MWNews 214

I'm confused. What day is it? I started this yesterday and now I am back to typing again. Not sure when I will finish, but I don't have a lot to do, so maybe I can complete it sometime this week.

On a side note, since I started this one my computer at home and am now typing on my laptop, it is not formatting correctly, so when I get frustrated and decide this is not worth the effort, this post will end and no one will ever get to read it. Then again, if you read that, it would appear I did not get as frustrated as I thought I would.

As you can tell, we ended up going to the jumping/trampoline place. Not a lot there and it was kind of small. William enjoyed it. Maeghan got tired. Not a lot there. William did jump off the high dive. It was only landing on your butt, but lots of kids were waiting in line to do it. He also managed to throw a ball over the wall. He said it was slippery. But a good time was had by all.

We then went to Water World. It was hot. And, surprising enough, not that wet. We got there around 11:30 and stayed until 4. We did find chairs, it was not that crowded, but the chairs are uncomfortable so that was not really an advantage. Everyone went into the wave pool to begin with, except me. Turns out, it is not a very good wave pool. The waves only last a couple of minutes, and it is ten minutes between each session. Plus, they make an announcement before each session starts and that gets old about the third or fourth time you hear it. Basically, it says the waves are about to start and if you have any kids, grab them now or they will get swept away, or words to that effect. Exactly the same each time.

After a couple of sessions, Juanita got out. The kids stayed in but they got tired of if after a while. William wanted to go over to the slides but Maeghan was tired. William waited and then went by himself. About the time Maeghan was ready, he was headed back but they went over together. They played in the big bucket area, where the big bucket of water dumps on you every five minutes. Maeghan said they went on a slide too, but she did not say which one. By the time they came back, they were ready to eat. Juanita had already eaten when she got out of the pool. She was feeling sick so she had to eat.

I took them to the only place that has food at the park. This was a big disappointment. Only one place that serves anything. At Wet and Wild, there are about 10 different places. And this one was all the way back at the entrance to the park, so you have to walk across hot concrete to get back to it. I think I blistered all my toes. It was hard to do. You had to find short paths to cross the concrete and then stop at places that were in shadow. It was an interesting little run.

Now I am wondering why I am going into so much detail about the day. No one wants to hear this. But let's pretend you do. 

After the kids had something to eat, I decided I wanted to get wet because it was so hot. I went into the wave pool. I went when the alarm went off that it was about to start and by the time I reached the place where the waves were, it had stopped. That is how short each session is. So I had to wait the ten minutes for the next session. Really small waves. Hardly raised you up at all to jump over them. I didn't even bother. Just stood there. Maeghan was beside me and she jumped up and down with the waves. William went to the front where the water is deeper and he rode them out. I ended up staying for two sessions.

After I got out, the kids stayed for a little while longer. William wanted to stay for the rest of the day but Juanita was getting restless, so we called the kids in and we all changed to go to Dreamworld next door. Took almost an hour to change, not sure why, but we finally made it.

Dreamworld was set to close in an hour, everything closes at 5:00, even WaterWorld, so we didn't have much time. Of course, they had the markets after that, which is the real reason Juanita wanted to go there. It was a good time to go. We walked straight on to the fantasy flight ride. I think it is called Sky Voyager. I know I have mentioned it before. It is the only real ride I can go on. Juanita doesn't ride it, and William seems bored with it but Maeghan and I enjoy it the first things when we get there and the last thing before we leave. We only got to ride it once though.

We went straight off of there onto the train. I felt bad about it because they kicked a couple of people out of their seats to allow Maeghan and her wheelchair on. There are only a few seats where it fits so she is limited as to where she can ride. They moved some people to another set of seats to she could get on. The people didn't seem to mind but I still felt bad about it. The train ride actually turned out to be very fun. Mainly because there were people on it and they seemed to appreciate my jokes. My kids just ignored me. I think they are used to me now and I am not as funny. But the other passengers were entertained. I even told some kids that were about to get on that they should hold on because the train goes upside down a couple of times. Not sure the parents appreciated that.

After that, we walked all the way over to the arcade, which was just about to close. Juanita had remembered to bring her card for there this time but the kids did not have enough time to really use it. They closed the doors as soon as we walked in but allowed Maeghan and William to do a couple of things. One thing we did see was that Juanita's favorite shop was closed. It has been closed for a while but this time they had construction walls around it. I am not sure if they are replacing it or just renovating. It had some unique stuff in there but I am sure they have it in other shops as well. Maybe they are making room for a new ride, but it would have to be a small one to fit in the space.

Then everything closed and the market began. Just food trucks. Relatively good food trucks but not really something to come all that way to see. Since we are there usually, it is not bad to stay for it but the prices have gone way up and it went from expensive to very expensive. Can't get food for less than $20 a person and while that is not a bad price, it is not a lot of food and it is truck vendor food. Juanita had some BBQ pork on a skewer. Not really very good but it was supposed to be pork belly and it turned out not to be. William had a pide. They have really good ones. Maeghan had some wings in BBQ sauce. Then they had some huge ice cream things for dessert. By this time, I was beginning to stop functioning. Still a two-hour drive for home. And I had not eaten anything except what I could steal off or the kid's plates. We started to head for the car.

Normally, I stop at a rest area and we have coffee or something but this time, I just drove home. Got there about 8:00, so we were home early. Doggies were happy to see us. Not sure when we will do it again, but it is not a bad time and park entry is free for us, so if we can manage to drive down there on the weekends, it will be good. I start my new job soon. I am not sure if I will need a day of rest before we go out but since the markets are only on Saturdays, Sunday will have to be my day of rest. 

 

I am stuck here at work, waiting on someone else to do their job before I can do mine. I have managed to type all this but I am tired of waiting now and will begin to harass them about when they are going to finish. If I can finish all of them today, I don't have to come back tomorrow. Lose a bit of work but this is a long trip out here, 3 hours, so I think I might enjoy being at home more than this waiting around. I am going to end this now. I am sure it was a whale of a tale but my butt hurts from sitting, so I have to move around.

Remember

It will all be ok in the end, and if it’s not ok, then it’s not the end.

Until next time

Later

MWNews 213

 

No entry last week. It happens. I was busy and didn't get a chance. But I know this will be better. It starts off great, so how can it not be. 

And if you are looking for the great start, you have already read it.

Today is William's birthday. He is 17. Old enough to, well, not really old enough for anything, but he is 17 now. Biggest thing is he is really tall. We took some pictures but they are on Juanita's phone, so I am not sure if I will ever get to see them. I suppose I need to steal her phone and have all the pictures copied to my storage place, OneDrive. Although, I did just get notified that the space on OneDrive is now limited but I am not sure if it affects me or not. Hard to figure out. But that is where all my pictures are, so if it changes, I need to make other arrangements. 

William is now 6'6". Not sure how long he has been that tall. He says he is taller, 200cm, which would be 2 meters. I convert it to 198 but he says the tape measure must me wrong. I don't know where he gets his numbers from, but we will go with the idea that the tape measure is wrong. 

As I said, not sure if he has grown any or not this year. Juanita says he has grown two inches this year. I don't know where those numbers come from either. I just know he is tall. Don't tell him I said that. I still maintain he is going to catch up to me soon. Sad part is, in one of the pictures, I stood behind him to show that I was taller. I could barely see over his shoulder. It makes a funny picture. He is really tall. I have sort of noticed but standing behind him, it really showed it to me. He is much taller than me, about 6 or 7 inches taller. I had never really realised it. He is a big person. Hopefully, he does not get taller because he has to duck under the ceiling fan now. If he gets taller, it will be hard to avoid.

We didn't really get him a lot for his birthday. We did, but not a lot of presents. Part of it was his new bicycle. I spent $200 on that. I also gave him some spending money the other day that I told him was part of his birthday present. He and Maeghan and Shayla went to the shopping center on their own while Juanita and I were at the doctor. He did not have any money, so I gave him $20. He spent it on candy and soda. Then I had to buy him lunch when we came to pick them up. He does not save money.

I also gave him a present this morning of a case of Dr. Pepper. You might say that is not a present but over here, that is $40 for a case, so it became a present at that price. They gave me a case for Father's Day, and he was jealous, so I gave him one. Juanita gave him a big bag of chocolates. Maeghan gave him a lot of little presents, 5 or 6 of them. All of them she found on sale at different places, so it didn't cost her much. He liked them all but I am afraid the dog might try to chew them up as they look like balls and he has gone ball crazy. I might mention it later but for now, we are still on William's birthday.

I have also planned a day out for him tomorrow. Originally, I thought he said he wanted to go go-cart racing. I looked into it but it was very expensive so I told him we would just go to Water World instead. He said he didn't want to go to go-carts, he wanted to go to a trampoline place. That turned out to be a lot cheaper, so I have booked us in for Saturday. I booked one at the Gold Coast, so we can leave there and go to Water World or Dreamworld afterwards. Depends on how crowded each are. We will probably go to Waterworld first and then Dreamworld if it is too crowded. I have heard that it is really crowded these days, but I am not sure the Aussies know what crowded is, so it might be ok. We will see tomorrow. We could also go to the Tower, some very tall building on the Gold Coast. It is included in our Dreamworld passes and we have been there before but not for a few years. It is ok, if a bit too high. It used to be the tallest building on the Gold Coast but there are other buildings that are taller now. If we go there, it means we will spend the day at Surfers Paradise instead of going to the parks, so I am not sure which we will end up at. They might be too tired from the trampolines to do anything else, but we will see tomorrow.

I am also planning on giving William some more spending money tomorrow, as part of his presents. I know he will like that, if he does not blow it all at the theme parks. Everything is too expensive there, but it is hard to convince anyone of that while you are there. My problem is Juanita's birthday is next week. While I have already bought her present, I am not sure I will have enough money to take her out also. I could if it was just she and I, but it is a birthday and everyone will want to go and she will want everyone to be there, so going to a restaurant is not really an option. I had a look at a steak place the other day and they want $60 a steak, and that does not include anything else, just the meat. Ribs were $75, so getting that for four or five people is just a bit out of my price range. I think we will just end up going to the beach and getting fish and chips and then a walk along the beach. She loves the beach and we rarely go anymore, so it should be a good time. I could also plan a meal at home or something but I am not sure yet. I am hoping some of the other family members can be there but I am not spending money of them, so they will probably not show up. Anna and Shayla supposedly live with us but neither has been there for a few days and rumor has it that they are going to move into their own place. I am sure if they spend any time at home together, that idea will go out the window. They cannot get along for long without stopping talking to each other.

Mentioning Shayla and Anna, Anna is out of the hospital. She got about a week ago, against the advice of the doctors. She said she had tickets to a concert, so she left and went to that. I am not sure how she went. I have only seen her in passing since then. Shayla had her graduation or formal dinner or something last week. Both she and Anna went over to their mother's house to get ready and dressed up for it. Due to the new covid outbreak, no one else was allowed to attend so we did not go. They have been over there since then but I think they might be coming home this weekend. I am not sure. It means Shayla has graduated from high school, the first one to do so, other than Maeghan. I think Natalie might have graduated but then again, I don't think she did. Neither Shayla or Anna currently has a job. Not sure if Anna is going back to work or if Shayla is looking for a job. Hopefully, they are as our rent will be going up soon and we need them to stay living with us and paying rent. Otherwise, there is no other place to move to and even if there were, there is no place we can afford. I just saw the average rent in the area has gone to $562. We currently pay $460 and were expecting it to go to $510, but it might go even higher which we will be unable to afford. I am not sure what happens at that point.

I have a new job I am starting Dec. 5. It is working at the Brisbane Girls School. I don't remember if I have mentioned it or not, but it is almost final now. I have dates and times to be there, so I assume it is a go. This is a full-time job for the next four months. Five days a week, eight hours a day. I am not sure if I am ready for that, but I have to if we are going to afford the new rent. It does mean we lose government money but this pays more so it is not a big loss. The main thing I see is it might affect tax time because they base our payments on the estimate of our income I gave them at the beginning of the year. If I make more than that, then we have to pay some of the money back. Guess I will worry about that when it happens.

Too much talk about money and not enough about the dog. Plus, how long has it been since I talked about food. Well, that's too long.

The doggy has a new ball that fits comfortably in his mouth. He loves it and is always looking for it so you will play with him. We have to keep it put away because the big dog will chew it up if he gets ahold of it but when he is not around, out comes the ball and the little dog will chase it and play with it for hours.

He likes to chase it when you throw it for him but he does not give it back to you after he gets it back. He will run up to you and hold still waiting for you to grab the ball out of his mouth but he does not let go of it, so you cannot pull it out and throw it for him again. He will sometime drop it but if you reach for it, he grabs it and runs away. He then come back immediately and waits for you to try to grab it again. Eventually, if you ignore him, he will drop the ball and let you throw it for him again but if it very hard to just play with him and throw the ball for him over and over again.

This morning, me brought the ball into me while I was still in bed. He was jumping around thinking I was getting up and I just thought he was excited for me to be awake. He goes crazy each morning when I wake up and jumps and twirls around on the floor waiting for me to get out of bed. I did not know he had the ball this morning, until I felt it lying beside me in the bed. So I got up and we played ball for a while. A bit later, I was sitting on the bed taking my medicine. He came in with the ball again and was trying to get me to try to take it. Eventually, he dropped it and it rolled under the bed. I thought that was the end of it as he ran away and went in the other room. A bit later, he came back into the room and went under the bed. I was still sitting there until I saw the ball roll out from under the bed and between my feet. He had rolled it out to me so I would play with him again. I laughed and laughed about that and could not resist playing with him some more. It was funny.

As far as food goes, I have made a couple of things I do not usually make lately. I am not going to go into them. It probably means I am tired of typing and do not want to type anymore. Maybe you are in for a treat next time, but for now, I am done. Need to do some work and get some coffee. So that is going to be it.

Remember

It will all be ok in the end, and if it’s not ok, then it’s not the end.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 212

 

I'm a bit tired today. I am always a bit tired so it makes a better time for coffee. Most of what I say is not that coherent, so I keep my sentences short and slightly off point. It's a habit.

Have to do two jobs today. Not sure trading four hours of work for an undisclosed amount it a good idea, but they want me to go to the woodyard and install something, so I am off to that after I leave here. I am hoping it will not take long but then I lose out on the hours I would have worked here, so maybe I will have to stretch it out somehow. I could always lie, I suppose.

Let's see where we left off on the kid tales, or puppy leavings, or whatever it is that passes for entertainment these days.

William finally blew up and may not go to school anymore. I think he went today, but I am thinking he might have just pretended to go. Juanita and I had to leave early for some reason and the kids were not up when we left so there is no one there to tell him to go to school. We had to leave early because Juanita is going to spend the day at the hospital tending to Anna. More on that in a minute. We left at 6 so I could drop her off and then get to work by 8. I didn't get here until 8:30, so I have to leave at 12 for the other job and will only get 3:30 hours in here. Not that I mind, I am kind of tired of doing this work but then again, I am tired of doing any work. I am just tired. I think I might have mentioned it.

Anna is in the hospital having an operation. I think they are removing her gall bladder. I have no idea why or what it means but she also has a cist somewhere that they are going to remove at the same time. I would appear it is about a four-hour operation. Juanita is at the hospital as her mother, Angie, has not yet made an appearance. But that was an hour ago, so she might be there now. The story would be that I heard Anna leaving two nights ago at around mid-night. I heard a car pick her up. We did not know why she had left. It turns out, she was having pains, and had been for a few days, so she called her mother to come pick her up and take her to the hospital. I will not even think about why she did not ask us to take her, but she didn't. Maybe it was the argument Juanita and her had earlier. Maybe not, I don't know. Would have been nice to know either way. It wasn't until Juanita was in the hospital the next day for an appointment that Angie called and said Anna was in the same hospital and was scheduled for surgery the next day. Surprising in a number of ways. First, we didn't know anything was wrong with Anna, second, why didn't she ask us, and third, why did it take so long to tell us anything. I've gotten used to this family, so I am not surprised. But who am I to speak with my relationship with my family. But we won't go into that.

Let's change to the tale of William. He has gotten pretty strange with his reasons for not going to school. The one that set him off was that there are too many mosquitoes at school. He was arguing with his mother and she decided it was a good time to get upset about it and yelled at him for speaking to her incorrectly. I will not go into that at this time, if ever. William got mad, she got mad, William left for a walk and didn't come back until the afternoon. Juanita spent some time driving around looking for him. I said it was not like he could go anywhere so he would eventually return. She came home and went to bed. William eventually came back. They didn't talk. Not they are sort of talking and it would appear the immediate crisis is over. The tale of William going to school anymore is yet to be written.

Maeghan is getting overwhelmed with homework, or assignments she doesn't necessarily have to do them at home. She is behind in her projects, and I am not sure when she will catch up. I don't think she has been late with anything, but she has turned some in that were not finished. I think she has failed a couple of tests lately, also, but she says she gets to take a makeup test and it doesn't matter as she always passes the makeup test. She has been doing some other things instead of working on her projects. Things like building complex models and doing some Lego crafts. I don't know if it a motivational thing or if she is just tired of doing it. Class only goes for another couple of weeks, then she will get a long break until she has to start working at the childcare. No more classes but she will still have assignments, so she needs to make sure she is getting them done on time. Once again, I have no idea who this stuff works so I am not really any help to her.

Which brings me to something that has no business being in here but I need to tell it somewhere and having hinted at it and talked about it somewhat in here anyway, I will proceed with telling a nasty tale of intrigue and suspense. Actually, none of that but it should not be in here anyway. Someone might read this someday and worry about me. I don't want that. And to immediately go off on a tangent, I was typing and then nothing was appearing on the screen. I know I was typing so there might be some strange characters on the screen somewhere. I would think it would show up as a misspelled work, but I don't see any. If you find out where the things I was typing went in the entry, let me know and I will immediately continue to ignore them.

With that little distraction, I forget what I was going to say and since it says here that it does not belong in here, I have fulfilled my task of not putting it in here. I feel accomplished all the sudden. I should end this now before I remember but there were a couple of things left to say.

William wants to spend the rest of his money on Christmas shopping this weekend. He has mostly spent it on food and drinks. Juanita mentioned it to him and now he has decided he will buy Christmas presents. I think he is down to only a couple of hundred dollars now so maybe it is a good idea, although he should have saved some of it, which he didn't. Both he and Juanita think he will continue to work with me, but I have repeatedly told them I do not normally get those types of jobs, so he should be looking somewhere else. I actually do have a job that he could do but it is only a one-person job and I need the money. I have another one next week that I have seriously considered turning down but while he might be able to do it, he would not have any backup and have to do it on his own and since I am in charge of it, I would have to teach him and that would require both of us to be there and they are only paying for one, so it is me again. Although, it requires going up on a ladder about 20 meters in the air and I am not really looking forward to that. I might just pass on it but since I have already accepted, it is probably too late.

I have noticed it is 9:30 now and I am only here for a short time, so I will be ending this. Not that I had a lot more to add but I am good at rambling on. Plus, I am thinking about before and I really don't want to go down that route. I will but it down to being influenced in another way and take the hint to go away and stop typing.

Remember

It will all be ok in the end, and if it’s not ok, then it’s not the end.

Until next time,

Later