MONDAY
Month: May 2021
Wednesday
Still Sinking, but not as quickly!
We seem to have cleared things for the moment. I was in contact with WordPress and they were telling me that it was a common problem recently, but that it is not of their making.. There has been some malfunction in many browsers and the cache is not being cleared. WordPress suggested that I clear the browser history and see if that worked. It seems to have at the moment but we still have a few problems. However, I am happy to know that I am not alone in this particular problem. I don’t know though, I sometimes think WordPress have forgotten the old adage “If it’s not broke – don’t fix it”.
I will take Annabell out for some shopping tomorrow and then take her for coffee. It’s the first time she will have been out of the
house in over a week, so we will see how things go. She is very much better than she was so perhaps the outing will do her the world of good. I would like to go to the photography group on Wednesday but we will see how she is then.. All going well tomorrow should be fine. I’ll take the dog out and then get her breakfast ready when I come back.
Well, so much for morning plans the night before. It has been heavy rain most on the night and still raining now. I’ll do many things for my dog, but going walking in the rain is not one of them. I know, I’m a meanie. However, if it does clear up – as it generally does – I will take him out to the Wetlands later in the day. Actually, I got him into the car at 06:30 when the rain eased off. By the time we got to the Wetlands the rain had stopped and although I sat there in the car for a good half hour, no one showed up, so we just drove back home again. Still Benji doesn’t mind as long as he was out in the car, that’s all that matters. The reason for not going out is simply a concern that if anything should happen, there is no one around to help or call for help if needed. Mind you, calling for help is a bit of a joke ATM. Last night (according to the news) a lady called emergency as her son had an accident. She was told that she should take the boy to hospital herself, or call for a taxi since there was no ambulance available. . No one wants to talk about it but our medical and emergency system is in trouble across all of South Australia and we had to bring an ambulance from 50 miles away (Port Augusta) to respond to emergencies here. Take our problems here and multiply them by 20 and you just about have the current situation in Adelaide. There were 17 ambulances ‘ramped’ at the Flinders Medical Center and a similar number at the Royal Adelaide – emergency patients stuck in an ambulance at the hospital because the A & E was over capacity and was unable to cope. This was repeated in all the main city hospitals over the last two nights.
I really don’t want to abandon WordPress and I would prefer to stay, but this is driving me crazy—- let me re-phrase that — more crazy than I already am. There are alternatives to WordPress, but none of them come anywhere near the market leader. I already looked for alternatives but was not really impressed with what was on offer. I thought that it was probably better to “stay with the devil you know”. The song from the Muppets Movie comes to mind –
“You can’t live with em, you can’t live without em, there’s something irrisistabullish about em, we grin and bear it cause the nights are long, I hope that something better comes along.”
We had a telephone call from Adelaide and we now have a date for the day surgery at Flinders Clinic. I take her to Adelaide on Monday 7th June and then to the Clinic for day
surgery at 8am on Tuesday 8th June. All being well, we should be travelling home on Wednesday 9th June. I have the feeling that I did mention this but the way things are, I can’t go back and check. I keep saving this every few lines just in case I lose it all again. Goodness – talk about paranoid.
Benji is as well as can be expected. We missed our walk today and since I have had to take Annabell out this afternoon, I wont have time. That should please him no end. He can complain – but what about me? It’s not doing my fitbit any good this no walks. Once he has had this operation, I shall really miss being wakened by a bark at 2am because he wants up on the bed beside me, and since he can’t jump, I have to lift him up. Honestly – the things we do for “family”
The Sands of Time are sinking.
Over the last few days WordPress has crashed on me and I am unable to access anything. I am sitting here writing this without any confidence that I will be able to publish it. Annabell has been ill all week and I have been Chief Cook and Dishes Washer. I still take Benji out at 6am in the morning and we are generally back from the Wetlands about 6:45 and I try to leave and return as quietly as possible. I have set up a bed for her in the lounge so I can keep an eye on har and there is the close proximity to the kitchen.
I do not know what has happened to WordPress but I feel that my time with them is coming to an end. I think this is unfortunate and quite sad. I have gone down the route of shutting down, unpluging, leaving and then starting up again in the hope that things would reset, but sadly that failed to produce any results. None of the buttons are workingand I do not know where to go next other than the scrap heap. Everything was working fine only a few days ago although my last post was on Wednesday last and I have been attending to Annabell since then. It wont even let me add media. This is the second time I have written this post. I kind of lost the first one. I saw the vet on Friday and we have arranged fro Benji to go for Day Surgery on Thursday 26th. A few days after that in the stroller and we should start to see him walking again = — probably give him a good few days to recover.
Annabell is recovering and in a day or so she should be able to get out for a bit. She wanted to go out shopping today and I said no and that I would do the shopping – which I did. I know, I’m a bully…
Wednesday
Wetlands, Stroller and Adelaide.
The wounds from the attack have cleared up and the fur is growing back, so there is no on-going concerns there. However there is a concern in that we know what is causing the limping on the right back leg. It appears when he jumped off Annabell’s chair to run to meet me when I came home, caused more than a sprain when he landed badly. Examinations at the Vet. show that he has torn the ligament.
Presently he is in no serious pain but I have to go to Adelaide this weekend so I will get him booked in for day surgery as soon as I get back. I cannot do it before I go since Annabell would not be able to look after him, as would be required. And here was me thinking that a few days in the stroller and he would be as right as rain. Oh, I have ordered a new stroller/ walker since this one is doing him good and killing me :o) This one is way too low for me. Pushing it for any distance is really painful on the arms. I thought at first that it was mainly because it was many years since I pushed a pram, but it’s more than that – the lowness of the unit itself. So, the new stroller should arrive on Friday and that is 105cm at the rear – the pushing end. I think that will be a lot more comfortable; well for me. Benji just goes to sleep in the mornings. The new stroller is larger giving him more room to spread out and it is easier to set up and collapse
We do not go walking around the area at the moment. There are too many dogs. We still go out at 6am, but I drive to the wetlands and we do our walking there. There are quite a few people there at that time even although it is still dark – mainly female walkers and joggers. They are all very friendly and Benji has a bit of a fan club.. I was asked to go with the Wellness Group on a Friday morning, but they have several people with dogs, and dogs are what I am trying to avoid at the moment.
I was given an old camera – a Canon Power Shot S1 IS. I was asked to take it to a shop in Adelaide that deals with Camera equipment and the best offer I got for it was $25. It is a very old Digital Camera – good in its day and has been well looked after but it was suggested the best I could do is donate it to an op-shop and let them get a few dollars for it. I didn’t and I still have it. I was instructed to get the $25 and donate it to the RFDS, so that’s what I will do. There is also an old tripod that goes with it, but that’s not all that great, so not really worth anything – I wouldn’t use it.
The drive to Adelaide was uneventful, although there are road works everywhere – and I mean everywhere, the Port Augusta Road for about 30 klms. The main North Road. the Port Wakefield Road – three places including Port Wakefield itself. The road works are so extensive, with single lane traffic and in one place, a convoy system. I was at meetings all day Saturday and did not arrive home until after 6pm. Annabell was a bit concerned because she knows I do not like being on the Port Augusta Road at dark because of the problems of Kangaroos. Not a good idea to hit one at 110 KPH.
The funeral I spoke about in a previous post is this coming Wednesday. I’ll travel down Wednesday morning and come back home Thursday Morning. Benji wont be too pleased that I am going away again, but there we are and unfortunately it means delaying the operation on his back leg for another week. Yes, today this is a fairly simple day surgery but he needs to be looked after until he is recovered and Annabell – unfortunately – can’t do that.
Wednesday Safety Lesson!
So True….
Wednesday
Benji, Walkers and a mean daddy.
Benji has almost recovered and his fur is starting to grow over the closed / healed wounds. All this is good. What is not so good is that a new person has moved into the area and he and his wife / partner have two big white dogs – Pitbulls – and they were out with them this morning and he was struggling to keep his under control and with the size and power of that thing I was concerned. The reason Benji got attacked is that the German Shepherd broke out of the harness. These things are a lot more powerful than a German Shepherd. Yes I am quite sure that the harness in this instance would not be a flimsy thing, but can I really take that chance. That dog was really trying to get away and my concern is that he might be powerful enough to do just that. If that happened neither Benji and I would have any chance at all – and there were two of them.
That being so, I have decided tomorrow to go for our morning walk to the Wetlands. There are numerous paths we could take so we can be out of the way. I might even start to introduce Benji to gravel. I don’t know, Benji is not in any way an aggressive dog – perhaps these other dogs are just jealous of his good looks :o)
Annabell has not been so good these last few days and she has another infection. I had her up at the hospital and then at the doctor the following morning. I will just have to keep an eye on her over the next few days. Still some time before we head back to Adelaide. Her doctor is going to contact Flinders and find out some more information. I have to head off to Adelaide in two weeks for the quarterly conference – leave Friday – back late Saturday afternoon. Gives me the opportunity to get some shopping done on Friday afternoon. Annabell wants me to get some things for her at Salisbury and at Spotlight.
A telephone call from Adelaide today and I believe I might be going to Adelaide a lot sooner than expected. The Senior Elder that I spoke about some weeks ago and said that she had stopped her medication but that she was still with us, may not be very soon. She has been moved to Palliative Care and has a few days at the most. Mind you I had a friend who had brain cancer and was given nine months, died 16 months later. Cathy saw her son married and her grand-daughter present her with a great-granddaughter and that’s all she wanted so she stopped her medication, When she stopped her medication and it was expected she would last no more than a few weeks ( over four months) I was asked to go to the funeral in Adelaide and represent the church.. The week after I head back down for Conference and probably two weeks after that – the Clinic with Annabell. A very busy month.
Bit of an upset last night. I snuck out the back door and went for a walk. Benji was not impressed that I had gone out without him. Annabell says he barked at the door for ages, then lay down at the door whimpering. Poor thing – the ghost of his past must have paid him a visit. Anyway I wont do that again. So why did I do it in the first place? Well, he has recovered from the attack so that’s good. However, we are not sure what he has done but he seems to have done something to his back lag and he is limping badly. I have to lift him in and out of the car, or on and off my lap in the house. We don’t know what he has done and his back leg has been stretched, prodded, pulled and poked and he never batted an eye, but he was limping badly and and seemed to be in some discomfort. So we have been keeping an eye on him and I have been taking him out in the walker. That, let me tell you, is hard going. It is low and plays havoc with my arms. I already had him out, so I went out on my own. Yes, I know, I am just a cruel and thoughtless person.
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