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