MWNews 240

 

It was Maeghan's birthday yesterday. We didn't do anything. Both Juanita and I had to work. Me in the daytime, her at night. Maeghan, William, and Juanita went to the shops while I was at work. Maeghan did get up at 3:00 in the morning, when I get up for work, so she could see me before I left. I gave her her present after we woke Juanita up. We let William sleep.

We did most of the celebrating on the Saturday before. This is a picture of where we went, although it does not really represent the place. Something called HiJinx Hotel. Not sure if that exists anywhere else, but I assume it does. They also have a small miniature golf course downstairs. We did both.

Basically, the hotel part is a series of rooms you go in to solve puzzles and play games. It was exhausting. Some of the games required a lot of effort to play. Maybe people who are so overweight don't have problems with them, but we did.

The first room we sent in was to answer some music questions. They would play a song and you would have to pick what it was. I don't think we did too bad, but we only got half the all-time high score. After it was all over, we were told we had the highest combined score for all the rooms for that day.

A few students just walked in. We don't open for another 30 minutes, so I am not sure what they want. I think they want to use the printer. I will have to go see, which probably won't leave me time to get back to this anytime soon.

It's the next day. I will type for a few minutes to see what I can do. Maybe this is how I will do this from now on. A thought here and there and no really long typing session to get an entry out. Probably lack a lot of cohesion, but what are you going to do. It is what it is.

Along with the guess the song room, there was a throw things and knock the over, throw things and turn off the lights, basketball hoops and one Tetris room. It was exhausting. One room, you had to put balls in a hoop while standing in a ball pit. Putting them in the hoop wasn't a problem, bending over, over and over again, to pick up the balls and then reaching up to put them in for five straight minutes. That one almost killed me. Then you had to wade through the balls to get back out of the pit. They sent me a survey afterwards to say how it went. I suggested a wait period between each room. Not only to rest but so you can talk about it and have fun reliving the experience. That would have been good. They wrote back to me immediately and said that was a good suggestion and they would consider it.

After that, we were to go play putt putt. We asked if we could stop and eat to rest a bit. They said that was fine. Probably a mistake. We had pizza and fries. The fries were good. The pizza was lacking. Cardboard with very little cheese on it. Not even sure it could be called pizza and it had no taste. Big issue was the price. Way too expensive.

After that, we played putt putt. An ok 9-hole course. Everyone had fun. William was a little upset. He thought he won. He didn't. He added it up three or four times on paper and on his phone and on Juanita's phone. He got a different score each time but, in the end, he had to concede he did not win. He wasn't happy.

After that, we wanted dessert. Not a lot of places for just dessert. There used to be a place called Couch that was all desserts. It has since gone out of business. We ended up at San Churros. You would think by the name, they have churros. They do, but that is all they have. They serve them with chocolate. They used to have fruit plates and marshmallows, and all kinds of other things to have with the chocolate. Now, it is all churros and chocolate. Unless, you go for the big plate. A huge order of everything. With no other choices, I ordered it. Very expensive, a lot of food. We did not finish it. So basically, it was a waste of a lot of money. We did take it home, but everything was stale by the next day and uneatable. I could say a lot of other things that were wrong with it, but we will leave it at that.

I am going to have to go now. Time to open the doors. Kind of lame, but there it is.

Until next time,

Later

Remember

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

MWNews 239

William gradiatated. I am not sure I ever wrote about this but I am now. As you can tell, it is long time between entries. There is just not a good time to do it. Now is not a good time.

I had to go open the doors. No one has come in yet. Maybe it will be a slow day. Not that I can type while I sit at the front desk, and I cannot type at my desk, so doing this at work does not really work. I think I might try to do it at home. I have not played my game in a long while so maybe I will go back to the desk and type in there. I doubt it but there just isn't a lot of opportunity to do it. And I really need to talk about William's gradiation. He deserves it. I think I don't talk about William's good things enough and that is not fair. Plus, it was Maeghan's 21st the other day, or actually, tomorrow, but we celebrated this past weekend. I will definitely need to make a couple of entries about William and Maeghan and maybe even my heart failure, but finding the time is what holds me back. Right now, I have other things to do at work, so maybe I will get back to it today and maybe not.

I didn't get back to it. It is the next day, I think. Don't remember if I was doing this on Monday or Tuesday. Today is Maeghan's birthday, but before I get into that, I need to talk about William's gradiation. 

He finished 12th grade. All done with schooling. No plans for the future, or the plans he has are not going well. There were about 50 people in his class. In Maeghan's class, there were only about 12. Not sure how the classes got so big but it took a while to go through them all. It wasn't a great ceremony, but it was ok. Not a lot of speeches or hype. The decorated the gym and had it there. They even served food and drinks. I don't remember what kind and I didn't have any of it, but they had it there if you wanted it.

We took William to one of his favorite places, or what used to be one of his favorite places. And now that I am typing this, I think I have already told this story. I know I said something about it but I thought all this happened after I stopped doing the blog. I'll go ahead and hit a couple more highlights, but there isn't a lot to tell, and it shouldn't take long.

I say it used to be one of his favorites because they served some mac and cheese that he liked. They don't serve it anymore. We still had a lot of food, and he had some loaded fries that he didn't finish. Mainly because, as I recall, they had a lot of salt on them. Other than that, there is not a lot else to tell about it. He got his book signed by a lot of his classmates. A lot of them asked him to sign also, so that was good. I don't think he will ever see any of these people again, but maybe someday, he might run into them.

He spends his time in his room lately. Only comes out when he gets bored. He was planning on becoming a fireman but that didn't work out. The have a really long waiting list and the qualifications you need, he doesn't have. His fallback position was the army, but I haven't heard a lot about that lately, so maybe he changed his mind. Juanita has work for him, but it is cleaning work, and he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't like cleaning up after school kids, they make big messes. But, unless he takes that work, I am not sure what else he can or will apply for. He will not work in retail, or says he will not, he will not work in fast food, he does not drive so that limits him on what he can do. I don't know anyone who is doing construction work, which he could probably do with the classwork he did, but I don't know how to get him started and he has no idea what he needs to do. He doesn't really know what it is going to take to work at a job. Too high-strung, but he is only 18, so maybe it will get better.

He has a place to stay as long as I am alive so there is no reason for him to really look hard. But I am not well, and he needs to be ready for a time when I am not there to help, not that I give him a lot of help, but I provide a base for him or where to stay and where to eat. Once I am not here to provide that, he needs to be able to do it himself. I am sure I will talk about that more later.

For now, I have to go again. Time to start working. I will leave this open so maybe I will come back to it. I might just close it and start a new, but we will see.

Looks like I will just start a new entry.

Until next time,

Later

Remember

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

MWNews 238

 

Going to give it another shot. Mainly, I think I might have this one about my health and situation. Will not have time to complete it but will see what happens.

Maeghan finally went home a couple of days ago. She had been trapped at our house for a week. We had a lot of rain and the road to her house had been flooded. The water went away after a day, but this road has been upgrading for a long time now. It was down to one lane for a couple of kilometers.

It just so happened that the part that flooded was the part they were working on. It got washed away. We are told it could be months before it is repaired. Maeghan kept waiting for it to be opened before she went back but after a week, we decided to take the longer way around to get to her house. That way takes about an hour. I have never been that way, so I am not sure what you can find by doing that. I think there is a small shopping center along that way. I know there is one over in that area, we have been to it before, but I am not sure if the road you take goes by it. I am assuming it does not as Maeghan would have mentioned it for sure and she never has. It would be too far for her to take her wheelchair, but it should be closer than going all the way to our house and the shopping centers there.

Well, I am going to have to stop for a minute. I will try to get back to it but for now, I have to move out to the front desk. Be back soon, hopefully.

Ok, I'm back. Had to open the doors and get the loan laptops ready but I don't see many students around. It is raining, so maybe that will keep them away. No one else is here yet. Normally, no one gets here until 7:30 anyway, but a couple of them have been coming in early. Not today.

Back to the Maeghan saga. She went home a couple of days ago. She did come over yesterday. She took the bus, which she says takes about twice as long as the original bus and she has to go to a different spot to catch it. I probably need to go over there and figure all this out, but with the rain, it being so hot, and me being unhealthy for so long, it might not happen anytime soon. Juanita took her home and I stayed in bed.

Speaking of Juanita, she has been working for a while, since before Christmas. She started by cleaning a private school near us. When Christmas came, the work stopped, so she started working at the shopping center near us. Doing cleaning work. She likes it better, even though she has to work a full eight hours, because it is indoors in the air conditioning. At the school, they turn the air off, so it was always hot there. Problem is, for some reason the shopping center has stopped calling her for work. She hasn't been in for a week. She has asked to do the schoolwork again, but I am not sure they have an opening anymore. Hopefully, the shopping center picks up and she gets to stay working there. It's long hours but it means she doesn't necessarily have to work every day like she does at the school.

Adam in the garage left yesterday. He says he will not be back, but I have my doubts. Secretly, I don't want him back under any circumstances but don't tell anyone. I have my reasons, but I have hated it the whole time he has been there. Now we get to try it without having to work around him.

It becomes important because we have lost the last of our people who were paying part of our rent. No Maeghan, no grandkids, no Adam. Guess we have to get William set up in Centrelink so he starts getting paid for doing nothing and can give us rent money. He is 18 now. We won't go into the Centrelink problems.

I still don't know if William has any plans. Now with Adam gone, maybe he will start thinking about it more seriously. I always thought it was a bad example to have no one in the house working except me. It gives the wrong idea of how life works. He sees Adam doing nothing all the time and does not understand that you have to work every day, in a job, if you want to get anywhere. Now that he does not have the bad example, maybe he will get motivated. I doubt it.

Well, I started off saying I was going to talk about my health. That is not going to happen this time. Sorry to disappoint. It's a sad and winding tale. Maybe next time. Maybe today, if I get tired of working and just quit. Always a possibility, or it was when Juanita was working. Now, not so much.

It is Maeghan's 21st in a couple of weeks. No plans at the moment but I did just spend a lot of money on her present. Juanita says we cannot afford it, but she needs it, and she does not have the money, so someone had to do it. That's my job.

I am going to call it quits for the day, or at least for this entry. Been too long since anyone came in so I am expecting a rush at any moment. School actually starts in 20 minutes. They should be more students. But that's it for me.

Until next time,

Later

Remember

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

MWNews 237

It's another try. Got about 15 minutes, or less, before work. See what we can see.

Going back, I don't think I ever mentioned that Maeghan moved out. Well, sort of. She has moved all her stuff to a different place, but she spends a lot of time with us. Almost all weekends and several times during the week. 

She moved in with some girls she does not know, into a share house about 20-30 minutes away. It would be a lot closer, but there is no direct route to it. You have to cross over the freeway and that means driving all the way to the nearest exit then crossing and coming back. A place called Beachmere. And, as the name implies, it is on the beach, or most of it is. She lives about two blocks from the beach. 

It is not a big house but has three bedrooms so there are three girls. She recently had to move from one bedroom to another because the roof was leaking in her original bedroom. It was the smallest and the new one is a bit larger. Not much, but a bit.

This is something that needed to happen. Maeghan and William spend way too much time with us. They need to start their own lives and find new friends and people they can go visit. I love having them around and they are welcome to live with me for the rest of their lives, but I will not be here forever and they need to have other people and interests. Their mother basically takes over anything they do and does not let them decide what they want or what they should do, so anything that happens is still over-shadowed by their proximity to us. I hate it for a lot of reasons, but it had to happen. Maeghan needs friends. William needs friends and with the way things are, they only have us.

I really worry about their future. I really worry about it. But let's not dwell on it now.

Maeghan's best friend is now in Melbourne. She is a nurse and has taken a job there. Hard to say best friend since she has not seen her in a few years but they still talk at least once a week on the phone. Maeghan plans on going to visit her in March. Not sure how that is going to work, but she needs to figure it out and make it happen. I don't see how, but it can be done and I am trying to stay out of it and not do it for her. I might have to intervene to make it happen, but for now, she is on her own. There were always plans on them living together at some point, but that was always a dream and not really a reality that was going to happen. I would like it if it would. Not sure how I would handle being that far from her all the time, but it has to happen. I will not be here forever.

Going to have to go. I will leave this open and see if I can get back to it. Probably not, but we can hope.

No one coming in, so I will type. 

Neither of the kids have job prospects. I think Maeghan has something that might start in March or April, but I am not sure. Her other job fell through because they wanted her to drive there every day. That was not possible as it was out in the country and there were no buses close by. I am not sure what the new prospect is, but maybe it is something a bit closer.

William had some really bad news. I think I mentioned it. He does not qualify for being a fireman. The restrictions are just too high. Maybe, if he works at it, but I don't see that happening. I am afraid his fall back position is the army. Not that it would be bad, but he would definitely be moving away and I am not sure how often we would see him and I am not sure he could handle that. Maybe that would be the for the best also. It would give him a career and I would not have to worry about it so much. 

I am trying to set it up so that we will not depend on the kids in any way as we get older. I am hoping I don't have to die to make them financially viable. Life insurance and supper and all. They would be a lot better off financially. But then they wouldn't have me, so the downside is more than the upside. By all rights, I should be retired. I am not well enough to work anymore, but I took my current job because doing contract work was just holding me in place. It wasn't making anything better. With the steady job, I can make plans and get ready for actual retirement. Our biggest problem is we do not own a house. Without that, expenses go through the roof. I will not be able to buy a house anytime soon, but I can get everything else in place so we have no expenses except rent when I retire. It's a lot of financial stuff.

I should be leaving this entry now. Been getting a sentence in every once and a while but I am afraid it is not making any sense anymore. I'll try to do more later, but not today. I don't feel well again, been over a month, so typing is an issue. I'm just a bundle of joy.

Until next time,

Later

Remember

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

 

MWNews 236

 Let's see. No way I will be able to type for long. I actually started this yesterday. I put the picture in it but was immediately interrupted and never got back to it. So I will try again today. Maybe I can do this at this time of day. It is just before the doors open and I get here half an hour before that, so maybe this will be a good time to get it done. I usually have other stuff to do, but we are way over staffed now, so I might have some time for myself.

The picture is from the Christmas lights we went to. I decided rather than trying to find a picture that has both of the kids in it, I will just go to the first one I find that has at least one of them in it, or maybe I will just use any picture I find. won't go into the difficulties of trying to see who is in a picture and if it is a good one or not. Let's just say they are very small on the phone when I try to transfer them to here and I spend a lot of time switching back and forth.

Ok, it is time for me to open the doors. Someone should already be here but no one has arrived yet. I'll have to go out and sit at the front desk just in case. If no one shows up, I might be able to continue, but don't count on it.

It's the next day. Was never able to get back to this. Doesn't look like I will be able to do this at work. If I am to continue, I will need to find another way to do it.

I'll try to give a couple of quick updates. Maeghan has graduated. She has a diploma in childcare. I probably went through that fairly thoroughly in the past.

William has graduated. He graduated 12th grade. Doesn't have any real plans yet, but he sort of looks. He did want to apply to be a fireman at one point, but the barriers and requirements for that are a bit steep. He might try anyway, but I doubt it. Right now, he lives at home.

Speaking of which, Maeghan has moved out. She is living in a share house with a couple of other girls. It is about 20 minutes away, in Beachmere. She lives a couple of hundred yards from the ocean, near Bribie Island. Not that she is there a lot. She spends a lot of time at our house, but it is usually because she has to go somewhere, and she stays the night, so we don't have to go pick her up for it. The bus to get to us is about an hour's trip and doesn't appear to be a reliable service. Mainly because the road in and out of there is under construction and half of it is closed most of the time, so traffic backs up a lot.

As much as I would like to continue, I have work to do. My health has deteriorated severely but that will have to wait. I am seriously considering retiring. But I have to go. Just heard someone come in so I have to go check on them.

Until next time,

Later

Remember

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