Month: September 2016

Road Repairs, and Storm Damage

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

Patience is one thing – having to put up with this constant ache is something else. I do not intend to play at being Gregory House, living on pain killers and a cane. But according to what I am being told everything is progressing well and the residual pain is to be expected for a while. Good Grief, I’m a grumpy, impatient patient!!  I don’t know why Benji puts up with me. Annabell – she who follows Rugby – tells me that rugby players are out for a while with a knee injury and it will take a while  for the discomfort to fade completely.

I have been looking at Therapy Dogs, South Australia and from what I can see Therapy Dogs are not hospital visitors. I don’t think they go into Hospitals at all – more people confined to their homes,  Retirement Homes,  Aged Care Facilities plus a list of other activities but , not that I can see, hospitals. Bit sad if that is the case.  I found their web site slightly confusing, but perhaps that’s just me.

crackfill01Couple of days ago there was a fatal car crash on the Port Wakefield Road. It is believed that the car may have been thrown off balance by a pothole. I use that road fairly regularly and  was there on Wednesday going down and Thursday coming home and for a main road north, it’s not the best. It needs some serious upgrade. Traveling down on Wednesday there were places where it was like driving over corrugated iron. Some genius came up with a new idea to make bad roads last longer – fill in the cracks with bitumen. Yes, it may well help to make the road last a bit longer but it makes for a very uncomfortable ride. That’s what they have been doing on the Port Wakefield Road but it is now widespread and the Council have been doing it here in a number of our roads – not pretty. It’s like a very old British TV show “Never Mind the Quality – Feel the Width”. Why not repair it – don’t be silly, that would mean diverting money away from  the South Road – or even worse – the Money Pit AKA The New Royal Adelaide Hospital. Although, having said that, they did go out and fill in the potholes that caused the accident.

Wednesday: According to all the weather reporters and forecasters we are about to get hit with the worst storm since the 1940s and it starts this afternoon. At this moment it is 7:40 and it is blue skies and sunny – no sign of any storm – hardly even a cloud. At the moment, as far as I can see, the storm is still out on the  Great Australian Bight and just looking at its predicted movement, it’s still a long way off. Apart from about 100+mm of rain winds almost up to hurricane intensity are forecast, so that should be interesting.

9 am – It begins.  The sun has gone, dark overheads clouds, rolling thunder and in the last few seconds, the rain has started.  Nothing much to be concerned with right at the moment. Been looking at the weather map and I think this is all going to pass below us. As far as I can make out there are actually two storm fronts, one coming down from the north and one moving in from

Looks interesting
Looks interesting

the  Bight. I think we will get a fair bit of the rain from both but the major front, the one coming in from the Bight will pass below us and hit Adelaide, the South East, Victoria and New South Wales. The one from the north – seems to be heading above us and into Queensland.

9:50. The rain is crashing down now and the noise in incredible. The thunder seems to have  gone for the moment and there is no wind whatsoever. Everything stopped for a while then it started up again bringing hail stones and heavy, crashing rain

Thursday: Shortly after that comment on Wednesday  we lost power. This was just restored about 45 minutes ago, so 24, cold, dark hours without power. As far as I can see  our location protected us from the worst of the storm. Yes, we had rain, hail wind like I have never seen before but

pylons-down
pylons-down

not as much damage as in other parts of the State. I have two trees down and I managed to start clearing one before the power went out and the saw was useless.  Other areas such as Blyth, really took a beating with major damage to property.  The  massive storm front brought down some 24 electricity pylons and damaged the grid in three areas leading to a state-wide blackout. Power was restored to some parts of Adelaide last night , we came back on line at 4:30 this afternoon but there are still about 50,000 without power further north. The news is that this storm front is not over yet and there is a forecast for more rain and high winds late this afternoon and into tonight. Right at the moment I am concentrating on making sure everything is charged up – just in case  :o)

Latest:  Reports of suggested evacuations of parts of Port Pirie as the water rises and threatens to flood the town..

Adelaide, Bunnings and a Strange Experience..

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Me and some of my toys
Me and some of my toys

I did a little bit of work in the garden yesterday, and also did a lot of sitting down but I am starting to get moving . Just take it in easy stages.  It was nice yesterday morning but by 2 pm it was  dull, overcast and chucking it down again. It’s not the best start to spring that I can remember. Not much in the way of rain for Adelaide for a day or so – then the next front rolls in. However, not so great looking for Victoria and parts of NSW. Took Benji out for a walk the other evening – after it got dark – not a long walk nor a quick one, just a slow walk to the end of the road and back. How very odd – for some reason I must have pressed the publish button and published the first paragraph of this post  – I must be cracking up. I think it must be all this rain that has waterlogged my brain  :o)

As I said, I managed to do a little bit of work in the garden before the rain started – not a lot and I did sit down a fair bit, but I did something – which is good. I am also heading off to Adelaide this week. My son has three days off work so he wants to go to Adelaide and has asked me to come down with him. Bit of a break and he will do most of the

No Offense intended
No Offense intended

driving. This comes at a good time because I wanted to go to Bunnings Garden Center and look for Mandevilla Climbers. I saw them in a booklet and liked the colours so I thought I might try them here. I think our local garden center has some but only in the one colour and I would like an assortment of different colours. Depends if we have time or not.  A week or so ago, on another site I follow there was a small discussion on doctor’s handwriting and the difficulty at times of reading it. Not  very long afterwards I came across this cartoon whilst I was looking for something else. It appealed to my warped sense of humour. I hope she ( the doctor) is not offended.

It has been bucketing down off and on here for most of the day and according to the news we had about 13mm of rain. Fortunately it looks as if it will be dry for the drive to Adelaide.

It was mainly dry. We did run into a rain band not too far from Port Pirie. That lasted for a bit then it was clear all the way to  Marlston in Adelaide.  John did most of the driving down and after changing over at Bolivar,  I did the driving in town. John  attended to his business and I went to Bunnings at a place called Mile End. I got the garden lights that I wanted. I was told that it is too early for Mandevilla – next month is better.  I really don’t know what happened after that but I felt a  that very strange pulling sensation and next thing I knew I was in the Pet Barn and these Dinosaurs were calling to me. There were three and I felt that it would be so wrong to take two and leave one poor dinosaur all on his own with no one to love. Next thing I knew I was back in the car with a bag with three dinosaurs in it and only a vague recollection of how they got there. I know, you probably don’t believe me – – interestingly enough, neither did Annabell.   Well….. I don’t think I dog can have too many toys..

 

Stormy Weather. Welcome to Spring

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
I just knew it would be elaborate.
I just knew it would be elaborate.

On the way back from hospital this afternoon I pulled in to the Wetlands to see how the bridge was going. Glad to say that the bridge is now in place but there is a lot of work to be done on the “Approach Roads” on either side. I still think the Forth Bridge was built faster.  This could take a while because of the other news. Things are going from badder to worser !! In the wee small hours of the morning, when the whole wide world was fast asleep, some people  broke into and raided the Council Depot making off with a large quantity of steel.  ** stop laughing, this is serious** According to the newspaper report they – whoever ‘they’are – helped themselves to a quantity of steel valued at over $3500. I didn’t know we were so short of steel around here that we have to resort to lifting it from the Council Depot. I can think of many things that one could steal if one was that way inclined, but steel would not figure in that list, but then  who knows why people steal things.

I am progressing fairly well and although there seems to be some bruising that has developed in the upper thigh area,  I expect that’s fairly

Setting up the "Approach Roads"at the new bridge
Setting up the “Approach Roads”at the new bridge

dsc01947 normal given the nature of the operation.  I am able to move a lot easier now and I have actually been out driving with the Benji. Cannot take him out walking quite yet but I can have him in the car with me and he’s happy with that. He likes being in the car – which is just as well at the moment.  The difficulty is not driving, the difficulty is getting in and out of the car  :o) I went down to the church today and helped a little with the Annual Fete. Couldn’t do very much but did what I could and sat down a lot.

I went for my follow up visit to the surgeon this afternoon and he is pleased that everything seems to be progressing well. There will be some residual pain for a while but in about 4-5 weeks it should have

Somewhere, underneath this is a WaWa
Somewhere, underneath this is a WaWa

cleared completely. I am walking a lot better than I was a week ago and the bruising I was told came from the tourniquet  that was used on my upper leg. Other than that, it’s all good. I am just so very disappointed that the garden has been neglected for a while,  but once I am active again I will soon bring it back under control and get on with the work I was doing. Apart from which it has been raining a lot this past week or so. Adelaide coped a bashing and  took a month worth of rain practically overnight. There is damage and widespread flooding in and around the city. I understand Victoria, or parts of that State anyway,  is also taking a bit of a beating, and once this front is clear there is another not far behind it. Welcome to Spring!!  What you see here is the damage to one of the major roads through the Adelaide Hills and this is going to be out for several months.  We are untouched. I think this system went below us hitting us with  heavy rain that our storm drains were able to cope with. I understand there are flood warnings for areas of

Montacute Road, Adelaide
Montacute Road, Adelaide

Victoria, Bendigo, Ballarat and several other places. I hope Bev and the Doc are ok.

 

Getting it from both ends!

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Just Because
Just Because

The operation went quite well. I say quite well because things didn’t go according to plan. Apparently there was a lot more damage than they thought and I ended up with a lot more done than had been intended. They discovered several bone fragments there  so all of that had to be repaired. I am in bed at home and having difficulty walking – although today I did take Benji for a walk. With my sticks we walked down the hallway into the sitting room, and then back to my bedroom. I was fair exhausted. I have given instructions to Annabell that if I ever again feel that I would like the fairly mild pain to be replaced by an operation and a pain that required pain killers and the inability to walk for a time – I just want her to introduce my brain to a 4 x 2. She says a few days and the pain will go and the need for sticks will  be gone and I can get back to being normal again – well what passes as normal for me.  Benji sits down at the end of the bed keeping guard – making sure that WaWa or her mistress don’t attack me. Annabell brings in the ice pack – in a towel – and Benji sits up and moves towards her. I grab him. Oh he doesn’t harm her or even growl,  he just uses his snout to push her away from me.

 

The entrance to the new part of the hospital
The entrance to the new part of the hospital

The upgraded hospital opened last year at a cost of $60 million. In contrast, the Adelaide Money Pit AKA The New Royal Adelaide Hospital, is the third most expensive building on the planet and costing over $2.5 Billion not even considering the massive delays, problems, cost blowouts and  now probably wont be opened until  sometime next year – September/October is being touted. I have nothing but praise for our people and our hospital. Calvary  have begun construction of a new state-of-the art private hospital in Adelaide and the joke is that the new Calvary Hospital will probably be up and running before the new RAH is opened. The Premier didn’t think that comment was funny.

Easy had a birthday last week and both Benji and I wished him well. I have no idea when Benji’s birthday is but I have decided that his birthday will be the day I  brought him home from Mount Gambier to his new family – the day I adopted him. Seems to me that this is as good a day as any.As I said I missed Easy’s birthday but  Benji and the WaWa hope to be able to attend the  Tea Pawty that Christmas in holding next week.  By the looks of things this is going to be a case of previous years when I had both male and female dogs – Chienne and the Man – this time I think it’s going to be Benji and the WaWa. I would really like  Sooah to come back but with the state of the economy here in South Australia, I really don’t see it happening – which is quite sad really, she is a lovely young lady. After discussions with Annabell we decided that we really cannot do anything with the WaWa until after October because there is still the chance that Sooah may return. After that we will start the process of changing ownership.

Monday and after a quiet weekend the first of the bandages  will come off tomorrow. Provided everything is ok we will remove the second bandage when Annabell comes back from her Coffee Morning on Wednesday. I think the removal of the outer bandages should allow me a greater degree of flexibility and movement and I am quite looking forward to that.Annabell is out for two days at her coffee evening and morning so I have a little time to myself – well me and the dogs, but that’s cool.  You know, I think medical professionals can be very thoughtless at times. Here I am recovering from knee surgery and my cardiologist decided that this would be a really good time for me to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours – a heart monitor at one end, recovering from a knee operation at the other – sleep has not come easy these last few days   :o)  – Yes, you have to smile!!  It’s either that or sneak off and cry in some corner..