MWNews 187

 

Different job today but still with a lot of time to kill. So let's play look like I am busy. Kind of hard to do that with the picture on here but if I type fast, it will scroll off the screen. Then again, that would mean I have a lot to say and I never have a lot to say so we will just string random words together and try to make them seem contagious. Or is controvertible? I can never tell which.

My job today is at Alstom. Doing my part to keep whatever it is they do running. I know they are a transport company but I have not idea what that means. I have been to one of the offices that was at a train depot where they fix trains but the trains that were there were Translink trains. I have no idea what the connection is but I probably should. Since I was only supposed to work here two days, I didn't find out. Now I am working for four days and maybe it would be good if I knew. Guess it doesn't matter to what I am doing, which is nothing.

Might come back to work later but for now, I will try to move on.

We went to Dreamworld on Saturday. Kind of fun, kind of not. Spent way too much money but the kids had a lot of fun. It turns out, Maeghan can get on more and more rides so she is happy. William is now complaining that he is too tall to get on the rides so complains that it hurts when he tries. Maeghan is willing to go by herself, now that she knows she can get on them, so William ends up going with her. They went off on their own for a while and rode some things. I was not there so I didn't get any pictures of it. 

I think the main reason we had to go this past week was they have a market on Fridays and Saturdays. It is at night. Sounds interesting but it is every Friday and Saturday so I don't think there was a rush to go, but we did.

Now when they say market, it is not really a market. They bring in food trucks and a couple of singers and everyone sits around and eats or listens to the music. Nothing else is open. Actually, the gift shop as you are leaving the park is open. Nothing else is. No rides, no shops no restaurants, nothing else. And the food trucks charge a lot of money for food that you can normally get for half the price elsewhere. We see the same trucks at other markets and other places so it is really nothing unique about this so called market. Might be fun if we lived near it and could go more often but it is not a destination place we would go to just for the market. Good thing we got there at 9:00 in the morning so we could spend all day there until the market opened.

Now I have written enough so the picture has scrolled off the screen so no one can tell I am not really working unless they recognize the blogger webpage I am using. But who uses this blogger anymore. If anyone is writing blogs anymore and they are doing it not on their own page, the will certainly not be using Google's blogger to do it. Then again, I don't read other people's blogs so I have no idea what anyone else might or might not be doing. I have heard rumors blogging is making a comeback but I have no evidence of it, nor the desire to go find out. But on with the show.

A bit of work at the moment. I have to go to another site in town and pick up another laptop. Not sure how long it will take but I should go soon so I don't leave it too late and find out I need to be doing stuff here. So I will type for another ten minutes and then go. Maybe no one will notice I am not here.

Of course, going to Dreamworld this past weekend means I did not have a day off. Spent all day there and then had to do shopping on Sunday so I did not get any rest and I have a full week of work this week. Since we were gone all day, everyone was tired on Sunday but I had to do shopping so I had to go by myself. Not a lot of fun but I do manage to spend less when that happens. Just get what we need and not what everyone else wants just because they see it in the aisles. Costco is like that. You see some big box of something and want to try it so you end up spending more money that you had planned. I got out of there for less that $100 and that left enough to get some extra stuff at Wollieworts. So it was a good shopping day. Turns out I forgot to get a couple of things and I need more milk and bread but I mostly got what we needed. Even the dog got food. Not the special food he likes but that is one of the things I forgot. Maybe next time.

Speaking of the dog, we think he has a yeast infection. Kind of strange but when I read about it, he has all the symptoms and we have thought it was fleas all this time. He does have a lot of fleas and we are still treating him for that but his behaviour seems to indicate a yeast infection. I won't go into it, but the treatment is to see a vet, which is not going to happen any time soon. The home remedy is to wash them with vinegar. Don't ask me why, I just read these things and don't have to understand them. We suspect the yeast infection because Juanita read somewhere that there was some special dog food we could give the dog to prevent the dogs from scratching themselves all the time. Not really what the article was about but let's pretend it was. I dismissed the idea but then read up on yeast infections in dogs and turns out, he has all the symptoms. So we are going to try to vinegar thing and also try to go to a real pet store to see if they have the special food. Hopefully, we can get it cleared up. I know he will be happy about it. And, of course, I am talking about our dog, the little one, and not the big dog. I won't go into his problems other than to say the owner insists on making him wear clothes all the time because she thinks he is cold. The dog is miserable with it on and he does not really fit through the doggy door as the clothes catch on the sides but having taken it off of him once, the owner insists we leave it on. I won't go into that. You might wonder how I know the dog is miserable all the time with it on and being old and decrepit I am going to tell you. The dog told me. There I said it. Now we can move on.

Probably should go now. I was just asked to do some work by one of the directors. I didn't recognize him at first but he has an accent, not sure where from, and he asked me if I could help him with something. Kind of surprised me as I do not know anyone up here so how did he know to come to me. But I left for a couple of minutes and should now probably go to the other site to pick up the laptop. I just thought of the fact that with the additional laptop, I will be carrying a whole lot of stuff home and my laptop bag is already way too heavy with two computers and all the accompanying stuff I carry around. Now I will have another box with another computer in it so it will be some trip home carrying all that. But I digress and I have to go so I can get back. If this becomes incoherent, blame it on that. If I can think of another excuse for all the other incoherent things, I will use them some other time.

I am back. Trying to figure out how I am going to carry all this to the train. It will not be a fun trip.

At Dreamworld, I rode two rides. Both of which required me to sit there and make funny comments. I think I did fairly well. We rode the cars. William drove with me and Maeghan drove with Juanita. I screamed the whole way so everyone would know that William can't drive. He was not impressed. The issue is with these cars, you cannot actually do anything to change where or how they go. They are locked to a track and they do automatic shutoff if you go to fast or get too close to the other cars. Not that we did either. William steered for a while, until he realized that he was having no effect on where the car was going. A bit of amusement that he took so long to figure that out. I got a goofy picture at the picture taking place in the track. Maybe someone will post it somewhere. I have no social media so I don't know if they go anywhere or not.

We also rode the Sky Flying thing twice. It is a really good ride. Very surprising for this park as they usually have cheaper versions of this type of thing at all the parks. The one at Movie World is just barely passable. You sit too far from the screen to make it believable. But the one at Dreamworld is great. Very very scary, especially at the beginning. You start off sky diving. They take the seats up and then tilt them forward and you are looking straight down so if you are scared of heights, it is terrifying. Feels like you are actually going to fall. I was terrified. But that's not the worst part. After that, you go to the Gold Coast and fly over some of the buildings. The sky diving is really high but when you go over the buildings, it seems more real and I have to close my eyes. It is scary. 

After that, you go through several scenarios where you are on a boat, or above a boat, hang gliding and a really good scene of doing parachute flying. Can't recall what that is called but it is where you wear a flying suit and fly close to the sides of a mountain so it makes your go really fast. I thought of the name and then someone walked by and seemed to want me and now I have forgotten it again. but you probably know what I mean.

Then you go on a helicopter and through a canyon and you end up flying through a waterfall and end up in Sydney during a fireworks show. They shake the seats so it feels like the explosions are really close to you but then it ends and the show if over. Fairly short of well worth it. A good show and worth the price of admission. The only drawback is the beginning safety film, which is funny in itself but before they show it, they do a three or four minute we are the caretakers of the land video. That's where they have aboriginal people tells us about the flying bird that is out there watching over us and taking care of us and if we would follow the bird, everything would be ok like it used to be when they were the only ones in Australia. I don't have a problem with the message but I get tired of being told how much better things were and the invaders came and destroyed it all. I didn't do any of that and things were not better in the past. People only lived to be 30 and there were lots of things that were wrong back then. It was not the paradise they seem to think it was. But not appropriate for this blog. I just get tired of hearing it all the time before you can do anything. You have to acknowledge the caretakers of the land before we got here.

After that, the kids went off to do their thing on the rides. One of them, they couldn't get on but they rode a few more that we didn't get to last time. One thing about Dreamworld is that it seems about a quarter of the rides are down each time we go. It is different rides each time but there are always five or six of them that are broken or under maintenance. It is very frustrating and I wrote them a letter about it. Or I answered their survey they sent me telling me that I was disappointed. Probably never hear from them again but it passed the time while we waiting for the kids. This time, most of the kids area was down. We like to ride the merry go round but it was broken or down. There is also a shop in that area that Juanita likes to go to but since the rides were down, the shop was closed.

They did have the motorcycle ride up and running this time. This is the ride where it broke down while William was on it several years ago. He had to sit there for over an hour while they tried to fix it and then he had to walk down and back to the gate when they could not. So now, he refuses to ride it again. It is one that Maeghan could probably ride so it would have been good but he refused and Maeghan did not want to wait in line by herself. Mainly because there is a chance she will not be allowed to go on it when she gets to the front of the line because the seat belt of lap bar won't fit. It has happened a few times that she gets all the way to the front and then cannot get on. So they skipped that one.

I suppose I have written too much this time. I was going to say what our next adventure was going to be, go to a really popular market during the holidays and also going back to Dreamworld for winter fest, but I am tired now and I need to wander around to see if I can find something to do. The big boss that came by earlier keeps walking by where I am and I am not sure if he wants something or not or is just checking up on me. I should probably do something more worky. 

So until next time,

Later

MWNews 186

A recent picture, taken yesterday. That's something you don't see very often. Not a good picture but the only one with both of them in it and sort of facing the camera. It's a win/win.

Well, back at work, hating it. Been working everyday this week and will be working everyday next week. Then nothing. So which should I be looking forward to the most. Would love to have a day off but really hate the jobs I have been doing. It is what it is.

We went to Maeghan's art show last night. I was actually working but they were both in the city so I left work for a while and went and saw the art. I decided to walk there from where I was but it meant I had to cross the river and the bridge I crossed on was very steep up one side and back down the other. It was a mistake as I exhausted myself before I could even get to there they were. 

Maeghan has some really good pieces at the show. She did a painting that was on one wall. She had a clay model of her hands that she hand turned into a forest scene and they were two trees with a bridge between them. And her best work, or her best might have been the painting, but the other one was her tile which was kind of a three dimensional tile with a flower and stars on it. It was not all of her work but it is the pieces they decided to put into the show. The show was her whole class and their works and they had some really good pieces. The bigger part of the show was the for the senior classes, the ones who had been doing it a while. They had several rooms full of stuff. I was too tired to walk around and look at it so I only saw a few things. 

One thing they do at these shows, I was told, is they have artists actually do paintings during the show. I told about this phenomenon for the last art show we went too, but they were doing the same thing at this one. The only difference was the paintings were smaller and they had three people working on each one. And they only had an hour and a half to finish. I am not sure what the purpose of this exercise is, but they do seem to enjoy it and with my limited experience in going to art shows, I am not sure how often it actually happens.

I had not eaten all day so we decided to leave the show so I could eat and then go back to work. The show was on until much later so they were going to stay and wait for me to finish. Turns out, I did not have time to eat, so I ordered something real quick and raced back to work to eat it there. I didn't get to spend much time with Maeghan at her show and what time I was there, I was exhausted and just sat on a bench and looked at what I could see. Not the big showing I'm sure Maeghan had planned but I did what I could and stayed as long as I could. We just need to plan these things for a time when I do not have to race straight from work to see them.

They just turned what I can only assume is a giant generator behind me. It is very loud and I don't understand how they can do that at a place where there are people trying to sleep. It is really annoying but I will fight through it and continue to type. I can't actually see it but it is in the court yard behind the office I am working in.

Tomorrow, we are planning on going to Dreamworld. I would much rather not go but we have the tickets and we have only used the once so we need to start going more often. I am exhausted and not really up to the trip, plus it will cost a fortune but they tell me they will not spend money. It's a whole bunch of money just to drive there and back but Juanita is set on going so we are going.

Winterfest starts next week at Dreamworld. They have several winter things to do, ice skating, tobogganing, and ice sculptures. It is fun I think. I think we went to it many many years ago but that might have been somewhere else. I wanted to postpone our trip until next week but I am told we will have to go twice. William is on holidays from school, although I am not sure how you take a holiday from something you are not doing. Maeghan has finished her classes, so we are all free to go anytime. I do have to work during the week but if I can get a day off, we will go then, otherwise, we will have to wait for the weekends.

The weather has been nice for a few days. No rain and the temperature is nice. It should be a good trip even if I have to sit and wait for everyone all the time. I'll enjoy taking a nap, I am sure. I'm sure Maeghan will try some rides again. I look forward to riding the sky ride thing where they show you pictures in front of you and it feels like you are flying. I don't think we can talk Juanita into going on it but does not move a lot and is not that scary so we might. I am hoping for a good mood from everyone. That doesn't happen a lot lately. I am not sure what we are planning for the dogs but leaving them home alone has not been good lately. Even if we leave them outside, which is what normally happens, they have starting tearing everything up they can get their paws on. Doesn't matter what it is, if they can reach it, they will chew it up and destroy it, to the point that most of the time, we cannot recognize what it was before they tore it up. The big dog is the problem. The little dog would rarely chew things to oblivion and would not climb up onto things to get them. Since the big dog is there, he can reach more things and he destroys things that he chews. Every couple of days, we found a new toy they had shredded all over the back yard. I keep telling them to stop buying them but they insist on replacing every one that he chews up.

The generator has stopped but now I have a headache from listening to it. I think I might wander over and get a coffee before they close. The coffee shop here closes at 12:30, when it actually opens, so if I don't get there early, it is usually closed by the time I think about it. Since it is 11:30 now, I should rush over there. I had a some nice toast last time but they do not normally have raisin toast so I get a cake of something. I hope they have the toast again, I don't really feel like something sweet. I will be back shortly to finish this, assuming I have anything more to say. Maybe I will talk about having to pee all the time lately and having to type real fast right now because I need to go and I can't wait long anymore before I have to go. Then again, maybe not.

Ok, I came back. Had coffee and raison toast. It was good. Now I am exhausted from walking the 100 yards there and back. But I soldier on. I am listening to a podcast about pooping. Not sure why. I think it is talking about some disease that might be going to come to everyone but I am not sure yet. Soon I am going to have to go into the forbidden zone and fix a computer, although from the sounds of it, it can't be fixed but lets send me in there and expose me to the plague so we can make sure one of the computers is working.

William tells us he went to the class where they got their white cards. I haven't seen it and when I got mine, I got it the same day I took the class but maybe the school is different. I don't think he went to school that day but he says he did and took the class and got the card. We will have to wait and see if it shows up in the mail. The white card is important for later jobs he might want to get. I think I have gone into it many times before so I will not do it this time. It just allows him to work in building sites.

Juanita and I got our blue cards that allows us to watch over children. The the next day, we got a letter saying we were not allowed to watch kids. Not sure what to make of that but I am not really concerned about it. There was a lot of information in the letter that was untrue but a lot that was so I am not going to say anything. It means we cannot do foster care, or I think that is what it means. It could just mean they found some things that they say Juanita did in the past with her kids and they say that does not allow her to watch kids today, but she has done it before so I am not sure what it means. I am too old to start doing that anyway and I am certainly too old to fight it. I don't care about it that much. I have a job so I don't need the headache of watching more kids at home. But, we do have our blue cards, so maybe that will mean something in the future.

Maeghan went and applied for her new classes in Caboolture. She has found a way to get to class faster. Turns out the school has its own bus and it will pick her up from the train station so that cuts the last 20 minutes of her trip where she was going to have to take her wheelchair from the station to the school. So, basically, she has to get to the train station, either by bus or wheelchair it takes about the same amount of time. Take the train one stop up the road and then the bus to the school. Most of it will be a timing issue about meeting the bus and train on time. It shouldn't be too much of a problem but we will see once she starts.

I am going to have to go now. I need to go look at this computer and then try to leave. I am sure I will have much more to say about the trip to Dreamworld, so look forward to it. It's a tease. Besides, Juanita is trying to get us kicked out of our house. She is complaining to the real estate about things. The issue is, if she complains too much, they will enforce the no other adults living in our house and will terminate the lease. So I have to try to head that crisis off and I don't really feel like it. Typing in here is not making it better or solving the problem. But I think that will be all for now.

Until next time,

Later

 

MWNews 185

I really regret that last entry. Things I should never have written in here and I have seriously thought about deleting it. But maybe it wasn't so bad. It was just so negative and complaining. I didn't like it, even while I was writing it. But I finished and it is there so someone has to read it before it actually matters to anyone. That's not going to happen so there it is.

I am at work again. I just had to go into the forbidden zone. Two sections of this complex are in lockdown. Doesn't mean you are not allowed in but you are not allowed unless it is important or someone is desperate enough to ignore the rules and send you in anyway. Apparently, they are that desperate.

Problem was that two new phones were not working. I have no idea why or what has been done to set them up but they think I can fix it, so they sent me in. Full gown, gloves, hat, facemask, eye covers, and sprayed with weed killer before you enter. And I had to go to two separate rooms, so had to change after each one so as not to contaminate the next one. Lots of people asking why I am there and agreeing with me that this was not an emergency but what am I supposed to do. So I waded in, fighting viruses all around me. Having to dodge wayward patients who are just happy to see someone and want you to stay. I would not have been surprised to see someone eating brains. It is like a war zone, or something akin to an apocalypse. And you will all be proud to know that I typed in apocalypse correctly the first time and did not need spell check to fix it. 

So now I am free, able to write in this here blog another time. Maybe not tomorrow when I get the zombie disease or something close to it but for now, fifteen minutes after I have left there, I am free to continue with my therapy. Although, I do now have a headache. No way could it be related.

We went to a market last week. Big mistake or bad planning, not sure which. I decided we would take the dogs as they never get out of the house. Being their first time going anywhere in months, they were a bit excited. Hard to handle and when I say hard to handle, think 50 pounds of dog muscle pulling you along at breakneck speed. That dog is strong. Juanita couldn't handle it and she would not let me take the big dog because I am crippled so she spent the time yelling at the dogs and anyone else who was in her line of sight. It got too bad, so I took the big dog but she didn't have a lot more luck with the little dog as he is in constant motion trying to see everything. So we spent the time yelling at, chasing and generally regretting having the dogs with us. 

It was a good idea, but the dogs are not disciplined enough to have both at the same time so I doubt if we will be doing it again. And I plan on going to another market this week or next so we will have to decide if we take one dog or none at all. I can only imagine the issue when we try to take only one dog. That will be a scene that no one wants to be a part of, so it will probably be no dogs. But the dogs had such a good time and this is something they would love doing everyday if they could. We will have to wait and see.

The market itself was ok. Nothing really fancy about it and most of it was food stalls, or we think it was all food stalls as there are a number of buildings with things in them but we were not allowed to enter with the dogs in tow so we had to skip them. Not very big but they had a lot of kids roaming around signing and dancing and a center stage area where there was some singing and dancing going on. Might have been a good time but we will have to go back to find out if it was or not.

We tried to get coffee when we got there, but could not go into the coffee area with the dogs. We found a table on the outside so I left everyone there so I could go get something. The first place I went to required cash. I don't carry cash anymore, so I went to the next one. They had a half hour wait for things so I decided not to wait in that line. I could have gone further along but I decided to get some cash at the ATM. $3.50 to take cash out of the machine. I can see how they get away with it as it is the only machine there and lots of the places only take cash but I was close to deciding we didn't need coffee. But I got some cash anyway, most of which I still have in my wallet. 

Went back the first place I had stopped at, got some coffee and a waffle for the kids to split. It had strawberries and chocolate on it, or what passes for chocolate as it was actually Nutella.  I didn't get the cream, $2.50 extra, or the ice cream, in a weird twist only $2.00 extra, because by the time I got it back to the where we were sitting, it would have melted and no one likes melty ice cream or cream. Maybe that's just me, but I'll go with no one likes that. Did catch a break though as they only had one cup of coffee left, I have no idea how that works, so I told them to split it between two cups and we would just drink it weak. They didn't charge me for it so I go out for only $6.00 for the waffle and strawberries. A bargain at anytime.

Later on, we got some fresh made donuts. And when I say fresh made, they take them out of the fryer and hand them to you. Someone needs to explain to them that the fryer makes them hot but they were selling a lot of them so no one seemed to care about the burns they were getting from handling freshly cooked donuts. And they were selling a lot of them. They were cooking two dozen at a time but as soon as one lot came out, it was gone before the next lot had even started to cook. Took about ten minutes to get my order of six. Good donuts, a bit greasy, but good none the less. They had cinnamon sugar on them and it made quite a mess but we ate them all while sitting on a bench. 

William went off to buy a knife. Don't know how it happened, but Adam sent him a message about something and William went off to buy some knife for him. William said he wanted one but we did not buy it. He was disappointed.

Maeghan bought something, I don't seem to recall what, but it was silly and she bought it with her own money so now she has more things to find a place to put. Her room had overflowed into the dining room now and most of the cabinets and table are covered with her stuff. Mostly those little dolls, not sure what they are called. She keeps them in the boxes and tells us they will be valuable some day. I have my doubts. Think beanie babies. She has about 50 of them now, if not more. All from different shows and movies. I wish I could think of what they are called but I can't and cannot be bothered to look it up so maybe I will recall before I end this and add it then or I will just leave you hanging.

It has gotten very, very quiet here. I am afraid to walk out the door and see what is going on. They could have evacuated and forgot I was in here so now I am left with all the zombies. I hope not. I am getting more and more of a headache but I think it is because I am looking down at this screen and need to look up every once and a while. I'll keep typing until they come and get me, so wish me luck and hope the apocalypse has not started.

Now I remember why I am getting the headache. This mask they make me wear pulls on my neck and the back of my head. It is too small so I get a lot of pressure from it. It gives me headaches. I have taken it off so now I am breathing the zombie air. I expect to lose the ability to type at any moment. Just hope I remain conscience enough to press submit before I go. 

I was hoping to have a few days off. Now, my days off are filled with driving to far away places to do menial tasks. Guess it is supposed to pay the bills. It doesn't. I think I have Monday off, so that means they still have a few hours to discover that and find something else for me to do. I am tired of working. It's been too long doing this and I need another job where I can just sit and code or something. Having to do a different job each day, not knowing what to expect or what it is I will be doing is a drain on my relatively festive behavior. I am an entertainer without anyone to entertain. I think I might go entertain the zombies. A lot of them don't speak English, so it might present a problem. But since I barely speak English, this could work out well. I am certainly not going back into the war zone though. That's enough risk taking for one day.

Did I mention I fell off a ladder the other day. Not a ladder but the back of a chair. I had to climb up to reach a router or something and lost my balance stepping off of it and fell about six feet to the floor. I think I might have broken something, but since I have a lot of broken things, it is hard to tell if I have a new one or not. I was talking on the phone at the time and the guy on the other end asked if I was ok. I said no, so he asked me to have another look. I was glad to do it.

While I was falling, I was thinking if I could really get hurt this time. As you all know, I am a born athlete, it's true, so I managed to avoid most of the calamity that could have happened but on the way down, I kept thinking, maybe I will not be able to catch myself or land in an unawkward position this time. I thought this might be it. I might land on my head or break my back or something and then I would just be waiting for the end in a hospital bed for the rest of my life. Depressing thoughts on the way down. But I stuck the landing and managed to land of one foot and fall onto the other leg so not too much damage, or not too much so far. I might have done something that is secretly waiting to flare up and take me down, but for now, I am fine. If only this nagging headache would go away.

William has all but quit school. Can't say I blame him but he seems to have a rosy picture of what his life will be like without school that is going to come crashing down on him fairly soon. He thinks everything will be great and he will have lots of money and all the free time in the world to stay at home and play games. Can't persuade him otherwise, I can only try to be there when he falls. He will have to be very lucky to find a good job. There are lots of jobs out there but none with a career, unless he can get into construction or something that he might not hate as much as everyone else does. I tell him it is hard and it will get much much harder so staying in school for as long as possible is preferable but I can't make him go. I am old and diseased and can no long influence him in any way. He is on his own and I can just try to help where I can.

Maeghan has finished her school. They have some kind of art showing next week but she no longer goes to class. Not sure if the class she took was worth it but she seemed to enjoy it so it was good for her. I think she is going out today to sign up for the next semester at the local campus. She has found out that it will take an hour for her to get there, almost the same amount of time it takes to go into the city but I keep telling her being closer to home will be better as we can save her some time by picking her up a lot quicker if she wants us to. The campus if across town from us and it takes two busses and a long walk to get to it from our house. I don't know why there is not a direct bus to it. Might be we have not found it yet but the Translink site tells her it takes an hour no matter how she gets there. It is only a 15 minute drive but much longer on the bus. If she decides to sign up today, it will be good. Getting too dark too early for her to keep going into town and we have to drive an hour to pick her up there. It's better all around if she stays local.

I guess I have to go now. This headache is horrendous. Makes me want to fall down and sleep. Maybe that is just the getting up at 02:00 every morning. I have no idea why, but that is when I am waking up lately. I sit in bed and try to go back to sleep but eventually end up getting up around 3:00 or 3:30. I then make me some breakfast and sit and fall asleep watching TV, right around the time I am supposed to be getting up for work so I don't really get to sleep anymore. A good thing about it is it is my alone time. I can make what I want, watch what I want and don't have to worry about anyone else interrupting me or wanting me to do something for them. So, I don't really mind the early mornings but it does mean I start to fall asleep around 8:00 at night and as much as I try to stay awake, I eventually end up in bed around 9:00. If I am working, I get home from work, lay in bed and about half the time, fall asleep and don't wake up, so I don't get to see to talk to anyone before bed or in the morning or when I get home. Only on the weekends or when I don't have work. It's not bad but it is not good either. I do enjoy the mornings on my own though, until everyone else gets up and wants me to fix them breakfast. I rarely do it anymore but I know they are all waiting for me to make them something. I feel guilty all the time, but I am well fed, so it evens out.

 I typed some things in and hit a key and all of it disappeared. Not sure what it was I had typed but I think there was a whole paragraph that just disappeared. Very strange but I think that means it is time to end this and start preparing to go home. Maybe I can sneak out early, before the 2:00 rush to add all kinds of things to me that need to be done today so I end up working until 5:00 when I was prepared to go at 3:00. Leaving at 2:00 seems to be a good option today.

As I am reaching for the submit key, I hear feet shuffling outside my door. It's either the zombies or more work. I guess you have to wait until you see another entry to find out which it was.

So until next time,

Later

PopVinyls

MWNews 184

 

Once again, not going to have time to do this but I can get started. Not a lot to update, unless you count the increase in everything that is going to make the next few years a potential problem. Not sure how much I will or should get into it so lets say I did and move on.

Juanita and the kids have made plans to go to Tasmania for Christmas. I have to be the bad guy and say it is not going to happen. It could, but there is no way I think we should be spending that kind of money for a trip when we have so much else that needs to be done. The biggest issue is the cost of traveling. We cannot take the plane as we will have no transportation when we get there and mainly, we will not have a powered wheelchair for Maeghan. If we are willing to get a normal wheelchair, then we might consider it.

Driving is out of the question. First, I don't think the car will take that kind of trip. By then, it will have 200,000 kilometers on it and it is not holding up as it is. Not that there is anything wrong with the car but it is starting to make some noises that it did not used to make. The breaks might need work and possibly some other essential things. Since we only have the one car, anything that happens to this one will leave us stranded with no way to carry Maeghan's wheelchair anywhere. That is one of the causes of the problems, her wheelchair is so heavy and we carry it around in this car everywhere. It does wear on the brakes and the transmission and the shocks and all kinds of other things, so we need to be careful with how we use it from now on. That is one of the things we need to save our money for, another car.

The biggest problem with going to Tasmania is the cost to drive there. Petrol is right around $2.00 a litre. It is expected to go to about $2.50 a litre when the government drops its subsidies in September. Too much to go into but during the last election, they halved the excise tax on petrol to lower the costs. It was supposed to drop the price of petrol by 22 cents but of course, the petrol companies did nothing and the price remained the same. But you can be sure, when the price brake ends, they will be sure to raise the price by the 22 cents it was supposed to go down and the price is expected to keep going up before then anyway, so $2.50 is the low end of what they are projecting by the end of the year. 

That makes petrol for a driving trip to be right around $1200, if not more. $400 there and $400 back, plus the driving while we are there and the price in Tasmania is already $2.50 a litre. So driving is not really an option. Maybe the government will continue the discount or maybe they will come up with something else, but I doubt they can sustain this kind of revenue loss they are experiencing now. Prices have to go up soon, it is just a question of how much and how soon.

The boat price has also gone up and is even more during the holidays. Maybe $1500 for us to take the boat. That's comparable to plane tickets but that leaves us without a car. Can we rent one for cheaper than the petrol price. Probably, but then we are without Maeghan's wheelchair and we will have to pay for accommodation which we will not have to do if we had our car and take camping equipment. Not that I want to camp but it would be cheaper than motel rooms.

All and all, an expensive trip that we just do not have the money for if we are going to try to save up for a new car, which we need. Plus, on top of all that, our rent has gone up, or will as of August. $50 a week. That's a big jump. Juanita has already told our boarders that they have to pay more. I am not sure they will and if we lose them, we can no longer afford to live there. I think they are going to move out, possibly move in together but as they tend to hate each other most of the time, that probably won't happen. Anna will move in with her boyfriend when he comes back from overseas. No telling when that will happen and he does not have a place of his own, but they might pool their resources and find a place. I will be glad to see Adam go but we cannot afford to live without his rent, so I tolerate it.

On top of all this, or in addition to this, William is dead set against going back to school next semester. He says he will find a job. Not that he has actually looked for a job but he says he will find one soon. It does mean he can pay rent like the others but we get a support payment for him which is more than what he would be able to pay in rent, so we will lose money when that happens. It has to happen at some point but when it does, I am not sure what we can do. William is planning on moving in with his friends but there is no way he is ready to do that. He might try it but I know it will not last long and he will be back, so we have to maintain a room for him when he does. 

Maybe everything will work out. I really do not want the kids to move out but it has to happen sometime. I am not well enough to keep taking care of them and Juanita is no longer capable of it. I tell them I have ten more years, or eight now, for them to get settled and on their own before they will have to start taking care of me. It's all a big joke but I don't think they realise just how serious I am about it. I cannot keep up this pace for much longer. I work too much doing jobs that I am not physically capable of and it cannot continue that way. I have to take a break but since I am sole support for this family, I can't. Even this trip they are planning, even if we can figure out a way to pay for it, it means I will be off work for however long we are gone and we will receive no income during that time. I little pay from the government but no where near enough to live on and certainly no where near enough to support a trip and we have to come back. If I am gone, I get replaced, and there is no guarantee there will be work for me when I come back. I need a break. When I have a day off, I have to spend it taking care of or entertaining everyone. I have to cook for them, and I have to do all the things around the house that need doing and then I have to sleep, which I only do for about 4 hours a night. I am tired. I want to be able to turn it off. I want to be able to not be responsible for everyone and not be the sole provider of support to all these people. I need a break.

Did I whine enough yet. Have I made this so much of a burden that even if anyone ever reads this, it will be long after I am gone and it will make no difference one way or another. I suppose I have to move on and keep going. It's my lot in life. Not a lot but it's a life.

Maeghan is almost finished with her art class. She says she is going to take classes for her diploma in child services next time. She will be going to school in Caboolture so it will be much closer. She has started complaining about not having any friends but I am hoping with her being closer to home, she can find some friends at school that she can hang around with. Her friends in town are only there when she is in class. She cannot stay and hang out with them since it will be dark when she gets home and she is not allowed to ride her chair around in the dark. I don't care what she has to say about it, she will not be riding down the streets in her chair after dark. I don't need that kind of worry. So, even if she wants to hang around with the people she goes to school with, she can't since it is so far from home. I am hoping it will be better being closer. 

Her diploma will get her the chance to work in the office part of child care, so she does not have to spend all her time standing and helping the children. Or so that is what she says she can do. I am all for it. I am not sure she likes working with the children as much as she used to but if she can do this, she will have some time with the kids and time away from them to do other work. I don't really know how it all works but I am hoping if works out for her. She seems happy to do it, or resigned to do it. Not sure which it is at this point but it will be a job and having a diploma will help, even if she doesn't do child care.

I told William about an opportunity to do council work through the school but he said no way. He said he wants to get paid and this is work experience type thing so he doesn't get paid. I told him it would look good on his resume but he still said no. He has no idea what it takes to get a job but maybe I am wrong and he can find work doing something, even if he doesn't like it.

It is going to be a hard beginning for both of them. Me losing my job four years ago destroyed any help I was going to be. These cheap jobs I have been doing since then have not allowed me to build any type of savings for them or even a sound footing for them to move out from. It just keeps getting worse. Sad to say, but if I die, they get a lot more money than I can provide them while I am living but even that will not be enough for them to get started in life, plus they would have to do it without me, so that's a drawback. And my super keeps losing money due to that pandemic and other things going on in this country, so while my money for retirement goes down, the insurance payout still goes up. It would be good for me to be able to leave that for them, but I would have to die first, so that is not an option.

I am being asked to do a lot of work now, so I have to be going. Too much work here lately and I am not sure why. This used to be an easy job but now, they expect results, or they actually have problems that I can actually solve so I spend a lot of time doing stupid things but it makes them happy so they keep asking for more. Now, I don't even get a break while I am here. On a good note, actually I have forgotten what a good note is, on another note, the cafe is open. I thought it had closed for good but apparently, it has reopened this week after being closed for a month. So I had a bad cup of coffee but a good piece of cake for lunch. It was cold outside but I managed. Really strange for it to be cold this time of year. I did not think it got cold in Queensland.

Have to go. I leave in a few minutes and of course, they want me to do things before I leave. Always last minute at this place. I think they sit around and plan it that way.

So, until next time

Later