MWNews 193

 

Hello, hello, hello. How you doing cowboys. Hope the prairie has been good to you. It's a long, hard winter and we have to hold on until the crops thaw. Beasts are about and the sheriff isn't, so watch for poachers. I'm of a mind to go out and catch a turkey. For domestication purposes and not for harvesting.

I think it has been one week since you looked at me, two days since I was on here and four hours since I thought about where I am.

Have I used this picture before. Seems like a natural but I don't remember. Sometimes I use the same picture over and over again and never realise it. I think I once used the same picture three weeks in a row. I suppose if I ever took the time to go back and read this thing, I would notice, but that's not the case so it is all new to me each time. Take the Covid. We all got the covid and we are all still sick a month later, but I am fairly certain I only wrote about it once or twice so if I start drifting into that topic again, it is because I am losing my grip on reality. Something I am looking forward to. Reality, not losing my grip. Seems reality has eluded me for some time now and I need to find out if the dog ate it. It's complicated.

Juanita and Maeghan are sick. We hope it is the flu, we suspect it is still Covid. Not sure what to do about it. Juanita is really sick and getting worse. Maeghan might be getting over it but she is still not going to school because she does not feel well. She has missed a whole week now. She seems better but then she starts to feel bad again and has to go take a nap. Juanita took a six hour nap yesterday. I would think that was actually a sleep but since it was during the day, we called it a nap. She woke up not feeling any better and she is worse this morning. I am at work so I hope she makes it through the day until I get back home. Not that I am much help but that is another story.

William has agreed to go to school but he refuses to do any work while he is there. They called yesterday to say he was refusing to do anything and we were ok with it. We said we were not ok but there wasn't really anyway anyone can force him to do it. They are going to look for other things he can do, like work up at the school or get him an offsite job. None of which will pay him and he says he will not work for free anymore, he only did it once. I am not sure what will happen there. At least now, he actually goes and maybe there are some things he will do while he is there. Otherwise, the decision on whether he continues in school will be made for us. They will kick him out. Normally, they only do that to the really troublesome kids but as the school has doubled in size, they do not have the time anymore to deal with kids who do not want to be there, so they kick them out. 

We went to Costco the other day and they had a sign up that they were hiring. He refused to go up and check on it. He said it was too far from home, it is unless we take him as there are no buses to there. I told him he has to start somewhere and he needs to apply for anything and everything unless he knows what he wants to do and then he needs to apply himself to doing what it takes to do what it is he decides he wants. Until then, apply for everything. We will work out how to get him there if he gets it but in the meantime, he is learning how to apply for and get a job. Something he says we are not teaching him how to do. Having never done it myself, there is not a lot I can teach him about it. I told him to ask the school if they can help but he went back to all the jobs they can get for him are work experience and he does not get paid for that. I cannot convince him that work experience is what he needs so he can get a job that pays him. 

The struggle continues.

Maeghan is trying to do some school work at home but she says she can only do it for about 15 minutes and then she gets tired and gets a headache so she has to stop. I am not sure what she needs to or can be doing but apparently they have some assignments she can do from home. She doesn't go back until next Tuesday, so she has to be better by then. Missing a week of school is probably going to hurt her a lot but she can catch-up I am sure. If not, we will see what happens.

The only thing still lingering with me is this cough. Lots and lots of flehm, especially in the mornings. Might just be old age but it is consistent and painful so I probably need to have it looked at. I wake up with it and cough until my ribs ache and my head is spinning. I have started supressing the cough because once it starts, I feel like I can no longer breath. I think this might not be good because if I suppress it, then I don't cough up the flehm and I think that will get bad for me in the end. Not like they can vacuum it out or something. It just really hurts to cough. 

Sitting around for the past few weeks I have gained some of the weight I had lost. I didn't lose a lot, 5-6 kilos probably, but now I am back to what I was before. Most of it was water weight anyway, something they told me would happen when I got on these water pills. Supposed to get rid of the liquid and in theory, help with the flehm, but all I notice is I go to the toilet all the time and I drink about three times as much water as I used to. And I used to drink a lot of water. In the past, I would go through 4-5 liters of water a day. Now, when I get home, since I cannot drink all the water I can when I am at work, I get home and drink about two litres of water straight away. Two full 750ml bottles straight up. Just tip them up and drink them till they are gone. I then start on a third and drink it in the next half hour or so. I drink a lot of water all at once and continue to drink and be thirsty all day long. Maybe that means something. All I know is I watched Juanita's father in the last few months of his life. He was taking massive amounts of the thing I am taking but they would not let him drink anything that did not have this drug in it. No water, no tea, nothing. He had to drink this thick stuff all the time that supposedly tasted the same but did not feel the same. You could not just drink it down and you had to use a straw to drink it is was so thick. I never, ever want to go through that. I like my water and if drinking water becomes a bad thing for me, I will just die of whatever it is they are trying to prevent. They say it is drowning in your own fluids, but no water? That is not going to happen.

That was lots of fun. Talking about everyone being sick. No one wonder no one actually reads this blog. It is depressing. I will move on to more pleasant topics.

We are going to the EKKA. Tangent!!

I was typing along in this thing and I got an email. I went to read it and all my windows started acting really really weird. Still are. When I click on email, all my other windows close, or minimize. When I click on one, it brings up another different one. When I click on Edge, what I am typing this in, it minimises it. I have to click on an icon that is a remote control software to get back to this. So, I am going to close my computer and see if anything from this is saved and I can get back to it after I go have coffee. If I keep typing, it probably is not me and my computer is under the control of someone else who knows exactly what I know and types things in the exact same way I do. The only real way to tell if it is me is if all the spelling and syntax errors are still here. But maybe they know that too. I guess the only real way to tell will be if this continues to go on in a random, non-sensible way and continues to be both non-informative and non-funny. Is non-funny a word? I don't think so but translate it into whatever language you are used to and it will work there.

Back soon. 

Starting to get worried about this. When I shutdown, it shutdown immediately. Normally it takes a few seconds but I said shutdown and it shutdown. It restarted ok but when I clicked on this entry to start typing, it took a while to get into it. I'm not sure what that means. You would think a computer guy would recognise a problem but maybe being a computer guy, that is the only reason I am noticing a difference. I will have to try a few thing to see if I can find a problem. My icons keep flashing and the cursor just jumped to another part of this so maybe there are ghosts in the machine. I'll start looking now. And, the boss caught me having coffee and asked me to go do something when I get a chance, so I have some actual work to do and will have to get back to this once again. Bizarre behaviour. I mean the computer and not just me.

Been gone for some time. Working on updating some computer that needs a lot of updates. Been working on it for three hours and still not complete. Was only sent down there to update Office but found it needed some other updates before I could do that so I have sat in front of it watching it change percentages once every ten minutes or so. It may not finish before I do.

So the EKKA talk will have to wait, along with anything else I was going to say. I have no idea what it was but I am sure it was going to be half thought out and less coherent. You have to forgive me, I've been sick. Apparently for almost twenty years. 

I started going back to read what I had written, to try to jog my memory of where I was headed with this. No chance of that happening, so this will have to be it. I have to go back to see if that computer has advanced any. I will go ahead and close this.

So until next time,

Later

MWNews 192

Next day. Nothing to do. The boss is out so I am hiding so no one else can find me. Going to go for coffee soon, before they close. I missed it last week. Got there at 12:30 and they were closing. I sat at a table and drank my water. So today, I will make it on time for sure. It is only 10:30 so it gives me a chance. 

It is raining heavily, so I will have to walk across the street in the rain. Only a few feet so I should be ok. Today has not gone well so far and it has only started. The boss not being here at the moment is a plus so it could get better.

I left at 7:15 this morning, hoping to get here by 8:30. At 8:30, I was not even half way. The traffic around North Lakes was stop for several kilometers. I am not sure why other than the traffic lights controlling when cars can enter were not working. So a lot of cars were trying to get on at the same time and it had traffic backed up for a long ways. I didn't get here until 9:30 so I might not be able to leave at 3 like I wanted. Probably do it anyway and lie on my time sheet about when I got here. No one actually checks on me so I am free to do that.

An interesting development was that when I got here, they had a caged possum in the lobby. Some one was saying they needed to call animal control to get it removed. There were four guys standing around who I assume were the ones that caught it. Not sure where but it was inside the building. I have no idea where they got the cage from. All gone now so I assume they found someone to come pick it up but it was a little possum sitting in a cage. They said it had some injuries but I didn't look that close. I told Maeghan that someone had brought it in as a pet. She asked what its name was. I said Karen. Only seems fair. And no one will actually get that joke and I am not going to explain it so it is what it is.

Maeghan is sick today. She did not go to school. William is really upset about it. He has been trying to stay home all week. Juanita told him that the school has said he cannot miss any more days. If he does, he will be suspended. Which makes no sense. Send the kids home who are not going to school. Isn't that what they want in the first place. I don't know if the school actually said that but William is buying it for now. I don't think it will be much longer before he just refuses to go anymore. I am not sure he is actually doing anything at school anyway. He tells us he has math on Mondays, then nothing to do. Construction on Wednesday. Sports on Thursday. And some extra curricular thing on Fridays. Tuesday, he says he has nothing to do. So he is pushing for not going on Tuesday. That's when the not allowed to miss school argument occurred. We will see what happens next Tuesday. I have to work this weekend, so I cannot help him with finding a job. Although I have been told that the guy I am working with is going to go over there today and he might finish before tomorrow. I am supposed to do site support on Monday and Tuesday for what we were going to be doing this weekend so I am not sure what kind of support I can provide if I have not even been there yet. He is supposed to call me this afternoon to tell me if we are working tomorrow. But that turned into a story about me instead of Williams desire to find a job.

I think Shayla is coming over this weekend. Or, if she can get to our house, she will be. They want me to pick her up after work but I am not really closer to her and it is certainly not on my way home. It is another hour and a half to get to her place and then two hours to get back home, so I am not looking forward to it. They have not asked yet but I heard them discussing how she is getting here and they asked me if I was working near her. I said no but I don't know if they believe me. I am on the same side of town as her, but instead of her being south west of where our house is, I am east of where she is, so I have to drive all the way across town to get to her and then drive back to get home. Not a good use of my time, especially since they will want me to cook when I get home and that will probably not be until about 7 tonight. If I leave at 3, then I might make it back by 6 but that is during Friday night traffic and lots of people go north on the weekends so it becomes stop and go almost every Friday for most of the trip.

On other news, the big dog has started pooping in the house, or mainly just in Anna's room. I am fairly certain that it is because Anna never lets the dog out to go poop and keeps her door closed all the time. When she is home, the dog wants to be in the room with her, so if she does not let it out, there is no where for it to go. So now it is going in the room. Normally, this dog is very good about letting you know it wants to go out. It stands at the door and whines if the door is not open. I don't know if it is standing at the bedroom door and she is ignoring it or it has just decided it is too hard to wake her up. It has done it twice so far. Maybe it is just a one off thing but I think that since it has found it can do that once or twice, it will be ok to do it all the time. I always try to let the dog out when I get up, or a couple of hours after I get up since I normally wake up at 3. I just feel uncomfortable opening the door to let the dog out when they are sleeping in there. Kind of awkward I think. Never am really sure if there is not someone else in there with her or not. Most of the time I know, but there have been a couple of occasions when I was surprised that someone had stayed the night. William has made the comment that the walls are very thin but I don't think she has realised that yet. But enough of that.

I think I am going to go now. I know there are some other things to talk about, like the EKKA. This is the stock show for Brisbane and we have not been since we have been back in Brisbane because they have not had it because of the COVID. This year, it is happening again and we are just trying to figure out a day to go. You have to buy the tickets online for a specific day and you cannot change it once you have bought it. We don't know when I might be working or when the kids are out of school so we will probably have to go on the weekend when it is more expensive. But I will leave that until the next time. I have a headache, which I do most of the time, and I am tired of typing. I'm getting this neck thing that people get who type a lot, or I think that is what it is. Maybe I just dreamed it. In any case, I am going to go now.

So, until next time,

Later

MWNews 191

I don't have time to do this but I started it anyway. At another job for the bank and the program I am running normally takes an hour. It would appear it is only going to take about 45 minutes and I have about 15 minutes of that left. But I will pretend I am doing something else so I can claim more time onsite, even though I get paid for 4 hours work no matter how long I am here. I had another computer to do but it turned out the be the wrong computer and they told me to hold off on it until they get it straightened out. So only one job today and then I have to come back another day.

I interviewed for another job a few days ago but have not heard back from them yet. I am assuming I did not get it. It was a temporary job until the end of the year, working only two days a week but if I had gotten it, I could work three guaranteed days for the rest of the year and then do one off's like this one on the other days if needed. It would have been a good deal, although it is working for 8 hours a day and I am not sure I am ready to do that anymore. Too much work being onsite for that long. I like the fact that I move around and do other jobs, although I hate the driving everywhere so it was good and bad. But since I have not heard from them, I am assuming the worst.

Looks like I am not going to get all this done today. Might leave it and come back to it tomorrow. I was going to try to finish and then do another entry tomorrow but this thing is just about to end now and I do not want to be here for another hour just doing this. Maybe I will go get some lunch and do it there or maybe I will just leave it until tomorrow. We are going to have to see. Either way, I am leaving it now and it just finished. Really, really strange that it ran that fast but it is complete so nothing else to do.

I am still typing even though I said I was leaving. I am hoping I do not have a lot to say and can finish this entry today. I am going to talk about Maeghan and her school and while I think there is a lot to say, maybe there isn't. She is back at school and that's about it. Nothing more to say. Doesn't seem like a lot. I suppose I can start making things up and adding them. Who will ever know. Certainly not the vast audience that reads this on a daily basis. Or all those people who don't actually read it. I am not sure which number is bigger. I think I had a view last month, so the audience is growing.

Maeghan was going to go to school in Caboolture this year. She signed up and paid for the class so she was all set to go. She had to go up there for orientation and to test how long it takes her to get there. I think she did that on a Thursday or something and the class was supposed to start the next Tuesday, so not a lot of time before she was starting.

When she got there, she could not find anyone to meet with. The story she tells is that someone, her old teacher, saw her wandering around and asked if she was there for orientation. She said yes and the lady took her to some room. No one was in there either. She waited for about 15 minutes and then someone came in and asked her what class she was there for. She told them Child Development or something, whatever it is she is taking, and they said they would get someone to come and talk to her.

Another 15 minutes and then her old teacher and someone else came in to tell her the class she was registered for, and had paid for, did not have enough students to have the class. In fact, she was the only one registered for it. They said they needed at least 15 people to hold the class. This class is the one that gets her her diploma. After this class, she has a degree in Child Studies or whatever it is. I should probably know that. They told her there were several campuses where the class was being offered but none of them had enough to continue either. In the end, they offered to let her go to the class in Southbank, where she has always gone. That class had enough people in it. She said yes. Secretly, that is where she wanted to go anyway so it was not that bad a deal.

I am going to have to finish this later. These people want to go to lunch and they are waiting for me to leave. This being a bank, I am not allowed to be here on my own. Not sure why as this is the headquarters and not an actual bank but I can't be here on my own, so I have to leave. I will get back to this later. At the very least, I have to put in the closing lines but there is more to the Maeghan story so I will need to make time for that.

Going now.

Ok, I am now at Guzman and Gomez, or as I like to say, Guzzy Guzman. Having lunch, typing with one hand, hoping not to spill my burrito on my computer. Not the best but I usually go to McD at the train station and I did not really want to do that today. An average burrito, two average tacos, and water to drink. Not that you can get much better, I am in Austria where they think bolognaise sauce can substitute for taco meat, so I get what I can. Now that I think about it, we might have tacos for dinner tonight. Not sure if I have the stuff and I definitely do not have the lettuce so maybe not. I don't have the lettuce because lettuce is scarce these days. KFC and Hungry Jacks no longer server it as it is too expensive. KFC puts coleslaw on theirs and I am not sure what Hungry Jacks does. It is around $9 a head these days. They say due to the flooding that wiped out the crop but you never know. It could be they just want to raise the price from $3 a head to $7 a head and we will all be relieved when it comes down to that, forgetting that it used to be $2 at some places. But who am I to conjecture on that. Let's get back to the typing.

I am using two hands now, finished my burrito, so I can type a lot faster. Only spilled one bean and it landed on my shirt, so we are all good. I am hoping it does not start pouring down rain in the next few minutes, it has been off and on today, because I have to walk back to the train station. And since they already had a box to pack the computer in, I have to carry my packing box and packing material back with me on the train, so I cannot open my umbrella on the way. It's raining now, so I will type slower and hope it stops.

So Maeghan is back to Southbank this year, and this class lasts for a whole year. Most of the classes are just 4 to 6 months but this one is the final class so it goes longer. There are enough people in the class so they have to split into two groups. Not sure what that means but she is in group A and the other group is group B. Strange thing about this class is that she is only one of two Australians in the class. Maeghan says all the others are from other places, like India, Pakistan, France and several other places. I have no idea why. And most of them are much older than she is, although there are a couple her age but I don't think she has spoken to them yet.

As I said, this class gets her a diploma. She can then take another class that will last two years and gets her a degree in whatever it is she is taking. I thought that is what a diploma is but she says no. Maybe the other class gets her the equivalent of a Masters or something. At some point, I probably need to find out but for now, once she completes this, she can teach classes for the kids or teach classes in what she is doing or lots of other things. So it is a very good thing. Probably going to be hard, but she can do it. Nothing has been hard for her.

She also tells me that the last six months or so of the class is actually working in a Child care facility. She has to find it and apply but then she will assignments that she has to do, like take care of a class for a week with no one else to help, teach the kids something in a classroom environment, do all the paperwork for something, lots of things she will have assignments to do. It is all up to her to get them all done and what order she will do them. Whatever facility she finds, they will have to agree to it. She is going to try to find one close to us or one that has a bus stop near it. The one she worked at before does not have any way for her to get there. The nearest bus stop is too far away. She also tells me that she might have trouble finding a place as some of them do not allow people in wheelchairs to work there. I have no idea why and that seems discriminatory to me. We will have to see what happens when she starts looking, which I think she should be doing now. Biggest problem I have with it is she will not be paid, or they are not required to pay her. She says they might offer her a job and she can do her school work at the same time but I know nothing about if that will work or not or how they coordinate that. It is going to be an adventure.

I think there is more to say and there is more on William but sitting here is not comfortable and I cannot type anymore. So I am going to end this entry now. I think there is enough here to be satisfactory. I will be making another entry tomorrow to that is a good thing.

So until next time,

Later

MWNews 190

 

Maybe we can go from here. Back at work and nothing to do, or maybe nothing to do. Someone just walked in and probably wants me to do something.

I might, and might is the key word, start doing this from my phone, which would mean more entries. I did it with the last entry from Dreamworld and it seemed to work well, so maybe I can do that again sometime. Not sure how or when but if I am sitting at home and don't have access to my computer and don't want to set up the laptop, my phone seems like a good option. Or maybe when we are out and I am sitting waiting for everyone else, I can create an entry. It seems like a good idea but we know how I am. If I say I am going to post more often, it usually means I will stop posting for a while. Always hard to read something if its not there.

On a completely different note and something I have mentioned in the past, I need to start talking more about me. You ask, how can that be since everything I say or do is about me, but it has been suggested that I am running out of time and if I ever want to get it done, I need to do it now. I will go no further in this entry but I am being told to 'bring the thunder'. Cryptic. Of course it is. Probably will never happen but it is a possibility.

Let's see, did I leave anything out of the Dreamworld entry, done live while I was there in case I did not mention it before. Maeghan saw me and asked what I was doing at one point. She guessed I was doing a live blog and to be sure and mention that she had suggested that I tell everyone I was doing a live blog. I had already mentioned it but she wanted her name in here. As I never seem to talk about the kids and mostly just talk about myself, I had to mention it just so she can get a little recognition. Seems she thinks that since her name comes first, it should be more about her. I told her I will do what I can but her name rarely comes up.

One thing I have noticed is the entries lately have had a severe lacking of food. Since this is basically a food blog, I seem to have dropped off talking about food. Must be very boring for those who can't wait for my next morsel of information. I will attempt to remedy that situation also. But I have other stuff to talk about so we will get to it when I can. I did have a bagel with salmon and cream cheese this morning on the way to work and if that sounds good, then I will say, it was a bit disappointing. I have found that they never live up to the expectation I have for them. I think it sounds really good but it always seems to be lacking something. Since I do not make them for myself, I have never sat down to figure out what it is that is missing. Pepper? Salt? Something a bit sweet? I don't know but there seems to be something missing and I cannot quite put my finger on it. Might have even been the bagel as they served it on a poppy seed bagel and I find those to be not worth the poppy seeds they put on them. Plain would be better or maybe something else. Maybe garlic but I am not sure. I just need to sit and think about it sometime. Now that I have had one and been disappointed, I probably will not think about it again until the next time I try it but I think I could figure it out if I tried. I do have that ability to think of different foods and imagine what they would taste like together. It's how I cook. So if I thought about it and tried different things in my mind, I could figure it out. But not now.

I can hear the boss outside my office talking to someone. Probably means he is headed my way and wants me to look into something so I should pretend I am working. Then again sitting typing on my computer might seem like work so I think I can get away with it, unless he has something specific in mind I should go do. If there is a gap in the typing, then you know I had to walk away. But since my thoughts never seem coherent from one paragraph or maybe even on sentence to another, you will probably not notice anything amiss.

Problem is, I need some water and I cannot walk out of the office to get some because that increases the odds of being spotted and put to work. I am too old to work and this job allows me to get paid for doing nothing, if you count typing in this thing as nothing. It actually takes a lot of work and a lot of thought to get these things down on paper. I remember in the past, when I used to write this as letters, that I would take hours to create each one and carefully go over and over it to make sure I had it right or said what I wanted it to say. Since I started doing it in the forum, I am not as careful and just type whatever comes into my mind. Doesn't have to be right or accurate and my only real goal is to be entertaining. I fail miserably, or have been failing for a long time, but I keep trying. 

I started that paragraph with the thought of saying the need I have lately to pee all the time. I drink a lot of water, always have, but lately, I have to pee every two hours or so, sometimes even more often. And it is not a little, I pee a lot. Disgusting, but I was driving to one of my other work places the other day and had to pee real bad. I have, once or twice, tried to make it to the next stop and failed, so I knew it was bad enough that I had to go now. There were no convenient places to go outside so I stopped the car, and here is the disgusting part, and pee'd in a bottle. I had to. I thought I was going to pee my pants, which as mentioned, I have done a couple of times. I filled up two 750ml bottles. That's one and a half litres. That is a lot of pee. And it is that way every time, or it seems like it is. I pee a lot and often. Not sure where all the water is coming from. I do drink a lot but nothing like that amount. Maybe I do, but it seems like a lot. Been happening for a few months now. I think I have a disease. Not sure which one, but it must be something. Old age, diabetes, lack of bladder control, it has to be something. Now I have disgusted myself so we will end that talk.

Juanita seems to think I have had a stroke. She says one side of my mouth is drooping. I am not sure I notice it but she took pictures and sent them to someone and they agreed. I think it was Karen. I have recently read a little bit about it and it could be I have had a series of small strokes and that is causing me no end of problems. All the symptoms of a stroke and all the side effects, I seem to have had lately. I will continue to ignore it but if I start talking about things that are of no interest to anyone or seem to be a bit strange, we will put it down to me having a stroke at the time of writing. Maybe even this is all typed in with words that make no sense but seem to make sense while I am typing them. I seem to recall recently talking about bladder problems and me taking the piss out of something so maybe it is true. I am mental. But now I have an official excuse. Or I think it is official. I don't know if I went to the doctor or not. Probably not, so it is semi-official. Not that I will ever say otherwise but treat me like I actually know what I am talking about and we can continue to have fun with it for a long time.

I keep mentioning that I need to tell you about Maeghan's school and William's attempts to find employment. I should probably get to that. I think there was something else I was going to talk about but now that my thoughts have turned to something else, I forget what it was I was going to say.

William, as mentioned in previous entries, is really keen of dropping out of school and finding a job. He has had four weeks off and has to go back next week, I think. No real efforts that I can see, other than me doing it for him, so I don't see much hope of that happening. My issue is, I can probably find him something or get him on someone's list to finding a job but he has to know how I did it and how to do it himself or it doesn't mean anything. He is really keen to do it but lacks the knowledge on how to do it. I need to teach him. I know I never had anyone show me anything but kids are different today and there seems to be a lack of learning on how and why things like this are done. I know I actually fell into every job I have ever had and did not really pursue any one or anything so maybe I am not the best one to do this. I think that is my weekend project. Get him signed into some of the job sites and show him how to look for a job. I see lots of jobs being advertised when we go out but he always has one reason or another that says he cannot apply for those. I will have to show him you have to either push for what you want to do, or apply for everything and take what it offered. You can't half-ass it with either. I would prefer he pursued what he wants but since he does not really know what he wants, that is kind of hard. And he does not see that getting his education, while useless in the job market, it does show the employer that he can commit to something and pass it. I never had a four year degree but I can see the point that if you can show an employer that you can commit to getting one and complete it, you are the type of person that can commit to a job and do what is needed to finish it. Not that I think William will ever do that or that he actually needs to do it but I can tell him it would be helpful to do so. To actually show that he did 12 years of school and did not just drop out when he wanted to just because he did not want to go anymore.

He finally got some emails back from a couple of places I applied to for him. Rejection letters but he was worried I had given them the wrong email address and he was not getting anything back. Most of the jobs wants someone older or someone with a driver's license, but it shows they actually looked at his application so that is a plus. I will show him how to get on to some of the job sites but while I never used them to get an actual job, I have used them to apply for and get responses back from potential employers. I usually get replies back from job recruiters, head hunters as we used to call them, but I do not think that happens with you first job or jobs. I got my foot in the door by applying for and getting a mailroom job that promised promotion to other, bigger, better things. I got my self noticed and went from there. To where I am now, which is working on dumbass problems for people who have no idea what I do or what it is they are doing. They just want me to tell them it is fixed so they can go about their business. I used to be a programmer, and I was good at it. Now, I don't think I could program my out of a paper bag. The mind is just not there anymore. But that is about me and we are talking about William.

William does not want to work in fast food. I can understand that. I never wanted to do that either. I am not sure how it works here, but I fell into doing that because my father was doing it at one point in his life and he asked me to come in and help them with a few things. Long story, but I did that for a couple of nights and then he was promoted to another job at another store. The new person thought I worked there and put me on the schedule, then convinced me to work through the end of the schedule so she could find a replacement. Ended up doing that for the next five years, working my up to manager. Good money but hard work and I got fired and moved to a better fast food place. Made manager and decided I did not want to do that anymore with my life and went to the mailroom job. the rest is history.

I am thinking William could try something like that but I do not recommend it. It's a worst case scenario and I want him to start at something he might be good at or provides him with a path forward to bigger and better things. He agrees, I just don't know how to do that or get into those types of fields. And, I don't think he would actually enjoy doing construction type work but he is the type of person that might be suited to that line of work. Very hard work and not a lot of upside to it that I can see but a lot of people do it their whole lives and they seem happy. If he can be happy doing it, that it is perfect for him as I do not see him suited for a lot of other things. He says he likes working on computers but I don't think he really knows what that means. I would love for him to be involved in that and I will encourage him as much as I can but I think he thinks I can teach him and I am not really up for that anymore. My mind is blank so I cannot be a lot of help. But I can do what I can to make it easier for him. Maybe I should get my old computer out and show him some things. But that is so slow and hard to work with that it might be more of a discouragement than a positive.

Time to start is now. Problem is me. He seems willing. I am at the end of my usefulness. I just want to give up. Can't. He needs me.

Maeghan has started back to school. But I am really tired of typing at this point. I will need to take a break and come back to this, if I do. I might make it another entry for another time. I am tired of typing and thinking and trying to correcting all my spelling and typing mistakes. It's a lot of work. I will leave this open, just in case, but it is already too long and Maeghan has a lot to write about, so it will probably be another entry. Maybe today, maybe never. Guess you will know immediately, but for me, it will be a couple of hours to see if I get back to it. So just in case.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 189

 

Live, from Dreamworld. It’s the blogosphere. Just sitting here waiting on the kids. It’s crowded today, with the kids being out of school and this being winterfest. Lots of lines today. Spending way too much money again and not getting a lot for it. 

Maeghan and William are off doing rides. The rides are about to close down. It’s almost 5. They are having what they call a market again tonight. Just a bunch of food trucks but we have seen a couple we haven’t seen before so we might stay. More expensive food. I just had some fried zucchini which was basically a bowl of grease with some flavourless aioli on it. Didn’t really taste of zucchini. We didn’t finish it, it was that bad.

I went on the Sky Voyager again with Maeghan. William didn’t want to go. We really enjoy that ride. It seemed louder and a bit more bumpy this time. Don’t know if we were just closer to the speakers or they have made changes. Still the same ride but there was something different this time. Not going to get a chance to ride it again today as everything is about to close and I don’t want to ride without the kids. It’s about the only thing I ride these days. I’d like to do roller coasters but I don’t fit in the seats and it’s been so long, I am not sure I could handle it. We might see before the season is over.

I don’t know if it is holidays or they have made improvements, but there seem to be a lot more street shows today. I complained about it last time, the lack of shows but I am sure they never read that complaint. They must have all this planned and this is the time of year they bring it out. Not great shows but you can see they are trying. Not knowing they were going to be here, we didn’t get to see a lot of them but we would occasionally see some performers doing stuff. It seemed like it was pretty good.

Most of the rides are back open. Only two are closed and we wouldn’t be riding those anyway. The train is back running and it looks all new and shiny. We had to wait in line to get on, which is unusual as it is usually just walk up and get on the next train. Maybe they used to run two so there was more chances to get on. Today they only have one train running. Other than me bashing my head while getting on, it was a good ride. Just goes around the park. There is a stop back at the back of the park near the animals but I think it would be faster to walk there than take the train. We just rode it because we like to ride the train. We went all the way around and came back to where we started. It takes about 20 minutes round trip.

This being winterfest, they have winter things. There is an ice slide where you slide a tiny hill in an inner tube. There were only little kids on it and William decided he was way too big for it. Maeghan didn’t even go look at it.

We thought they were supposed to have some other things but we haven’t found them. Other than the ice skating. You have to reserve a time for ice skating and I saw why when we were there. The ‘ice’ was really crowded. We had a 12:15 time to go and there must have been 100 people on a little bitty fake ice rink. I think it was that plastic stuff I have seen before but if it was, they have really improved it. It was almost like real ice. I say almost because the skates were so dull, I am not sure if it was the ice or the skate that made it very hard to control yourself. Kept sliding sideways all the time.

It could be I haven’t skated in about 20 years but I was fairly ok with it, just felt like I couldn’t keep straight or something. I wasn’t going to try stopping because the skates did not have any real grip and I was afraid with all the kids, I might not be able to turn it stop in time to avoid them. So I stayed pretty slow and didn’t try anything fancy or anything. I tried skating backward once but too many kids and not comfortable with the feeling if the skates. I did find that when I went off to rest once, I really tightened my skates and it was much better on the ice. But by that time, I was too tired and my ankles were starry to hurt so I only did a couple of laps and then gave it up for the day. I’m not sure if I would go back. I enjoyed it but my back and my ankles are still hurting, plus the headache I still have from bashing my head might convince me to not do it again, or very often if I do.

Maeghan wasn’t very good at it. She only made one lap but I think it might have been better if I had tightened her skates also. The big problem was all the people so you had to keep a constant awareness of people falling or almost falling all around you so it made it hard to concentrate on your skating. She said she liked it but it took her 20 minutes to get around once so she got off and left. She did want to go back after a rest but she had already taken her skates off so it was too much trouble to do it again.

William was ok. The last time we went skating, many years ago, we were amazed at how good he was. He wasn’t that good this time. He did make it around several times and he only fell once. I think it was the bad ice and crummy skates but he had fun so it was worth it.

All in all, it was a good experience. Would have liked more room and better ice and better skates but for a free thing, it wasn’t bad. They might convince us to go to a real rink again but I am not sure when that will happen. It might be fun but with a longer session, they would probably get bored after a while. Skating is fun but it is better if you have friends or something with you and neither of the kids have friends that would enjoy skating, or I don’t think they do.

It’s getting cold now so I think I might be going. Too cold and too loud for me to continue. We have been sitting at the tables in the market area but now the musicians have started and it is very very loud. And, apparently, they are trying to find someone to light the heaters, which is one of the reasons we are sitting here next to one of them. It’s probably around 10 degrees right now, so it is cold. And that is centigrade so it’s not as bad as it could be but it is still cold.

They just tried to blow us up because the lady did not know how to light the heater and when I told her to turn the gas on, she did but then could not light it and when it did light, it exploded. But it’s on now, so maybe it will get warm.

I’m going to go anyway. I still need to tell you about Maeghan’s school and William’s attempts at work but since this is a live blog, that will have to wait.

So, until next time

Later

MWNews 188

 

I gots the Covid. Actually, we all gots the Covid. William not so much, or he wasn't as sick as the rest of us but we did all test positive on the same day. Might have had it for a few days before that but I tested and then had Maeghan test and when we both came up positive, we tested everyone else. All positive. That would explain the lack of entries, or maybe it should be there should have been more entries but I was really sick two weeks ago and could not be bothered to create a new entry last week, so this is it.

Juanita is still sick, Maeghan is not feeling well and I am congested all the time. William was only sick for a couple of days, if that. It has been two weeks. 

It all started with William not feeling well. Since William always says he doesn't feel well, we didn't take a lot of notice. I started feeling bad on a Wednesday. I was working and packing up some equipment when I just lost all desire to continue with it. I was just really sore and tired and did not want to finish. Since I had to, I did but there were several other things I was supposed to do that day that did not get done. I was chastised for that repeatedly, to the point where I felt like this job was not worth it anymore. Since I have no other prospects, I took the abuse but I am not happy.

Anyway, I was to drive to the Gold Coast job the next day. I was really feeling bad but since this job had been arranged for a couple of weeks and there were going to be about 15 people depending on me doing my job so they could do theirs, I felt I had to go. I ended up forgetting a lot of the things I was supposed to take with me but I got it done and they did everything they were supposed to do, so while they were not happy I had forgotten the labels and the cables I was supposed to leave there, it did not really effect the job so they were satisfied. I did tell them I was not well and was leaving. They said go home so I did.

It took four hours to get home. I was not well. I barely walked back to the car and then took a nap when I got there. I started to drive home but would have to stop about every 20 minutes and rest some more. The drive normally takes about 2 hours but I took 4, maybe 5 I don't really remember. I know I kept having to stop and rest but the rest wasn't really doing me any good so I would attempt to start driving again. This was all on a Thursday and I was supposed to be here on Friday. At about 3 in the morning, I decided I was not going to make it in so I sent them an email letting them know. 

I was really sick all day Friday. I think we all had the flu as well as Covid as it was really bad. Maeghan had begun to feel bad at that point and she was not moving around a lot. I was complaining the whole time. Went through a box of tissues. It was bad. On Saturday, I decided I should probably test for Covid, just in case, but I really thought it was just a bad flu. I tried to do it in secret because Juanita would panic if she thought we had Covid. My test was positive. I then secretly went to Maeghan and had her do a test. She came up positive too. So I decided we had to tell Juanita and get everyone else tested. For some reason, she threw away all the tests before they were completed. I had mentioned to her that both mine and Maeghan's had come up positive immediately but you were supposed to wait 15 minutes before you knew the results. She threw hers and Williams away when it was not immediately positive. I had to get them out of the trash, she had put them back in the boxes before she threw them away so it was not that bad. Both of theirs came up positive after a while, but barely, or faintly but the test says if anything shows up, it is positive so now we all had it.

I will mention that I told the other two in the house to test but I don't think they did. They told us that they had and it was negative but I don't believe them. But not really my problem I guess. They can go out and infect the world as they please since we were already positive. I didn't really care.

I was sick for the next few days, gradually getting better and Juanita started to get sick and is still not feeling well after two weeks. Maeghan was bad for a while but you can never really tell with Maeghan because she doesn't say anything. You can tell she is sick because she slept a lot and always had a blanket on her. She does get her electric shocks when she is sick. We have always called them that because that is what she says they feel like. She has gotten those her whole life, whenever she gets sick. This was not different. The doctors have never been able to tell us what it is and I don't really think they have tried to find out. They just pass it on to the next doctor and none of them really try to do anything. But that is a whole other story that I won't get into.

For now, I am better, not completely well but better. Maeghan is better. Not completely well but better. William is fine. Juanita is still not feeling well. She only has one more day to recover.

We are planning another trip to Dreamworld on Saturday, tomorrow. They still have the winterfest on and the kids really want to go. I booked the tickets for tomorrow. It is free but you have to reserve the time you want to go as they are limiting the access to everything. I booked it for tomorrow so we are going tomorrow. I will make sure Juanita goes but I have a feeling she will try to stay home. Probably best if she does but then again, I think getting out of the house would be much better for all of us. I have been back to work this week but they have not left the house in two weeks. Maeghan did go with me to do the shopping yesterday. Juanita was supposed to go but she said she did not feel well enough to do so. William said he would stay home so it was just me and Maeghan. I was exhausted by the time we got home so I may not make it long tomorrow. I figure we can go in the morning, skate in the afternoon and then leave if we are not feeling well. There is a new mall near there that we have not gone to yet so if I can get us out of Dreamworld, and we have the energy, we will go there to check it out. It will be cheaper than staying in Dreamworld since everything there is expensive. If I can get us out earlier enough, we won't have to buy dinner there.

By the way, Covid still requires you to self-isolate for seven days. Longer if you do not feel better or have any outward symptoms.  I think we are all safe, except maybe Juanita, but she will wear a mask the whole time so it won't be that bad. You have to register, or you are supposed to register, with the government if you test positive. I registered all of us. I made the mistake of filling out some form that is for people who have no help. I thought I was filling out the right form but it turns out this one I did caused me to be registered with the local health department and they kept calling me to see if I was all right and to make an appointment with them if I wasn't. They eventually gave up and released me but I kept thinking I was going to have to go wait in a hospital so someone could see me before I could be cleared. I have heard that people with Covid are having to wait outside of the normal waiting rooms and some of them are waiting for 5 or 6 hours. I was not looking forward to that. But I got a message that I was cleared and could go about my business so I keep that message handy just in case I get asked about it.

Let's see, what else have we been up to. Probably not a lot. I have caught up on all my work that kept getting delayed because I was too busy Spent the day in Ipswich erasing and boxing computers. I have almost decided Ipswich is no longer worth it for me to go there. They don't let me in the building anymore, or they say they will send someone down and then they never do and if I call them back, they tell me they don't have time to let me in and I should go see the mailroom guy and let him come up to them to get the computers. I then have to sit in the mailroom and do my work which is not ideal. Now I am told by the mailroom guy that he has been told he is not supposed to do that anymore and I have to get them to let me in so I can do my work. He also told me that I can no longer request consignment notes from him. That I have to create them myself. I won't go into what that means but I cannot create consignment notes, that is something the mailroom has to do, so I sent a message to my bosses and they said they would straighten it out. Not sure if they have done anything but if I cannot get in the next time I go and I cannot create a note to have the boxes mailed, I am just going to leave everything and tell them don't send me there anymore. Plus, it is an hour an a half drive to get there and with the price of petrol going through the roof, it is no longer economical for me to do that. I could take the train, but I have to carry boxes and tape and padding material with me just in case they threw away the box I was supposed to use. The mailroom guy used to keep extra boxes for me to use but he has been told he is not allowed to do that anymore so carrying them on the train is not a good option. So in the end, I think I might just have to pass up going there anymore, which is the bulk of my work lately so I don't really know if that is an option either. It's just a pain.

Now everyone is calling for me to do some work here. Several offices have asked me to come look at things. I suppose that means I have to go. I have probably spent too long on this entry anyway. I didn't really say anything, other than we all had Covid. I am sure there were other things, like Maeghan's school and William's attempts to find a job but I am tired of typing anyway so I am going to leave this for now. Let's see how I feel later and maybe I will create another entry. Depends on home much work they have for me to do.

So until next time,

Later