I have noticed that I have used the same picture over and over again in these. I need some new pictures but it gets complicated as I cannot tell what I have copied from my phone to my computer and vice-versa. It is all a jumble of photos, several duplicated in many places so tracking down where any new ones are is difficult. Plus, when picking a picture for these entries, they are very small on the screen and I cannot tell who is in them. It could be the kids and it could be the grandkids, it's hard to tell. And, the kids do not take pictures together anymore. I have to catch them off guard so I can get them both in. I have several of each of them individually but not so many together. I need to find a better way. Consolidating them all in one place would be a good start, but who has time to do that. I have to do a picture by picture comparison to delete the duplicates and that will take years. Best I save my time for the riveting entries I try to keep up with. That way, everyone wins. This picture, I have no idea who is in it but I used it anyway.
I think I have lots to say but can't recall what I have or have not already talked about. Let's start fresh and see what happens.
Kids are back in school, although they keep warning us that it is about to flood again. No rain at all but they keep saying it will so people panic. The other day, we were coming back from some place they sent me to work. It was a Wednesday and Maeghan does not have school on Wednesday. We left William home to catch the bus and the train and then the bus again to get to school and get back home but I knew if no one was there to make him go, he wouldn't. He didn't. But Juanita and Maeghan came with me. They said they would visit some places while I worked. I have no idea what they ended up doing but I was working less than a block from the beach, so they ended up sitting there waiting for me.
Anyway, we were coming back and stopped for petrol. It's been many years and yes, I now say petrol all the time. I rarely say gas, the proper term, anymore and it pains me no end to realise that. But I digress. While we were stopped, we could see in the far distance a huge lightening storm. It was a constant barrage of lightening. We could not see individual flashes but the clouds were flashing all the time and it lasted the whole time we were there, about 20 minutes. It was very far away but towards our house. I think it was way too far as we never did find out where it was even after we got home. They said they had not seen anything at the house. But it was impressive. Constant flashing from one cloud to another. But we did not see rain, again.
A really strange phenomenon has occurred. McDonalds has closed. Yes, I said that right, McDonalds has closed over half its stores. It is hard to find one that is open anymore. They say it is because of the rain and floods and they cannot get supplies through but there are some that are open so are they consolidating their supplies to a few stores or is something else going on. I think the latter. No other stores are closed, only the McDonalds so why can they not get their supplies and everyone else can. But this whole thing is just a phenomenon too strange too believe. McDonalds closed. Never have I seen that before.
Since McDonalds is one of two fast food places in Australia that sells hamburgers, it puts a crimp in getting something fast and cheap on the go. Hungry Jacks, aka Burger King, is the only other option. You can get burgers at other places but they are really inconsistent and normally not part of a chain restaurant. Each of them is their own place and they tend to charge a premium for their burgers. Say in the $12 to $18 range, where McDonalds are only $6 to $8, the same at Hungry Jacks. I always said I hated there being a McDonalds every 5 miles or so but now that they are gone, I might start to miss them. A $2 hamburger is always good, no matter what it tastes like.
Have I ever mentioned my philosophy of ordering McDonalds hamburgers. I think I might. I always tell the kids how to order. They don't like it and they think it is weird but I think it is the best way. You see, a McDonalds hamburger is $2. A cheeseburger is $3.95. So they are charging $1.95 for that slice of cheese. You can order another hamburger for that. I tell them you can get one cheeseburger or two hamburgers. They almost always want the cheeseburger and that is just weird. If you go to the quarter-pounder, it costs $6.50. You can get three hamburgers for that. Once again, to me a no brainer. I'll have the three hamburgers. But the kids want the big burger so they get the quarter-pounder. Weird. It goes for any sandwich you can order, it is always more economical to get the $2 hamburger. So while they are ordering their quarter-pounder or chicken sandwich, I am getting three hamburgers and I steal some their fries so I don't have to order it in a meal. Another price ripoff if you ask me. Yes, ordering everything separately costs more that ordering it in a meal, but basically, you are getting half an order of fries if you order it in a meal and I just don't think that is worth it. I drink water, so I don't need the coke and stolen fries are always better than ones you order for yourself so its a win-win for me. Three hamburgers, some stolen fries, and a bottle of water I filled up at home and I am out of there for $6 total. And if they have an apple pie on sale for a dollar, then I have desert and a meal for $7. I think its got to be the best bargain around. Unless we are driving by Costco, then all bets are off. You cannot beat, anywhere or anytime, a large drink, a huge slice of pizza and a giant hotdog for under $5. That is worth the trip no matter how far you have to drive.
Speaking of Costco, they also have the best price of petrol around. It is always 30 to 40 cents cheaper per litre at Costco. I don't know how they do it but it is well worth the price of an annual membership if only for the savings on petrol. Now that petrol is over $2 a litre, as much as $2.20 at one place I saw, getting it for $1.66 at Costco is a real bargain. I suppose it doesn't work if you do not live near a Costco but still, it would have to be a long way away for it not to be worth the drive.
Let's get off of that and talk some about the floods. I was watching some of the videos people had taken from drones and walking around. They were showing a lot of the places in and around Brisbane that had been flooded. I knew there were places that were bad but unless you have seen it before and after, you can't really tell how much it flooded. There are typical pictures of the streets and houses that were underwater and some of the businesses that were flooded but if you just look at the swollen river, it just looks like a river with a lot of debris in it. You have to know what it looked like before to notice how high the water is and what used to be there but is now underwater. Most of the piers where the water taxis go are gone or were underwater for a while. There are restaurants along the river that when you look at the flood waters, you don't see them but then you think, there used to be a restaurant there and it is gone. I was in someplace where I caught a water taxi up to where Maeghan was at Southbank and that place is now underwater to the second level. The pier and the restaurants on the first floor cannot be seen in the pictures and I was there a couple of days before that. Since it has been a week, most of the water is gone now but they have shown pictures of those places and all the damage that has to be repaired before they can re-open. I don't know if the water taxis are running again, but I doubt it. I know the trains have re-opened where the tracks were flooded but they have to rebuild most of the those docks and piers before the taxis can run. They showed pictures of Southbank, where Maeghan goes to school, and the water came all the way up to where the giant Ferris wheel is, The walkway up to it was underwater although the Ferris wheel itself looked ok. It is built up on a platform but all around it was water. And the worst part is, Brisbane did not get the worst of it. There is more severe flooding north and south of Brisbane and down into NSW (New South Wales). Of course, those places always flood but it get pretty bad down there when it does.
It comes up in my work as the IT department for the job I am doing is located in Lismore, in NSW. Lismore was evacuated and was under water. It might still be but when I have issues with this rollout, I try to call them and there is no one there. One guy has access to everything from his home and he is basically supporting all of this company from his house. He doesn't even answer his phone as being part of Tursa, the company, anymore. He just says hello and does not identify himself. I think he is hoping you will think you have called the wrong number or something will leave him alone.
By the way, I am at the nursing home right now. Just a few days after my last post. I have to leave early from here to go to another job that is an hour away. Hopefully, I can sneak out in a few minutes before they discover some problem I need to fix.
In other home news. Adam is still with us, living in the garage. We have an inspection this week and they will discover someone living there and will probably terminate our lease. So I could be homeless the next time I talk. Leslie lives with us but is with his mother right now. Not sure when he is coming back but he has been gone for a few days. Anna has made herself a home in our extra bedroom. She has bought furniture for it and gotten her mattress off the floor. It looks like she wants to be permanent. Another reason they will cancel our lease. The worst part of Anna being there is she thinks she lives there. To the point that she has a new boyfriend and he has been staying most nights. One more reason we will be kicked out.
So, if you are counting, there are now eight full grown adults living in my house. Plus two dogs and one cat. We signed the lease for just the four of us and only one small dog. There is no way they renew this lease under those arrangements and if they do decide to break the lease, there are no other properties available. We know because we have looked. Everything has gone sky high and they do not accept pets or large families or anything that we have going for us. Plus the rents are double what we pay and for smaller places than what we have. I am fairly upset about it but no one else seems to think it is a problem. Just writing about it now is making me angry enough to go home to night and kick everyone out. That is probably not an option so it will be me that has to leave and since I no longer have a car or any savings, I will be on the street and homeless. Basically, if I stop entering into this for a while, the reason is I don't have any electricity to run my computer. How depressing is that.
Guess I should stop talking about it and do something around here. It is almost noon and I wanted to leave at 1:00. I can hear the boss talking out in the hall. I hope he is not headed here to hand me another problem. I need the day off and came in here to have some peace and quiet from work and home. Doesn't seem that that is going to work out.
I think tomorrow I need to get William signed up for the army. I don't recall if I have mentioned that but they have a camp he can go to that is supposed to show them what it is like to be in the army. To see if they like it or not. I need to send in his application and will have to do that this weekend. I also need to get him his own Medicare card as he is no longer eligible to be on mine. That stopped when he turned 16 and we are just now finding out about it. I am sure he has all the information he needs to do that. So wish me luck. For the army thing, he has to explain why he wants to be in the army and what he is currently doing to prepare himself for it. I don't think he has an answer for either of those questions.
Maeghan wants to meet me at Strathpine mall when I finally go home. I am not sure when or where I will be but it is sort of on the way home. Problem is, it means I cannot finish early, which is what I was hoping but she won't get there until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so I might as well stay at work.
I've talked enough now. The boss went away, so I can't hear him anymore. I didn't tell him I was leaving early but hopefully, he won't notice. Plus, I haven't been feeling well today. So if he does ask, I can tell him that. They don't want any sick people here because, well everyone is old and they don't need to be sick too. No covid again. We have to be tested every time we come in. I was negative again. So whoopee.
I am going to go now. Wish me luck with everything, especially with the inspection and losing my home. It happens next Thursday so we will see what we will see.
Until next time,
Later
No comments:
Post a Comment