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Now I have forgotten what it was I was going to write. I had an opening for this and was then going to just wing it, but I can't remember the opening. It was probably a complaint, I do that a lot lately, but it was clever and now it's gone. I hate this. Especially since the doctors tell me there is nothing wrong with me. So live in fear. If my brain ever snaps back into place, I have a lot to say and I will not hesitate to say it. Mainly because I will probably start forgetting again no one wants to miss out on my rants.

Getting close to the Tasmania trip. For Juanita's birthday. We have Williams birthday first but I don't really have anything planned at this point. I haven't even gotten him a present yet. I was thinking the Nintendo Switch 2, but he said he didn't really want it. I am thinking he is saying that because it is expensive and he doesn't want me to spend the money. He's probably right, but I might get it for him anyway. My other main option is an electric scooter. They have one at Costco that might be good. Just on the limit of how much you can weigh to ride it, and there is the issue of how tall he is. Might be hard to ride bent over all the time. And, he cannot really ride a scooter. Not that he can't, but an electric one will go faster than he has ever been and he might fall down a lot and possibly break it. I worry that he will not lock it up when he takes it somewhere, or his friends will make him do stupid things on it and he will crash. But it's another possibility. Cheaper than the Switch, but it does not go real fast, so it might not be that great. Would have to spend a whole lot more to get him a good one, so it might just stay as an alternative.

I think he will like the Switch. It is kind of a replacement for the Nintendo Wii. He can hook it up to the tv and play a lot of games. He and his friend recently bought an old Wii and they play the sports games on it. The Switch has the same games so he could play them on it instead. I don't know how his friend would feel about it, having spent whatever the money was they spent on the Wii. But that's not my problem. 

If I don't go with either of those, I am at a loss to figure out what to get him. Needs to be something special, since it is his 21st. Not sure a game is the right thing, but what else is there. A car? A motorcycle? Jewelry? None of those are really an option, but they seem to be the appropriate gift for that age. I don't know what I will end up getting, but I only have a few days left to decide. 

By the way, is today Wednesday or Thursday? Seems it is time for morning tea and there are no students here. they usually congregate in here for morning tea, and lunch, and before school, and anytime they want to not go to class. No one here how. Wednesday and Thursdays have different schedules, but it's almost 11 and no one has shown up. Might be because the teachers yelled at them yesterday. There has been an effort to stop the students from congregating in this room. Not my idea, but a lot of people think this is an actual office and it is not appropriate for students to hang out in here. I have always allowed them to, but there has been more and more opposition to it lately. A lot of it coming from the IT department. I guess I am being overruled. I am through fighting it, so it is going to happen. I say it is a horrible mistake, but no one will listen to me. 

Now there are students starting to show up. Wonder why it is so late. Might have been an assemble or something but I haven't heard of anything. I have to hide my snacks. That is the other thing, no food or drinks in here anymore. I agree with that, but it means I can't snack on anything while I am here. Since I do not get a break or a lunch, it makes it kind of hard for me. I have to get it during classes and then hide it before they come in again. Now someone just screamed outside the door, so I have to go check on it.

Wasn't as many as I normally have. We will see how long that lasts. Students will keep hanging out until I actually start to enforce it, and that is not going to happen until someone tells me directly to do it. And even then, I may resist for longer. I am tired of the compromise, but I won't go into that now.

Headed for Tasmania in two weeks. Hopefully, I have the money by then.

Got a real scare yesterday when I got a news report that my Super company had just filed for bankruptcy. That put a crimp in my skedaddle. And as an amazing side note, typing that, it did not flag it for misspelling or anything. Just accepted it as an everyday phrase.

I started looking into it immediately. I cannot afford to lose my super this close to retiring. I have enough worries about how we are going to live without trying to do it with nothing. I looked up Mercer bankruptcy an found several stories from about eight hours before I heard about it. It was saying it was going into receivership, whatever that is, and they expected premium stake holders to receive 90% value and regular stake holders to receive about 60%. I have no idea what kind of stake holder I am, but I am sure it is not premium. I then saw that members in the United States, Canada, and a couple of other countries were fully funded and they would lose nothing. Australia was not one of those countries.

So, as you can imagine, I was pretty worked up at this point. I started asking Google, or whatever the AI is for Google, what it means for Australian Super holders. That's when I got some relief. It said the Australian branch of the company was a wholly separate entity and it was not effected by the bankruptcy. And, the actual company that went bankrupt was not actually the Super or retirement part of the company. It would seem that Mercer owns several other companies. The one that went bankrupt was the Mercer International Finance company. That put another scare into me as that seemed to point directly at my Super, but it turns out, that is the parent company of several other companies that did things like lumber, milling, manufacturing and lots of other smaller companies that were financed by Mercer International Finance. It wasn't me.

But, I am still worried about it. If they are financing other companies, and they went bankrupt, what does that do to the shares my Super might own. I would assume my Super buys shares of the some of the companies that this finances, so I would also assume them going bankrupt would make my shares go down.

But that really has nothing to do with this blog. I did get a quarterly update on my Super and how it is doing. It is not doing well, although they seem to think it is. They said it was meeting industry standards, but then said I had 0.36% growth in the past quarter. Since I take 5% out a year, the minimum I can take out according to Australian rules, only making 0.36% would put me at a greater loss that it should be. Especially, since they said I should average 7% growth each year. I should be making money, but with this math, I am not. I know there are circumstances and a Super is for the long run, but I don't have the long run. I am retiring. I need to keep my money or I will not be able to afford housing in a very short amount of time. With no help from Juanita, this is a really big problem. But again, not appropriate for this blog. Expect to hear more about it soon.

Going to be closing this now. I spent way too much time on trivial things and not enough time on the good stuff. As soon as I have any good stuff, I will make another entry.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 282

Another day, not another post.  And I started this right as morning tea is starting, so I will not be able to type for another 30 minutes.

I have noticed I have not put any pictures in here lately. I need to go back and add those. First, I need to copy all my pictures from my phone to my home computer. It would seem that is not happening automatically. Maybe because I have not connected my phone to the computer in a long time. Probably has nothing to do with it. Goes back to the old problem that I have about six different places where photos get saved. I have attempted to consolidate those a number of times, but never seem to get very far in the process. Has something to do with duplicate file names. I should look into that.

Went to the Bribie/Bruny/Frazier island on the weekend. I am not sure which one it was. I know one of them is in Tasmania and another is the largest sand island and the other is near us. I can't be bothered to actually remember the names of them. I know we have never been to the sand one, it can only be reached by ferry and you really need a four wheel drive to go there. Otherwise, you are stuck at the docks with nothing to do. The one in Tasmania is nice and I would like to go again, but we don't live in Tasmania anymore. So it was the local one, although the sand one is local also.

Have to stop typing now. Someone has brought some really foul smelling food in here and they are no longer allowed to bring food in. I have to go be the mall cop and straighten it out.

Ok, back again and it is after break, so maybe I will get 15 minutes peace. I should stop working soon. I just dread anytime someone walks in and I am afraid someone will start to notice. They have already noticed me getting frustrated with some of the problems I have to fix. Some of the students say, David is about to have a breakdown or David is about to get upset with whatever computer I am working on. Not a good sign for working in a school. I will have to try to keep it under control. Especially since I will not be able to retire next year. Long story and I don't feel like going into it right now.

So we went to the island, let's call it Bribie. We didn't actually make it to the place I was headed for. Oh, did I mention that Maeghan was with us. She had been to a concert the night before and didn't get back until late. Juanita went to pick her up at the train and she stayed the night. I didn't find out about it until the next morning when I said I was going to get ready and was told Maeghan had to get ready also. I said, yes, that was why I was getting ready so we could go pick up Maeghan. Then Maeghan walked in from the bedroom. I am told she slept with Juanita. I was chastising the dogs who were going crazy but apparently, it was because Maeghan was there. So, we got out of the house way earlier than I had expected to.

The trip to Bribie was not at all adventuresome. Nothing new along the way. It takes about half an hour to get there. It had been a while and I thought I would see some new stuff. Nothing new, except they have finished construction on the road, so it is all new with fancy guard rails. Maeghan said this is where she drives for her lessons, along that road. I said that is why they had to put up the new guard rails. She didn't appreciate that.

Along the way, just before you cross the bridge to the island, there is a Big4 camping ground with a lot of other stuff around it. We had never been in there so I made the turn and decided to have a look. I know they have the camp ground and supposedly some type of water park. The first thing you come to is the RSL or club or whatever it is. A big bar and restaurant with gambling machines and other stuff. We drove past that and then to the camp grounds. We could not see the water park, but I am told it is there somewhere. 

About that time, Juanita needed to stop, so we pulled back into the club. She ran in and Maeghan and I decided we would go have a look around. Typical RSL type stuff but there was a big hill out the back that led down to the water. There appeared to be another restaurant/bar area down there but Maeghan was really tired and didn't want to walk down the hill, or actually, back up the hill once we got down there. We decided to sit on the outdoor seating area and I ordered a beer. Just so I could sit and look at the water while I drank it. I ordered one for Juanita also but Maeghan didn't want anything.

There were only one other table of people there when we at down. We decide to get lunch there instead of fish and chips on the island. We didn't go into the restaurant but decided to order bar food. Juanita had been mentioning we wanted to go get a cheese platter sometime, like we used to, but no place around where we live does one. This bar had a cheese platter. So we had cheese, a pizza and some corn and jalapeno cheese bites. I have to say the cheese bites were not good, the pizza was barely passable, but the cheese plate was decent. 

While we were waiting and while we ate, the place filled up. Several large groups gathered, some went down to the lower bar area carrying coolers and chairs, others went to the picnic tables and had footballs and soccer balls to play in the field. At one point, a singer showed up and set up on the stage out front. You could barely hear him but the whole patio where we were filled up also. There were a couple of other patios that also filled up. Seems like this is a very popular place, or the only one around with water views and enough space to hold a party. We were there for about two hours and I was willing to go back home. I know Maeghan was tired and probably wanted to leave, but Juanita wanted to go where we had originally planned on going and have ice cream. There is an ice cream place at the fish and chips shop we had originally been headed to.

So, we went that way.

Along the way across the bridge, Maeghan told us about a dessert shop in the shopping center on the island. I say shopping center, it is basically 20 shops with a Woolworth's, but she said she and her friend had been there. I asked why they were on Bribie island and found out that her friend's mother lived on Bribie island and they go there all the time. I decided going into the air-conditioned shops was better than sitting outside and eating ice cream. Plus, I needed to go to Woolworths anyway.

Turned out to be a place we had been before. Not the one on Bribie island but at some other shopping center we have gone to. I think it was Garden City, which isn't called Garden City anymore, but that doesn't really matter. We had coffee and some cake. Actually, Maeghan had a waffle with ice cream, Juanita had a hot chocolate with marshmallows and I had a coffee with a tiny little chocolate tart. Wasn't bad.

From there, we were pretty much done. Maeghan was exhausted, so we took her home and went home ourselves. I had to make dinner and watch TV. Juanita took a nap, which I should have done but I had to make dinner, and that was the end of our day with Maeghan. I didn't mention William because he had decided to go to his friend's house the night before, he wasn't there. Maybe next time.

Going to call this a day. It is getting near lunch time and since I don't get lunch anymore, I have to sit here and do nothing while everyone else goes. My favorite time of day. Not really. I would like to get lunch, but no one ever seems to come out here to relieve me, so I stay and sit. I really need to leave this job, or any job for that matter. I am just not into it anymore. Maybe in five or six years, but I doubt it.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 281

I think I have stuff to do but I can't remember what it is. Now I can't even remember what it was I forgot. Let's pretend I started this on a Thursday and managed to finish it in one day.

I am going to visit Maeghan this weekend. Don't know when and she is not aware of it yet. She called last night just to say hi. Haven't seen her in a couple of weeks. She has a lot of school work to do and her laptop is acting up, so it takes her longer to do it than it should. I thought about buying her a new iPad but decided it was just too expensive right now. We have the trip to Tasmania and William's birthday and of course the reason for the trip, Juanita's birthday. So it might be a bit tight unless I dip into my retirement money. I will probably end up doing that anyway, but I need to make sure I actually need it and that I take out enough to cover everything. By then, Maeghan will have finished her current project. I think her school term ends soon, so probably look at something for Christmas if she still needs it.

I still haven't got William out for driving. Maybe I will do that this weekend also. I have a lot of chores to catch up on at home but since I have been putting them off for months, I might just put them off again. I need to fix one of the cabinet doors, which I keep forgetting about and when you open it, it falls off the hinges. Probably have to replace the whole thing but if I am not currently opening it, I forget I need to do it. Until the next time it happens. Maybe I will just take it off and leave it off. This is the third time it has happened, so either my fixes don't last or it is broken and cannot be fixed. Once I start that, which will have to be the first thing I do, I will be too tired to do anything else so none of the chores will get done again.

Most of the problem is, I am very tired all the time. I have no idea why. I have started getting more sleep, or I think I have. I am not waking up during the night as much as I used to and I am being woken up by my alarm. Normally, I wake up one or two hours before my alarm goes off. I then can't get back to sleep, so I stay up and only sleep about 4 hours a night. Been doing that for years. A lot of years. Now, I sleep until the alarm goes off but I am tired all day long. Tired to the point where I cannot walk anywhere and when I do, I am exhausted when I get back. Can't wait to sit down and rest. Old people are so funny.

Talking about me and myself again. I am thinking that is all I do anymore. I go for a heart scan on Saturday. Then back to the doctor to review my medication. Since no one knows why I take any of it, he thought it would be a good idea to go over it and see what I actually need. I tried to do that 5 years ago but the only thing that happened was they proscribed more medication. I was just about to go into a long winded example of the incompetence of the medical profession but decided I couldn't spell half the words and I really didn't want to do that again, so I left it.

 I was talking about William and his lack of driving skills. I am not sure where Maeghan is with her driving. I think she is still having lessons, but I am not sure. I will have to find out. William has never driven a car. He says he can, but he has never done it, so I am not sure what he is basing his abilities on. He says he is too big to drive, and while that may be so, lots of people his height drive. You just have to get used to it. We will see how it goes when I get him out to try. I have found a fairly large parking lot at a train station that is not used on the weekends. I am hoping to get him out there and see how he goes. Just to let him get used to driving a car. Now that my car is two years old, I am less inclined to worry about him ruining my new car. I pay for insurance. Not that he is on it, but with an empty parking lot, maybe no one else will be involved and I can say I was driving. Who's going to contradict me. William probably.

I think we have something else planned soon but I can't remember what it is. Last weekend, we went to Chermside because we had not been in a while, but I found out I don't really like going to the shops anymore. There is the whole getting tired way too often. And the spending money thing. Seems every time I go to the shops with Juanita, she finds a couple of hundred dollars worth of new clothes to buy.

I should mention, if I haven't before, that Juanita has lost a lot of weight in the past six? months. She had that tie your innards into a know thing done. I won't go into the my opinion of the merits of that operation, and making that statement kind of hints at my feelings, but she has lost about 50 kilos since then. Hopefully, she won't read this, but it kind of makes her look old now. Lots of loose skin and stuff. Not bad, but different. 

Of course, it means she needs all new clothes and she takes every opportunity to buy them. She probably doesn't realise it, but in the past few months she has spent several thousand dollars on new clothes. She had to do it, he other clothes no longer fit, but we don't need to do it every time we go out. Makes me reluctant to go anywhere.

My ideal trip to the mall is to sit and have coffee at every coffee shop we come to, or at least my favorites. At Chermside, there are two, maybe three that I like. I'd like to stop at each one and just watch the crowds. But there, the crowds are too big, the noise is too loud and I can't drink that much coffee. At Morayfield, where we live, there are three coffee shops that I like but we only ever go to one because we have been there so many times, 2 or 3 times a week. We only go to the shops we want to go to and then have a coffee. Then we go home. At Chermside, one of the largest shopping malls in the southern hemisphere, it takes hours just to walk around to everything. Lots of places to see and do, and there is always something new, but I think it might just be too big now. Too much walking. Since it is about 45 minutes away, it is the closest, but not one of my favorites anymore.

I'd like to go on some of the drives we used to do. Problem is, Juanita works on Saturday, so that leaves Sunday. Sunday, a lot of shops are closed. And the fact that it is the day after Juanita has worked three straight 9 hour days, so she doesn't wake up and get ready until around 10. I have been up for 7 hours by then and I am ready to do nothing. If we start that late, we don't get anywhere until noon and then it is just a quick fly by and then we have to head home. If I can get her to get up around 7, we can be out by 8. Still too late for me, but nothing is open that early anyway, so getting up early to do things is a problem. We have to figure out something as we are both in a rut and need something new, or at least something we both can do at together.

I have gone on a bit too long with this. It does mean I can close this entry and start another. More about the kids hopefully. Seems to be a common refrain. But that's it for now.

Later

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 I have got to stop reading the old entries at work. Maybe next time.

Let's see if there is any news. Karen finally announced she is moving to Queensland. We have been talking about it for months, with several variations and plans. The issue was always that we had to keep it secret from Juanita until a final decision could be made. She didn't want Juanita getting all excited and then have it get cancelled. But she sent me a note that she was going to tell Juanita yesterday and when I got home, Juanita gave me the good news. I told her I already knew. She said Karen had told her that, so I don't know if I am in trouble for keeping it a secret for all this time.

She is going to live with us for a time. I don't know what she is or is not bringing. She said she was moving the caravan to Craig's place to empty it and then put it up for sale. I don't know about the car. I would think she would need that to bring any stuff with her she wants to keep, but I have not been told what she is bringing. She did say she would be storing it in the our garage, but if she is only bringing her suitcase, I am not sure what there will be to store.

Her plan is to eventually move to the Gold Coast to live with a friend, but those arrangements have not been made yet, so I don't know when that will happen. She gets here on the Dec. 18. She says she is excited about having Christmas with us. First time in five years I think. 

William is talking about when he gets a job. Not that he is looking for a job, but he is telling us when he gets a job, he is going to give us all his money. He says he expects to make $600 a week as a security guard. I have no idea if that is accurate or not. Not that it really matters since anything he gets will probably pay that much as that is kind of low. But, to him, it is a lot of money.

William is the type of boy who will actually do that, give us his money. Another thing that makes me sad. It is as if he does not know me at all, which is entirely possible. I would never even think about accepting his money. Not even for rent. I have always told the kids, my house is your house for as long as I am able to provide a house. They do not owe me anything for raising my kids. And, I am kind of resentful that they would even try to offer. They know me. I always say, if you are with me, and it does not always just apply to my kids, but if they are with me, I pay. No matter what. Doesn't mean they cannot pay for things on their own, but I pay when you are with me. That's my job. If nothing else, that is my job. 

Juanita, on the other hand, will accept and even in some cases, demand they pay for something. I don't like it, never have, but I guess I just look the other way when they do that. I justify it by telling myself she is accepting money for her to pay her bills and that is between Juanita and whomever. Doesn't matter if she pays half the rent and the money they give her means she does not have to pay as much. As long as I am not accepting money to pay my bills, I am ok with that arrangement. Maybe I am a hypocrite, but if keeps me sain. 

And now that I have talked about things that have no bearing on this blog, or maybe they do. It's a mystery to me.

Maeghan is having trouble with NDIS again. Not really trouble, but they are getting slower and less cooperative with the things they were initially set up to do. Initially, they were supposed to allow people with disabilities a place where they could go to get help with everyday things that a normal, non-disabled person would be able to do. Like driving a car, or wheelchairs, or building ramps for their houses. Even with school aids to make sure they were not held back by their conditions, no matter what those conditions were. What ended up happening was all these other companies were set up to deal directly with NDIS for the people who needed it. NDIS was always going to be a bureaucracy, so dealing with the paperwork is good thing to have help with.

After a few years, they noticed that the external companies were just corrupt. Maybe not all of them, but enough that they are re-designing how NDIS works. Probably go on for a number of years. But it means, they are not approving anything and when they do, it takes forever. I won't go into the all the corruption they have discovered, I think I might have mentioned it before, but Maeghan's helper seems to be very good at it and has helped a lot. She has gotten her driving lessons approved and she is trying to get the previous lessons Maeghan had in Tasmania approved so Maeghan does not have to go through so long of a learner period. I think it is 100 hours or something ridiculous like that. Not that I understand it. 

I think that is about all for now. Been several days since I posted anything so I am going to put this one out there. Start another one probably this afternoon.

Later

MWNews 279

 That last entry was a downer. I almost decided to delete it. I didn't.

I am having a bad mental day, so I am not going to continue typing. Really bad memory problems, and I walked into traffic this morning. Scared me and scared all the drivers. I could put it down to just a mistake, but I did it twice. No idea what that means. But as I cannot type at the moment, I am going to come back to this when I feel better.

Way too boring around here today, so I am going to try typing again. Some kind of seniors class support awards or something that the whole school had to go to. 

And then everyone showed up at once to have me fix their problems. So this is the next day.

Maeghan is having driving lessons. I don't know if I mentioned that. I probably did but how would I know. I think she has had three of her ten lessons the government will pay for. Then she is on her own. I think they are trying to work a deal where she can use the time from back in Tasmania when she took lessons and actually had a drivers license. That will make it easier and faster to get a new license. Maybe then the NDIS will start the paperwork on getting her car modifications approved. They should have done that two years ago, but I know I have told that story and don't really want to go into it again.

William had an operation recently. Nothing serious, just some cosmetic stuff. Of course he is in agony, but usually only when you want him to do something. He is fine otherwise. I have found a parking lot I might be able to use to teach him some driving basics. Then we can go get his learners license and he can start to drive for a bit. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but at least he will know what he needs to do to start driving. Maybe it will get him off this motorcycle kick. I won't go into that again either, but he still has the idea he can drive a motorcycle without ever having learned to ride a bicycle. 

To go into some past things that have happened in the two years I was not typing, I will try to remember some of them. 

Can't really think of anything, but I will give it some thought and get back to you.

It has been a few days. I don't remember when I was last typing in this entry. It was last week, but I don't remember what day. Hopefully, Friday, but I don't know. Just finishing up my coffee and I thought I would have a look as to where I am. Wasn't planning on typing, but why not.

I know why not. Too busy and I can't seem to type. We will see if I get back to it later today.

I have mentioned that I am re-reading all the old entries to try to fix them. Up to 133 at the moment. 133 and 134 are not that easy to read. It was a bad time. The entries for it are basically a rehash of what I said for those two events. I was tasked with writing the eulogy's. And, if you are not aware, I did say eulogy's. It was a terrible time and basically, is still defining our lives. We live with it every day. I know Juanita does, I think Maeghan does, and William not as much unless he thinks about it.

I might as well say it, it is the times when we lost Natalie, Michael, and Beverly. All within a couple of months. Some were kind of expected, Michael, and maybe Beverly in some way, but Natalie was not and was caused by an accident and issues that shouldn't be brought up now. I have trouble reading the old entries as it makes me cry and I shouldn't be crying at work. But that is an old story, me crying at all the old entries. With Maeghan and Juanita and I and then the loss of so many in such a short time. I don't start just thinking about it, but when I read what I wrote, it gets me every time. And I still have to finish 134. Not sure what comes after that, but I created a lot of entries immediately following the loss of the parents, nine in one month, so I am not looking forward to reading what I wrote. Maybe it will be a good thing. The month I started writing was a couple of months after the fact, so maybe I was more positive. Maybe not. We will see as I start to get into reading them.

I wrote quite a bit that year, after that, but then there is a year gap before I started writing again. I don't remember what happened then. I hope it's not bad. Don't recall anything that would have made me stop, other than laziness. It will be catchup time, I guess.

I probably should end this as a really short entry. Too much pain and heartache and anticipation for what is coming. And I don't really feel like doing it today. I just started because I was here and there are no students pestering me. That's about to change. End of class. Then I get lunch and I don't have time for anything after lunch as I leave thirty minutes after that, if I actually do get a lunch. Lately, I eat at the front desk and don't get to take a break. They need to hire someone.

But I will move on. Here they come. I am closing this now.

Later

MWNews 278

 Blogger has told me they are going to take down some of my pictures. Apparently, they are movies that are not allowed. I haven't put any movies in here that I know of. I think it might be something about my iPhone taking movies with all its pictures and saving them that way. I have no idea. They said they will not play on the platform and never have. I really don't know what they are talking about. I guess I will wait for them to disappear and then replace them. I am hoping they are not deleting the entire entry and only deleting the picture. They recommend I make a backup of my blog before they do it. So I have 30 days to figure out how to back this up. Then I have to figure out how to restore it if I ever have to do that. Not a lot of instructions on how, why, and when this is going to happen. They say in the next 30 days. We will have to see.

I have kind of looked it up. It will be something I need to do at home. There is an option to backup your blog, but I don't know how that works and I don't want to do it at work. There is also a section on pictures and videos in the blog. It says I do not have any videos. I have no idea what that means. It also says there are three sections for MWNews, each with a couple of hundred photos in each. I have no idea what that means either. Going to require me to do some work at home. I hate that. I have no desire to work on computers at home. I am burned out on working on computers. Don't want to do it anymore. Don't want to have this job anymore. But, I have 30 days to get it backed up, so I suppose I need to do that. My question is, if I back it up, and they delete the pictures or entries or whatever it is they are going to delete, how do I restore it. If it does not allow the videos it says are there, how do you restore it without the videos. 

I hate change.

Enough about me, let's talk about me. I went to the doctor yesterday to report my heart attack. I made the horrible mistake about saying I thought I had a heart attack. We spent the next 10 minutes trying to explain that I have no evidence of a heart attack, only past experience with this type of pain. No matter how much I explained, he kept asking me what hospital I went to. I finally had to say never mind, I didn't have a heart attack, I had chest pain and the cardiologist said I should have my GP arrange for me to go visit him again. I said that was why I was there. If he had some tests or anything he wanted to do first, then we can do that. So I am scheduled for an echocardiogram in a couple of weeks. He did a listen to my chest and back and said I also needed to be checked for fluid in my lungs and then to come back and we would go over all the medication I was taking to make sure it was the right medication. Since some of it has been prescribed by the cardiologist and some of it by him and some of it the last time I was in hospital and some of it from my previous doctor four years ago, he thought it would be a good idea to go over it all. I said I thought it was all in my records but he said no, it wasn't. Have I ever mentioned my distrust and lack of belief in the competence of the medical profession. Maybe I have.

So I am scheduled for more tests. I am sure, a year from now, they will decide I need another angiogram, which will lead to angioplasty. So time off work. Or maybe I will be retired by then. I doubt  it as retirement is looking farther and farther away. I have this sneaking suspicion I will be back in for open heart surgery at some point. No evidence of that, it is just a suspicion on my part. The surgeon who did the last one, twenty years ago, said I would probably be back at some point since I was so young at the time. Maybe I am too old now and they won't do it, but I think this is the age when most people have it done the first time.

I am also very tired all the time. I have always put it down to lack of sleep, 5 hours a night is about all I get these days. But it seems I am extra tired and get tired very easily these days. Plus, I am having trouble breathing or I am short of breath all the time. And to top it all off, my back hurts. Don't think that is related to anything, but it hurts all the time now. Old age, overweight most of my life, it is finally starting to catch up with me. And I have to mention, happening right now, that I am eating a mandarin and it is one of the most sour mandarins I have ever eaten. Just thought you needed to know while I was complaining.

Expect other updates on my health, or what little I have left. Mentally, I am still a wreck. Forget everything, get lost all the time, unable to concentrate, just a series of events that will eventually cause me to lose my mind. But hey, the doctors tell me there is nothing wrong with me. They will keep saying that right up till the time they diagnose me with Alzheimer. Everything says early detection is key, but since I have nothing wrong with me, and forty percent of all people have it, I am one of the lucky few who will not get that disease. Good on me.

Have you enjoyed my tale so far. I am going to publish it as is. Have no work to do, so I need to go pretend I am useful. I published the last report for the trip to New Zealand. I have a lot of other stories but I thought I should stop doing this for the day. It is only 9:00 in the morning, so I might start another one soon. Three in one day. That would be interesting. This one doesn't really count, it is just me complaining. I should reserve a special tag for those. That might be the largest group when I am done.

So it's goodbye from me and its goodbye from him.

Later

MWNews 277

 Back again, and yes, it is Tuesday. I didn't type on the weekend. I thought about it. Even got the keyboard out that I can actually type on, but I never got around to actually typing. I played Civilization. Not that I am good at it. I have only ever won once, but I enjoy it until about halfway through the game, then it becomes a slog and I never win. You think I would learn how to play better. I never do. I am not sure what that has to do with typing entries in here, other than it distracts me when I sit down to the home computer.

On out last episode, I think we were about to drive home from Rotorua. Speaking of Rotorua, I just heard that name in a podcast I listen to. It was about how dependant humans are on sulfur. I didn't really listen to it, but they mentioned Rotorua because apparently, people who live there do better on some type of mental tests. They said it was because of all the hot springs and that the town perpetually smells of sulfur. We noticed it and I had warned everyone about it before we left, but it was interesting to hear the report that it might be a good thing.

Next day, we got up fairly early, around 8, and were out of the house by 9:30. I had decided to drive back on a route that took us to the coast. It was just a brief tap of the coast before we headed back inland, but no one had ever been that way so we made a trip out of it. It was a pleasant drive, mainly because everyone slept most of the time. It was a nice road that went through some small mountains and along some river. We got to the coast and there was nothing there. Didn't keep us from staying for over an hour. We had some lunch, and then had to go to the chemist. I don't remember why. I got some more pain medicine and the girls looked at some perfume that was supposed to be exclusive to there, but I am not sure why we had to go to that chemist. And I only mention it because it was packed. I have no idea why. We had to park a long way away from it and walk back. I have no idea why so many people were there. It seemed kind of strange to me. There was nothing else in the town, or nothing we saw. Maybe we just didn't go down the right road, but it seemed like a pretty dead town. 

Anna and the boy decided they were not going to go with us to Wellington. We were to drop them off at their house. It was along the way, so we didn't mind. It was going to be easier for them because they would have to take a train back to their house the next day since we did not have time to take them back. I am told that is about a 3 hour train ride. 

Once we dropped them off, we had to take the original road we had planned on taking when we got there. You know, the one they had said was washed out. Now I have no idea how you rebuild a road in three days, but Anna said it happens all the time. Almost every time it rains, the road through the mountains is closed because parts of it has washed away. A regular occurrence I am told, and not just by Anna. Either they don't know what washed away means or they are really good a repairing the roads, in the mountains, very steep sides all the way up with no room for trucks or anything. 

I think they are making it up. I was not so sure about taking a road over the mountain that had been closed two days before, but we gave it a shot. It was very windy, and I am not sure that says windy as in twisted or windy and as in a lot of wind. Too lazy to make sure. I mean it was very twisty. And there was a lot of it. I think, to get there from where Anna lives to Wellington would be about a 20 minute drive if you didn't have to go over the mountain, it is not that far. But it takes about 2 hours on the road. Or maybe it was 2 hours to the place we were staying. It was on the other side of Wellington in a very steep part of town. Scary to drive in and out of the driveway, but we made it ok.

I won't go into the first night we were there. We didn't want to go back out, so we ordered Uber Eats. I have never ordered from Uber Eats before. Maeghan had to show me how to do it. I ordered way too much food and we ended up not getting to eat it all.

I was looking for a place to have breakfast the next day. We were planning on spending the day in town. I found something that was never expected to be in New Zealand. I found a Denny's. I have not been to Denny's in 30 years, maybe more. It was not a place we frequented in America but they had heard me talk about it on many occasions. I always say, let's go to Denny's when we are out at night, even there are no Denny's in Australia. I say it all the time. No place to go for late night, early morning food in Australia, or we have never found any. 

Wasn't that special, but now the kids can say they have been to Denny's.

We then went to the museum in Wellington. They had lots of different things. 5 or 6 floors worth. The first thing was a big tribute to the Anzac memorial. It was a long, very detailed accounting of what happened during the war. Lots and lots of exhibits. Juanita and William were not that impressed. They moved on pretty quickly. Maeghan and I saw everything. Spent way too much time in there. They have these very enlarged enactments of scenes from the war. Probably three or four times life size. Most of it was pretty interesting, but way too much to see. You could spend all day in there and not see it all. We probably spent and hour and a half, Maeghan and I. We only left because there was a lot of other things to see in the museum.

Most of the other stuff was interesting also, but since we had spent so much time in the war memorial, we kind of rushed through the rest. I would have liked to spend a whole day there, but Juanita and William were already restless. Maeghan and I went through the first 2 floors and then Maeghan went the the remaining floors while the rest of us had coffee in the coffee shop. The museum is worth the time, but you either spend all day there and see everything or just kind of wander through and miss a lot of it. I don't know if I would do it again, but it was worth the first time through.

After that, we just wandered around the town and hit up some shops. We also took the 'cable' car up the hill. Totally not worth it. It is a very short tide up the side of the hill on a tilted train. Maybe two blocks total from bottom to top. You could probably walk it faster. And there is nothing at the top. A gift shop, some houses, a restaurant sort of but it was closed when we were there so I have no idea if it is actually a restaurant or not. 

After that, we went and had steaks somewhere. I wanted our last meal to be good. Wasn't that good, but we didn't know that before we went. The next morning, we did have a wonderful breakfast on the water. Problem was, it was raining and heavy fog so we couldn't see anything, but it was a good breakfast. I have a couple of pictures in hear from there. We had the flight later that afternoon, so we had plenty of time. 

I guess that about raps it up for the New Zealand vacation. As I have said, probably the best vacation we have had. We did go to Airlie Beach a couple of times in the Whitsundays that would rival this vacation, but for the amount of stuff we did and the enjoyment we had doing it, this was still probably the best. We will go back to Airlie sometime, but probably won't be back in New Zealand. Something for years in the future, all depending on my health and wealth in retirement. 

That is going to be all. This has been way too long. I thought about cutting this entry into two more and giving some more details on what we had done, but I decided against it. If you made it this far, I must have put something in these that was more meaningful than I thought it was. 

As a quick side note. New Zealand was so good, I have honestly considered it a destination for retirement. Haven't looked into it much, but it might be something to think about. But I digress.

Until next time,

Later