MWNews 214

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Remember

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

Until next time

Later

MWNews 213

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember

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

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 212

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember

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

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 211

 

Get it in early, I've got things to do. Trying to get this done as soon as possible again. It's before 9:00 on Friday and I am at work once again. Nothing to do, but I thought if I pretended to work, when everyone else arrives, they will think I am doing something. Just had the director come in and ask if I had much to do. I mistakenly told her no, so I am sure they will be reviewing my contract soon.

I do have to go down to the problem children again and try to fix their computer one more time. They seem to have problems every week and it is always something that is easy to fix but takes a long time to do. So, I spend a lot of time down there and people wonder where I have gotten off to. 

But it makes it look like I am working so it all works out for the good.

I have convinced William to abandon the motorbike plan. I told him there was no one going to let him learn how to ride a motorcycle if he could not already balance on a bike. Plus, it is more expensive than he thinks, and he was going about it backwards. He was buying helmets and riding gear before he even had a bike. 

I talked him into buying a new bicycle instead. Had problems with that, though. We went to a couple of cheap stores, Kmart and Big W. They had bikes that are more affordable that most places so I thought for a first bike, he could buy one from there. Big W had a couple of good ones, but Kmart had close to nothing, and it was more expensive. It was a better bike but the one at Big W was bigger, or taller. He is convinced he cannot ride a bike because he is too tall, so he needs the biggest one he can find. Problem was, they had a really big one and one that was one inch smaller that was also pretty good. The smaller one was about half the price as the big one. He chose the big one. It cost over $400 dollars. I paid for half of it, but I was only planning on spending about $100 dollars so this was a burden. Of course, he had the money burning a hole in his pocket, so he was willing to pay whatever. 

I told him we could go to another store and keep looking but he was having none of that. He was tired of looking, only two stores, and he was going to buy it no matter what. So, we came home with a $400 bike. It is nice, a bit heavy as you would expect it to be lighter for that money, but it is a good bike. Or I think it is. Been a long time since I looked at bikes and I do not know all the technology anymore. It has front suspension and quick release tires and disk brakes. Don't know if that is an advantage or not but it seems fancy. It has 21 gears, or gear combinations. I always thought 10 were too many but these are kind of complicated and I do not yet know how to change them or what they do. The controls are thumb controls, and I cannot figure out what they change when you use them. He is not ready to start changing gears yet, he is still learning to balance, but if I get a chance, I will run through them and find out what is happening when you change gears.

He has only attempted to ride it once. Not very well. I think he is going to think it is too hard. It is, especially with him being so tall. He seemed to be under the impression that if he can go fast, it will be easier. But he is nowhere near being ready to go fast. I had him just sitting on the seat and trying to coast down the hill. Not trying to peddle, just coast down the hill. He can only go five feet before he puts his foot down. It will be a long time in learning how to ride, but I expected as much. I told him it would take about a year before he was ready to think about a motorcycle again. If he works hard at it, he can learn it in six months, but he is not working hard at it. I told him he could stay home from school today if he spent the time practicing on the bike. He won't do it, but if his mother makes him, he might.

I am just hoping I can steal the bike when he is not there to try to ride some. It has been a lot of years since I rode a bike, but I have been thinking about getting back into it as soon as I can. This will be a real opportunity if I can get him to give me the combination to the lock he put on it. So far, he has refused, and I have not insisted but maybe I can figure it out when I get a chance. I am sure he just does not want me riding his new bike, but if he doesn't ride it, someone has to. Maybe if he learns, we can start going together. I hope so, that would be great. But it will be a while.

Maeghan lost another of her friends. She was hanging out with her a lot but the other girl decided that school was too hard and she dropped out. That is the second friend she has had at the school that dropped out. She says they will get together outside of school but that never happens so she will be trying to find someone else to hang out with I suppose. She does have her old art school friends but she has only been out with them once or twice and I am not sure how often that will happen.

Maeghan did finally go to the day care and apply for a job, or asked if she could work there for free for her class. They were more than happy to have her. She doesn't start until January but since she does not have classes anymore, all she has to do is get her work experience before she graduates. I think the plan is to have her work two days a week and then move up to three if she can handle it. Not sure what she will be doing but she said they were happy to have her. It is only a few blocks from our house, so it is convenient for her to get there. I don't think Juanita, or anyone else, realises that it means we cannot move for another year. Not that I want to, but when they see the price of rent go up in a few months, they are all going to start screaming for us to move.

It went up $40 a week last time, for a six-month contract. I expect it to go up more this next contract, probably to over $500 a week. With all the economic issues and the prime rate going up all the time, it is expected to double in the next year. Juanita and the others think the rent increases are just the owners being greedy, but I have tried to explain that with that amount of increase in the rates, what they are paying is going up by more than what they are charging us. They have to raise the rent or risk defaulting on the house loans. No one seems to believe me, but I see it happening soon. Not sure what we will do then. I say we have to pay it. The housing shortage is very severe and having a house, even an expensive one, is cheaper than trying to find another, that will be just as expensive, and with no guarantee that we will get it with all the people already looking for a house. It is going to hit us hard, and I worry about it all the time. But there is nothing to do about it, so we have to live with it. It will be hard when Juanita tries to charge the borders more. They did not like it last time but without their money, we cannot afford the new rents. I hate having them live with us, but we need the money.

But let's try to find some good things to talk about. Nope, can't think of any. Angie turns forty next week. She is depressed about it. I plan on getting her a baby's dummy. I am going to tell her it is as close as I can get to making her feel younger again. It will either go very good or very bad. Since it is from me, I hope she appreciates the humor, but probably not. We are going over there on Sunday but her birthday is not until Tuesday. I think I have to cook or something but I am hoping to get a pass again, like last time. Last time, they had a BBQ. I stayed out of it. Sat and did nothing the whole time. I think they looked at me a couple of times to see if I would take over, but I refused, so they moved on. It went reasonably well. It was very hot and we were outside with no shade, so that made it worse, but I ignored the heat and just sat there trying to stay out of the conversations that kept spinning towards me. I did a good job and only got involved once or twice. 

In the end, they wanted us to take Shayla to work. It meant we would have had to stay there for another three hours, so I started looking bad and they decided we should just go. I was willing to take her, but I wanted to leave and go somewhere else where it was cool, but I did not want to make it seem like I did not want to be there, so we just left with little or no problems. I would not have minded, but it was hot and there was not room in the house for all of us. I would have had to be polite and stay outside anyway. So I made excuses and we left. stopped for a snack on the way home. Spent too much money on donuts and did not get anything for myself. I still had to cook dinner when I got home, so I was trying to stay well enough to do that. 

Hopefully, this Sunday will be ok. Not sure what the weather is supposed to be like but I know the last few days have been hot. 33 to 34 degrees each day. Not really hot but it is the first hot of summer, so it feels hotter than what we have been used to. Not sure what will happen Sunday. We got her a popup gazebo for her birthday. I am hoping we don't have to put it up for her, but I am sure we will. I don't know how big it is but it should provide some shade if it is hot again. It will probably rain, but it will protect us from that also.

I think I am going to be going now. It is time for coffee. I wanted some orange juice but I don't think the cafe has any. I will have to settle for coffee and some toast. Shouldn't be too bad. Will probably have to do some work after that. I will go visit some of the trouble spots and see what I can do. Maybe no one will be there. That is not going to happen, I am sure. I have enough of typing, so this will be it.

Remember

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

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 210

 

Have I used this picture. I think I have but I cannot be bothered to go look. It is from a series of pictures that I know I have used already but we will go with the idea that this is a different picture. Works for me.

Hello again. Been a while. Almost a week. Some would say exactly a week. But they would be wrong. This could only be a new entry if it happened while I was at work, and I work here once a week, so logically, there is no relation to anything other entry. Now I am just typing random words and hoping it fills out this blog. I should get to work.

All of that is not going to happen, so let's keep going. I have started this blog early as it seems I keep getting busy lately and run out of time to do this properly. Now, I am starting at 9:00 am and should be able to finish it before I leave today, hopefully around 2:30. Not that I expect to escape that early, they always seem to find a way to contact me at 2:30 and tell me things that I need to fix right away. I am not sure if that have a little buzzer on their desks or they just get back from break and decide to come see me. But it always seems to be the way, that if I don't sneak out, they find me and put me to work. I have mentioned it before but it needs to be told often and long.

Got a problem with William. We worked this past week on a project that was paying after hours pay. I have been through it. He got paid a lot of money. Now it is sitting in his account burning a hole. He needs to spend it on something. It is close to $900 for a week's work. Not a lot but a lot for a kid that has never had a paying job, it is a lot of money.

Problem is, he is set on this motorcycle idea. I have not had a chance to talk to him about it. I was hoping he would move on to other things but with the sudden influx of money, he is keen to get started. Which brings us to the problem. There is no way he is going to be allowed to get a motorcycle unless a few things are done first. Lots of things that he has no idea about or he is just ignoring. The problem is that he says he is going to a motorcycle shop to buy a helmet and a jacket this weekend. The real big problem is, he might be skipping school today so he can go before I get home. 

I am pretty sure he does not know how much that will cost, but with all the money he has, he has enough no matter what it costs. And I am afraid that once he spends his money, he will not be able to take it back and get his money back. Which is what is going to happen once I have a talk to him. Or he will become the problem teenager and think he can just do what he wants. I have no problem with the problem teenager, I just ignore him, but he will give his mother hell and that will not be a good thing. Me, I just let him say or do whatever he wants and show that it does not affect me. That will probably not sit well, but I think he realises I do not mean him any harm; he will just think I do not believe in him. I can live with that also as I know he will come to realise that it is not the case. And if not, I can always convince him of it. It is just a matter of sitting him down and talking to him. Something I should have done a long time ago. I will not go into my failings as a father or as anything else. I can fix it, I think, but it might be too late. I can still fix it, but I am hoping to do so before he spends all his money.

Tomorrow is the day for it, has to be. I just hope he is not out at this moment making a big mistake. Then again, maybe when he gets to a shop, he will see how much it costs and will be discouraged. Let's hope so as that will be my biggest argument. I am all for him getting a motorcycle. I wish I could get one myself. I just don't think he knows all the problems that will create and all the things he has to do before he can get a motorcycle. Biggest one being learning how to ride a motorcycle. I can't teach him, I don't have one. Plus, I don't know how to ride a motorcycle. It has been 50 years since I rode a motorcycle and that was only for a couple of weeks. I know the principle and could probably do it with some practice but, again, no motorcycle to practice on or teach him on. But I am kind of tired of talking about that now. I may come back to it but I want to move on as it is beginning to depress me. Plus, I think I want coffee. Taken me 30 minutes to type this, so I need a break.

Juanita is out with Adam.

I just got a picture of something William is doing at school. They are taking some of the students on road trips to different places. Not sure why. To keep them going to school I suppose. The picture is of him and some other kids doing something at what is called the Redcliffe Breakfast Club. Not sure what they are doing but there are pictures and William was there. Looks interesting. I will ask him if this means he can cook me breakfast now. They used to have breakfast at school once a week and I always ask him if he can get me some. He says it was really bad and he does not think they are doing it anymore. It was the school kids cooking something, mostly pancakes, and he has always said they are really bad. He is not sure they are doing it this year and I don't see it anymore. But we don't take him to school that often, so it might still be there. With the new school rules, he is not allowed in that area. None of the senior students are allowed to wander around the campus anymore, so he could not go get me some anyway. But I always ask whenever I drop him off.

Maeghan just sent something to a calendar that says when the last day of school is. I have no idea why. It is Juanita's birthday, Nov. 25. Once again, I have no idea why she sent it. Maybe because we always start asking when it is as it gets closer and now, she is trying to avoid those questions in the future. Little girl has no idea how things work. Of course, I will keep asking. That's my job. To annoy the kids.

Maeghan is going to start applying for apprenticeships, or whatever they call them when they work for free. She has been saying that for a while now, but she did finally print out her resume and she says she is going to drop it off at a couple of places. We will see when she actually does that. She has to do it for school, but I don't know when the dates are or when she has to have it done by. One of the places is really close to us and she says there are three others around us somewhere. She has to be close so she can get there by herself. I think she is even going to apply for a kindergarten position. Not sure if that is better or worse but if she can get in, that would be good.

I think I mentioned last time that Maeghan is hanging out more with her school friends. She went out with them last week and I think for lunch. She has her one friend she hangs out with all the time. I just found out that she lives on the way home for us. I usually pick Maeghan up on Fridays, so I told her she can ride with us if she wants to. Don't know how that will go but since I pick her up today, we might take her home today. We will see when I get there.

Off to coffee now, then I have to visit a couple of people here to find out what their problems are. I think I know where they are but everyone seems to assume I know them and I know where they work, so they just say so and so wants to see me and I am supposed to figure out where it is I need to go. Maybe if I actually went around to each office like I used to, I would get to know each one and the offices, but with the Covid, I stopped going directly to every office and only go when I am asked. Need to get back to the routine, I just hate wearing the mask all the time. Not sure if it required anymore, but it seems a lot of people do wear them, so I am assuming it is. Back later.

I'm back. I thought of something I wanted to type in here but now I have forgotten what it was. Doesn't matter. Having looked at this one, it is too long again. I need to wrap it up. I'd like to do more entries with less content, but we know how that goes. There is never a lot of content in these in the first place, so less would seem like an impossibility. But I am good, so I will try.

So, until next time,

Remember

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

Later

Oh, oh, oh, now I remember. This is it. The 40th entry in a year. More than any other year and we still have two months to go. What an accomplishment. I owe it all to no one in particular. Now we will begin to work on ratings.

MWNews 209

 

I am trying to do this again. Have a lot of things to do but since I won't get a chance to enter in here again for a few days, I thought I would try to get this done. 

Currently working at the same old place again, but I have some work tonight and over the weekend, so I will not get a chance anytime soon. William and I are doing that other job where we go into town and install new power supplies on 700 desks. Been doing it for a couple of days now.

At first, we were supposed to do it last week, but when we got to the site last Friday, they did not have any of the equipment necessary to put the supplies in. It was rescheduled for this week. They wanted us to try to do it each night, starting Wednesday, so we have been doing that. I have been working during the day and then going to this place at night. William has been going to school and coming with me after he gets out. Not a lot of time at home lately.

We have found that the original plan, to do this over the weekend, in two full days, would have never worked. We are managing to do about 75 desks a night, with two other people, which is about four hours work from 5 to 9. That means about 18 desks per hour. No way we would have been able to do it in 16 hours over a weekend. With us doing it each night, at 75 desks a night, it still means we will have trouble finishing this weekend. I think we can up the total to about 20 an hour, but still, finishing 700 desks by Sunday will be a problem. The other two workers say we can stay longer each day on the weekend, but I am not sure they will pay for that. They already are paying double time for the weekend but then add on overtime to the double time and that runs into a lot of money. Not that we would mind but I don't how they are justifying paying us as it is. It is a lot of work, so I can see the need to hire outside contractors, but with that much work, it might have been better to hire more of us instead of only four and paying us double double. But it's not my money or my project, so I can't complain. Other than the work, while not hard, is back breaking as you have to climb under each desk to make it work.

William is ecstatic. He is already planning on where he is going to spend all his money. It is already burning a hole in his pocket, and he hasn't even been paid yet. Plus, I do not see another of these types of projects in the future, so it could be a while before he gets another paycheck. And no other paycheck will be this big, so I hope he plans wisely. He won't but I can hope.

He is talking about buying a motorcycle. He can't ride a bike, but he thinks motorcycles are easier. I have yet to sit him down and explain that is not going to happen. I don't object to a motorcycle, but as we all know, being able to ride a bike is essential to learning how to ride a motorcycle. On a bike, you get to learn you balance and fall down a lot. On a motorcycle, falling down is not good, for him or the bike. It just isn't going to happen, and I need to explain to him why.

He seems to think it will be a lot easier than learning to drive and getting a car. While it is possible that is true and I give him credit for trying to find a cheaper option, he is starting from ground zero and needs to learn how to ride a bike before he even considers riding a motorcycle. I would suggest he buy a bike and start, but I know his answer will be that it is a waste of money and will take too long. I have even thought of maybe buying him a bike for his birthday and trying to teach him, but I know he will not like that idea. It is really the only way, but he is a teenager and has all his friends telling him what he should do, them having no idea either but who am I to contradict them. I would like to buy a bike for myself and maybe I can sell it to him with that idea, of us going to bike rides together, but why would he want to go bike riding with his dad. That is just not a teenagery thing to do.

I think, in the end, he will not be able to do any of this stuff, even if by some miracle, he gets more work and is able to save some money. He is like his mother; money is not something they can save. He spends it as soon as he gets it. Maeghan is different. I think it is just another way that Maeghan is like me and William is like his mother. It gets more and more pronounced every year. But I will not go into that too much at this time.

I think I can persuade him to do the proper thing, not spend his money, but if he doesn't spend it on this, he will spend it on something else. He wants to go to Tasmania next year and was supposed to be saving for that, but now it is the motorcycle idea.  It will change again soon, I am sure. Always something else he wants. He has started buying things on his own. Lunch and things he sees in stores. He even paid for his own train tickets the last couple of times. Putting money on his transport card. He complained about how often he had to do it but I think it made him realise how expensive it is to take the train all the time. Maybe that is the cause for him to start thinking about getting a car or motorcycle. I know he does not realise that it is far more expensive that taking the train and the bus. Doesn't compare at all, but I don't think he sees that. He just sees spending money on transportation, and he would not have to spend that money if he had his own transportation. A complicated issue and one that I don't think I can explain to him. He will just have to figure it out himself.

Let's see, what is up with Maeghan. She has been spending more time with friends. Her friends for the school she goes to now, not her old friends from Tasmania. Although, one of them wants to move in with her up here somewhere, but I think I went into the bad idea that is in the last entry. If I didn't, then I am sure I will at some point. Her new friends here are starting to ask her to do things after school. I am not sure why now or maybe it is just a coincidence, but she is going out with them this evening, or she thinks she is, they may just go to lunch together, she was not sure. The original plan was to hang around Southbank tonight but that might have changed. She was not sure. She will find out when she gets into school. At the time of this writing, she is already there but I have not spoken to her to find out what her current plans are. I might when I go to park the car over near her school tonight. 

I brought the car to work with me, as I usually do on Fridays but I should go back to taking the train. I normally do it so I can go pick her up after school on the way home. It is not really on the way home but we do it that way anyway, so she doesn't have to take the train. Tonight, I have work to do, so Juanita is planning on bringing William in on the train and meeting me at Southbank. She can then decide to either go home from there with Maeghan or, if Maeghan is actually going out, wait there for her and then me and William for us to finish work. If she goes home, we will take the train home, if not, we have to have her pick us up where we are working. Since neither of us have any money, I think staying in Southbank for several hours is a bad idea, but I think Juanita thinks I have money and can give her some to spend while she is there. I don't, so it would be better if she went home as soon as possible. I will see how it goes when I get there.

Speaking of getting there, it is almost time for me to start packing up. I need to leave a bit early to go into town to drop the car off. Normally, I leave at 3 and get there at 4, but I wanted a little extra time to relax before we work again tonight. Not that sitting here typing in this thing is work, but I am getting paid for it, so it seems like work. Maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part. In any case, I should be going. And I am rabidly running out of things to say, or not really running out, just tired of typing. My backside hurts and my fingers are starting to get numb, so that is the sign to stop. All in all, not a bad entry, but then again, by the standards I have set, that bar is pretty low. Compared to early entries, 15 years ago, it is not up to standards, but for the ones I have done lately, it is pretty good. Maybe not, but I am going to end it anyway.

So until next time,

Later

By the way, there is another ending I wanted to start using in the new blog I have yet to start. But since I have never started it, maybe I will use it here. If I can remember how it goes, I think it is a good ending. Let's see, where did I put it. I think it is on my phone.

Remember

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

Until next time, 

Later Later

MWNews 208

 

Well, this started off badly. I would not let me put a picture in here. Not sure why. I tried several methods and none of them worked. I then went to check if it was actually downloading the pictures and it said it was. I looked and found 6 different copies of the same picture but I could not post them into the blog. I eventually cut and pasted it in here but I need to figure out why it is doing that. Guess it doesn't matter and I will move on. Or more likely, complain about it endlessly until I get tired of typing.

At work again. William is here with me. We have a job to do to this afternoon and instead of trying to go all the way home and pick him up and then bring him back, I brought him here. He is in the café. Not sure how long I will stay here, I only have one thing to do, but I should try to stay at least four hours before we head out to the next job. I will have to go check on him soon as I have been here an hour already.

I would bring him inside with me but that means he has to be tested and certified to be in the office where I am. They keep the safe in here so I am not sure they would allow it. Probably, but I told him to wait out there until I come out. I have to go over that way anyway to fix a computer soon, so I will check on him then. 

This afternoon, we have to go run some cables. We are doing it this weekend, but they wanted me to go check out what was needed and get an estimate of how long it will take. There are 700 desktops that need to be done. There will be four of us doing it this weekend but they are not sure how long each desk takes, so I am tasked with finding out. They said to bring William so we can get a more realistic estimate. Not sure why, but I said he would do it. He had to miss school to do it but since they are not giving him any more work to do at school, he was glad to get out.

Seems the school has given up on him, and a lot of the other higher grade students. Instead of trying to teach them, they are doing busy work and projects around the school. He just brought home a lot of permission slips for an excursion each Thursday. They are going to be going to some different places and doing who knows what. I think it is mostly cleaning or straightening up things. Supposedly, it is part of Art class as it involves beautification of the site, but it is just busy work to keep them occupied. I think there are seven weeks of this in all. I did not read all the sites he will be going to but since there are only a few people in his class that will be participating, I don't know if it was mandatory or not, probably just voluntary to get them out of the school for a while. I am sure he will enjoy it, even if it doesn't involve actually learning something. Not sure how they get away with that but it seems to be the whole point of the school, to take the problem kids from other schools and put them all in one place. They already have strict rules about where the senior students can go and who they can interact with on campus. They are only allowed to be in their designated areas and can only leave for specific reasons and at specific times so they do not interrupt the other classes. They have had several problems in that area and this was their solution to it. Keep them separate and away from the other students. Not sure if it works but it has been for a few months now. They used to have fights and stuff all the time,

William and I are at the new job now. They did not deliver the equipment so there is nothing for us to do. Not sure if it will be here today, so that puts the weekend work in jeopardy. We could use that money and I am working next weekend so we can't do it then. Seems to be an issue. We are waiting to find out where the equipment is. 

I think I mentioned we went to Dreamworld. Not much more to tell from there. We walked around after the concert. Everything was closing, so we missed out on doing anything else that day. Again, I have to say Dreamworld is losing its appeal. No shows, or none done very well, not many rides, more than we can ride than at MovieWorld but not a lot more. Animals but that's nothing special after you see it one or two times. Better food but so expensive. I am not sure what pass we should get next time. The other pass has all the parks but you cannot really visit more than one a day. Dreamworld has the water park and the rides but we will have to see if that is still as good as it was back when we did it ten years ago.

William is upset because we cannot get the coke machine to work here. He wanted a snack but it is not taking cards, only cash. I don't carry cash anymore. I would let him go down to the coffee shop and get something but I am not sure when they will come back and tell me if we are working tomorrow, so we have to stay.

Maeghan has been home sick this week. It's the first week after vacation and she has missed the whole week. She is not sure what that will mean for her studies but she should be fine. Or let's hope so. Can't afford for this to be a wasted year. She only has this one and half of another before she gets her diploma. She can then start working somewhere and get paid for it. On a good note, she has made some friends now, so she hangs out with them a lot after school. Plus, one of her old friends from Tasmania is wanting her to get an apartment with her so they can both move out. The other girl is only doing it to try to get away from her mother. She is not a good girl, or not the kind of girl Maeghan could rely on, so I think it is a bad idea. I think Maeghan knows it is a bad idea also, so hopefully, she does not listen and go through with it.

William wants to save money so he can go to Tassie next year and drink with his friends. He turns 18 and he says he is going to go to Tassie and have a party with his friends over there. Not such a good idea but he is determined. It just remains to be seen if he can save his money that long. Costs a fair bit to get over there and then he will need money while he is there. So far, he saved almost half his last paycheck but unless he saves all of this one, he will not have enough and there is no guarantee he will get any more work. Even if he does, I am not so sure he can stand it being in his bank and not spending it on something silly, like the plastic gun he bought with his money out of his last check.

Juanita gets her stitches out next week. They were supposed to come out today, but the doctor does not work on Friday and Monday, we have to take Maeghan to the hospital for a consultation. Maeghan has been waiting a year for this appointment, so she has to go, and she needs to have someone with her. They don't allow more than one person to go with her, but it is at the hospital and that is kind of tricky to get to unless someone is dropping you off, so I made sure I did not have to work and will take them in. Then I will have to find a place to wait for them to finish.

I was interrupted in typing this at work. It is now Sunday and I am at home. I have no idea what I was talking about or what I was going to talk about so I am going to end this and start new. I say that but I am typing on the desktop and Juanita has put a new chair here and I cannot sit in it and type. Plus, the keyboard is broken and does not sit up, so it is hard on the wrists. All that means is I will probably not start a new entry today. Might get the laptop out and use that but I doubt that will happen either. 

This is hard so until next time,

Later