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