MWNews 170

It's Christmas day. I think we are having a good time but I can't tell because I am asleep. I know I am asleep because it is near midnight and I have not gotten any presents yet, so it must be a nightmare I am having. I know it is a dream because when I woke up at 2:00 am to put away last nights dinner, it was already put away. I must be dreaming. Putting it away actually just meant putting the serving bowls I had everything in into the refrigerator but it is the thought that counts. Normally that does not happen unless I do it, and I always put them into containers, but there they were. All the bowls in the fridge.

Maybe the nightmare is caused by the fact that we had tacos for dinner last night and I set a new record by eating 12 of them. My normal meal is 6 to 9, depending on how much taco meat I make, but this time, I doubled the amount we normally have and there was still plenty. I did have trouble getting the 11th and 12th ones down, but I managed. Then I was sick and had to lie down and didn't get back up until the said 2:00 am. It was worth it. I love me some tacos. The reason I doubled the amount of meat I normally make is that with Leslie here, he will take up any slack I don't manage to eat. The meat generally runs out around 6 tacos for me and I end up making one or two with little to no meat, but this time, I was prepared. Also, we did have Adam here so in the end, I have maybe a cup full or so of meat left over. If that ever happens on a normal night, William claims it for his lunch the next day but that was pre-Leslie. Now, it doesn't last.

So back to my nightmare, after wandering around at 2, I went back to bed but could not get back to sleep. I played with my phone, damn games with constant commercials, and would just fall back to sleep only to be awakened by a need to pee or Maeghan being sick in her room. Maeghan has a cold but more on that later and I need to pee about every two hours so getting a lot of sleep hasn't happened in over 20 years. You get used to it or you die, not sure at what stage I am at.

I got up permanently at around 5. Another sign, William just walked in and asked how my day is going. Not really unusual for him but I think he just wanted to know if he can take the food back out of the fridge and eat some at this time of night. I said sure but he had to put it back in the fridge and make sure he did not make a mess. But back to reality. Then again, not so much. He just came in again and said Mommy wants some chocolate pie and could he have some too. I have to go cut it so I followed him in and as we walked past his mother, he asked if she wanted some chocolate pie. Caught! I knew she hadn't asked for some because she prefers the pavlova. He tried to make it like he had not said she had already asked for some but I was there and he said his mother wanted some chocolate pie. Not that it mattered but it was fun to watch him try to squirm out of it.

So, if I can continue uninterrupted. You would think I would not type these things in real time, I would just go back and edit what I had typed but where's the fun in that. I like to keep things fresh and on topic so I just leave whatever I have typed before and tell the new story. Sometimes I get back to what I was saying but other times not. Like just now, he was back again asking what he can make out of the left over rice and the leftover mince from the tacos since I ran out of cheese and that is what he usually puts on it. I said hot sauce but I am not sure he will go for that because it has tomatoes and onions and other stuff in it that he does not eat. But he said ok and left. No telling what he will make and I will have to clean up later.

Am I ever going to get the the tale of this Christmas nightmare. We will see.

So at 5:00 am, I went into the kitchen to plan out how I am going to cook everything and in what order. I had planned on prepping everything the day before but only got around to making the pies, one chocolate, one lemon, and I made cornbread for the dressing/stuffing I wanted to make. I had wanted to make the potato bake and just heat it up today but Maeghan wanted to make chocolate mousse and I had to take over for that. She wasn't happy about me doing it but I had the kitchen and would not have had room to work around her. Plus, she was planning on mixing everything by hand. I told her that was too hard and I could do it with the mixer in a matter of minutes. She wanted to make a crushed cookie base for the mousse but she did not know how to crush the cookies. I didn't want to get the chopper out so we did it by hand. She did most of it while I made the mousse then I crushed them a little more before we put it into dessert cups. The chocolate seized when I put it into the cream but there was nothing to do about it at that point so we left it that way. Little bits of chocolate throughout the mousse but I think it was ok. I haven't had any yet but I will when I eat again next week.

Not having done all the prep work I planned and also the kitchen being a disaster when I got to it, I had a lot of work to do. Part of putting away the leftovers from the tacos apparently did not include cleaning the kitchen and getting it ready for me to start cooking. So I spent an hour cleaning and putting away and then getting everything back out that I was going to need. That took me to about 7 as I stopped to take my medicine and some pain pills so I would be able to face the day. At 7:00 am, I turned the oven on. It would not go off again until around 2:00 in the afternoon.

I cooked and I baked and I cleaned up and cooked and baked again. Juanita kept wanting to help and she did put away all the dishes and tried to keep up with washing things as I finished with them but even though the kitchen is big enough, she seemed to always be where I needed to be so in the end, she got frustrated and left. I felt bad about it but I was too tired to make a big deal about her helping so I was left to my own. Have I ever mentioned that I do all the cooking here. If I don't cook, they don't eat. Generally, their plan is if I don't cook, they eat noodles or a bag of chips or cookies. Other than William, who will use the leftovers if we have what he likes, no one ever cooks except me. I say that, but Juanita has, on occasion, cooked for the family. Mostly, she will cook something that I have already prepped in the fridge and was planning on cooking when I got home, but she does do it on occasion and it is much appreciated.

Lets go through the menu. Starting with the potato bake, 5 kilos of potatoes I had to peel. Juanita offered to do it and she would have but by the time she offered, I was on the last two potatoes so that didn't help. You might ask why I needed 5 kilos, which is over ten pounds. Last year, I made one pan of potato bake. We ran out and everyone wanted more. So this year, I made two pans. Problems was, I did not plan on making two pans and after I decided to do that, I forgot that I had not bought cheese. Potato bake is nothing but potatoes in cream if you don't have cheese. We had used all the cheese on the tacos the night before. So what to do. I had bought some shredded cheese at the shop the day before, but it being Christmas, they did not have any big bags so I bought only a little one thinking I had cheese at home and would only use this if I had to. I had to. I tried my best to spread the little bit I had between the two pans but it did not really work. Normally, the sauce itself has the cheese in it and you only put cheese on top but that was not an option so I made do. What little I had, I put between each layer and hoped for the best. I am told no one knew the difference, but by that time, I was beyond caring so they might have just been being nice. I had a little, too tired and stuffed from everything else, and the big problem I had was there was not enough salt in it. Way too little. I know I put it in but then again, maybe I didn't. Everyone seemed happy, although they only ate one pan so I have a whole other one in the fridge for the week to come.

I also made the cornbread dressing. The cornbread was a bit too sweet, not sure why, but otherwise, it was good. Not as good as in the past but no one eats it except me so no one can tell the difference. I made my corn dish. corn, bacon, bell pepper, onion. supposed to also have cheese in it but we have already gone through the cheese problem, so it had none. I made a rice dish of rice, peas and mushrooms but since I am the only one who eats mushrooms, I am the only one who ate that. I made some plain rice also and they ate that. I made brussels sprouts with bacon. They ate all of them. I cut them in half and fry them with the bacon. We have that whenever we can as I just love brussels sprouts. Which is strange because before I came to Australia, I would have never even touched them. But since I cook them myself and do not cook them until they are mush, they are a pretty good staple around here. No one else besides me and Juanita will normally eat them but all that I made today were eaten.

Last was the meats. I did not go overboard with the meats this year. Normally, I will have chicken and pork and beef and sometimes seafood but this year, we only had ham and pork roast. Both were excellent but I think next year I will go back to a little bit of everything. I missed the shrimp we normally have and I could have used some rare beef or something like it. We did have a little bit of roast chicken left from a couple of days ago. For dinner, I had that with some dressing so I got my poultry fix.

I think I already mentioned desserts but we had a chocolate tart and a lemon tart and Maeghan's mousse. We also had a pavlova with some different fruits on it and whipped cream. Not bad for desserts and since everyone was full, we still have most of them left over.

The people that were here were me, Juanita, Maeghan, William, Leslie, Jarvis, Angela, Michael, and Adam. I think that is all but I lost count as by the time we have gotten to the table, I am not really paying too much attention to who is here and who is not here. I know it was not as many as in the past but it was more than we were expecting when everyone said maybe. I think Anna is coming over tomorrow but I really don't know as I have stopped paying attention to what she might or might not be doing. I even think Angela might be coming back tomorrow but that is probably just a rumor.

Maeghan is sick, or she has gotten progressively worse as the day goes by. I knew she was not feeling well when she went to bed early last night and I have heard her coughing and blowing her nose most of the night. Hopefully, just a cold but it could last a while and we usually end up with her in the hospital if she continues to get worse. It is probably just a cold but with the Covid around, I am sure her mother is going to panic soon and we will be in the waiting room at emergency. 

Now as to these presents I have not yet received. I told everyone that I was going to open all the presents and keep what I liked and let them fight over what was left but they did not take me at all seriously. Some of them might have even laughed . I think payback was that I only got socks and underwear for Christmas again. Seems like that is all I ever get. But that brings up an interesting story.

It has always been a joke in my family, or it was when I was a kid, that Christmas wasn't Christmas until you opened your new socks and underwear. That was a gift everyone got every Christmas in my family. Always. Every Year. We always joked about it.

When I got to Australia, they did not think that was an appropriate present. They always laughed at me and we never got socks and underwear for Christmas. I even bought some for myself for a couple of years but it wasn't the same. I always complained about it, that it wasn't Christmas without those presents but everyone always laughed at me and thought I wasn't serious. Then, about five years ago, Juanita finally got the hint. She bought me socks and underwear for Christmas. I had not even realized  how much I missed that. I missed it so much and it meant so much to me that I think I might have cried. I am tearing up a bit now just thinking about it. I didn't know it meant that much to me. It had become just a joke but I went home to my house, we were still living apart then, I cried about it for a while. I had really missed those socks and underwear. Makes me think there are other things I might miss about home but I don't think about it and I get by. So every year since then, Juanita or Maeghan gets me my socks and underwear. I got black socks this year and some good brand underwear, not the off brand I usually buy. I am happy. It is Christmas.

I think it has gotten really, really late now. I can't tell time so I am not sure. Everyone is still awake although Maeghan is in bed and I am not sure what everyone else is doing. It was a good Christmas in the end. Not a lot of presents for everyone but I like it that way. Been a lean year with me being sick and not being able to work a lot. I know the kids are happy which is the whole point and I am not entirely dissatisfied with dinner even though it could have been better, but I always think that. It was fine. I'll get back to it soon. 

One final note all about me. I had to go to the doctor today. I told everyone that that is how you know you are really sick is when you have to go to the doctor on Christmas day. It's not really an issue. I had a doctors appointment today. I know, a doctors appointment on Christmas day? Well, not all people celebrate Christmas and this was the earliest appointment I could get as I am running out of medicine. I am going to a new doctor as I cannot get an appointment with the other one as he seems to not be taking any new appointments or something like that. I don't know what his deal is but after waiting six months to go see him, I still cannot get in so I am now starting over with a new doctor. He wanted a whole lot of tests and wanted to see me afterwards, so today was the day. Good news is everything is normal, although he is upping my heart medicine and I have diabetes, but other than that, it was all good. He wants me on diabetes medicine and wants me to start doing tests everyday. My heart medicine he upped because I was complaining of angina almost every day. He will get me into a new cardiologist soon as my old one seems to have retired or moved or something. He is no longer in the office where I used to see him and they passed me on to someone else the last time asking me if I was seeing a cardiologist. I thought that is what I was there for but they did not see it that way. Old story, but I have not seen one since my last heart attack and my angina pain is happening a lot now so I will find a new one.

That's about it. Going to collapse in bed. Since I have no work next week, it should be a restful time. At least I don't have to cook, just reheat. It will be a nice vacation. 

Until next time, 

Later

MWNews 169

 

I am going to try to write a new entry today. Since I am working on a Thursday, the office I am in is full. Normally, on a Friday, there is only one other person here but since Friday is Christmas Eve, it was decided I should work on Thursday instead. So expect a disjointed, haphazard entry. Or not. It will probably look like all the others and no one will ever know the difference.

One other note, I am planning on starting another blog. I think I might have mentioned it before. I will say more about it when I get around to it. Something that is more about me, if you can imagine a thing that is more about me than this blog. What I plan on doing is making this what it was meant to be, about the kids and us, and the other blog more about things I would like to say or comment on or just ramble on about and not worry about keeping a kids perspective on it. I know, this blog generally degenerates into me complaining about this or that and talking about my problems and I feel bad about it. I end up not saying all I want to say. 

So expect it when I get around to it. I won't advertise it and will try not to even mention it on here, only to announce I have started it. It is more of a forum for me to vent or comment on things and not ment for public consumption. Now on with the show.

You know, I decided I should not even mention it in this blog. Not appropriate I think, so ignore the previous paragraphs in case I have trouble finding the delete button. Which happens more often that you think it would. Good thing I go back and re-read these things because I wouldn't want some of the things I type to get out. Family secrets and all. I don't want people to know where all the skeletons are buried. 

Now I know you are all wondering what it is I leave out. Who am I kidding, no one is wondering about anything since I am the only one who reads it. Maeghan and Juanita were surprised I was still writing it when I mentioned something I had said before. They said they thought I had stopped years ago and did not even know the address anymore. I said I did stop and I was just remembering something I wrote 10 years ago. They seemed satisfied with that answer so I wouldn't expect there to be a jump in readings any time soon. I do think that if I were to be more consistent in writing this, I would get a better following but I don't really care. I used to get 20 or thirty views on each entry but that was a long, long time ago and the ones I have written haphazardly these past few years don't really get seen by anyone. I know, there is one person who consistently reads them but I don't want to mention names in here. I do appreciate it but I cannot for the life of me explain why you do it. I know I am not that interesting and our life here, while possibly fascinating to the people here or to family, it might be a dull read for anyone else. Even though I do keep people in stitches with my clever repertoire. It's a gift. Probably due to a lack of proper education. It's easy when you really don't know how to read or write. Just start typing and words come out. Doesn't have to make sense because I know what it is I meant to say and I laugh and laugh and laugh. Wish you were here to enjoy it.

Christmas is almost here. Two more days. I am not sure how it will go. Normally, we have all the family over but most of them are having problems and they say they are not coming. Don't know what that means. It could be they lied and are coming anyway or it could mean we are going to be on our own. Hard to plan dinner that way.

Leslie already lives with us so he will be here. Shayla was here the past couple of days and will not be back for Christmas. That is an interesting story but I don't know the details so I can't say why she is not coming. She lives with another family, not Angela or with us. I have no idea how those arrangements came to be but it was before we got back to the mainland so I am sure there was some kind of fallout with it. She is going to be with the family she lives with. Angela was kicked out of her house by the owner. Another long story but since she lies about it, we are not sure what the real reason was or is. She was living with her boyfriend at his brother's house and the brother kicked them all out. Since the boyfriend is not mobile, both legs amputated recently and I will not go into that, she had to leave and he is awaiting a room at a nursing home or something.  Angela says she will and then says she won't be coming. If she does, she will bring Jarvis, the other grandson. If not, who knows.

Anna is not heard from. Messages to her go unanswered so we are not sure what she is doing. I think she is living with the former father to her baby but I am not really sure about that. I know she works in the city and commutes there but other than that, her plans are unknown. She might show up but I have my doubts. Adam, the former son in law, was here yesterday and he is in town. No place to live, so he sleeps in his car. I do not know what the plans are there. He is invited also but I do not know if he said yes or not. He just got back into town from NSW and his sister. He used to live here on an island but that is an expensive proposition so I think he was forced to move for monetary reasons. Now that he is back, no idea what his plans are.

Of course, Maeghan and William are here. I hate thinking about the day when we have to invite them over for Christmas. I am hoping not to live that long but then that would be a burden on them so I stay around to keep them entertained. Ten years is not that long and that is my goal to stay around until they are settled into their lives. Going to be hard for them with all that they are facing but let's not get into where that might be going, or at least not now. I would like the opportunity to live in a smaller place where we do not have to pay so much rent and there is only Juanita and I, but we will probably not like that very much so it is a good thing we have the kids around. Not sure if or when that will ever happen but it would make life simpler. Right now, we support Leslie with no compensation. Maeghan pays some rent out of her money but I would rather she did not have to. William is about to start getting his own money and he says he wants to help us all he can but I think once he gets money in his pocket, he will find other uses for it. I want him to have it but he is not good with money at all. He will spend it as fast as he gets it. He always has and it is going to be very hard for him to learn how to save. His mother has no concept of saving money so that doesn't help. If she does start reading this, I am in trouble for saying that.

No other family around. They are all in Tasmania or moved far north from us. Used to have other family an hour or so away but they moved last year and it's too far for us to travel unless I am taking time off, and we certainly cannot afford to do that.

Money is a real problem for us around Christmas. It seems a lot of things come due over the holidays so I have to spend every dollar I make on other things. I get ahead during the year but then December hits and it all goes away and I have to start over. Doesn't help that most of the work goes away at the same time and we have to live on a pension until it picks back up. Speaking of which, I think I have mentioned it but I am applying for my Social Security out of America. Long story, but the closest office is in Manilla. No office in Australia. No idea why. So everything I do is via email and they take forever to answer email so that is going to be and is a slow process. I am not sure how it will all work. I do know that any money I get from that takes away from what I get from Australia so it will probably be a wash as to the total amount. I just want to last it out until I get my Super here.

Super is sort of the equivalent to a 401k in America. You put into it while working and your company puts in a certain amount at the same time. You get it when you retire. I think I have described it in the past but to fully get the entire amount, you have to wait until you are 67 to access it and there are very specific rules about how and when you can do that. It is all mine and not subject to any other income you might have. The social security equivalent here is your pension. That is subject to your income and if I am getting it from America, it takes away from the Australia one. Probably not enough to live on but it will be if it is only Juanita and I it is supporting. Juanita has nothing and will lose what money she gets now as soon as the kids move out, so we will be totally supported by me. If I die, she gets everything, including my Social Security and my Super so that is not a worry, except the dying part.

Back to the kids, see what I mean, why create another one, but moving on.

Maeghan didn't do well with her show. She only sold a couple of things. Not nearly enough to cover the expense of getting the spot at the show. But, she did sell some of the new things she has created, so that is encouraging. I made her make some dragons, really last minute ones so they were not perfect, but once again, all the kids wanted one and she actually sold a couple. She also sold one of her knitted frogs, which take a while to make but are cheap so it is all profit. I told her it gives her an idea of what to make in the future. Just make more of the things that sell and then add a couple of other things for variety. Most of the time, at other shows, she has sold some of her drawings. She didn't sell any thing time but she had people ask about them. It was really hot and people were not lingering for long. The Christmas show is like that. Since it is so hot here, you get a lot of traffic but people do not linger to look things over, especially if you are in the sun and this time, her booth was in direct sunlight. I could not take it and moved to the other side of the van, which was in the shade. Plus the breeze was coming from that side so I would say it was about 10 degrees cooler over there than at the front of her spot. It was really hot and they had to keep taking turns sitting in the sun watching things and going to the back where I was.

We took William and Leslie with us. A mistake as they did not have want to be there and while they did not complain about it, since I could not around to all the sites and buy them things, they just sat there and played their phones. William was a big help in unpacking the awning and putting it back up. Since it is attached to the van, it is hard to reach up there and get it undone and then re-rolled back up. Since he is so damn tall, he could reach it easy and fortunately, it did not hang or anything so he was able to role it back up and zip it back in without too much drama. Leslie means well but mostly just gets in the way. He tries to do everything and make it so I don't do anything, including pushing me out of the way but I am pretty insistent and don't have the patience in the heat to wait for him to figure it out, so I take over pretty quickly so we can get going. Things like pegging the awning down and putting in the supports. Not hard tasks but if you do not do them right the first time, it is hard to fix it after the fact. But he means well and is willing to do anything to help.

Maeghan seemed happy with the results. Juanita did put a bunch of things in with hers to sell and she was not happy with that. I can understand her reasoning, hard to build a brand when you are selling things like it is a flee market. But to Juanita's defence, it is a flee market so having a mixture of things for sale is the norm. But still, she has all hand made stuff of supposedly high quality and it is sitting next to some old junk that we are trying to get rid of. In the heat, no one is going to spend the time looking at the difference. They either see her stuff and ignore the other or they see the other and ignore the whole thing. If it comes to it, I will pay for two sites next time and they can be separate. Juanita always has stuff to sell and Maeghan can set hers up as a more upscale market item.

I have spent all morning writing this. Haven't done any work except when someone came in to ask me to come look at something. That happened a few times but I am sure you can hardly tell from reading this. The same old rambling, incoherent tale I always tell. I am going to get a cup of coffee soon. I can get it for free in this room but I am forced to take a 30 minute break each time I am here so they frown on me sitting in the office all the time, or walking the floors. They want me to get out and away from the work for a break. The coffee shop is in the same complex but across from all the buildings I normally work in. It is actually attached to another building that I have to visit in my rounds but it is an actual coffee shop so it has bad coffee and stale treats that I can get. I have mentioned it a few times I think. They sometimes have decent treats, something new each week, but you can't tell how long they have been there each time and most of the time they are stale when I get them. But that's ok. Since it is so hot, I am not looking forward to going over there. Seating is under cover but it is outside so it gets hot.

I just thought of something else I wanted to write about but then I forgot what it was, so I am going to pretend it was nothing. This has gone on too long and I will be here forever if I don't close it now. Now I remember, it was about Christmas dinner and the menu. You know this is basically a food blog and I sometimes forget the main purpose. But, it will have to wait until tomorrow or whenever as I am tired of typing once again. So...

Until next time

Later

MWNews 168

I've been contemplating the merits of working. I decided it's probably shouldn't be done by old people. There's just not a whole lot of incentive to keep doing the same thing everyday. Not that I would know, I am neither old nor do I do the same thing everyday, but I can see the advantages of retiring early. Maybe I should think about that. As a famous philosopher once said, I'm too old for this shit. I think is was Socrates.

Once again, I find myself working in the elder care facility. Fortunately, most of these people are older than me. Although there is a disturbing trend that all the management and IT support people are all younger than me. Guess I get the advantage of experience. Experience is not all it's cracked up to be. Just means you've made all the mistakes they are making but you still get the blame for it. Plus, they all seem to speak a foreign language. Might be I am hard of hearing but I think they leave out a bunch of words that I would think were necessary for them to communicate correctly but as they can talk to each other, they think the problem is the old guy.

But enough of my lot in life. It's not a lot, but it's a life.

Maeghan does another show tomorrow. Don't get your hopes up. By show, I mean a market where she tries to sell her wares. She has done about a half dozen now. Still far from breaking even. I think most of the problem is she treats it like a once every few months thing and instead of making things for the whole time between shows, she waits until a few days before it and works like crazy to get some things done.

She makes jewellery and stuff out of that plastic stuff that hardens in UV light. Can't seem to recall what it is at the moment. RESIN! That's it. Anyway, she makes things out of that, plus some little tiny things out of clay that she then turns into jewellery. She has also started knitting some little tiny things but I don't think those will be jewellery. She made a frog and a cat and some other stuff. I don't know if she is going to sell them this time as these are her first one's. She might keep them. 

She gets a lot of praise at the shows when they find out she made them all herself. I hate to say it, but if she takes advantage of sitting in her wheelchair during the show, she sells more. I know, blatant mis-representation, but hey, the wheelchair is comfortable to sit in so can she help it if it makes them feel more like buying from her. I know she didn't sit in it the last time and she hardly sold anything. Might also be because she did not make any of her best selling items. She makes a puzzle piece earing out of resin and some little clay dragons. The dragons are really, really good and all the kids that come by want one. She sells them for $5 each but they are hard to make as she makes them all free hand, meaning she does not use a mold to do it. She hasn't made any this time either because she has been knitting things for Christmas presents instead of making things for the show. Hopefully, it won't be too hot tomorrow. It is at night but the start is around 5, so it is hot at that time. If they give her a good spot, it's not so bad but some of the places are facing the setting sun and it is not pleasant to sit there waiting for the foot traffic to pick up when it gets dark.

I am throwing this paragraph in after I published this entry. I forgot to mention one of the most important things about Maeghan. She got her Certificate III in child education. I am not totally sure what is means, but she tells me she can now get a job teaching or working in a day care or a number of other things. I think it is great. I know Juanita used to have a Certificate III in something, aged care I think, and she worked her whole life, or the life before me, with that. It puts you on the bottom rung of each job but it gets you in the door. You can either go for more education, like a Certificate IV, or you can try to get promoted from within. I think Certificate IV lets you be in management or something but I am just making that up as I do not really know what it does. Certificate III is what most workers have and she now has one. We are extremely proud of her. Now if she can find a day care or something to hire her, she will be all set and I will not have to worry so much. We always knew she would do it but now she has. Way to go Maeghan. Hopefully, this paragraph fits in with the rest of the entry. I did not really re-read it to check.

I am out of work for the next few weeks. No one does anything during the holidays so they do not need me. It's been confusing lately, anyway. My HR firm is having a lot of trouble keeping track of where all their workers are. I keep getting double booked and if I mention it, I normally lose both jobs so when I can, I say I have a half day here and a half day there. This job is always on Friday but they never seem to remember that and try to book me for other places on Friday's. It doesn't help that I work for two of them and they do not seem to talk to each other, even though it is a family business and they are all related. One of them calls for one thing and the other one calls for another and I have to sort out when I can do each. It is very confusing at times. I think I have work the week between Christmas and new years but I cannot get them to confirm that so I have no idea if it has already or will fall through and I get nothing.

I got Maeghan a new Xbox for Christmas. That means we will have four in the house. Although, I think Leslie's mother sold his as we have not seen it in a while. That is a long story that I won't go into now. Leslie is one of the grandson's and he now lives with us as his mother is homeless. Too much to explain and I am already getting tired of typing. Normally, Leslie has his for his TV in the garage. William has his in his room. I have mine in the living room and now Maeghan will have hers in the dining room where the other TV is. None of these are the new ones. You cannot get the new one. They are all Xbox One S. You can't find a One X anywhere either. I could have gotten the Series S for Maeghan but she has some games on disc that she wants to play, and has never played, so I needed the DVD player. Plus the Series S is an inferior machine. It is just not spec'ed very well. The One S is old but I figure if they are not going to have any Series X machines until 2023, or that is the date I am hearing, then getting the One S with the DVD drive was better than getting one that does not have it. It only has to last until the Series X is available and then I can upgrade mine. But, I probably will keep mine and any of the others until they fall apart. The new one is just too expensive. I cannot justify getting that when there are other things I can spend a $1000 on, like the car or a new TV, or even a new clothes dryer. Not $1000 for a gaming device, although we do use ours for everything. Watching TV, DVD's, Netflix, Disney. It all goes through the Xbox. I could change it to some other device but I am happy with how it is setup now. The only thing we do not use it for is over the air TV but who watches that anymore. Sometimes, there is something on, like the Cowboys but that is very very rare, and we have to watch it on over the air TV. I did not know how bad commercials have gotten. They are just so bad and I hate watching them in the middle of whatever it is I am trying to watch. Not sure how we ever did that.

We do watch a lot of YouTube, and the number and length of the commercials we get on there is ridiculous. Far worse than regular TV. We watch it enough that I have considered paying for the premium YouTube, whatever it is called, but so far, I have enough other things to do that it has not become a problem. It is annoying when I am watching though. I watch sports highlights on there and you get a commercial every four minutes. Plus I watch some other channels, Sailing Le Vagabond for example, but the better channels don't seem to have as many commercials. Juanita watches all the DIY shows, mostly for building cabins and stuff, and there are not as many commercials on there either it seems. I don't understand how it works but I have gotten in the habit of just turning the video off and switching to another one when they get too bad.

Speaking of advertisements, I have downloaded some new games on my phone lately. I had stopped playing the ones I had before and wanted something else to play while I was on the train. These things have more ad breaks than anything. If you just get the free version, you get an ad every time the screen changes. Twenty, thirty times during one 5 minute session. And they are always the same ads. Maybe they change once a week but you get the same ad over and over again every thirty seconds or so. When did games start doing that. I only played one or two before but these new ones are ridiculous. How do people play them. Does everyone opt for the paid version. I am not sure I want to pay for any of these games and the constant ads means I will probably never find out if I like it enough to pay for it. It's just too much.

I think I have reached my quota of complaining for one email. I do have plans for the holidays. Mostly just to get better organized. I am planning on going through all the photos I have online in all the different places and finally organizing them into something that can be searched and looked at without having to scroll through a thousand photos looking for the one you want.

I am also planning on doing something with my weight and poor health. I think everything that is wrong with me can be pointed to as a weight problem but I feel so bad most of the time, I don't want to do anything about it. Maybe I can get the kids involved in going for walks with the dog and stuff. Maeghan needs it as well. Or, we can just spend more time actually doing something instead of playing the four Xbox's we have in the house. I know I have tried to solve that problem by bringing another one into the house. I think the plan is that there are so many, they will get tired of them like all other toys and start to do something else. It's a good plan and I know it will work well.

I need to organize my computers also. Get them more adapted to what it do on them and not just a random selection of bits and pieces that I have to hunt for on each computer to see if it is installed or up to date on each one. I have tried to make them all cloud based but anytime I do something new, it only gets done on what ever computer I am working on at the time and the others do not get the update until I try to do it on them. Then it takes a while to download and synchronize them and I get frustrated waiting.

Well, I have just been asked to do something so I have to go actually work on it. Fix a printer or something they have screwed up. Here's a question, if you are trying to scan a document to email and your printer is not connected to the network, is the problem that your email address is not in the printer. That is how the problem was presented to me last week. I thought connecting it to the network would be the first choice but apparently, they do not know how to connect to it that way. They were using a direct USB connection to their computer and now they want to know why that connection doesn't work anymore. (I disconnected it last week). So now I have to go down and try to make it work like they want it to work. Doesn't help that the only port they have down there is connected to the computer but I will put the computer on WiFi and the printer on the ethernet and see what else they have to complain about. Main problem is, the people who are complaining do not work on Friday's so everything I do cannot be checked by them and I get a call on Monday to tell me it is not working, even though it was all working when I left on Friday.

Did I just go off into another rant. Must be this headache I have. I was just told that the internet was back up but I never noticed it was down so I'm not worried about that.

I'm going to be going now. It's 2:00 and that is when they all come in and ask me to do things before I go, so I am expecting a crowd of people here shortly. It's been fun and I we can do this more often. If I can avoid falling out of bed and breaking my ankle again. Oh, did I not mention that. Well, it happened. Not really broken but it has hurt for a week. Oh, to be young again, and not so frail and incapacitated.

Until next time, 

Later  

 

MWNews 167

 

It's been a long day and a short night. Lots of things have happened and it will take several entries to describe them all. Not sure where to start so I will just start typing and see where we go.

I started this entry a long time ago. Back in August it tells me. I never got back to it, as you can tell from the different writing style. What can I say, I have changed a lot since then.

I am currently at work, or what passes for work these days. Still do the desktop contract work, meaning I get a call asking if I can go fix something and I go fix it. Not real steady and certainly hit and miss as to when I actually have work but its been enough to keep us alive, if not prosperous. I am just waiting for the day when I can't do it anymore and I can maybe have someone support us besides me. Like that will ever happen. But I can hope.

Let's see, William just graduated 10th grade. As you are aware, 10th grade used to be the last grade anyone ever went to here in Austria. Some students went on to 11 and 12, like Maeghan, but most do not. We will have to see if William does it. He says he will and I am sure he will try but they actually require work in those grades and he has not done any real school work in a long time. He will tell you he does but I seem to recall a lot more studying and working when I was in school and he never does any of that. I find it hard to believe he is that smart that he can get it all done while he is at school but that is what he tells us. Plus, apparently, homework is not something they do anymore. Puts too much stress on the kids apparently. So their work is mostly done in school but I am sure there is still a need to study. He says no, and the teachers don't tell us he is falling behind or anything, in fact, he got the best report card of his life on the last one. An A and two Bs and a few Cs. It was great. Had to read between the lines on what the comments were but I don't want to say anything bad. He did great and we are so proud of him. Just hope he is prepared for the workload in 11 and 12. Maeghan had a lot of work when she went and he is not one to do that type of thing very often. We will see.

I did go with William to setup his new classes for next year. They have a program called VET. No idea what it is or how it works but basically, it is technical school for whatever he wants to do. The school is offering three main courses or groups of courses over the next two years. One is Education, basically becoming a teachers aid type thing. They said it was very hard and required a lot of work on his part. Another is Automotive, which William says he has no interest in. So we settled on the last one, Construction. I know, he is going to be a ditch digger. But I like that role for him and I think he can excel in it. Not that it is all about manual labour but they offer several different programs like wood working, machinery operation, building, and a few other specialities. He does not have to pick one of them until the second year but he likes doing things with his hands so maybe he will find his niche and become good at it. I think he will. I think William will be alright in life. If he can control his temper and not try so hard to prove he is right all the time, probably just a phase he is going through as a teenager, he will do just fine.

These course give them different levels of certificates. I won't go into certificates again but for the construction one, he comes out with a level 2 certificate. The automotive was only a cert 1 and the education was cert 3. You can get a job with a cert 3 but a cert 2 allows you to work in any environment and you specialize in what you want to do for a cert 3. The best thing is, if you take what the school is offering, they pay for it. If you were to do this on your own, like through a TAFE course, you have to pay for it yourself. Maeghan is taking a TAFE course and to get her qualification, she will have to spend about $3000. Not a lot, but to get her final certification, that is what the course costs. The ones she has taken so far have been free. 

Which brings us to Maeghan. She missed out on applying for scholarships for next year. She has decided to either take the next year off, probably not, or work part time at the day care, probably not either. What she will probably do is take some other course at TAFE and pay for it herself. The problem is, the one she wants is a photography course and while the course is only a couple of hundred dollars, it requires her to own an SLR camera. Those go for about $1000 and she does not have that, neither do I. I am going to have a look around to see if I can get a used one but it might be a bit too late for her to sign up now.

I told her to go ahead and work for the next year and save the money. Not only will she get the experience but, since she lives at home, she can save all her money and have enough to do whatever she wants next year. Problem is, she has no way to get to the day care where she has been working, No buses stop there for some reason and the nearest one stops a couple of miles away. I don't see that changing anytime soon but maybe they can recommend her to another closer day care centre. I don't know. I don't think she really likes the work. It is hard and she has to do it all day, which she is in no way prepared for, so I think she might be ready to switch to something else. I think she was already ready to switch before she started but her mother kept at her to try it and then decide. It was a free course and might be helpful in other places but I think she has turned her back on doing it full time at this point.

While I am sitting her typing, there is another person in charge here that is named David. They keep asking him questions and I keep having to look up to make sure they are not talking to me. I am working in the office of a lumber yard. A fairly large lumber yard. They have some new software they are implementing today and I am here to support it if there are any problems. The fact that I have never seen the software and do not have access to it for testing doesn't seem to mean anything to anyone here. They had a big project to bring in this software and part of the budget was to have an IT guy be here in case of problems. So here I am. They payed for me to be here, so I have to be here. Haven't done anything except tell them to call the helpdesk but maybe that is what they wanted. I know the office manager hates me as she does not see why I am here and I am just wasting their resources but since I do not disagree with her, I can see why she does not like me. She has had to teach everyone how to use the software as she went to training for it but she is not an IT guy, so they brought me in. Kind of awkward. 

I did install all their printers out in the yard and I trouble shot their wifi problems but neither of those have anything to do with why I am supposed to be here. And the wifi problem is not fixed, so they think I don't know what I am doing. I have pointed out that the APs are located 25 metres in the air, mounted from the ceiling, so I cannot check them directly as I have no way to get all the way up there to look at them. They said the problem started when the electrician installed the wiring for the new printers but I cannot verify that or make it work without taking one down and seeing if there is a problem. So they feel I am useless. I am typing into this blog so maybe I am. Nothing to do except say, call the helpdesk so far.

I think I am about done for now. Been a long day and it will just keep getting longer. The afternoon shift comes in at 2, so I will see if they have need of my expert opinion. I'm thinking of making a sign, 'Call the helpdesk', so I don't have to talk to them either. The afternoon shift is more fun though, so maybe I will visit with them if they are not busy. I should mention that we have been in a steady downpour here in Brisbane for the past two days and everything if under water, so going out into the lumber yard is something I try to avoid. Had to go out there to reconfigure one of the printers and while it slowed down when I went out, it was pouring again when I finished, so I got soaked. Did I mention it is about a half a kilometre from one end of this yard to the other. Not a long distance but I am a fat old man with a bad heart and a bad back, so when I have to make that walk six or seven times a day, it gets to be a problem.

I was going to wrap this up and then I went off on a poor me story. I think I will attempt to wrap it up again. Not telling if I will succeed. Lots and lots of things to talk about and to enter in but I make no promises. I just hope to keep making an effort, as little as it is at times. 

Until next time, 

Later

MWNews 166

 I am going to write a new entry today but not right now. This is just to say I am still alive and still have things to say. I just can't find the time to do it, even though I don't actually work anymore. But I will get into that when I return.

Funny thing is, even though I say I don't work anymore, I am at work and this seems the best time to do this. Although, I am working in a nursing home, so I am called at odd times to do odd things. I can never really be sure when I can try to do this. But since most of my time is spent looking up causes of problems, I spend a lot of time at my desk, or what passes for a desk here.

More later. No picture 'cause I can't be bothered but there will be one when I get back to it.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 165

 Going to have to make this quick so I will just give a status of everyone. I think I used this picture recently but I could not be bothered to check so enjoy the repeat. I think I do it a lot as there does not really seem to be a way to check all the pictures I have uploaded other than looking at all the entries, and we know that is never going to happen.

Anyway, I think it has been almost a month since I posted. Mostly because I do not have access to my computer anymore, or not very often. Juanita sold her computer because she thought she was spending too muck time on it and she wanted to spend more time with us. All that really happened is that she moved from her desk to my desk and uses my computer all the time now. Not sure what she had planned but nothing had really changed. She still spends most of her time on the computer doing Facebook and playing games. I suppose it is different, but I don't see how. And, if she reads this which she never does, I will be in trouble for saying anything. But that will be different so it is worth the risk.

My health has gotten worse, although I don't think you can actually tell. All the scans I got have revealed two fractures in my spine, plus the three bulging disks, one of which is severe and they are looking if surgery is possible. The fractures, they say, are not a worry because they are on the good side, whatever that means. They tell me they are on the side where the spinal cord isn't so there is no chance of damage to the spinal cord. They cannot tell me how long they have been there but they seem to think it is fairly recent, within the past year. I have no idea what might have caused it and they don't either but I am told that explains the severe back pain I am having. I don't really buy it as the pain moves around and does not seem related to my spine, but can I get them to listen to what I am saying, no I cannot. So I live with it. Most of the time, it is just back pain. I can live with that but it is the night time pain that is the real problem. That makes it so I cannot move and cannot adjust my position in anyway to make it better. I just hurts. Far worse than during the day and in a different place. But again, no help from the medical profession. I don't know if they have written me off as a lost cause or they really do not know what the problem is, or they are just not listening to what I am describing. I will definitely be going to a different doctor. 

Which brings up the problem of going to the doctor. It would seem that my work, the HR firm that gets me work, has had several people leave for more permanent positions. I am being called in to take the place of all those open contracts they have. It means I work everyday and sometimes I am even working at night. Nothing hard yet but I am sure there will be some manual labor involved at some point and I will have to decide if I say no or not. I hate to say no because that usually means they no longer call me for open positions but I have done some simple stuff and really hurt myself when I have done it and if there is a job that requires continuous manual labor, I will be unable to complete it. But we will cross that bridge when I get to it. It does mean I have been unable to get back to the doctor for a few weeks. Just no time to do it and I need to get some scripts renewed soon so I will have to find the time. I am also supposed to have gone for another test but have not found the time to schedule that either. Hopefully, I will find some time in the next couple of weeks but I don't know what is going to happen.

All of this is about my back and I still have the heart problems to deal with. I think I might have said they have decided that operations will do no good, or they would do some good but they cannot operate where the problem is due to the previous operation I had. The blockage is in one of the arteries they replaced so they cannot replace it again. So they tell me it is medication to control it. I take 11 tablets each morning now and two more at night. It's a lot of pills to take but I keep being told that is what is keeping me alive so I don't mess with it or complain too much. Although, I have forgotten a couple of times and in my opinion, I felt much better on those days than when I am taking the pills. 

I probably mentioned that I once stopped taking all my medication because the side effects were just too much to take. Since then, since the heart attack, I have been back on most of the pills but I don't have the severe reaction I was having so I continue to take them. I don't actually feel right each day and the fact that I feel better when I don't take them would indicate to me that I am still feeling the side effects but I have decided to ignore it and keep taking them. Maybe I will change my mind again at some point but for now, I continue to take what I am told.

And not that I have only talked about me and a little about Juanita, I have started to run out of time and I need to get going. So I will very briefly mention the kids and what they are up to.

Maeghan and Juanita are currently in Tasmania, or actually they are on a plane coming back from Tasmania right now. I have to leave to go pick them up soon. Maeghan went down for the wedding and Juanita got to visit some of her friends and her brother and sister. She says she enjoyed it but I have been saying she will not want to come back here if she spends more time down there. Thankfully, they were only there a week and she is on her way back. I won't go into my thoughts on it all but I think there were mistakes made and she would realize it once she was back there but it didn't happen and she is returning so that is good.

Maeghan didn't get to visit all her friends back there and didn't get to spend much time with the ones she did visit. They were all going to school and could not take off to be with her. Maeghan had school also and she did it online so there was not a lot of time to really get to visit and talk. She says she had fun but I know she would have liked to have more time. Nothing to do about it but it has been very hard for her moving over here as she does not know anyone here and she missed out on a lot of spending time with her friends she has over there. They still talk on the phone all the time but it's not the same. She misses them a lot and I hoped this would be good for her, and it was, just not as good as it should have been and it will probably be worse once she gets back. 

She has tried to make friends over here but going to school, the people she goes with don't really seem interested and they are from all over Brisbane so it is hard for her to meet up with them or do anything other than school work with them. It's been hard on her and I wish there was something I could do but I am the crazy father and that is beginning to not be enough anymore. She will get better but it is hard to watch.

William on the other hand has had no real problems making friends. Or at least, he has not made an enemies. In Tasmania, there were a group of people who picked on everyone else not in their group and he was not in their group. He did eventually find some friends he could hang out with but then he moved over here. He still talks to them on the phone and plays on the Xbox with them but I don't know how satisfying that is for him. But he has made friends here, or he says he has. He has gone over to their houses a few times and he seems to be getting along in school. The fact that the school is pretty much just a holding station for delinquent students plays a part in it but he was never very enthusiastic about school anyway and since they do not put any kind of pressure on him there, he is doing well in what they are asking him to do.

He does seem to get along with everyone and he does get to play in the games they play so I think it is good for him. I wish he was pushed a little more in his school work but for now, he is doing really well. He even got a B on one of his subjects and he has made some really cool stuff in woodworking.

I have run out of time and don't even have time to ramble on for a few more paragraphs. I've gotta go.

Until next time, 

Later

MWNews 164

 

Have I ever mentioned that William has gotten really really tall. I don't remember if I have. I think he is about 6'4" now but he might be taller. Not that it matters but I rarely get to mention it. He went past me a number of years ago and I am 6'1". Or I used to be. I think I have shrunk over the years to about 6'. I'm still over 6' but not by much anymore. Must be the back compressing in upon itself.

But William, he just keeps on growing. My running joke is I tell him in a few years, he will be as tall as I am. He doesn't think it is funny. He tries to prove he towers over me already but I tell him it is because I slouch around him to make him feel taller. He's not buying it. His brother, Michael, still might be taller than him but we don't see or speak to Michael anymore so it has been several years since they were together. I won't go into the reasons for that other than to say it was their choice and their lives so let them live it as the may. I'll never go back to seeing them but he is Juanita's son, so I don't actively try to keep them apart. Maybe someday, hopefully after I am gone. Which could be soon if all goes well, or bad or whatever.

Yeah, I'm still not well and continuing to get worse. Maybe I can find a doctor that actually listens to what I am telling them but for now, I go through the tests and have them fix things that I am not actually complaining about. It's nice to have them looking after my heart and telling me there is nothing wrong with my back but I can no longer sleep for any length of time as my back seizes up when I lay down for any length of time and the pain is something I can not seem to get across to anyone as to how bad it is. I can't move, can't stay still, and almost scream in agony with every movement. It's bad. I am trying to convince myself that it is something I will have to get used to but I can't live with this kind of pain for much longer. 

The big problem is the pain seems to move around. I have lower back pain, had it for years. It's like everyone else lower back pain. It can get bad and so bad I cannot walk but we all know what that is like. I can take pain killers and it helps but I hate taking pain killers for many reasons, some of which I have talked about in here. I can live with that. It's not nice but nothing countless others have to live with so I do my best. They tell me to lose weight and keep it exercised so I try my best. Lose some weight, then have more pain so stop losing weight because I can't move but its a life cycle of up and down. I'm sure it will get better some day. Just not today.

But when I say it moves around it is the new pain that is the real issue these days. It kind of started when I had the angiogram a few weeks ago. I had to lay on my back on a really hard table for an hour or so. It started hurting then, in the middle of my back but since I was not allowed to move, I had to lay there and take it. Ever since then, I have the horrible pain in the middle of my back if I lay down for a time, like to sleep or something. When I try to sit up or move or roll over, it hurts really bad. Since I roll over a lot in my sleep, the pain is near constant and I have to sit up and stay that way for a while. But the real problem is when it seizes. Nothing, no position or movement, seems to stop that pain. And taking pain medicine before, during or after the incident does not seem to help. I don't know if it is too bad for the medicine or it is the wrong medicine or what the problem is but it hurts and hurts and slowly drifts away until I can no longer feel it. Times seem to vary. 

The pain moving around part is relatively new. I still get the pain in the middle of my back but somedays or sometimes, it is in my side or in both sides and sometimes across my shoulders. I can't yet tell if this is the same pain or related to the middle back pain but it comes and goes. The middle back pain is still a problem but it is accompanied by the other pain which is pretty much all the time now. Whether I am laying down or just sitting, walking or doing whatever. My sides and shoulders seem to hurt constantly. The doctor has done a bone scan and a CT scan of my back and I am awaiting the results. Have to go back this week but I don't think it is a bone problem. Then again, what do I know. The doctor seems to latch on to whatever I tell him first and stops listening for all the other symptoms. Been going to him for over a year and it has gotten much worse instead of getting better in that time. He keeps asking me if I want more pain medication but we know my feelings on that and besides, shouldn't he be telling me what I need to do instead of asking me. If I don't get a satisfactory answer this week, I will move on to another doctor.

That is the problem with some of the medical profession over here, and I assume everywhere. The doctor has a fifteen minute window for your appointment and he has to make a diagnoses in that time. There is not a lot of time to go into any details so he hears the first thing you say and starts to proscribe medicine that will fix that specific problem. He does not get into any other symptoms or problems you might be having because he does not have the time. The next patient is waiting and he has to move on. I know, private health insurance would probably solve that but we won't go into the issues with private health care right now. Just say, I am stuck with this doctor until I move on to the next one, which could be soon. His office is about 45 minutes away and there is a perfectly good medical center within walking distance of where I live now. A new, modern center that has everything in one building so it would probably be better if I made the move anyway. Juanita and the kids go to the new building and doctors so I should probably do the same. Just means I will probably have to start over with all my treatments.

And now I have spent all my time talking about me again. I did not plan on doing that. I was going to talk about William more and I never seem to have a lot to say about him and his adventures. Its either me or Maeghan or food and William gets left out. But then again, William is William and he doesn't change a lot. He is in the tenth grade and is still spending most of his time in his room. I don't think he wants to be in his room all the time but he is loud and boisterous and does a lot of talking when he is in the room with everyone else. It is annoying most of the time but when he is not talking, he has his iPad playing very loud so we have to tell him to turn it down. He ends up back in his room. We have tried to be more tolerant of it but he keeps sneaking the volume louder and louder, his and the iPad, so we have to say something and then he leaves. He refuses to wear headphones and we have bought him countless pairs to try to get him to use them but he never does.

He did have a play date a couple of weeks ago. A bunch of kids were getting together at one of their houses and they invited him over to play. I think they might have all been younger than him but I couldn't be sure. He had me drop him off and drive away before I got to see them. They did all call his name and said they had been waiting for him when he arrived. The seemed genuinely happy he was there, like he was their leader or something. But I only had a few seconds to take it all in as he was waving me away. On a weird note, I could have sworn they called him Paul when he arrived but he says they did not so I must have been mistaken. He said they were going to do it again but it hasn't happened yet as far as I know. He might have been busy when they got together again or they just haven't planned another. With all the people in our house, we can't really invite them over here but I think he would like that if we did. We will see how everything goes in the near future.

Maeghan and Juanita's trip to Tasmania is off and on. The Covid still might get it and right now, they are still banned from going to Tasmania but they are going to make a new decision after Easter so hopefully, they remove the restrictions. It will be good for everyone I think, even though they will probably be broke when they get there. The government decided to take all my income, or unemployment payments and the Covid bonuses ended last week, so I am living on less than minimum wage until I can go back to work. I think I went into that in too much detail last time but the new addition is that the government has decided I owe them money and has stopped my payments until I can convince them they are wrong. That will take weeks I am sure. But another tale that will not be told.

It is Easter morning and I am tired. Everyone will be waking up soon and I will need to feed them. I should get going and find some time to relax before all that happens. Have I ever mentioned that Easter seems to be a very big deal over here. I am not sure it is that way in other places or if it is just my upbringing versus Juanita's family but they seem to make a very big deal about it over here. Presents and chocolate and other things. Not so much on the food but since I do the cooking, maybe that is my fault as I do not do or plan a big meal for Easter. They might have done that before I got here but for now, it is just chocolates and presents on Easter morning. It seems strange to me.

I'll be going now.

Until next time

MWNews 163

Another month, another lockdown. That's right, we seem to be in lockdown again. Three days this time with the chance for it to go longer. And right before Easter. Not good timing. 

What makes it worse is that I was actually in one of the places where one of the positive tested people were said to be. No idea what time they were there but I was at the shop that day so I am supposed to be in a 14 day self quarantine. Along with everyone else that lives here. It's fun times all around. 

William is happy as he was supposed to go on Easter break next week but with the lockdown, he has an extra week. He is already bored as we cannot go anywhere and he broke his TV in his room. Not sure how it happened but he said it fell off the desk and cracked the screen. It works, if you don't mind a big blue streak across the screen all the time. Maeghan has now offered him her TV until we can replace his. Not that she was ever watching it, she says it is too hot in her room and the air conditioner does not reach all the way to the back of the house so she spends her time in our bedroom on in the living room at the desk or watching the big TV. I don't think she is happy about it and I did have to prompt her to volunteer to do it, but she says she was already thinking of doing it so it worked out well.

Speaking of other people in the house, I am sure I am not supposed to tell anyone although it is fairly common knowledge now, but we have two extra people living here. One is Leslie, one of the grandkids. He has been here off and on for about three months now. He originally was to live in the garage but we were told that was illegal so he is in with William. Not that he is ever in there. He still spends all his time in the garage watching his TV and playing his games. He only comes out to eat and to beg for cokes. Of course, he has a sneaky way of doing it in that he comes out and asks if we want a coke and makes it for us and then asks if he can have one too. We try to keep it to a minimum but as Juanita, William and Leslie go through about 3 liters a day, I'm not sure if the minimum is all that small. It is sugar free coke so I suppose there is that. I buy a box of 6 one and a half litre bottles a week and it never lasts the whole week. I don't drink it and Maeghan doesn't drink it so it is those three going through it all.

The other person who is living here and where I do not know if we are supposed to tell or not, is Anna, another grandchild. She is about to turn 21. She is pregnant. She was couch surfing with all her friends until we found out she is pregnant, she is three months along I think, so we told her she had to live here. Not so sure for how long but the biggest problem is her dog. A huge dog. I think she claims it to be an American Staphie. I have no idea what that is but he is a very big dog. And he lives inside. He is well behaved and trained but he is just too big to be inside all the time. That is the main reason she does not have a place to live. No one will put up with her dog for very long. She was living with someone but he got mad at her leaving the dog there all the time and kicked her out. Maybe I have that story wrong but she doesn't live there anymore. He is not the father and as far as I know, they were not together in any way. Again, I can't say what the actual living arrangements were but he moved out just after he kicked her out.

The father, or so I am told he is the father, lives with his mother, just got fired from his job and is facing a jail term for violating his parole. That story I have tried to have no opinion on as it will just cause more angst for everyone if I get involved. So she just lives here. She spends a few nights a week over there and leaves the dog here with us, the dog is not allowed at the fathers mothers house. She asks us to drive her over there or come pick her up most of the time but while it is only about 30 minutes away, during peal hour traffic, it is in the heart of where all the traffic is, it takes about an hour and a half to do that during those times. Plus, we are trying to save wear and tear and petrol on the cars so we have to tell her to find some other way a lot of the time. She gets the father to pay for an Uber most of the time. Not sure how much that costs but she refuses to take the bus, which would be door to door for her but she doesn't do it so its at the expense of others to get her around. She will sometimes call her mother to come do it for her but as she lives on the other side of town, that is about a four hour trip here and back. Not that her mother has anything else to do but it is a colossal waste of time and money for her to do it.

Speaking of the mother, we won't speak of the mother. Maybe a few tales for another day but Anna coming to live with us instead of living with her mother caused a great deal of issues. The fact that her mother lives in her car about half the time didn't seem to be an issue. She just felt she was being left out of the baby making process and gave us all kinds of grief about it. But we aren't telling that tale today.

This lockdown is causing a major issue with Maeghan and her trip to Tasmania. Not sure if I have told it or not but Maeghan is, or was, supposed to go over for a wedding in late April. Juanita was going to go with her as I bought her tickets to fly over for our anniversary. I know, not the best of gifts but I don't have a job so it was both practical and thoughtful as Juanita has been trying to find a way to get us all back over there for a visit for a long time. So I was going to send her for a week with Maeghan.

With the lockdown, Tasmania has closed it borders to anyone from our area. Not sure for how long but as of right now, they are not allowed to go. It could change in the next three weeks but we have no way of knowing that now. So they will probably have to change the plans. The big issue with that is the airfares. While I know the airlines will give them vouchers for future flights if they are unable to go, I got a great deal with the flights. Normally, it would cost about $300 each round trip to go from here to there. But with the pandemic supposedly ending, the airlines were giving great deals on flights. I got them both tickets for only $300 total. It was a great deal as the sale fairs fell right in the timeframes of when they were going. If it gets cancelled, they will have the vouchers but they will be required to pay the difference in ticket prices when they plan the trip again. I am sure I will not be able to find the same deal so it is going to cost me more money to do it. And, with my financials at the moment, that might not happen. So we will lose the money. But that is worrying about something I can't do anything about right now. Hopefully, Tasmania will open its borders again and they will be allowed to go with no restrictions. We will have to wait and worry about it until then.

And, speaking of my situation, I am our of work. I am looking at retirement options but that will not happen. I have looked into social security from the US but best case is I can't get it until I am 62, which is in a year. Worst case, I cannot claim it at all as there were some laws or something passed in 2019 that restricts how you can access it from overseas. I have started the process but am waiting for the US government to get back to me. For some strange reason, the US government for the SSA is in the Philippines. I have no idea why they do not have an office in Australia but according to the website, that is the closest site I need to go to, so there is that. I have heard tales of this and the problems people have in getting all the paperwork and documents required to access their social security so I am dreading having that fight with the government. I looked it up several years ago and thought the process was fairly straight forward but with the new laws and the new websites, it is not so easy anymore. Guess that will be a lot of fun.

Juanita says I have to retire but I don't see it as possible. No where near enough money coming in and with all the new people living with us, we just cannot make it on that kind of income. I told my work to give me a few weeks to decide when I can come back but I am a contractor and if I drop off the grid for a while, I am replaced by other people who do not have my problems. As my benefits end this week, I have told them to find me a job. They had one. About four hours work doing some kind of network install but that is not my expertise and Juanita says I can't do it but I have to. Hopefully it gets me back into the game and I can get two or three days work a week. We might be able to make it on that for a while, until I can sort out this social security benefits situation. I am told I have some options over here for pension pay or something but from what I have seen so far, you have to be in dire needs to get that and we are not there yet and to get there, we basically have to be homeless. I'm looking into it but it does not seem hopeful. I do have my super over here but you cannot access your super until you are 67, unless you once again have dire circumstances that require the money early and even then, they only allow $10000 a year to supposedly tide you over. It's a bad situation and not something that belongs in this blog so I will leave it for another time.

Guess I should be going now. I have noticed I didn't mention food at any point so I suppose I just ruined that. I do have some other tales to tell but most of them are about me and my health and I am tired so I will leave it for now. Since we are about to be kicked out of our house for a time while they replace the bathroom, I have no idea what happens when that comes about. I probably forgot to mention the fact that the bathroom is leaking behind the wall in our bedroom and to replace it, we cannot be in that room or maybe not even in the house so I have no idea how that will work out. But we do have a couple of weeks before that actually happens.

I'll be going now.

Talk to you later 

MWNews 162

 I have made a terrible mistake. I started re-reading the old blogs again. Probably take me months to finish them. Most of them make me cry or happy or laugh or something. Remembering all the good times and some of the sad. Guess I will continue.

I did fail to update you all on my current situation. I think I mentioned I had a heart attack but I never went back and gave any details. Seems kind of cruel on my part. I'll try to make up for it now.

Last year, around May to July, I was working a job replacing computers for the main power company in Queensland. I was doing a lot of traveling, going to different power plants each week. The job was basically replacing old and outdated equipment at the sites. About 800 computers all together. Not very complicated work, other than the sites are not very organized and they never knew where any of the computers were. We ended up having to go to each building and check all the computers to see if they needed replacing. The main reason for doing this was the upgrade to Windows 10 as Microsoft was not supporting older versions of the software and since the power plants are critical infrastructure, they had to be replaced before the end of the year. Me and one other guy were tasked with doing this and we gone for about 12 straight weeks. This was in the middle of the COVID crisis so travel was severely restricted. We had to get government approval to do it and had to carry around a letter authorizing us to be there and travel from site to site. But all that is just the background of the story I am telling, just to give you and idea of where the trouble started.

Part of the job was to carry the new computers from one building or floor to another and then bring the old equipment back. We had carts and trolleys to do this but power plant sites are fairly large and not always cart friendly so some physical labor was involved. After a while, I started to notice I was beginning to have the old familiar chest pains. It happened mostly when I was walking up and down stairs but eventually started happening whenever I walked anywhere.

Me being me, I thought I would ignore it until I could finish the contract. It wasn't great money but it was steady money and if I started going to the doctor, they would make me stop. So I continued without reporting it. Near the end, with only one site left and it was local, I decided I had to go see the doctor about it. I made an appointment for some other reason and, as I had not told anyone including Juanita, that I was having the pains, I said I was going in for my back.

Juanita decided she was going with me. Now, at this point, the pain was fairly constant in some form or another. Even standing up and sitting down would cause some pain. When I went into the doctor, Juanita started in on telling him about my back and how I needed pain killers to fix it. Long story, but Juanita's sister Karen has back problems and she takes very strong medication for it every day. I am not a big believer in taking pain medication. Lots of reasons but the main one being I think it masks the pain and lets you do things that you shouldn't, therefor causing you more problems than you had before. Eventually, you become dependent on the pain killers, like Karen is, and you cannot function without them. I don't want to go down that trail as it leads to stronger and stronger medication and eventually, they stop working for you altogether. But that is a tail for another day and is the bane of my existence at the moment. But we are talking about the heart attack.

I had to stop Juanita from telling the tale of my back and discuss with the doctor the real reason for my visit. My angina pains. You can probably know where this leads as Juanita was unaware of the problem and made a fairly big deal of the fact that I had not told her. But I won't go into that either. The doctor said they would run some blood tests and see if they showed anything and to come back when the tests were done. This took about three days.

All of this was taking place in July or early August. I went back in three days and told the doctor that the pain was fairly constant at that time. Not a bad pain but it was there. He hooked me up to a EKG or ECG or whatever it is that has all the electrodes and monitors. He says he saw a problem. Now it was sometime later that they determined maybe there wasn't a problem there but the doctor at the time immediately sent me to the hospital. I was at the doctor by myself at the time, Maeghan was with me but she had gone off shopping. I had to call her and tell her to come back and to call Juanita to come pick her up as I was going to the hospital in an ambulance. Frightening indeed. Juanita ended up walking to the doctors office, we didn't live far at the time, and she got there before the ambulance so I was able to tell her it was just a precaution and they just wanted to run some more tests.

I vaguely remember writing this before but I am not sure. Lost my mind. But I was going to tell of the recent events anyway so I will skip over the next few parts and just go to the present. Suffice it say, the hospital found nothing and I was sent to a cardiologist who I am currently seeing. He tried to do a CT scan but that failed so I was scheduled for a stress test a few weeks ago.

They decided I could not do the real stress test of walking on the treadmill because of my back. They were going to use some kind of drug that made the heart think it was under stress and make it beat faster and faster. It was during this, or immediately after, that I am told I was having a heart attack and to lie down to make it feel better. This was after the actual test while I was sitting up and recovering. I started to feel really strange and dizzy and nauseous. They said I was about to faint so I should lie down. They hooked me back up and did some things but eventually, I started to feel better and was perfectly fine in about 20 minutes. It was then the doctors came in and told me I would be staying for a few days to do an angiogram. They said the test was positive, positive for what I have no idea, but I had some blockage and they had to find where.

It wasn't until the next day that they came in and told me the blood tests indicated that I had had at least one heart attack during the procedure and probably more than one. Of course, I was in the hospital so it was the best place to have one, or so I was told over and over again.

Since I have gone on and on about this, I will just give the results as once again, I am tired of typing. They found a blockage in one of the bypasses I had 15 years ago. I had three, although I am sure they told me four at the time, and while two of them were fine, one of them was blocked. Since it is already a bypass, they cannot bypass it again. I have no idea why but that is what I am told. So my treatment is medication. 14 different medicines I now take everyday. Including the pain tablet I am required to take for my back. I am supposed to take the pain tablet twice a day but we know my feelings on that. 

Of course, I have to lose weight. Always the case no matter what is wrong with you. I go for walks but with my back, that is problematic. I am told to try swimming and I have a pass to the local swimming pool so I will be doing that also. Less impact on my back. It's been a couple of weeks. Been back to the doctor but not the cardiologist yet. I have an appointment tomorrow but I was told in the hospital they were cancelling that one and making a new one in three weeks. I will have to check if I am supposed to go tomorrow or not.

I'm doing ok. I have considered retiring but I can't really afford it and the doctor said I was only 60 so I can't retire. We will see how things go. I am planning on seeing if I can get my social security from America but I have looked into it in the past and it does not seem like an easy process. I have told my work I am part time now. Not that I was ever full time but maybe they can find me something a couple of days a week to keep me busy. Otherwise, I am set to retire in six years. I get my full benefits then and won't have any worries. My only hope is to try to make it that long. On the good side. I am fully funded and if something does happen to me, my family is rich as they get almost double my pension. It's a lot of money.

Now that I have typed forever and said nothing, it is time to go back to bed. Although it is now time to get up to take William to school so I won't be in bed for long. I'd like some breakfast but I am not allowed to eat. I think I will have oatmeal today. I like oatmeal but what I want is an omelet. Don't have time to make one, especially if I put bacon and cheese in it. Then I can sit and have another heart attack in the comfort of my own living room. I got some raison toast yesterday, for Juanita, and that sounds really good if I make french toast out of it. It is the thick sliced kind just made for soaking in egg and then frying. Sounds really good. I will think about it while I am eating my oatmeal. 

Until next time

MWNews 161

You know, I really should go back and read what I have posted. I can't remember what I have said and what I have not.

I want to tell the tale of Maeghan's graduation but I think I have already mentioned that. But it could be I remember telling the story to the school board and I did not say anything here. I will probably end up telling it again and then go back and re-read what I have written but there are no guarantees so we will do what we do and let someone else sort it out.

Let's see, I think I was up to the infamous move to this place. Not that there is a lot to tell but we did get out of the first place and into this one. It's much better and I like it a lot, even if six months into it, Juanita is still moving things and I can never be sure where anything is at any given time. One thing that has bugged me and I should probably not enter it here but I had a $300 portable speaker that I got for free from the phone company for being such a good customer but somehow, it did not make the move. Now I am not saying anything nefarious happened but there was a lot of stuff given away during that time and maybe, just maybe, it was delivered to someone else and not here but I have no proof of that and maybe we have just not unpacked the box it was in but it seems a bit strange that it did not make the trip. William said it had been given away to someone, one of the neighbors I suspect, but he says a lot of things that are not true so I can't really go on that.

But I digress. The new neighbors around here are not really the best. They are all friendly with each other but tend to shun us for some reason. I cannot put anything to specifics but they are not friendly and they sometimes do things that might be suspect but they are not unfriendly so I guess I shouldn't complain. The groundskeeper lives across the drive from us and makes it point to start his work with our house at 7:30 in the morning. Many mornings, he starts up his riding mower and goes around the units doing whatever it is he does. Mostly, mowing our lawn or weed-eating our fence at that time. While it is not illegal for him to do that it is suspect that he always does our place early in the morning. I'm usually awake then anyway but if I wasn't and trying to sleep, I might be annoyed more often.

One of the owners of the complex lives next door to us. We found that out in a round about way but once again, she never talks to us either. I think all the people in our little cul-de-sac are part of the management group but I only know for sure about the one next door. I bring it up because they did some strange things and made some strange rules when we moved in. Can't say what they did before we moved in but the rules started when we arrived. Maybe it is because we complained that the pool was not open when we moved in. I am told it had not been open for a year. This might have been because of COVID but others said it was not open before then either. Now, we rented a place that included a public pool and we mentioned it to the real estate when we saw it was closed. About a month later, it was re-opened but then came the rule that we could no longer park in the visitor parking area next to the pool. Our problem is, neither my van or Juanita's van fits in the garage, so we parked one on the driveway and one in the visitor parking.

You know, I am typing this and I know that I have typed it before. I can't say when and of course, I am not going to look, but if I did not tell this tale earlier, maybe I will finish it some other time. For now I will leave it and move on but if I have not told it, then I guess it will be really suspenseful until I do.

 Ok, I went back and re-read what I had written before. It turns out I have written all this before and I have written what I was going to say about Maeghan's school. So my apologies for making you read it all again, or think you were going to have to read it all again. It was all sounding very familiar to me but I've been sick and my mind has departed so a lot of what I do these days is a repeat of what I have already done. It's a getting old thing I am told. Being old sucks. The doctor keeps telling me I am only sixty but that doesn't make me feel any younger. I feel old, for the first time in my life. Always felt I was younger than I am but now, I'm old and I feel it. Not a lot of fun and as I once saw in a movie or something, what if today is the best day of the rest of your life. Maybe, it only gets worse from here.

I was called away for a while. Not sure where I am or what I was doing. So I will just make it up.

William started work yesterday. He doesn't get paid for it and only does it once a week but it is a real job. It is part of the work from school program or something like that. I can't recall the actual name of the program but he basically goes one day a week to work on getting his CERT II in something or other. I think he is getting one in Fitness or Physical Training or something. CERT II is the precursor to CERT III, which is what Maeghan is getting in TAFE. It all works out somehow and I am too old to try to figure it out. The school pays for the course. They get one free one during tenth or eleventh grade. If they want to do another, they have to pay for it. Since we never know what they are going to offer, he decided this was the one he wanted to do.

He is working at the public pool/public gym in Caboolture. That's the town next to us. We had to go, or I had to go, and look up all places that he wanted to possibility work at. Since he had no idea what that meant, I had to do it for him. Once he had a list, the school would call these places and see if they would do an apprenticeship for him. I think this was the first one I had listed and they only contacted that one. He wants to work in the gym part but they have him doing the pool part and working at the front counter. But it had only been one day so maybe next week he will get to do more. He has to do it once a week for ten weeks. 

He was tired and not wanting to go to school today but we made him go. He didn't do any of the paperwork they wanted him to fill out so we have to do that before he goes next week. I think he likes it, but again, it is only one day so we will see if that continues. It is a first job where he has to listen and do what someone else tells him to do so we will see how he copes with that. I know he does not always listen to his teachers so I don't know how long he will last in a real working condition. I am sure it will be lots of fun.

Maeghan told us she was going to drinks after school today. She insists it is for bubble tea but I am not so sure. I will be sure and question her a lot when she gets home. She is at class today, her only day to actually go to class. Other days of the week, she works online in a virtual meeting. I think they are using ZOOM. Having never used that myself I cannot say what that means but she does it for three hours a day, three days a week. I am not sure what goes on as I never hear her say anything but I can see her picture on the screen and all the other people in her class so they must be doing something. She has decided she works from the couch as it is against the wall and she does not want us walking behind her if she was working at the desk. I think she might get embarrassed if I walked behind her and did crazy things. But where is the fun for me if I can't do that while she is working in class. I started up the coffee grinder the other day while she was in class and she gave me a dirty look. So now I try to do it every time I see her in class.

I suppose I should be going now. I have the only computer now and most of the time, Juanita is on it doing whatever it is she does on here. Play games, Facebook, and YouTube. We don't get a lot of time on the computer anymore. 

But that's enough for me. I am tired and want to go lay down. Remember, I am old now. So I take frequent naps. It's a hobby. I am going to go drink my mango juice and feed the dog. I really should be giving him a bath as he stinks and needs his hair cut soon. But I also need my haircut and my is a whole lot cheaper than getting his cut. We will see who gets it first.

So, until next time

Later