Been away for a while. Just working and no time to do anything else. I've been doing this Shine Lawyers job. Rolling out some new computers with new software. Extremely well organized but their process was flawed so the organization didn't help that much. Taking two hours to build a new computer is not really a good option. But that is some technical information and not really appropriate for this blog.
This entry is kind of weird as it is not doing what I expect. I think it might be because I selected two pictures to be in here but then deleted one of them and now it is typing in the middle of the screen and not like a normal entry. I will see what I can do about it but it appears that all lines will be centered in the middle and I don't really care so I probably won't fix it. We will see how it turns out in the final entry.
Never mind, I decided to fix it. Although, now a new line only gives me one line and not a paragraph gap. I'll live with it, and so will you.
Juanita is currently in Tasmania. She decided she had to go and we got some extra money from the government, it's election time and they promise all kinds of things in the campaign, so we used that to send her over there with no notice. An expensive proposition but she wanted to go now so she went. No idea why but I am sure I need to talk to her about it when she gets back. Should be next week, or that is when her return ticket is for.
She doesn't have a car while she is there and she is staying with Karen, who also does not have a car currently. Karen's car broke down and they had to order the parts to fix it and getting parts from anywhere to Tasmania is always a challenge and especially so with the current shipping crisis. No idea when she will get the parts but they are saying a month or more and it has already been over a month so they are stranded at Karen's trailer and their only way to get anywhere is to take a bus. Plus, due to health reasons, they are both unable to walk any distances so taking the bus is a limited option if it does not take them close to where they want to go. All in all, not a good time to go and not a good plan for it but she said she had to go and I told her to take the money and go.
Speaking of the money, it is part of the governments plan to bribe everyone each election to vote for them. The ones in power have the advantage of being able to do it immediately while the opposition can only promise to do it if they get elected. It is a strange thing about politics here that I do not really understand. Not that it is hard to understand but people seem to expect it and if the current government does not give them enough, they vote for the other guys in the hopes that they will. Just strange, and I do not understand why everyone does not see it as a bribe. Of course, it is couched as a tax break or a refund or any number of other things but it is a bribe, plain and simple and everyone seems to be ok with that. Very strange way to run a government but what I am used to is probably not a whole lot better, just different I guess.
William is almost to the point where he is going to quit school. I heard him telling Juanita that he did not want to go anymore. Mainly because he says he has nothing to do when he is there. He says he has done all the assignments and just sits around and talks to his friends or does some other type of work like building something or making something in the shop. He brings things home all the time that he has made. I am not sure why or how this works in school. We did get a letter that said he has not done enough work to allow them to grade him on it but I later found out that everyone got the same letter and I think it is just to encourage the ones who do not want to be there to drop out. It's not that William does not want to be there, he enjoys it or he says he does, but grade 11 is not required here, nor is grade 12, and the school only wants people who are doing the highest level of academic work. William is probably average for his age but he has never been doing the highest level of work so they want to get rid of those people, or that is what I think is behind the letters. I haven't been able to get down there to talk to them directly so I am not sure what their plan is. The school has expanded and is still expanding where they will have double the number of students that they had last year and will probably double again next year. I think they have bitten off more than they can handle and are trying to limit the number of students on campus. They get more recognition and money if they graduate more students with academic honors instead of just someone who just gets by. This school has always been for the students that are too much trouble for other schools. It is good for William and I think he has flourished there. I don't think he could have handled a regular school where they require a higher level of study. But I think the school is trying to change to a more normal school and are going to start discouraging the ones who are too much trouble. I think William just got caught up in that and is not really a problem but if there is any doubt, they are trying to discourage others from going.
I have not talked to William about leaving school yet. He wants to find a job and says he will not leave until he has one but I also think that he is being influenced by Adam. He is spending a lot of time with him lately and they talk about problems at school, or I sometimes overhear them talking about it. I think Adam might be influencing this decision and will be another reason I do not want him there but there is good and bad about it and I will not go into the reasons. I do not want him there but need him there. Way too personal.
Maeghan is thinking about switching to the local TAFE. They teach the classes she wants but she has always wanted to go on her own so she goes to the one in the city. Now, the travel is starting to take its toll on her. It takes an hour for her to get there and then an hour back. If she wants to do anything while she is in town, she doesn't get back home until around 6 at night. In Queensland, 6 at night is almost dark for most of the year because they do not change time for daylight savings. So it starts to get dark around 5:30 and will only get earlier and earlier for the next couple of months. I tell her she cannot be riding her wheelchair at night along the roads. She insists she can stay on the sidewalk the whole way but there are a couple of places where she has to cross the road and I do not want her doing that at night. She bought herself some torches to put on her chair but I still do not like it. She is 19 and can do what she wants but I am not happy if she does that. She can get the bus but the last one is around 6 so she has to leave town early enough to get to it and even then, she has to ride home a couple of blocks from the bus stop. I just do not like thinking about it.
If she decides to go locally, then that problem goes away but it limits her time being on her own and she really wants to be able to do that. Being limited by the wheelchair and public transportation it means she does not have a lot of time to start her own life, which is what she wants. Not that she wants to leave but she does have a point that she does not have a life outside of us. She does not know anyone and the only friends she has are in Tasmania. She does have a friend here but that friend does not live anywhere near us and she only sees her if they have classes together or at the same time and this semester, her friend is not going to school so she has not seen her in a while. She talks to her but its not the same as hanging together,
Both of them should have gone to Tasmania with Juanita and see their only real friends. William still talks to his friend every day either in games or on the phone and Maeghan talks to her friends at least once a week and most of the time three or more times a week. They are not really happy here and that is a problem for all of us. This was the only place we had family to move to from Tasmania but all of them have now moved far away, so it is only us. We have Anna living with us but she is rarely there and not a whole lot of fun when she is. She does not talk to anyone and only talks to her friends on the phone or has one of her many boyfriends over to spend the night. And yes, the implication is all that that says. I will not say anything else about it.
On the good side?, Leslie does not appear to be living with us anymore. He has been with his mother for over a month now and I do not hear any plans for him to come back, although his stuff is still with us and I am sure we are a phone call away or him just showing up and he will be living with us again. We do not hear from Angie much. I have no idea what she is doing or where she is living, probably in her car, but she does not call us unless she wants money and then never answers any messages or phone calls from us. We sort of hear things from Anna but they don't seem to talk either so we do not know what is going on there. I think her boyfriend is still among the living and we would have heard if something had happened but I can't really be sure about that. He is or was very sick and cannot take care of himself anymore and I don't think Angie can take care of him so I would suspect he is in a home or something but there is no way for us to know since Angie never talks to us.
It has been very hard, moving to Brisbane. In hindsight, it was a big mistake, but I don't know if staying in Tasmania would have been any better. I think it would have but being that close to everything and all the reminders it would constantly have provided might have been too much to handle, so moving away seemed to be the best option at the time. But I think she moved away from the problem but the problem is still there and being all alone here is not making it better. I think that is the main reason for her current trip. I have a lot more thoughts on it but I can't go into them at this time.
Let's make this a little more positive, but it is probably too late for that. Too much despair and sadness and loneliness to try to make it all better but I'll give it a shot.
My work is slowing down. I don't have any jobs scheduled for next week so it will give me some time to spend with the kids while Juanita is not here and maybe give us more time when she gets back. I have been very busy for a couple of months and am exhausted when I get home so I usually just go straight to sleep when I get there. While we are going to miss the money, maybe I can make it up in time spent. Problem is, petrol has gone through the roof and we cannot afford to go for lengthy drives. I'll have to figure something out but I think if I make more of an effort, I can make it better.
I found a new market we can go to. It is about an hour out of town but is a little country market that we can go visit. Plus, there is a lot of things we can do in town and maybe we can take the trains to and from some things. Juanita not being able to walk will limit us but I think if I can get everyone out of the house and spend more time together and doing things might make it better. We now know we can take the train to Dreamworld so that will be a few trips we can make. Only ten dollars each to get there and back so that is cheaper than driving. Dreamworld is kind of expensive to go to but we can see how it goes and see if we can do it regularly.
I have tried to save some money from all the work I have had but I think I am going to have to spend it on a new car. Not that I have anywhere near enough to do that but we need another car, one that uses less petrol and one that I can take to work when I need to. That way, Juanita and the kids do not have to stay home all the time when I take the car so maybe that will be better. But we are a year or so away from me having enough to do that and if my work slows down, maybe even longer. So we can spend it on driving trips for now.
I think I have entered enough now. I haven't really said anything and most of it has been depressing but I am at work and I should be doing something. They said they had a lot of problems and I have not been here in a couple of weeks because of the other job but they are back in a semi-lockdown mode here again and I am not sure where I can and cannot go. They said I can go anywhere but I have to put mask and gown on to do it so I am discouraged from travelling around asking people what their problems are. The boss who asked me to come in and fix the problems is now out with Covid so I cannot ask him any of the specifics and when I was here the other day, I was hit with a lot of problems and I could fix none of them. I'll have to find out what he wants me to do about it. They implemented a new 2FA system and it appears most people do not know how to use it or it is not working but as each person I talk to tells me a different story, it will be hard to track down what the actual problem is. I need to go start seeing if I can make any sense of it so I will be closing this entry now. I'd like to make an entry over the weekend but I might not get around to it. I can use the computer since Juanita is not there but I have a lot of other things to do so I might not make it back to this until next week.
So, until next time
Later
No comments:
Post a Comment