MWNews 128

I'm here.  A couple of days since the last entry.  Must be losing my mind posting so often.  Is this 2005?  I suppose now that I have started I have to finish typing.

We went swimming on Sunday, Father's Day.  I swam for about 15 minutes.  The kids pool is heated and pleasant but for some reason, the kids wanted to go to the big pool.  It is not heated, or it is so big it is not heated as much.  It was a cold walk from one pool to the other which was kind of strange since it was very warm in the building.

Once we got to the bigger pool, the kids jumped in but I was a bit reluctant.  I knew it was going to be cold.  Maeghan talked me into it so I got in.  I was right, it was cold.  She kept telling me it would warm up when I moved around but I was not finding that to be the case.  I treaded water for about two minutes, it is 2 meters deep so I can't stand on the bottom.  After that, I was exhausted.  And, I was not any warmer, in fact, I was getting colder.  So I opted out.

One good thing about it was that is was a lot warmer being out of the water than when I was in it.  It was actually pleasant at that point.  So I sat on the bench and watched for about ten minutes then I decided to go get a coffee.  They have a small café there and the coffee was not too bad.  I had some kind of muesli slice, or that is what they called it.  It tasted really good, lots of fruit in it, but it was overwhelmingly sweet.  I got it to have with my coffee but it was so huge and tasted so sweet, I finished the coffee before I finished the slice.  With no coffee left to counteract the sweetness I did not finish the slice.  I ate about two thirds of it but could not work up the appetite to finish the rest.

Just about the time I was going to go back to the kids, they showed up at the café and said they were hungry.  I think they got some chips and some dim sim or something.  William also got a coke before he went back to the pool.

They said they were going to slide down the slide but I did not see them do it so I cannot say whether they did or not.  It is a decent slide into the water.  Lots and lots of kids and adults go on it.  I never have but it looks like fun.

After a while, they went back to the big pool.  I went and got dressed and then sat on the bench where they were.  I am told William went off the big diving board but I did not see it.  It is a ten meter board so I question whether he actually did it or not but they say he did.  I have seen him go off of some smaller ones but I don't think I have ever seen him do something that big.

Afterwards. we went to McDonalds of course.  I was just stopping for a frozen coke and a snack but they both said they were hungry again so they had two snacks.  We were at the pool for about 3 hours.  The hardest part was leaving the pool and walking to the car.  It is all uphill and by the time I go to the car, I was exhausted.  I think that says more about what bad shape I am in as opposed to how big the hill was but it was hard to walk the whole thing without stopping and resting.

We came home and had my special lemon, fried olive spaghetti.  I think I need to start leaving out the lemon as I used it the first time I made it and did not put olives in it and it was really lemony but since I have added onions and green olives, you cannot really taste the lemon anymore.

I have been making my green olive spaghetti for a long time, since I was in the US and I saw something similar on the Frugal Gourmet show.  I have adapted it and changed it over the years until it is my favorite way of eating spaghetti but then I saw the lemon thing on the movie Chef and I tried that.  Now I have combined them and I think it is great but since Maeghan does not really like the green olives I will make it two separate thing from now on I think.

Did you notice I turned this into a food blog again.  I am good at it.  You probably didn't even notice, that's how subtle the switch was.  I'm tricky that way.

Maeghan has her college signup this week.  It's on Thursday.  She has a doctors appointment in the afternoon and I was not going to get to go as I have to pick up William from school but now I think we have arranged for me to pick up William and then meet them in town and swap kids so I can go with Maeghan.  Her thing is between 4 and 7 and she can show up at anytime but I think we need to get there early so she has more time to do what she needs to do.

She has to take her resume, and a cover letter and several other pieces of identification.  I think we have it all together now.  I had helped her write a resume a few months back and we wrote a cover letter for her last night.  We will see if that is what they are looking for.

I guess I have written enough in this entry.  If I write everything every time, I might run out of things to say and have to resort to talking about food all the time.  We don't want that. So I will go ahead and end this for now.

Until next time

MWNews 127

Hey, hey, hey.  Another day, another entry.  Don't think this is a sign of things to come but with nothing else to do, I thought I would do this again.  I have been updating my other blog but I won't mention it here.  If you want it, then go look for it.  Not for everyone.  Warning, religious content.

But back to this one.  It is a bit before the kids come over.  I am not sure what time they will be here but I was told after dinner.  It's 5:27 now, so I expect them at any time.

Hopefully, they are bringing their swimsuits.  I told them to but they might forget.  We are planning on going tomorrow, assuming they still want to.  They might have changed their minds or one of them might be sick.  That happens sometimes.  We will have to see when they get here.  Since it usually takes me about an hour to write one of these, they might be here before I finish.

One thing I am noticing, I am getting back into typing for some reason.  I have not had to do any extensive typing in a while so I normally am using the one or two finger method on my phone or, if I have to type anything on here, I use two fingers.  But since I have been regularly updating these blogs, I seem to have gotten my old rhythm back.  When I was a kid, 45 years ago, I took a typing class and I could type over 120 words a minute.  I think I am at about 60 now.  Don't know.  I think there are some typing tests you can take online to find out how fast you can type.  I will have a look and get back to you.  I know how much the suspense of not knowing will haunt you.

I thought I just heard a car outside but I don't see anything.  I hear cars all the time lately.  I think something happened to the lady who lives next door.  Two ambulances came a couple of weeks ago and ever since then, there have been some people I don't know living there.  Not sure who it is but I assume they are relatives of her.  She lived there with her grand-daughter and maybe they are just there to take care of her while she is sick.  I think it is something worse than that but as I did not really talk to them I was afraid to go over and ask.

The kids did show up, I just couldn't see the car.  So I suppose I should end this sometime soon.  But I had so much to say.  One thing I will talk about is what I am making myself for dinner because we all know this is really a food blog and not about any kids you might have heard of.  I just put them in here to make it seem like I am writing this for them, but really, it is a chance to talk about food.

I am making chili.  I think I vaguely remember writing about chili at least once before.  I spent the day, or maybe it was just an hour, searching for dried chili's in the stores.  You cannot buy they here apparently.  They have started selling chipotle in adobo sauce in little cans so I got some of those to use.  I have used them before but I tried a different brand this time.  The other brand had them all chopped up in the can, or jar in this case, but the new ones are whole in the can.  I am hoping they break up a bit before they are finished cooking.  If not, I will have to try to do it in the chili while they cook.

I don't think I but enough onion in it but it is too late now.  I only put a small onion in because I did not want to open the other package of onions I bought but I am pretty sure it needs more.  I put two jalapenos in it and some garlic and tomato paste.  I might have to add some more water to it but I used a whole litre of chicken stock and it seems to be doing ok for now.  I know, chicken stock in chili but that is what I had.  I did not have any beef stock and I was not going back to the store.

So, there it is.  My dinner for tonight.  I usually make rice with it and pour it over it but I am thinking I might go Cincinnati style and put it over spaghetti.  I don't really like that style but have not had it in a long time so I might just try a bit of it over that.  Then again, I might just have it by itself with some tortillas.  I think that might be good this time.  Maeghan loves rice so I will probably end up making rice for her but they already had dinner so I don't know if she is hungry or not.  We will have to see.  It will take another couple of hours before it is ready so I have plenty of time to decide.

Now that I have doubled the size of this entry talking about food, I am gong to end it.  I hope to take some more up to date pictures tomorrow but we will see how that goes.  Not sure if they will let me or if I will remember.  These old pictures I have do not really have just Maeghan and William in them so I need some more.

I guess I am going so,

Until next time

MWNews 126

Now where was I. Talking about something important I am sure. Then again, probably not. I just start new from here.

I would talk about some more of the bad stuff but I don't want to do that as much as I do.  Maybe it would help me to talk about it but this is about the kids and I want it to be something they will enjoy reading later, if they ever get around to reading it.  Lots of good stuff in here and maybe they will remember some of it with fond memories.

I think I mentioned that Maeghan is going to college next year, or the equivalent of the 11th grade.  I think we go to sign up for her classes next week, or I think I am taking her to that.  Not sure if that is the case but I am going to try to do that.  She says she has picked most of her classes.  She did say she was going to take Spanish for some reason.  I have no idea why.  Haven't talked to her about what she is actually going to take.  The school is supposed to help her and give her advice.  We have been to a couple of meet the school nights and she talked to a lot of people.  I think she has a pretty good handle on what she is going to do but I probably need to go over it with her to make sure.

She is going to have to take the bus to school everyday.  The city bus although I think she can still get a student bus pass.  It is almost all the way in town and I am not sure when the busses run.  I think they have a direct bus from here to there but I don't know if she has had a look at when they run yet. She takes the bus to school now and most days she takes it home but that is an official school bus and only has school kids on it.  I don't think the new bus is that way although I have been told the direct bus has mostly kids on it.

William has gotten a lot better at school or he seems to have.  He gets in a lot more trouble at school but I think that is mostly being a growing boy.  What I mean by getting better is he actually reads things now.  He's not very fast at it but he can read almost everything he sees so that is much better than before.  Used to, he didn't even try, he just asked someone else to read it for him.  Now, he will read things and then ask what it means so that is much better.  He still does not do his school work very well.  He can when he tries but he always says he never has any work and I don't find out about it until later.  His report cards still put him at the bottom of the class each time.

Some of his problem, and I don't really have much evidence of this but have witnessed it in action a couple of times, if that the teacher really does not like him.  I know all kids say that but I have seen it and been called in to witness it on a few occasions.  It got to the point that I was going to talk to the vice principal about it.  I did have a little talk with him and with William and there has been no other incidents since then that I know of but I didn't report my thoughts on why I think the teacher has it in for him.  It just that on a couple of occasions, she came up to me and reported a problem and made some accusations that turned out later to not be true.  Don't know if it was on purpose or not but if that is happening, her reporting things that are not true, then I should be talking to someone about it.  But, we will just wait and see.

Sunday is Father's Day here.  The kids are coming over to spend the day and night with me. I think I am going to take them to the swimming pool in town.  It is heated and they have been asking me to go for some time I just did not want to take them over to their and house and ask for their swimming suits.  I told them to bring them with them this weekend so I guess now I have to go.  It's cheap and easy, if it is not too crowded, so I am sure they will enjoy it.  Not sure if I will swim or not but I think they might make me even though I don't really enjoy it.  Last time I was there, some lady tried to pick me up or that is what Juanita said.  All I know is she kept talking to me and I couldn't really understand her so I just nodded my head and agreed with her.  It was strange but I don't think that will happen again.

Since the last time I posted, several years ago, I have grown a beard.  A full beard not the goatee that I have had in the past.  I cut most of it off a few days ago, only because I could not get it straight and ended up trimming too much. I am still not sure if I want to keep it but I have had it for almost two years now.

I am still looking for work and the prospects are not looking good for getting work in Tasmania, which means I will have to move to the mainland away from the kids and that will be very, very hard but I still have a couple of months before it becomes a think I am forced to do.  I am hoping something comes up before then that will keep me here.  As I type this, I got a reply from someplace that is rejecting me so it gets worse.

Guess I should be going now.  Not sure what I have to do but I am sure there is something.  Hope to have better news next time and everything begins to work itself out.

Until next time

MWNews 125

I thought I had entered something in this a while back but it would seem that I have not in a long while. Lot of changes in our lives, most of them bad or should I say not-good.

I lost my job.  Way back in November of last year. They gave me a lot of money to go away but that is coming to an end soon. Still looking for work. They do not do what I do in Tasmania and no one will hire me for anything other than what I do because I do not have an experience in anything other than IT work. I'll go into it more a bit later but I should say what the kids have been up to since this is supposed to be about them.

Juanita and I have split up, again.  May be permanent may not be but for now, we are barely civil.  The kids come over to my house at least three days a week.  The stay one or two nights on the weekends. I take them home otherwise. We live near each other now, about a kilometre away on the same main road.  Its not hard to go back and forth when I need to but with me not having a job, I might have to move soon, either back to the mainland or to another part of the state.

Let's see, there is so much to say and so much to catch up on and I do not remember what I have said in the past or have any idea where to begin. Angie, Juanita's daughter, was living with Juanita for the past few months.  A major contributor to our problems.  She was here with two of her kids, the other two stayed in Queensland. Angie also has a new partner. Won't go into it too much but he is here also. He is basically paralysed and has a lot of other medical problems and has to be pushed around and maintained on a constant basis. But that is a tale not for this blog. They were supposed to leave this past week and were all set to get on the boat and move back to Queensland but he got sick while they were waiting on the boat and is now in a hospital somewhere in Launceston. No idea what the plans are at this point. I though the two kids would be coming back to stay with Juanita but they are still there staying with another relative and where is goes from there depends on how he recovers.

Natalie is also back in Tasmania. I don't think we know the full story but she said she could no longer afford to live in NSW because she has been out of work for almost two years now.  She came home to try to get a job here while her husband continued to work at his job. This was planned before Angie showed up and at one point, they were all living in Juanita's house. That has since changed but to describe that I have to go into another bit of news about Juanita's parents.

They are both really ill now.  Her father had a stroke about a year, maybe two years ago.  He has gotten steadily worse over time.  Frequent visits and stays in the hospital and each time is a bit worse than the last. He has become disoriented and forgetful and can no longer take care of Beverly, his wife. She is not better either and has continued to get worse. With his problems, he now has a nurse come in everyday to check on and help him with different things. He has what they call a package, some type of health care program that provides him with different things and services. I do not know if that includes care of Beverly but mostly what they do is clean the house, wash the clothes and general upkeep for the house. When the nurse is there, she also provides health care for him but I do not think they do the same for her. Once a week, they take them shopping and stuff.  All the other appointments they have to go to handled by Juanita, her sister and her brother. This is where Nat comes in.

Nat now lives with them or I think she does. I think officially, she does not because that would lower their healthcare package but I don't really know what the arrangement is. Nat stays there and watches out for them.  I think if they made it official, Nat could get paid for it but as I said, I do not know what the arrangements are, I just know she is there all the time, with no car and no way to leave the house. Doesn't seem like a good arrangement for her but it does allow her to live rent free with no real expenses. I have no idea how her husband sees all this. Not being in that loop anymore, I don't know what goes on or what does not. They don't speak to me anymore.  I don't know if Juanita has said something or what the issue is but I have been on my own for a while with no contact with anyone other than the kids.

Which I should get back to. I am pretty sure I said Sydney was gone from Juanita's care.  It's been over a year now.  She is in that picture but I don't really have any new pictures anymore. Haven't taken any in a while.

Maeghan is in year ten. What that means in Australia is this is her last year of school. Years eleven and twelve are considered University or College or something else. She has to go to a different school next year and pick all her courses and make all the arrangements herself.  It is a bit weird to me but they seem to understand it.  Basically, she has to decide now what she wants to do with her life and take courses that will help her do that.  She's fifteen.  How is she supposed to know what she wants to do with her life. But that is the way it is here. Depending on what courses she takes, she can get certificates in different things, like child management, hospitality, IT and dozens of other subjects.  If she wants to go to a real college after year twelve, she has to take classes that will allow her to do that and she has to be in the top of the class in order to qualify. It is still hard for me to understand what exactly she is supposed to do. The easiest way for me to explain it to myself is to say she is starting college next year, at fifteen. A bit strange for me.

She could just drop out at this point. No compulsive reason for her to go, other than she would have to find work but there is no requirement that she attend school beyond the tenth grade.

I just looked at the clock and it is 5:30.  I need to make the kids dinner before I take them back home so I need to end this right now.  Maybe I will get back to it maybe I won't.  Still lots of things to say but it will have to be another time. So ta-ta for now.

Until next time

MWNews 124

Kids came back from camping.  They said they had fun.  The weather was really good for them.  No rain and the temperature was not too bad.  Maeghan even got to take her kayak out.  Don't know for how long but she said it was tiring.  She fell out of it when she got back near the shore and ran into the sand. She said it tipped over but she did not get wet.  At least they came back in one piece.

They are back in school now.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not.  I think they like it but it is hard getting back into the routine.  They both come home really tired.

The weather turned hot that last couple of days.  It is supposed to get back to cold again tomorrow but for now, it is very hot, about 30 degrees here which is unusually warm for this time of year.  Tassie normally only had a hand full of days that are that warm and that is not until around Christmas time or late in the summer.  I have considered turning on the air conditioner but have managed to avoid it up until now.  Maeghan wants it on but since this is the last day of it being hot, I think I can leave it off until the next time.  Power bill is really high in this place so I try to avoid using it whenever I can get away with it.

The kids stay with me now, after school.  Juanita is working her new job and I pick the kids up from school and bring them here.  I take them back home most days to their house around 7 so they can be there when their mother gets home.  Since she has just started and it is a physical job, cleaning a school, she comes home exhausted so they don't get to interact with her all that much.

They normally stay at my house on Tuesdays, Maeghan has scouts, but I think they might be staying more than the one night a week from now on.  It might just be too hard to drive them home each night.  It is good now because we stop and get a frozen coke on the way but I think it will be easier to stay here a couple of times a week.

Juanita is still looking for a new house.  The one she is in is going to be renovated and they will raise the rent.  She cannot afford it now so she has to move. That is the main reason she has gotten a job.  With the loss of income from Sydney, she can no longer afford the expensive places she has been living.  Even my place would be too expensive for her so she is looking for something cheaper.

The problem is, there are no places cheaper.  None at all.  All the rents have gone up and there are no longer cheap places to rent.  Plus, it has apparently hit lots of people the same way.  Each house she looks at and applies for has 50 other applicants for it and so far, she has not been chosen for any of them.  I think it will be too hard for a single parent with little income to get an approval from most landlords but she has to keep trying.  A couple of new places opened up this week and she will apply for them as soon as they are available.  They are close to me so that will be good.  She has the added problem in that in order to get her pension, she is limited to the number of hours she can work.  Too complicated to go into here but she has to stay within thirty minutes of her work in order to qualify for carer pension for Maeghan.

I have offered to let them stay here so they can look for a place they want instead of taking the first place that accepts them.  I don't know if she will do that but it is an option for her.  She can't move back with her parents as they would lose their pensions or carer packages and it is too far from her work.  Another option would be for the kids to live with me and she stays with her sister but that causes problems as well.  Just all a bit too complicate for me but it is how she has to do things to allow her to receive her payments.

My job keeps getting weirder and weirder but that is how is supposed to be since it has been that way for 14 years now.  Can't say what is happening as I don't really know anymore but it keeps changing and I keep getting lost in the shuffle.  Don't have a boss or anyone to report to so no one takes any responsibility for what I do.  At times, hard to work that way but I live with it and have gotten used to it I suppose.  The Australians have no idea if they have a job from one day to another.  A lot of their jobs have moved to Melbourne or oversees so they are just waiting for the hammer to fall.  I have no idea what that will mean for me as they sign my paychecks but we will see.

Maeghan had to chose her classes for next year.  They are no offering some of the classes she wanted as not enough people showed an interest but she has most of what she wants.  She chose IT work over drama this time.  I hope it is not because of me.  She loves doing the drama but she was afraid she would miss out on IT if she chose drama and then they did not have it, which I think they are not going to have it so she would have been without a class if she had gone there.

We ran into the guy who does the plays here in Huonville.  Maeghan has been in one, was supposed to be in two and missed out on the last one.  He says they will be starting a new one soon but he does not know when or what it will be.  He will notify everyone on the mailing list when they decide.  She missed out on the current one because they had 150 people apply and only 60 parts were available.  Her friend did not make it either but she will try for the next one when it comes.

Going to have to go now.  Have to take the kids home and make Juanita's dinner.  She gets home around 8 although I think it is flexible.  It is whenever they get done which usually takes about 3 hours and she starts at 4:30 after all the teachers have left school.  Hope things turn for the better soon.

Until next time

MWNews 123

Another day, another dollar.  I think I have used that intro before.  Can't be bothered to go back and look and since no one reads this anyway, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Been a whole day since my last entry.  Man, has a lot happened since then.  I played video games, I watched TV, and I slept.  Oh, and I also walked to the shops, without the dog.  I had coffee and got rolls for my beef stew.  It's a full life and not a lot of time for meandering.

Kids get back today.  I think they are staying the night with me.  Not sure what I am going to feed them.  I am having one of my special dishes that no one likes but me.  Onion, bacon and cabbage.  All fried together with a few other things thrown in.  The special ingredient that makes the dish is caraway seeds.  I add a lot of those and it seems to bring what otherwise would be a bland dish with no real taste into something I really like.  Gives me gas but I love it.  I sometimes serve it over rice, which I will probably do this time as Maeghan doesn't like the dish but she loves rice.  I'll make her something else to go with her rice.  William will probably have either chips and gravy from the chicken shop or macaroni and cheese.  Might make him a pie and sausage rolls.  I have enough for one of them but not both.

I did buy some rolls and I have a lot left over.  I will need to make something to go with them for tomorrow night.  Not sure what yet, maybe I will make the corned beef I have in the freezer.  William doesn't like that either but he loves the rolls.  I have some cauliflower I need to cook soon so I might add that to something.  I already added it to my breakfast omelet this morning.  Just bacon, cauliflower and eggs but it was good.

I have a lot of work to do but I can't really be bothered to do it.  Nothing important but I need to get back into the swing of it and doing more work instead of playing video games.  The problem with the video games is that I am re-playing Fallout 4 on survival mode and I bought some DLC for it that I have not used.  Since I am back at the beginning, I have to get to a certain level before I can use it so I am replaying the whole thing.  Since I spent 15 days game play time on the first run through, it will be a while before I can get to that level again.  And, if I do not play at least a couple of times a week, I forget what I was doing and how the controllers work.  Can't go play other games because it messes with me in knowing which buttons do what.

Which brings up another thing about me and not about the kids, which is what I should be doing.  I think I am losing my mind, and I mean that seriously.  I don't know if it is the beginning of Alzheimer's, or just old age or what it might be but I cannot concentrate anymore.  I know, it is probably just my imagination, but it is getting serious.  I cannot work for very long and things I used to be able to do when programming I can no longer do.  I have to write everything down and cannot remember what I did 10 minutes ago.  It is serious.

I have not told anyone yet but maybe they have noticed and are not saying anything.  I don't think so.  Since I do not talk a lot and never have, they may not notice that I am just a little quieter that I used to be and it is mainly because I cannot remember from one moment to the next what they are talking about and I can't remember any thoughts I might have had on any subject they might be talking about.  Since I have never really commented on what others are saying it doesn't really have an impact on the conversation if I don't say anything but now, I have noticed I think of something I need to add and then I forget it by the time someone else has said something else. It has a lot to do with why I cannot write in here like I want to.  I just can't remember what it is I have to say but I know there was a lot I wanted to say.

Now I have forgotten where I was headed with this, not that you would ever know, but I do forget why am doing something or why I have gone somewhere or even why I stood up at times.  I know, that is what everyone goes through and maybe it is what I am going through but it is really bad at times.  I will think of something, get up to do it and not remember why I stood up.  I have begun to mention it a lot to others but they just think it is funny and have not put together that it happens a lot lately.

I mention it here because I am scared.  I have always been if not the smartest person in the room then one of the smartest.  I know that sounds conceited and full of myself but that doesn't make it not true.  It is just something that is.  I have known a few people who are smarter than I am and there are a lot of things that others know more about than I do.  But it has rarely been the case where I do not know something about anything that is being discussed and most of the time, I can see where other people are getting things wrong.  I have always tried to not interfere with others beliefs or their interpretation of the facts but I have not always succeeded and have made my self seem arrogant and condescending.  Maybe I am and more likely probably I am but now, I am scared because it is not that I have lost that but that I am afraid I am losing it.  Could be a good thing and maybe I won't even notice it when it happens but I am noticing it now.

My life has always been about the ability to think. Not that I have a lot of information, although I seem to have a lot according to others, but I have always had the ability to think through something and figure it out.  Now, it is hard.  It does not come easily to me and I am afraid I am losing my mind or my ability to figure things out.  It has gotten to the point where I notice it everyday.  It is not nice but I am too young to have this kind of problem, which is why I am afraid that if it is happening now, then what will it be like in ten years.  I don't know and it scares me.  My kids need me.

I am through talking about that.  Just that abruptly, I will stop.  My problem, my issue, I will figure it out.  Or not.

I am going to work now.  Have to create some document that I use to keep information about a system.  I tried to introduce this to every system back when I ran that project but I was voted down but the rest of the team.  Must have been about the time I stopped consulting the team.  Not that there is anyone left but I will not go into job issues again today.

The kids will be home sometime this afternoon.  I am going to make them brownies.  Maeghan has been asking for them for a while now.

A quick note about the kids so this is not all about me, but Maeghan says she wants to cook and is taking courses at school.  I don't think she really wants to but I think we are going to start working on things with my end goal to start catering for people.  We need to come up with things that are repeatable and cost effective so we can offer them to others, mostly family and friends at first but maybe a way to make money later, when I lose my job.  I don't think she understands what is involved, I don't understand what is involved, but everyone tells me I should do it and I think it is about time I got started.  I have ulterior motives but I will not go into that now.  Just say we are going to work on it.  Might even get William involved but I need to start playing sports with him.  He has had no one to do that with and I used to be good at it so I will try to do something to improve his coordination and help him make more friends  at school.

On that note, I am going to go now,

Until next time

MWNews 122

I keep getting ready to type a new entry but then I never have the time.  As you can see, I am making the time now.  Not that I can remember all the things I wanted to talk about but at least I can ramble along as they come back to me.

The kids are away camping for one day.  Not sure why they would only go for one day but I had to work and it is school holidays and they were promised to go camping, so their mother took them.

Way down south of here, almost to the artic circle.  It will be very cold but they went anyway.  A place called Cockle Creek.  It is on the ocean, not sure why it is called Cockle Creek but it is about as far south as you can go in Tasmania and since Tasmania is already pretty far south, it just gets closed to the bottom of the world.

They come back tomorrow.  If they are not back by the afternoon, I am supposed to go looking for them.  We are not sure if they will have phone service down there.  I have no idea who they are going to go a whole day without the phones, iPads, and electronic toys.  William will go crazy.

They took along one of Maeghan's friends.  William's friend wanted to go also but he was supposed to have another of his friends over so he could not come.  I am not sure they understood where they were going or how cold it is going to be.  Maeghan has her kayak with her and she expects to go kayaking.  I believe the water will be close to freezing so I don't think they will be going in the water.  It takes up most of the car and if very heavy so I am hoping they do not drop it at any time.  Normally I do it but Juanita said she could do it by herself and could not be talked out of taking it.

Anyway, they will be back tomorrow.  I have the kids here for the rest of the holidays.  Juanita starts a new job on Friday.  Another long story I will probably never go into but she lost a lot of money when she stopped taking care of Sydney so she has gotten a cleaning job at one of the schools.  It is afternoons, after school, so I will have the kids from school and they will stay with me until Juanita gets off work.  I am sure they will end up staying most of the time at my place but the plan is for Juanita to pick them up on her way home.

Speaking of home, Juanita is having to move again.  The house she is in is being renovated, while she is still living there, and they want to almost double the rent.  The are charging too little now for where it is but with the improvements, they can get as much as they want to ask.  Juanita cannot afford that so she has to move.

The problem is, there are no houses available anywhere in this area.  She has to stay in this area because the kids have to go to the same school.  Next year is Maeghan's last year so it would not be good to have her move schools again.  William has made some friends at his school so we would prefer he not move either.  But there are no houses, or there are no houses that are affordable.  Only two have become available that Juanita can actually afford and they are not that close and when she has looked them there have been 20 to 30 other people looking at the same time.  So she has little hope of getting either one of them.  She has to be out of her other house at the end of November so at this point, I have no idea what she is going to do.  When she gets back, I will discuss her options with her but none of them are really good options.  As she has no choice, she might have to do something does not want to do.  We will see how it goes.

Now that I have all the downer messages in here, maybe I should talk about something that is uplifting and better.  Can't think of anything.

I do have a dog now.  Not that I wanted a dog and technically, I am not allowed to have him but Juanita's parents can no longer take care of their dog so I have inherited it.  For a while, it was staying at Juanita's but she is not allowed to have a dog either, so I asked my landlord if I could keep the dog on a temporary basis and they said it was ok, as long as it is temporary.  Having no plans or idea on what I will do with the dog I am sure I will be in trouble when they find out it is here permanently.

He is a good dog, well trained in going outside.  He does get bored and will go crazy every time he thinks he is going out the front but I have to keep him in the back since there is a fence there and he cannot get out.  Plus, he was always running away at the parents house so they had to keep him chained up all the time.  Since I don't do that, he thinks he is free to run anywhere when he is outside and if I let him, he will run away as soon as he can.  Actually, I only think he will run away, he keeps pretty close to me when we are out so he might not but since I live in town, there is good chance for him to run out into the road and I can't let that happen.  I have taken him to the shops with me before but he is not well behaved when he gets there and if there are any other dogs, he goes crazy trying to get to them so I don't take him very often.  Maybe this situation will work itself out soon and we can find a new home for him.

I can smell my lunch burning so I am going to have to go.  I didn't say a lot of positive things but I meant to.  Just got lost in the problems and issues so I never got around to it.  Be a good excuse to try again tomorrow.  Like that will ever happen.

It's been fun and I will get back to this soon but I have to go take my pie out of the oven.  Never thought I would be saying that but I am having a meat pie for lunch.

Until next time