot it when I walked out here. Vague and not interesting, but I'll be back at the start of the next line I type.

Back. It took me a bit longer. I actually did some work while I was standing. Reset the laptop charger station and brought out the staff loan laptops. And I should have checked how many loans I needed. Turns out I need seven and I only have two, so I am about to scramble around trying to find some more. I have some that need to be rebuilt on my desk, so I need to do that before staff begins to arrive.

I am back after a few hours. Been a busy morning. I do have a tale to tell and no one knows about it except what I will write in here. Something that happened in the intervening hours. I should tell someone one, but I have no plans to do so, so if anyone actually reads this, it will come as a surprise.

I went to the cardiologist yesterday. Been over a year as they keep cancelling my appointments. Since I had nothing to tell, they had nothing to say. Put me on a different medicine and cancelled one that I was not supposed to be taking. It is possible I did not have an accurate list of my medications. The doctor certainly didn't, but I gave him what I had, which is from over a year ago. I don't think there are any changes to the list, but I need to make sure and update it when I get home.

He kept asking me if I had switched from one medicine to another. I remember that happening in the past but I could not tell him when it happened and what I switched from and to. Kind of thought he would have that information but he seemed to think that was up to me to keep track of what I was taking and why. That is another thing I have been complaining about for a while. The doctors keep asking me why I am taking the medicines I am taking. Since they are the ones that proscribe them, I would think they would already know that, but they never do. Gets very frustrating. Isn't that what the doctors are for, to keep track of my health and monitor how I am doing with what they proscribe. Maybe I am just cynical or confused. It has bothered me for any number of years. Medical professionals. I know they have a lot of things to remember and do, but if the case load is too much, cut down on the number of cases. Maybe there is a doctor shortage but I can certainly testify there is a good doctor shortage.

But let's move on.

What happened today, shortly before the first lull in the amount of people asking for immediate help, I got a pain. I had told the doctor I had no pains or symptoms recently and he said that was good and he was cancelling any follow up appointments I might have had. I only needed to come back if there was a problem. But anyway, that was yesterday.

Today, I had one of the worst chest pains I had ever had. It was really bad and I was not really doing anything at the time. Sitting at the front desk, a few dozen students around but not asking me to do anything, just waiting for class to start. 

This pain started with a stiff pressure on my chest. You get those sometimes, it is called angina pain, but they do not last very long and they are not that bad. This was bad. It got bad, then worse and then started radiating. I did believe I was having a heart attack. Of course, I didn't tell anyone. I walked into the back, whispered to one of my co-worked to watch the front desk, and went and sat in the meeting room. I took my spray and sat there. I was thinking there was no way I was going to be carted off in an ambulance in front of the whole school. I knew if I called for the nurses, they would immediately call for an ambulance. I probably should have, the pain was bad. 

I waited my five minutes and took another spray. The rule is, or I have always been told the rule is, spray when the pain starts, wait five minutes, spray again if it is still there, wait five minutes and if there is still pain, call the ambulance because you are having a heart attack. The pain started to go away. Well, not really go away, just not as bad as it was. I sat there for another 10 minutes. As I said, I was not going to have an ambulance show up at school and take me out on a gurney. That is what would have happened. I probably should have let it happen. I didn't.

After about ten minutes, it was just a dull ache. I walked out to the front. No one seemed to notice anything, so that's good. I decided to go get a cup of coffee. Amazingly, when I got the coffee, it helped a lot. First sip and most of the pain started to go away. Not sure how or why it worked so fast but by the time I got back to my desk, I was feeling ok. No longer a need for an ambulance or the need to tell anyone what had happened. I wasn't fine, but it was tolerable. 

Of course, if anyone is reading this, they are in a panic. While I am not fine, I am tolerable. As I write this and look back on it, I should have gone to the hospital. I might still need to. This is one of the worst episodes I can remember. I am kind of afraid of it coming back. I will definitely go immediately next time. No waiting for the spray to kick in, no giving it a couple of goes. Just head for the hospital, hopefully without having the school involved. The reason I don't want to the school involved is one, the embarrassment. Every student will know that I was taken away in am ambulance and they will forever be treating me differently. And, I don't want the school asking me for medical updates and it affecting how and where I do my job. If it comes to it, I will quit, but I want the decision to be mine, not because they are concerned for my health. I get enough walking on tiptoes when they are around me or they need something done. Yes, it is nice not having to do a lot of things, but I don't need the pity. I am not that old and feeble. Maybe I am, but I refuse to bow to the inevitable. 

That is my story for today. Not that I am entirely comfortable at the moment, I still have a lingering pain. But I only have an hour left before I leave for the day. If it stays for the train ride home, I will consider going to the hospital. Don't know what I will tell them, but maybe they will do something. Means I won't work tomorrow and Juanita will probably not work, so we will have no income for the week. We need it, I can't keep relying on my retirement money to bail us out before I actually retire. That's another story.

I was going to say something else about today's events, but I can't seem to remember what it was. I do have the fear that I actually had a heart attack today. That happened a few years ago. I had similar incident while I was doing contract work out of town. I stopped working back then and tried to get my helper to do everything. When I got back, I told my doctor and he put me in the hospital. They said I had had a heart attack in the past couple of weeks. Not sure how they knew but it could be the same thing just happened. Not that I want to go into it too much, but I have never found any of the heart attacks I have had to be terribly painful. Yes, there is pain, but not the crushing pain I have always been told they were like. It just kind of hurts. There is nothing you can do to make it stop hurting but the pain itself is not that bad. But who am I to say. Six, maybe seven heart attacks later and open heart surgery, I probably am just getting it wrong and don't remember the pain. I know today's was bad.

I am going to run off and go. I know there was more and this is in no way the plan for today, but I will save it for next time. I never get to write. Next week is the start of school holidays. Only two weeks, but no students. Maybe I will have more time and have a better memory of what I want to write. 

Until next time,

Later