MWNews 73

It is the middle of the night and I am working on something else, but I thought I would give this another try.

Seems I am finally able to upload pictures to the blog. As many of you know, or maybe none of you know, or maybe there is no one here to actually know, I lost my computer recently. It blew up or lost the ability to actually start. I think the problem is the power supply or the video card but as the computer is three years old and this is the second time this has happened, I opted to buy another computer instead of keeping the old one alive. It still sits on the desk as a sort of monument to all the fun I have had in the past, but it no longer houses a hard drive and therefor, even if I wanted to fix it, it would not start.

For some unknown reason, I went and bought a Mac. Maybe it was the seductive curves or the clean lines and pretty pictures. Maybe I was seduced by the large screen and no actual computer box. Maybe it was because Juanita wanted one. She said it was pretty. There was no real good reason to buy it, but I now own a 25 inch or 23 inch or whatever the biggest one they make is, sitting on my desk and I am typing on it now. Even the keyboard is different, very thin and the keys are very small and thin. It makes typing harder, I think, but I have no proof of that.

Having no experience with or having never even signed on to a Mac, I can tell you that it is different. I have yet to find the part that is better, but it is different. Things are not where they would seem to be and I have no idea how or why they work the way they do. I can't say they are better, I cannot even say they are worse. I suppose I will get used to it but I keep trying to do things that would be normal for a PC but have no meaning or no equivalent action on the Mac. The simple act of closing a file does not seem to work as it puts it in the task bar and never really closes it. Maybe I am just doing it wrong.

I do like the way it installs it products. It tells you what to do once you run the appropriate install file. Most of them are .dmg files but that has only been my latest experience. Having installed thousands of applications on a PC, there appears to be the one method for doing it so far on the Mac. I suppose I will learn more about it as I go.

I seem to keep saying that a lot. I will learn more about it as I go. To be honest, I am almost to the point of installing Windows on the system and dual booting. Maybe later but I cannot even figure out how to uninstall an application. It appears to be just drag it to the trash can but I have no idea if that works or if I am just getting rid of icons. I bought a new external drive so I could store things on it, but when I told the Mac to backup the files to there, it used the entire disk just for the backups. It says I can copy files to there also, but that is supposed to be a bad idea, so now I think I have to buy another external drive just to keep for storage.

And just so I can continue the complaint thread, I do not have broadband connection yet for the house. Only this lousy mobile phone network that varies in speed from non-existent to very, very slow. That has been the real problem with getting back into the blog in that all my pictures are on the new Mac and when I try to upload them via Safari, it times out before it actually sends the pictures. I finally had to download Firefox, something else I have never used, in order for it to stay active long enough to actually send a single picture. One finally made it. Maybe it is because it is the middle of the night and there is no one to compete with, but it took all day to finally get the file sent.

Bottom line is, updates may not be as often as I would like. The amount of trouble it takes to try to get a new entry in place just may not be worth the hassle. We will just wait and see. I think I will have to take all my pictures to work and do it from there. One thing in Firefox's favor, it does seem to load a lot faster that Safari and it is a whole lot easier to use. After I learn more about it, maybe it will be a preferred browser. Maybe not.

This is supposed to be about the kids. Maeghan seems to think she can use the computer, so it is vaguely applicable that this is about her, but not really. She is not allowed to touch the new computer or she can only do it if she is sitting in my lap while she enter things. All she really knows how to do is click on things but she does know which ones to click on to make things work.

Speaking of working, I am about to have to do something over there so I will have to make this really short. And as I type, I am beginning to really hate this keyboard. But anyway, quick news about the kids.

William spent a couple of days in the hospital due to some virus or something. He was running a pretty constant temperature for two days and the doctors never did figure out why. The sent him home and said if it did not clear up, to bring him back. He finally got over it after about a week but we have never found out what it might have been caused by. Maeghan, or any of us, never got sick. We are hoping it is over. There were a lot of sick kids at the hospital, but most of them just have the flu or colds. William never had any symptoms other than the fever.

Maeghan had her school fete the other day. More like a garage sale than anything entertaining but we went and it was OK. Too hot and humid to really enjoy anything but the kids seemed to have fun.

She has been selected to do something special in her ballet play. I am not sure what it is yet, but she has to go to extra practices each week to learn the routine. This is in addition to her extra practices for the normal class. We have film of last years but the battery on my camera only lasts for an hour and last years went for almost two hours. I only filmed the parts that had Maeghan in them but I think she will be involved in a lot more this year so I am going to have to find a way to plug the camera in while it is filming. Maybe I will do a better job than last year but the camera we have is not all that sophisticated so it does not do that great a job.

I have to go now. Not only do I have to work, but typing on this keyboard really hurts. It is too flat to the desk and is not raised like a normal keyboard should be. How do all these Mac people do this and like it. Guess I will get used to it.

Until next time

Talk to you later

MWNews 72

I don't know if I mentioned in the last post that Juanita is back. I might have, but I cannot be bothered to go back and look so lets just say she is back and we are happy to have her. She tried to sneak into the house when she came home but when she went into where the kids were, William jumped up and said Mommy! and came running over.

After giving her hugs, he said 'my name is William', as if Juanita might have forgotten. Maeghan got hugs and kisses and was carried around. William spent the next several days asking where mommy was anytime she was not in direct site. I think he was going to make sure she did not leave again.

It was touch and go for a while about whether Juanita's mother would come back with her or not. In the end, she decided to stay in Tasmania, but we were a little worried for a while. I asked her if she was going to be ok staying with the kids. She said she could be our live in baby sitter. I didn't mention that I meant staying with the other kids, at their house. Since she decided not to come over, we didn't have to cross that bridge.

Not that we do not enjoy having her over, and Juanita's father for that matter. We really like having them around, but I think they are wary of upsetting me all the time and tend to not be themselves or are not comfortable living in our house. I know I do all the cooking and Juanita's mother isn't too comfortable with that. She tries to make up for it by cleaning all the time. It is not really a problem, but she tries to clean up while I am cooking and most of the time ends up being in the way. But really, we don't mind having them here and will probably end up taking care of one or the other of them at some point in the future. Hopefully, we will have a big enough house before that happens.

Juanita has been back for a week now and we have not been to the park since she has come back. We went almost every day while she was away but I guess we have had other things to do and have not had a chance to walk anywhere. Maybe today, if Juanita decides to get dressed. She is cleaning the house and this might be a day when she does not go out anywhere all day. The kids are getting restless wanting something to do, so I think we will be going out soon.

It has been raining over the weekend. We just finished a long weekend for labor day or memorial day or something. I can't remember any of the Australian holidays. It rained the whole time, so we did not do much. We went for a drive yesterday, but other than seeing this really sophisticated electronic dog, not a lot happened. Juanita and I enjoy seeing the houses and seeing which ones are for sale or rent, but the kids get bored real quick and generally just go to sleep when we go for these types of drives.

We drove to Woy Woy and stopped to have coffee there. That is where we saw this dog. It is a life sized border collie and looks just like a real dog. It reacts to things you say or do with it. For example, if you scratch its ear, it will raise its neck up towards you and then start scratching with its leg. When you stop, it makes little whimpering noises and tries to get closer to you. If you hold something in front of it, it will take it in its mouth and pretend to be chewing on it. Mostly, it drops whatever you have given it, but it tries to roll it around in its mouth like it is playing with it. If you ask it to shake hands, it will raise it paw. When you stop talking to it or petting it, it will lie down and occasionally, raise its head and bark. It was a really sophisticated dog.

Other than that, there was not much to tell about the drive. We did see where a tree branch had fallen across some power lines and was starting to catch fire. Several people had stopped and they were calling the fire department. I didn't realise what it was until I was already driving under it so I gunned the engine to get out of the way before we stopped and looked. I didn't see anything on the news about it, so I assume it did not cause any major problems anywhere.

We found a couple of places we had never seen before, which is really the whole point of these little trips. We used to do it all the time, but with the price of petrol and the fact that we have been almost everywhere locally now, we don't get out for these drives as much as I would like to anymore. And, there is the kids, who are just plain bored by the whole thing unless I find places to stop all the time and then it is a chore to get them out of the car and then get them back in to drive some more.

We found a little beach area that we did not know about and it was even patrolled by lifesavers when we drove passed. There were lots of people there and we wondered how they could stand it as it had just rained and it was not very warm and the water I think is at 17 degrees this time of year, so it must have been a really desperate experience for all those people who were in the water. We will probably not go back to there as the water seemed to have a cliff type thing right at the edge where, if you went more than ten feet into the waves, you dropped off to water that was four or five feet deep, instead of gradually rolling out and getting deeper. The location was nice, if maybe a little hard to find, but I would not want the kids getting in the water at that beach. There are plenty of other beaches that are closer and better suited to having kids play in them, so it is no great loss not going back to this one.

Of course, the kids wanted to get out and play. We told them it was raining, but since it was not raining when we actually said this, they immediately pointed this out. I said look at the water running along the side of the road, but Meaghan pointed out that they were not going to play on the road. They wanted to play in the sand. Hard to argue with that logic. I just had to be the bad guy and say no. She went to sleep shortly after that. William had already been asleep and was wide awake but he did not say anything from that point on. I could not see him, but I could imagine him sitting in the back sulking.

Sometimes, on these drives, we try to keep the kids entertained. William is learning a lot of new songs but he does not sing them correctly and kind of repeats himself a lot. Maeghan knows all these songs and she sings them correctly and loudly to try to drown out William, and to show off that she knows the songs. This gets William upset and before long, we are telling both of them to be quiet and no more singing. Then we have to keep them entertained in other ways.

One of our favorite games is to spot the animals in the fields. Both of them like this game and they look for horses and cows and anything else they can find. By the way, my keyboard seems to have stopped working correctly and I am spending a lot of time retyping things. If this goes on much longer, I am going to have to stop typing.

Anyway, they like looking for the horses and cows. One time, a few weeks ago, we were looking at the cows and passing a field that did not seem to have anything in it. William said cows and pointed at the empty field. We said we don't see any cows but he said cows again and pointed at the field. We said we do not see any cows and asked him where he saw them. He said 'the cows are in the trees'. I almost had to pull over and stop laughing. Just another one of those things that kids that age say that are just so funny and truly amazing when they come up with them. Even Maeghan started laughing at that one.

The kids are really starting to play up now and this keyboard thing is starting to really bug me, so I am going to have to cut this story short. I am not sure what else I had to say, but I am sure there was a lot of it. Guess it will have to wait as I think Maeghan is plotting Williams demise even as I type.

So, until next time

Talk to you later

MWNews 71

Juanita comes back today. Its been about two weeks, or maybe more. As Maeghan said a couple of days after she left, 'its a good thing we have all these pictures of mommy 'cause I was forgetting what she looked like'. I debated whether to tell Juanita about that or not but finally broke down and told her yesterday. I knew it would make her cry but I told her anyway just to let her know how much the kids missed her. And me, of course. But she gets back sometime today and we are busy cleaning the house so it is not a total mess mess when she gets here.

The problem with that theory is that she will not see what it looks like now. She won't be able to tell how much work we are putting into cleaning it up. Might take us all day, but she probably will not be here until late tonight anyway. I am going to try to keep the kids awake for it, but I think the real problem will be keeping me awake until she gets here. I am ready to go to sleep now and it is only 10 am.

On another note, did anyone notice how bad my typing was in the last post. Not that it is really good at any time, but it seems the last one was particularly bad. I gave up trying to use the spell checker on this a long time ago, but I think it is time to reinvestigate how to do it. I have the MSWord tool to write blogs from there, but I have never tried it. Maybe that will be a better option. At least it might make it readable. Of course, this one might be just as bad and I can't tell until I post it. Seems to me there must be a better way to do it. I know if I find a way, I will come to rely on it and then it will stop working. But lets hope I get better sometime soon.

Maeghan is on school holidays this week and next. She thought the weekend was her holiday and told me I forgot to take her to school on Monday. I tried to explain it was two weeks and not two days but I don't really think she understands the concept yet. She only knows that things are sometime later and since we always tell her to wait a minute before we do something, and those minutes can sometimes last hours, her sense of time has been totally screwed up by us. But, she can read a clock, which is more than most of her brothers and sisters could do even when they were still in school. I assume they can read an analogue clock now, but I can never be sure since everything is mostly digital these days. Maeghan will go into her room, where she has an analogue clock, and come out and tell us what time it is. Or mostly, what time it is. She has trouble with anything after thirty past the hour since we normally say that is something like 20 till 2 or something like that. I think that confuses her. She knows 25 after, but not 25 till. As I write that, I cannot really blame her as it is confusing me right now. But we will get over it together, I suppose.

William will still go to day care on Thursday. They do not close for the school holidays like Maeghan's old day care did. At least, I think he will be going. I am not all that pleased with them at the moment and since we are a week behind in payments, they might take this opportunity to not be pleased with me and we will come to the agreement to not send him anymore.

I wasn't all that in favor of sending him anyway. He is only two and will start going to school soon enough. I thought he could stay home with mommy until he starts preschool at 4. After spending the last two weeks with him, I can understand the need to have someone else take care of him at least one day a week. Not that I got to do anything on the one day I was without kids, but I was looking forward to it when it came. William is OK most of the time while he sits and watches TV, but I start to feel guilty about having a TV as a baby sitter, so I get him going on something else and that is when he starts to get rowdy and naughty and you end up yelling at him for no apparent reason other than he has just thrown a bucket of popcorn all over the room or he jumped off the lounge and knocked the bird cage over. Or he has thrown his cars into the window or just little things like that. Anything he can do to cause you to not let him out of your site for any amount of time, he will find a way to do. Makes it hard to work, but what can you do.

Yesterday, I found that the HD channels on the TV has one that is kids programs all day long. We don't have cable and the kids programs normally end around 10 and start up again at 3, but I found on ABC2 that they show all the programs all day long. Some of them are repeats of what they showed in the morning, but not all. Maeghan and William sat and watched the entire day and I finally got several hours work done. They are in there right now watching it again but as you can tell, I am not working, just writing this entry. Which, by the way, I started several hours ago, but have uploaded photos, photo shopped them (is photo shopped a word for adjusting the pictures?), and finally begun to write this. You can see it was well worth your wait.

By the way, the picture I have used is from the Arakoon camping trip (the last one we took). This sign is about three feet from the front our tent. We had our own exclusive beach access. I am sure if the park had been crowded, we would have had a constant stream of people through our camp site going to the beach, but I am certain we will not stay that close to the beach again anytime soon. I told you about the wind we had while we were there. Well, the next week, they had an actual gale on the coast. I am not sure if it hit where we were, but it was in the area. I am not certain we would have survived. The wind we had was bad enough.

I have lots of other pictures from the trip, over a hundred, so I can post some of them in future posts. It makes it kind of hard only posting one at a time as I take more pictures all the time and I want to post them also. So I never really get all the pictures I want into the blog. I have considered putting them up on some web site, but I have over 4000 pictures on my computer and to upload all of them and catalogue them and do all the things you need to do to put them up would take some amount of time I do not want to consider. And, if I choose to only post a few of them, how do I decide which ones to post and then how do I remember what I have already posted and where I put it. As you can see, it is a real dilemma. Guess, some day, I will figure it all out. Not today.

I took the kids for a walk last Sunday, just for something different to do. We have been going to the park about every other day, and if not to the park, then to McDonald's so they can play in the playground and I can have a coffee in peace. Well, since I have run out of money for McDonald's and don't have enough petrol in the car to continue to waste it, I decided we could go for a walk to the servo. Now, there are several australianisms in that last couple of sentences and normally, I would take the time to point them out and explain them. But, as a token of how much I have settled into to everyday life here in Australia, I will let them go and not bother to type out an explanation. Either that, or my back is hurting from sitting up and typing all this and I just cannot be bothered to explain them.

The walk was not a long walk, only about 2k. That's two kilometers for those who measure things with their feet. Don't ask me how long 2k is as I don't really know. It just seemed like something I would call 2k. Might have been longer, probably was shorter, but we walked to the new group of shops at the other end of the road. I took the pram (see, always thinking ahead) and the kids rode most of the way. Maeghan walked a fair bit of the way there, but we were next to a major road and I could not trust William to stay with me, so I put him in the pram. He tried to walk back, but only lasted about a hundred yards before he wanted to get back in the pram.

There is a KFC at the shops, and a Pizza Hut, a chicken place and a Subway, but no McDonald's. So the kids had chicken nuggets or whatever it is they call them at KFC. While we were there, a family of about 30 people came in and filled the dining room. I am not sure how they got there as there were only three cars in the parking lot and they did not look like they had walked from anywhere. They ordered lots of food and were there to have a good time. I am not sure going to KFC is a real destination for a good time but they all seemed to think it was a real treat. Then again, with the prices of KFC, it might have been the families once a year outing for all I know.

We were just about finished when they came in but we had stayed around a while to listen to the music and rest up for the trip back. From previous posts, you might know that Maeghan is quite a dancer. Not so much lately, but she can still dance when she feels like it. William, it turns out, also likes to dance. And he thinks it is hilarious when I dance with him. I am not sure why. Maybe he just enjoys watching me or maybe I just look ridiculous. I am not sure which. They were playing some VH1 or something on their big screen TV. All the fast food shops over here are putting in big screen TVs and showing either music videos or sports programs all the time. We were dancing to some of the music. Not all of it, as some things they play are really bad, but William seems to like the head banger stuff and Maeghan will dance to anything with a beat. So we danced, and the family that came in laughed and then kept pointing at William. I am still not sure why.

It only takes about half an hour to walk back, but on the way, we go by the park where the kids like to play. So, we spent another hour there while they played. I think it was an hour but I do not really know. I fell asleep on the bench and was only awakened when William told me he had hurt his head. Maeghan said he had fallen on something, but I never found out what it was. We decided to go home from that point. All in all, it was a good walk and we might have to do it again someday. I am not too keen on the walking beside the major road, but there is nothing else around to walk to, so it would seem this is our only choice. We could walk the other way to the grocery store, but that is further and only has the grocery store there when you arrive. And, it is a small grocery store at that, so not a lot of excitement in walking there. The only other choice is the coffee shop, but they are closed on weekends as it is in the middle of an industrial area and only caters to the workers in there. I am not sure how they will make money in that location, but they have just opened and maybe they know something I don't. We went there once, driving, and it was OK, but nothing to write home about. Then again, maybe it was as I am writing about it here.

I am going to have close this now. My back hurts and I am typing worse and worse as I go. Not sure if you can tell. It might look all the same to you as you read it, but I keep having to go back and over type things all the time. And besides, I can hear William and Maeghan starting to get each other into trouble, so the cartoons must have worn off for now. I will have to find something for them to do while I finish cleaning the house.

So, until next time

Talk to you later

MWNews 70

This is our previous camping trip to Wombeyan Caves. This is the exit to the cave tour. I am not sure how to spell Wombeyan, but since you are never likely to visit there, it is a safe bet that any way I spell it, you will never know the difference.

I was going to put some pictures from the recent camping trip, but apparently, I have not downloaded them off the camera yet. I was trying to find a picture that has a recent image of Maeghan and William. I could not find one that has them close enough together so you can compare the size. Then again, they are never close together for very long. One of them will always do something to the other so that they have to be separated. I would say they fight like brother and sister but Maeghan does not really fight, or so she will tell you. It is always something that William is doing and she is totally innocent. I haven't actually caught her at it, but I am fairly certain that she baits William into doing things that will get him into trouble. Being older, smarter, and yet still smaller than William, she can usually maneuver him into doing something that will get him yelled at. Then she can be seen as the sweet princess that she is. It works out well for her.

I don't think I mentioned the Wombeyan cave camping trip. Must have been during the dark times when I was incapacitated and not allowed to enter new entries into the blog. We made that trip around Easter this year. I have lots of photos from the trip. I really need to put up some web albums, but then again, who would be interested except me and I already have all the photos.

The Wombeyan caves are about 4 hours from here. It was a nice place and we think we will go back sometime. Of course, they had caves. None of which you could explore for free, but we went on one of the tours and it was nice. Juanita and William stayed at the camp as she was not feeling well and I didn't think I could manage William and Maeghan at the same time. We camped with Natalie and Adam and Angela and three of the grandkids. In the picture is Anna. She stayed the last two days with us after all the others had left. We spent the first two days yelling at all the kids and trying to keep them from running off. When we first arrived, we were the only ones there. We got there on the Wednesday before Easter and everyone did not start showing up until Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, the place was completely packed. We had spread out a little to save room for the others that came on Friday, but even then, we were packed in so we could barely get out of our camp site between everyone else's tents.

We had a good time and learned a lot about out new tent we had just bought. It took almost two hours to put it up as the instructions that came with it were in some engineering code we could not decipher. We ended up looking at the picture of the tent and trying to make it look like that. After we had it up, and had all the poles and connections made, the instructions finally made a little sense. There are a few places where it says to connect two poles and those poles do not exist. Now, after doing it twice, I think we can manage it on the next trip.

But I was going to talk about Maeghan and her doctor this time. Seems I have wandered off the beaten path again and got into another camping story. I suppose that is not so bad. William has just come into the room and gripped my arm. Yes I am doing this from home, another long story. I think he wants something to eat. Means I will probably forget everything that I was going to type, but I have to go and feed him now. Actually, I am hungry but I am sure he is too, so I will take a break and find something interesting in the kitchen. Not that you will notice anything. Be back soon.

Ok, I am back. Now where was I. And for all of you who live for the culinary parts of these messages, I am only having leftovers. Some sausage, some rice and some potatoes. Threw them all into a pan, stir fried them for a bit and added some hot peppers, after I had taken out a token portion for William. And no, I am not going to go into another tirade about the quality and quantity of hot peppers here in Australia. For some reason, Australians seem to think that people who eat hot peppers, and they call them all chilis over here, just do so to get the heat. So none of them have flavour and none of them are really hot so it really becomes a waste of time to even buy them and cook with them. I keep trying.

Ok, a little tirade. Anyway, I was going to talk about Maeghan and her trip to the doctor. It was not all good news this time but not really bad news either. A lot of doctors saw her, or so I am told, and some of them seemed to have concerns. They were not pleased with the way she is walking. They indicated that if she was bigger, this could cause a lot of problems but she has avoided the problems because of her small size. They are not sure what is causing it, but they are scheduling an MRI sometime in the future. At this writing, we have not received anything yet, but they said it would be a couple of months. They scheduled a new appointment for her in six months. We do not know if it is something to worry about or if it something she will get over. Actually, I don't think the doctors know either. We are still mostly wait and see with Maeghan as no one has been able to predict what will or will not happen with her from the beginning.

She did get a wheel chair this time. They seemed surprised that she had not already received her customized version and gave them one of theirs until it actually arrives. Not that she really needs a wheel chair. They gave it too her because she gets tired easily but I think she just takes advantage of the situation and tries to get someone to pick her up just for the cuddles. She can walk with no problems and does not get that tired that often. Part of it might be that her parents are old and overweight and can't carry even her little weight for very long. But maybe she does need it.

I am told that when she got it, she immediately could maneuver it around the halls and rooms in the hospital. She does wheelies and spins and donuts and anything else she can think of that might be fun. Since we brought it home, she terrorizes people at the malls. Running up and down the isles and running over peoples feet and just generally getting in the way. And everyone apologises to her for getting in her way. She can push past people and run over their feet and they will turn to us and say how sorry they are and they will try to do better and not get in her way. Nothing is ever her fault, but I think we established that back in the beginning of this blog.

So, we wait for the MRI to see if it tells us anything or if they can come up with a new plan for her. I don't recall what the specific things are that they are worried about but she seems to favour her right side and she rolls her feet from side to side when she walks, almost to the point of walking on her ankles. She has never had strong ankles, or legs, or feet, or anything else for that matter, but I think that is what keeps her from running normally as she cannot land and push off from her feet flatfooted, if that makes any sense. I am not that worried but I have had all her life to prepare for anything that might come up, so maybe that is why I don't get worked up about it. Of course, that is just the front I put forward for her and everyone else, but my personnel feelings go beyond what I can express.

Juanita is not here right now. And when I say not here, I mean not even in the same state or even on the same land mass. She is in Tasmania. Now, if you think about it, I have mentioned that William has come in and pulled on my arm and I might have given other hints that Maeghan is at school or doing things around the house and at home. You could correctly infer from that, that I am here alone with the kids while Juanita is in Tasmania. Which is precisely the situation I am in at the moment.

Before we go jumping to conclusions and wondering what has gone wrong between Juanita and myself, I have to say that nothing is wrong. Juanita's aunt died this week and she went over to be with her mother. It was going to be way too costly to send the kids over with her, they have to pay full fair these days, so I said they could stay here with me and I would work from home.

Well, the stay here with me part is happening but the work from home seems to be taking a back seat. I do not get a lot of work done having to watch William all the time and both of them at night. It has only been a week but I am so far behind with my work that I am just going to ignore it for a while. Maybe it will all go away. My only backup support goes on vacation at the end of this week, for three weeks, so if Juanita does not come back soon, I will be alone in supporting everything at work and alone with the kids all the time. One would think I should be looking for a new job soon. Hopefully not. I have told them I can do my work at night, but after taking care of William all day, I am too tired by the time I put them to bed. Which, by the way, is supposed to be 7:30 each night but I am fairly certain they have not gone to bed before 8:30 on any given night. I tell them 7:30, but they somehow manage to put it off for as long as possible. Maybe I should try to actually put them in the beds at night. Who knows, but I do know their mother has a lot to answer for when she gets back.

Just kidding honey, in case you are reading these from over there and I am not nearby to explain. And if you are not reading these, then I am telling everybody else it is all your fault the kids do not go to bed on time. And, that they do not take baths or clean up after themselves or get to school on time.

Again, kidding. She may not come back now just to spite me.

Ok, it is time to go pick up Maeghan from school, or almost time. I am sure William has gone to sleep in the other room, I haven't heard anything break in a while, so I will have to bundle him up and put him in the car. It is raining here now and has gotten a little cold. I forgot Maeghan's rain coat this morning but she has a jumper in her bag if she remembers it is there. Hopefully, she is not too cold and wet. They were having a teddy bear picnic today and I am not sure what they have done since it is raining. There is no lunch room or large assembly hall at this school. Just a small stage and room that only holds about a third of the students at a time. They probably have gone in there.

Maybe next time, I will update everyone on how I have really coped with being alone with the kids for weeks at a time. That is assuming I have survived.

So, until next time

Talk to you later

MWNews 69

See, I didn't finish the story when I got home. Can't remember why, but I have an extra half an hour before I leave for work today, so I thought I would try to add to the camping story.

As you can see, I have added two pictures this time. Neither of which is current or from a camping trip, but it is what I had. I think I have posted from this set of pictures before. It is one of the beaches near us. Actually, it is near Shelly Beach, where we used to live. We went for a walk one day and I took a lot of pictures.

And so I can keep with the theme of always finding something to complain about, the blog is not working as it should and I am having to use two lines between paragraphs instead of just one. Normally, it fills in the extra line for me, but does not seem to be doing that now. Might be something I have done but if the paragraphs in this post are separated by huge gaps, it is not my fault.

The third day of camping was perfect. You could not ask for a better day. Clear skies, not too warm or too cold, very little wind. As I said, perfect.

We had promised the kids they could spend all day on the beach that day and we decided to walk from the camp grounds, around the bay area, to the town across the bay. We had visited it briefly the day before and it looked like a pleasant walk if we went along the beach.

It was probably only about two miles, but after taking an hour and a half to walk one way, it seemed a lot farther. Juanita had convinced me to walk all that way without shoes. It was sand, no rocks and the sand was compacted enough to be able to push the pram.

Now, I have to explain, that I am an American. And while most kids go barefoot most of the time in America, as an adult, I always wear shoes. I think it is a cultural thing. You know the signs, no shirt, no shoes, no service. I grew up with that idea and have lived my life by it.

In Australia, they take their shoes off most of the time. Most houses, there is a little pile of shoes just outside the front door. You are expected to take your shoes off anytime you enter someone's house. Being American, I never do, but it is expected and everyone seems to comply with that option. Even repair workers and salesmen take their shoes off when they come into your house. I have no idea how or where this tradition started, but it seems to be generally accepted here in Australia.

Well, walking a couple of miles with no shoes on was not all that fun. Even if the sand was soft and there were no rocks or anything to walk on. By the time we got to the town, my feet were killing me. It was only the prospect of having to walk all the way back that kept me from falling down and crying because of the pain. Juanita was not effected at all and, of course, the kids had no problems with it either. The did spend most of the time walking in the waves as they rolled in but I tried that a couple of times and besides the fact that the pram would not roll in the wet sand, it was bloody cold in the water. I was not going to stay in there no matter how good it might feel on my aching feet.

I have mentioned the pram a couple of times. I decided it would be a good idea to take it with us. Not only because I knew the kids would get tired and want to be picked up but also, it made a convenient place to hold everything we were taking with us.

We brought water, cokes, snacks, jumpers (in case it got cold), buckets for digging and the kites in case we wanted to rest and fly them. The kites got taken out almost immediately, but there was not enough wind to keep them aloft. After letting them rise a few times and then having the wind die and they come crashing down into the water, I decided it was not worth the effort and put them away.

The buckets never got used as the kids were playing in the water too much. The drinks were finished in the first 45 minutes, so for the next 45 minutes, we had nothing to drink.

William spent the most time in the pram. He was not feeling well and spent about 30 minutes at the start resting. After a while, he got out and played with the Maeghan and Juanita. We changed his nappy and left it off of him for a little while. He thought that was just wonderful. He came running up to me and said, 'Dad, look'. He bent over and showed me his bare bottom and ran off laughing. Everyone seemed to think this was hilarious. I am not so sure. I took as a sign of things to come when he gets older. Guess only time will tell.

Maeghan walked the entire way over. She never got tired and ran and splashed the whole way. She found some shells and some sticks and never once complained about being tired or wanting to get into the pram. I am not sure how she managed it. I was exhausted. She kept going and going. Even when we arrived, she wanted to go play in the playground we knew was there and would not let us rest or sit for any amount of time. We managed to get them both in the public showers to rinse off the sand, but they were straight over to the park after that. I wanted to lie down and sleep but could not find a comfortable enough place to do it. Besides, it was lunch time and I was hungry.

We went for fish and chips. The shop owner tried to warn me that I had ordered too much food, but I would not listen and we ended up with about three times as much chips as we wanted. Normally, having too much food is not a problem, but there were a lot of chips. Maeghan and Juanita spent the time picking out the crispy ones. Too much trouble to explain what that means, but they both say they only eat crispy chips and leave all the others to me and William.

After lunch, we went to play again and I tried to sleep on the bench. I had better luck sleeping sitting up but could not find a comfortable spot when I tried to lay down. After about two hours, we decided it was time to go back.

The kids played for about the first half hour, then they wanted in the pram. William went right to sleep. Maeghan stayed awake, probably because it was not comfortable for her but after an hour of that, she got out and started playing in the water again. It took about the same amount of time to get back. I have to tell you that at this point, I was thinking I would never walk again. My feet hurt. Juanita had made arrangements with the kids to take a shower and then take a nap when we got back. We got the kids showered and I went to shower myself. When I got back, Juanita and William were going to sleep but Maeghan wanted to continue to play. I took her up to the trash disposal area and we emptied out rubbish. When we got back, the others were awake and we decided to drive to see the light house that was nearby. Fifteen minutes in the car and both kids were asleep. Juanita and I decided to try to find other camping areas nearby, in case we wanted to come back someday, and drove for another two hours. We ended up in the nearest big town and it was dark. I had already decided I was too tired to cook back at the camp, so we spent some time looking for a place to eat.

No point in saying we ended up at McDonalds. We always end up at McDonalds. I won't go into the fascination Australia has with McDonalds, but there seem to be more of them here than there are in America. At least one in every town, and most of the time, one every few blocks. Maybe it is because we live in the Sydney area, but they are everywhere. And we always seem to end up there.

It must be said that there is not a whole lot of other choices. Fast food is not something Australians are really into, not like in America, but other types are restaurants are just too expensive to eat in. To me, they charge way too much for dining out over here. At least $30 a person, no matter where you go or what you order. So we end up at McDonalds. It is either that or KFC. Not a whole lot of other choices.

We were scheduled to leave the next day and according to our brochure, we had to be out of the campsite by 10 am. We started packing about 8 am and finished around noon. No one from the camp site came by and said anything, so that was not an issue, but what took us three hours to setup took four hours to take down. Mostly because we clean everything so it does not get packed away dirty, although by the time I was ready to take the tent down, I gave up on wiping the bottom of the tent off. I wrapped it up so it will be dirty the next time we use it.

Then I had to pack the trailer. Did I mention we bought a new trailer, mostly just for camping. I probably did at some point. Anyway, I packed it up and put the tarp over it and then the netting to hold it all in place. I have to say that we used to do this type of thing with rope and try to tie everything down. Boy were we stupid. It is so much easier to throw a tarp across everything and use the netting we bought with the trailer to lay over it and hold everything down. I have no idea how we ever did that with the ropes. And you do not have to worry about packing everything just right. It is not going anywhere with the tarp to keep the wind off it. It works just great.

Well, once again, I have overstayed my time. I was meant to leave 20 minutes ago and I still have not mentioned Maeghan and the doctor. She had her yearly or half-yearly appointment last week. That is where Juanita was when I was writing the last blog and she was coming to pick me up. I suppose I will go into it the next time. That is why I am mentioning it here, so when I come back to this, I can read it and remember what it was I was going to write about. Clever eh?

Anyway, I have to go home now. We are going to a camping show on the weekend, it is one of the only ones that is free around here. It is back where we lived when we first came to Sydney, in the Penrith area. We have not been back in a couple of years. It is about two hours from where we live now, so it will be good to get back and see how things have changed. Probably have not changed at all, although there is a new shopping center that they were building the last time we went that way and I want to check it out.

So until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 68

We went camping this past weekend. Three days. Kind of a dress rehearsal for our ten day adventure we are planning for Christmas. And before we go into the camping at Christmas questions, this is something that Australians do during the holidays. They go camping, or vacationing. Since almost everyone in Australia gets a minimum of four weeks vacation, or leave time as they call it here, the holidays is pretty much when all the companies shutdown and everyone goes somewhere. I think it is a relic of the past when the government or work ethic mandated that everything shutdown during the holidays. Certain days, everything was required to be closed. Only essential services were allowed to be open, like petrol stations and some public services.

These days, I don't think it is mandated anymore. Only Christmas day is a 'you must not be open' day. And that is apparently changing. It is only recently that shops and stores were allowed to be open on Sunday's, but that is the norm now, at least in most of the country. Some places still remain closed on Sundays.

You have to also remember that up until about 40 years ago, Texas had the same type of thing, where you could not buy certain items on Sunday and there was no liquor by the drink available. I have no idea what that means, but I am told it was a big deal. So it is not all that far-fetched for Australia to just now be catching up with the whole retail frenzy.

There are not a lot of places open 24 hours. Only some McDonalds drive-thrus and a couple of places in the city, but for the most part, everything is closed by midnight and most of the shops close at 5 on the weekdays and 4 on weekends. That is 5 and 4 in the afternoon. Most states have a late night shopping day. In New South Wales, it is Thursday, but I think it is Wednesday in Tasmania and Queensland. I know it differs from state to state.

The main reason for the late night, and I am talking staying open to 9 pm, is that it is when the government checks come out. All the pensioners and all the government payments come out on Thursday, so the shops stay open to take advantage of all the people who now have money. Centrelink, the government welfare department, used to come out at the same time, but now, most of the payments you can request what day it comes out on. It is not as big a factor in the late night shopping days.
Not sure how I wandered off into that topic from the camping start to this entry. Might have been a good reason for it, but I can't recall what it was.

The kids loved the camping, but they always do. A lot of people tell me kids are always getting bored when they go camping, but ours apparently are not old enough for that yet. They are still actively going everywhere the whole time. Most of the time, they are doing something they should not be doing, so we spend out time yelling at the kids to stop what they are currently up to. But at least they are doing something and not sitting around waiting for us.

Being on the beach kind of helps also. It was supposed to be cold when we went and we were staying right on the beach, or just on the cliff above it, so we did not expect to be near the water very often. It turned out to be ok and the kids spent hours digging in the sand.

The first day started ok, but after the sun went down, the wind picked up and we worried about the tent blowing away the whole night. We have to cover the tent with a tarp to make sure it does not leak when it rains but the tarp came loose fairly early in the night and spent the rest of the time flapping and making a lot of noise so no one could sleep. At about 4 in the morning, I got up and took it down. The wind had sort of died at that point and I could do it by myself but it picked up again later and was really blowing for a while.

After that, I thought we were in for a bad time and we considered moving camp to a different spot, away from the edge of the beach. We did not really consider it a lot as we spent nearly four hours setting up camp and did not want to undo it and start again, but if the wind had kept up, we might not have had a choice.

Later, on the second day, after the wind had died down, it started to rain. Not a lot of rain, but enough so the kids could not stay outside for long. That kept up most of the night. We had driven into town earlier, so the kids had some adventures, but at camp, we spent the time playing games and trying to keep the kids from knocking things over.

Hate to cut this short, but it is near time for me to be picked up from work, so I have to go. Maybe I will finish it when I get home, but we know the download speed problem with dialup, so I might have to put it off until Monday.

 
Anyway, have to go. Juanita and the kids are probably waiting out front.

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 67

Hard to believe it has been twenty years since my last post. You would think I would have found the time at some point. It has been an eventful time. Not that I can actually include all the goings on in this one post, but I can give where the kids are now and what they are up to. Although, at any given moment, it is hard to keep track of what they are doing.
I don't have any recent photos on my work computer to upload here, and since my home computer is currently without an internet connection other than dialup, we have to use pictures that are on this computer. This is an oldie but a goodie. Probably used it already in the past, but who really knows. Certainly not me. I am old.

Mostly, we have kids who are 5 and 1/2 and almost 3. Maeghan goes to school, kindy, and she loves it. She just had her annual play and I did not get one decent picture of any of it. I was in the middle of the room, and the camera I was using would not focus on the screen. It kept focusing on the people in front of me, so all the pictures are out of focus for Maeghan. I have some small movies from the camera, but I am not sure I can pull any of the frames out of that to save as pictures. The movies are better as I can manually focus those, but the others, I did not know how to turn off auto-focus, so don't expect any pictures of that anytime soon.

William, on the other hand, is still a real terror. I have repeatedly mentioned how often he gets into trouble because he is constantly on the move, but he does not seem to be slacking off any. Since he is bigger now, and can speak almost to the point that you understand everything he is saying, he has the capacity to get into even more trouble. And he does. Always getting into something, always doing something he is not supposed to do, and always talking and asking questions about what he can and cannot do.

I say asking questions, but most of the time, that is not really his style. He has developed the habit of whenever he wants something or when he has a question, he screams very loudly for mom or dad. He keeps yelling our name until one of us answers him, then he will quietly ask us whatever it is that is interested in the moment.

And forget about waiting him out until he decides to come to wherever you are and ask quietly. He just stays where he is and yells more and more frequently until you answer him. It would not be that much of a problem except he seems to want things after he, and everyone else, have gone to bed each night.

Sometime after you have laid down and are about to go to sleep, you hear him yell at the top of his voice, and he has a very loud top, for either mommy or dad to come give him a drink, or ask if he can sleep with us, or any number of little things that he has no need for. One of the favorites, beside asking for a bottle which he does not get anymore, is to call you into his room to tell you that he has dropped his cars and wants you to find them for him.

You see, he has to have a car in each hand most of the time now. Actually, since his hands are bigger, he has to have two cars in one hand at any given time so he can play with them at a moments notice. He carries them around with him everywhere and since everyone notices this, he is always getting new little cars for him to carry. We have a five gallon bucket full of little hot wheels and other little cars that we try to keep hidden most of the time because anytime he sees it, he sits down and takes every one of the cars out of the bucket and then sorts through them until he finds his favorites. Since his favorite changes a lot, you cannot keep any one or two cars out and hope he decides to play with them. No, he has to look through them all until he decides.

And you would think that would not be so bad, but if he has been yelled at or gotten into trouble for anything, his first thought is to pull all those cars out and throw them in all directions until he finds the one he wants. I am sure he does that to get attention and point out the fact that you have upset him by yelling at him. He has caused some problems when he hits someone or something else in his tantrum. But that does not happen all that often so you generally do not find out that he is doing it until you walk over a few dozen cars as you enter the room.

Lately, his thing is to go into his bed and sulk, as this has been the punishment of late for when he does something really wrong. Now, if you yell at him or say anything harsh to him, he will go into his room and crawl under his pillow and blanket until you notice that he is upset. It works. You just feel sorry for him when he does it and he gets to come out and have everything be ok. Until he repeats whatever it was he got into trouble for in the first place. And it is not as if he forgets that he got into trouble for it. If you watch him, he will look to see if you are watching and even if you are, he will do it anyway and then stare at you as if to say, 'am I going to get in trouble again, you wouldn't dare punish me again for it'. As they say over here, he is a cheeky little bugger.

Maeghan, on the other hand, has decided she knows what is best at all times. She will tell you what you should do for any situation and will let you know that what she is doing and why at all times. She is still the cutest thing there ever was but I think this little attitude she is developing is going to be a problem as she just becomes cuter and cuter.

And she is cute, there is no getting around that. Still the smallest one around and still getting noticed by everyone that walks past or hears her talk. People are till amazed that this little tiny girl is so talkative and so articulate. She is so tiny, they just do not expect her to be five years old and walking and talking and being so smart. They are just surprised every time she meets anyone new and even those that have known her forever are still amazed at how smart she is.

Everyone at her school knows her. When we pick her up or drop her off, everyone, and I mean everyone, says hi Maeghan as we walk past. She ignores them but still, the next day, the same people say hi to her again. There are a few that she replies to, but mostly, she just keeps walking. She says everyone is always talking to her and wanting to play with her and she just wants to play with her friends. If she encourages anyone, they will follow her around and want her to play all the time. You would think she would love the attention, and I guess she does, but she has apparently gotten tired of it all the time and, is slightly embarrassed by it. Even kids that have no idea who she is or have just seen her, come up to her and try to play with her. Mostly small children who cannot talk or are just babies, will pull on her arms or try to hug her. She is bothered by that, but they still do it. I guess it is because they see her as being the same size as them and they think she will want to play. I can see where that can be really annoying to her. She has mentioned in the past that there are little kids that will not leave her alone and she does not want to go places where they might be. She hides behind me when she sees these kids and tries to have me pick her up so they will not bother her.

Maeghan has not been to the doctor lately. We apparently missed her last appointment, but since they only happen once a year now, we forgot about the last one. I put them in my phone to remind me, but apparently, I had a different phone when last we made an appointment, so they had to call us and reschedule. I think it is for next week. She will go for an annual checkup to see if she is making progress like she should.

There are a lot of things she still cannot do, like run normally or fast. She tries but she just cannot generate the leg movement or strength to get herself into a real run. She does say that she is the slowest runner in the world. I am not sure if she is upset by this or she just says that, but I am hoping she is really ok with it. Not that there is a lot to be done about it, but I don't think she feels sorry for herself or anything. She just states it as a fact.

And she loves athletics. She wants to play everything. She got tired of baseball, she said it was boring, but now she does her dance and she does gymnastics and she wants to try everything. She wants to play soccer but I think she realises that she cannot keep up with or kick the ball very far, so she does not try to play with the other kids. I know she wants to. She loves it when we go to the park and play with the balls.

We have moved, probably a couple of times, since the last post and now live in what is called Wadalba. Not that far from where we have been living, on the central coast, but in a relatively new housing development. Hence my problem with an internet connection. It seems there is broadband in my area, but they have either run out of ports or the lines they have installed are not suitable for DSL. I have no idea why a new area would install lines that are not capable of DSL, but this is Australia, where DSL speed is considered a fast internet connection. At some point, and they have not said when, they might add some ports so they could then check if my line is capable but that may or may not happen anytime soon, so I am stuck using dialup until that time. As there is no other option for an internet carrier. I am not hopeful that the problem will be resolved while we live in this house. After a year, if it is not fixed, we will be moving again.

Some of you might have noticed that we have moved every year since we came to Sydney and that is true. Always, it has been for some reason or another, but in the end, we need to find a place we can be happy with. So far, there has always been a problem with every place we have lived and so, after a year when our lease is up, we have moved. And I doubt if this current place will last longer than a year. No heat, which will probably mean no air-conditioning in the summer, no internet and the power blows anytime you have the dryer running and anything else running in the house. Long story to explain the wiring connections in the house, but depending on which side of the house you plug something into, you have to make sure that you turn something else off on the same circuit before you turn it on. A major pain and not something I think they can fix. So expect to hear that we are moving again in the next year.

I suppose I should get back to work now. Always have lots to do and have done none of it. I have to leave a bit early to pick up William so Juanita can take Maeghan to ballet after school. (You cannot take William to ballet, ever.) I am sure there is a lot to say and a lot to relate. Sometime in the next year, I will get back to this blog. I have been thinking about posting for a while, but never seem to get to it. I only did this now because I found out someone actually read this and found me here in Australia because of it. Thanks Mike. You actually get a mention in the blog for that. Of course, you will probably never read this again so will never know about the mention, but as I have said all along, I started this really so the kids could have something in twenty years that tell them of the life and times and my impressions of them way back when.

I will sign off now. Its been fun typing all this again. I think I missed doing this. Most people who might have read this in the past have long since dropped off and will not know I am back, but maybe someday, someone will check and see there are new posts.

Until next time,

Talk to you later