No computer...

As you can see it is quite a while since I last posted on here.  My main computer died and the smaller computers that belong to the Daughter and GS's apparently are quite hostile to Blogger and would not give me a stable format to write in. 

Then we had an insulting time with the ISP we had been using for a good number of years and decided to move to Telstra.  Self flagellation is doing anything with Telstra and what should have taken about a week and a half to get organised entailed three weeks and 17 different people on the other end of the phone included people we spoke to twice - and more than half the time the phone calls were initiated by them...

We are only just up and running...

So much to my daughter's chagrin, I downloaded Google chrome onto her laptop, and can finally find an almost stable environment for Blogger.  Why chrome as a browser is not completely compatible with blogger totally beggars belief, but there you go. 

Then to further deepen my computing problems, Hotmail decided that someone had used my account to post spam and closed it on me without warning.  They have an automated bot that is "supposed" to get you back into your account etc., but NO ONE is on the other end and it doesn't work.  So I have lost all my hotmail emails and all my email addresses.  Please send me a PM through my profile here which goes to my Gmail and I will reply through my Bigpond account if you want to keep in touch with me. 

More of the same....

Gee it has been a while. I had my operation dates put back, and now it is at the end of July. It is a little frustrating because I want to get it all over and done with, but good in as much as that I have been able to give up smoking and get myself a bit well that way, and loosing a couple of kilos.

I've been taking it easy, as the spasms seem to be getting worse. The doctor says to leave treating them till after the operation as that will stop them altogether.

Kitten has cut her stomach, taken to the vet where she had stitches and a drain put in as it was badly infected. She has such long hair and puts up such a fight when we try to look at her stomach at any time. So we are rinsing the drain and have been giving her medication. She isn't too bad with the meds, mostly, and when she does fuss, we just put them into her food.

Just waiting as usual.....

Pleased....

It no doubt has occured to you that I am a great procrastinator. My sister used to have a motto "Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after" and alas, I seem to have taken it to heart. Lol. Furthermore, having depression has only made that problem worse. It has always been very difficult for me to complete things that I start. I have a mountain of UFO's of all sorts of things, including tidying some things.

However, contrary to my usual habits of not finishing things off, I have actually done something I am pretty pleased with. I went into a swap for some handmade cards. I only had to make 4 of them and they were quite a bit of work to do. But over about a week I have not only started this project, but also finished it. Everything is all packed up, ready to post. I am surprised with my diligence in this effort and very pleased. I will be posting photos of this effort on my other blog once the swap is done. I will put up a link on here when that happens.

In many ways I am feeling much better, but in others not so good. I find in some respects I have too long to wait, and my nerves tell me it is never long enough. I'll get there.

Magpies...

If you look at this link to see some very naughty magpies....

Just a quick note....

...I have my dates for the operations, one in early July and the other in early August. It's about seven weeks today. I am still a little nervous but I am starting to think in terms of after the operations which I think is good. Previously, I had decided I was going to die - don't ask my why, probably the imbalances in my brain. Anyhow, so I am good now. Just a case of waiting. Have to go for the info session on the 24th June.

Poor kitten....

Starbug - AKA Kitten

(only because she is so much younger than the other cats here.)

Well it has been a time of adventures for us here at Unicorn farm. Kitten has developed a dermatitis condition - either an allergy to fleas, food or both. We decided we had better take her to the vet and get her check out properly as the iodine lotion we were using was not helping.

We booked an appointment and arranged for the Old Person to pick us up to take us to the vet - we have been seeing him since 1999 and there is no point in changing. Old Person turns up, drives GS2 to school and comes back. We have to go as the car is stalling and not starting. He is leaving it running. Grab kitty. So packed in her cat carrier we put her in the back seat with the Daughter.

Almost to the vets and at an intersection, the car stalls and this time it will not start. The Old Person demands the daughter gets out an pushes the car across the intersection to where he can roll it to a stop. This is in peak hour traffic, mind you. I am really worried about some of the idiots on the road not looking out for the Daughter. Luckily she was okay and got a good break to run from the middle of the road to the pavement.

The Old Person lifts the bonnet, as though he knows anything about engines at all, and a buddy of his comes up and starts discussing the whole thing with him. The daughter and I grab the cat carrier and begin a hike to the Vet's. Luckily we had plenty of time and there are plenty of back ways through the streets to get there.

However, since I have been using a walking stick for a while now, it isn't the easiest thing to walk for over a kilometre to get there. But surprisingly enough we did it in 20 minutes and had a little time to recover before going into see the vet. Kitty was so not impressed at being in a cat carrier, being walked for a long distance (to her) in a strange place. Then indignity of all having to see the vet. The first thing a vet does is put a thermometer in her butt. "I'll get you for this".

Vet cleans her up, and gives her some lotions and pills. Watches her for a while. She is more animated than usual at the vet's, jumping onto benches and at one stage hiding under my chair. But the pronunciation was a bit concerning, as the dermatitis has to clear up.

We have to put the cream onto her twice every day and she has to have only kangaroo meat as she may be allergic to normal cat food. She had to have strong de-flea drops put onto her scruff. We mix her pills in with her meat of a night.

Getting home from the vet was as much an adventure in itself. We walked toward the CBD of Campbelltown, with Kitty in her carrier. At least one and a half kilometres. Then decided we would be better getting a taxi home. Very nice taxi driver, and he asked concerned questions about the kitten as well.

So far, it hasn't reduced her quality of life at all. It is just she really dislikes having the cream put on her face.

Game Over, Dude...

I am glad Osama bin Laden is dead. I don't rejoice in the taking of life, but I think that this was one person who really needed to be killed to give justice to the other people who died because of him. Both the "good" and the "bad" have had big losses because of this man. Strapping bombs to a 12 year old child is just the worst of it.

I do not think it will make much difference to Al Qaida or anyone else intent on killing and other acts of terrorism, but as the figurehead, having him gone is going to slow things down eventually.

What we must address, after the "retaliatory" efforts to "avenge" his death is to re examine what we are doing in the countries that we have entered to fight these battles. Tribalism is a very, very old lifestyle and until we of the Western countries try to understand it more and work with it, rather than against it, wars in those regions of the world where it still is prevalent are going to continue more or less forever.

Tribalism, unless worked with and to some extent changed, will keep these countries from ever being really safe, fairly primative with a few "rulers" of really rich people. Thinking that the present uprisings in Libya, Egypt or Tunisia is going to bring democracy is a farce. All it will do is introduce more radical Islamists to the fore, crush any dissent, particularly religious dissent and make the region even worse than it is now. The UN will have little or no say in keeping order. What is bad now will only become worse. Tribalism is just as much alive in those countries as any other place. Egypt did have some liberalism under Mubarak, but I believe that these will be quashed with the new leaders. The new leaders will be under the "watchful eye" of the Muslim Brotherhood. May as well say just another version of the Taliban. Anyone who thinks differently, particularly those of us of the West, are just deluding ourselves.

Islam is much like Communism in that if it cannot convert openly it will go covertly - although in the case of Islam, probably more violently. Peace, as Mao Tse Dong is attributed to saying, comes through the muzzle of a gun. The West is not yet won.

Getting there...

I suppose not writing on my blog because of having to correct mistakes is not really a valid reason to not write. So I will try to keep a few more updates available.

I still have not had a response to my admission form from Liverpool hospital, and I have decided if I have not heard by the end of this week, I will ring them on Monday and see if I can get some information. Not knowing is the annoying thing at the moment. Some of my symptoms are getting worse, and I will have to see a doctor soon.

Still, as a result of having my teeth removed, I am feeling so much better so obviously that was causing some problems as well. The numbness has also abated somewhat, much to my surprise, because according to what I read on line, it should have gradually gotten worse. But I can definitely feel my fingers on my skin now, whereas previously, I could barely feel at all. At least it makes going to the toilet easier. Although, at times, I still have to run.

The photograph above shows a photograph of my father and sister at a recent ANZAC day function in Canberra. I think my father looks well for his age (almost 86). My sister is doing well also. I am very proud of her accomplishments in her work.

ANZAC day produced some interesting family photographs on Facebook - I shared a photograph of our grandfather during the war, with some cousins who in turn shared a number of photographs of their maternal grandfather during WWII. It was interesting to see the two different perspectives. It was also sad, that going through the photos to find the one of my grandfather, coming across other, older photographs of young men from the family who the wars had taken before their time.

I have scanned all my photographs onto my computer and into a variety of hard drives to keep them. As time goes by I will print them off for scrapbooking albums. As I scan, I try to caption each of the photographs so that others in the family will know who the people are. Some, although I know their names, I am not sure of their relationship to the family - but someone has to remember them and keep their photos safe.

Overall, I think there are over 4 thousand photographs on my computer and drives - not all of them really relevant - like hundreds of the cats. But I am working on captioning all the ones of family and important stuff. Events we have attended, places we have been and making some sort of story of everything.

Hands on physical scrapbooking is a good thing, and I enjoy doing it, but I may not have time to get it all done, and the daughter's interest comes and goes. That isn't an indictment on her, she works and has two lively boys and time is at a premium for her.

And the other news is that in about three weeks, my daughter will have her driver's licence. She has been doing lessons for several months now and is ready to sit for her test. She is quite excited about doing it.

Demise of the bookstore...

...about three weeks ago, the daughter and I were in Borders at Macarthur Square. We went up to the art section, up the back on the second floor and found a book of 50 wonders of the world. It was a very large book, they wanted well over $100 for it. So we sat on the floor and flipped through the pages. Talking and commenting about the pictures and places; we would never visit most places, but through this lovely book we could appreciate them. It took us around an hour of being together looking through the book. It was really lovely to be able to do that.

So in many ways I am sorry to see the demise of bookshops. I imagine Borders online store may stay open and probably viable.

I bought myself a basic Kobo to download and read books on. I cannot stop reading just because I can no longer afford books - they were getting far to pricey, even for paperbacks. And that is probably a main reason for them going out of business. There are millions of books on line that you can download for free many of which are out of print now. But freebies are not what makes profit for shareholders or pays wages to sales staff.

I feel very bad for these sales staff that are loosing their jobs. Some of them are very bookwormy and very knowledgeable about books and authors, so I will miss my interactions with them as well. I wish all of them luck in getting new jobs in the very near future.

Free books also do not pay authors and if authors cannot make a living, they will not write. Unlike music, which you can create for the sheer joy of it and post it on Youtube, writing books is about creating worlds for people to inhabit in their imaginations. Taking that away from our culture is going to take away a great creative outlet for millions and leave our culture very much the poorer. Diminishing our culture seems to have become a way of life with the internet and the ubiquitous computer.

I will continue to pay for good books when I can, even if it just a download for my Kobo. I will avail myself of good free books and hopefully someone will find a way to make this less diminishing for our culture.

Bit of some updates...

I have changed the look of my blog. There are still some kinks to work out, but it is not the weird colours it was before. I hope this will make it more readable for people.

I changed my credit union for a bank. I am not sure this is a good thing, but so far it is good in that I don't have to pay fees on my transactions. There are probably other fees that I will have to pay, but only occasionally, because I make only transactions, and not much else at the moment. I have had to go around and tell those who need to know that my accounts have to be changed.

I also opened an account to save a little money in, and the bank has assured me it will not be taking money out of it under any circumstances if I am only depositing money into it. Which is all I wanted from the Credit Union. Sometimes long loyalty with a company counts for nothing these days; that is not a good thing for anybody.

I noticed some people on Facebook are back to going on about the end of the world in 2012. Good grief. So my reply is to ask them for their stuff and offer to water their plants and care for their pets. Maybe this should be on my religious blog. haha. I am also offering people if they are planning on having an apocalypse to supply their equine needs. Can't have a decent apocalypse without horsemen, and horsemen have to be mounted on horses. Oh well, so far, no takers on either of them.

Taking steps...

We drove to Liverpool today with the Old Person. The hospital there is one of the biggest in Sydney; with the new extension it may be the biggest. I have not driven to Liverpool in several years: mostly it has not changed including very sparse carpark availability.

I was given Admission papers by the Specialist last week for my operation. I had had my GP sign them for me last week. I had filled them out over a few days last week. There are two sets as I will need two Admissions.

The walk from the front entrance of the Hospital to the Admissions area is quite a distance. I found it difficult to walk the distance - and with no where to sit along the way it was tiring. The daughter was with me, so she stood in line while I was able to sit in the theatre sized waiting room.

There is a small desk with two clerks doing the Admissions, one computer between them. You can see an open plan office behind them through about three different doorways. We were there about fifteen minutes before it was our turn. The clerk just told me to wait so they could do my booking. About ten minutes later another clerk came, called my name and informed me that they would phone me to come in for an information session and then a letter would be sent to me. I am looking at around 3 months till I will be admitted.

I am almost excited about this operation, as the condition has been what has been causing my mental depression. You will have noticed that through my blog, I continually refer to my depression, even after I had been on medication. This is what has been causing the depression. Now I can look forward to getting over it once and for all, to walking properly so that I can exercise and loose weight. All the diet food in the world has not been working. I can do back muscle strengthening exercises to help the general deterioration in my spine.

It will be like getting my brain back and being able to do studies and have some hope to completing my studies.

I can't deny that the operations and recovery are going to be harrowing for me - ironically the depression is making these fears worse at the moment. I don't know how soon afterwards I will start noticing a difference.

I have had calls of support from family members which is reassuring.

Finally some news...

I went to the spinal surgeon today. I have a crushed vertebrate in my neck. I will have to have surgery - two operations. One will be from the front and will remove one bone that is pressing on the cord, and the other will move the other bone that is also pressing on the cord from the back.

If I don't have the operation it is only a matter of time and I will be paralyzed which I certainly do not want to be. It will be a bit painful at first but I think I can deal with that.

The operations will be done the front removal first and after a week, if I am healing up okay, the second. Otherwise I will have to wait about a month and then get the second done. I usually heal well after surgery, so I am very hopeful that this will be no different and I can get both done fairly close together and done with.

My biggest "phobia" with surgery, isn't so much the surgery itself, it is afterwards, when I first come round I vomit and immediately afterwards discover I have a drip in my arm and start to seriously freak out. I understand now that they can give anesthetic that wont make you vomit, but I think I will get a referral to a psychologist about the drip because I really do freak out. It has to do with when I gave birth to my children. As this is surgery that involves my neck and I may not be able to eat for a while, it could get to be a serious problem for me otherwise. I will also probably discuss it with my doctor.

Stupid Credit Union

So Unicom credit union, that I have been a member of since 1999 has finally pushed me to the limit. Over about the last 2-3 years they have changed policy without notification and downright lied to me about things and I am going to vent all over the internet.

I opened an account into which I put $20 per fortnight. Just for if I have to pay a bit extra for something, or need money for something. I do not touch this money. I have only opened it in the last couple of months. I've been on new start waiting to get all this medical stuff seen to. Thinking I would have enough for the specialist today.

Oh no, no such luck. I had not left enough money in my main account for my transaction fees; even though this has never been a problem in the past. Not once. But this month, they decided since I had money in my savings account, they would take that for my transaction fees. So, not enough for the bill for the specialist.

But, not relying 100% on that, I had deposited a largish (for me) cheque from my birthday last week. They said it would take 3 days to clear. Today being day 4. Was it cleared? No. Liars. If I wanted to get it cleared I would have to pay a fee.

Luckily for me the specialist has an opening tomorrow I can fill.

After tomorrow guess where I will NOT be having my money left with?

Dental Update...

After three days of being in pain, I think I have an infection where the remaining teeth were extracted and I will be off to the dentist and maybe doctor this morning. I have also had a headache to go along with it. I rarely get headaches and it is quite frustrating.

I have taken to wearing my sunglasses for the moment; it seems to help with the headache. Being on the computer doesn't really seem to help ;-)

I am looking forward to finishing off a couple of projects this weekend. I also think I will get out my Kobo, re introduce myself to it and load it up with some e-books - of course, depending on how the headache progresses after I have seen the dentist/doctor.

New Blog

Yes I know I am a pathetic blogger, but I felt a new one was needed for my religious thoughts. You can find it here.

I am going to be doing two correspondence courses starting in March, one in religious studies and the other my Certificate 3 in IT. Maybe by doing a Cert 3 I will be able to finish my Cert 4 and understand stuff better. The IT studies are through OTEN and the other through a College in Tasmania.

Keeping the above blog will allow me to document and discuss on my own terms what I am learning.

Had the remainder of my dental work done today. It was quite painful coming off the anesthetic even with a painkiller, but now after the second painkillers it is tolerable. In a couple of weeks I will make an appointment to see the prostheticist and get dentures made. Next Tuesday I will finally be seeing a spinal specialist with all my scans and xrays, so fingers crossed I will find out what is wrong with me once and for all, and find a way forward.

The weight loss is still there, but only just, because I can't exercise fully as I would like to, and hopefully if I can get rid of the cramping and spasms, I will be able to walk and it will come off a bit faster. Now that I have had my teeth seen to that should help as well.

I have more arts and crafts that I have been doing and finishing up and will post when a) I get photos, and b) when I remember to post.

Further more ....

Well, so it turns out that the Queensland Government could have ordered the engineers at Wivenhoe dam to start releasing small amounts of water during the previous week/s to the flood and the devastation to Brisbane would not have been so bad. How many lives would NOT have been lost?

So why didn't they? Turns out that Labor as a Political Party still adheres to the concept of Global Warming. Had they released the water it would have "been a waste of a valuable resource". Well, what did it end up as anyhow? How many "resources" were wasted as a result of the flood?

What idiot came up with the concept of Global Warming thinking Australia would be in perpetual drought? Accepted that there is some climate change going on, but this flood is a result of a strong El Nina event, NOT anything else. If we were warming up, then the flood would have been worse than the one in 1974 - even if it was more widespread - and what about the floods in the 19th Century which were even higher?

People have been going on about the insurance companies who are not going to pay out on damage because Flooding was not covered in some policies. The State Government is being heavy handed with the insurance companies trying to make them pay. I think if the insurance companies do do the right thing, they should demand an inquiry and investigation.

So much for having the "Greenies" on your side. So much for your tears Anna Bligh...

Floods...

I guess like most people in Australia, I have been watching the awful floods in Queensland. It has been very tragic that 15 people have lost their lives and thousands have lost their homes and possessions.

Having family who lives in Brisbane, I am lucky that none of these events have really touched them. I can't but wonder at the turn of events that prevented us from moving there two years ago as we originally planned. It reinforces that God really does care for me and my family.

I have to wonder too at the idea of building large commercial cities on the banks of rivers right where they meet the sea. Brisbane is a port with shipping on a regular basis. It is the same with New Orleans. Too much of the wrong weather and both cities were devastated. Toowoomba is a largish city as well. Flood plains are not called that without reason. Sooner or later there will be a flood.

Will sense ever prevail - hardly, since the size of the cities are too large to just abandon to the fates. There was a flood in Brisbane in 1974 so it stands to reason there will be floods in the future. Homes can be made flood proof or as flood proof as possible; in the future it should be the demand of insurance companies and councils that new houses are built only above the height of floods (on stilts - like the old Queenslanders) and/or have rooms that can be totally sealed off so that possessions can be safely stored during a flood event.

Insurance premiums will undoubtedly rise again, to help defray the costs of having to pay out on the floods. Some food stuff costs will go up from crops destroyed during the floods being unavailable. Mostly these sort of costs never come down again. It will be harder for the poor to afford these things. There is a sort of selfishness involved in these sort of lifestyle choices whether made consciously or unconsciously.

We are seriously reconsidering our choice to move to Brisbane now.