Email, Friends and Benji

Now that things have settled down and I hope to be done with hospitals for a while, I have to say that  I had a lovely letter from Denver, which I much appreciated. However, I have tried to get internode deleted and it’s much harder than you might think. They keep sending me emails informing me that I need to pay their fees if I wish to continue. They sent me one email that said they would delete me if I did not pay the fee by a certain date. My reply to that was simple ” yes please – delete me”  They did not delete me, they suspended my account pending payment of the fee. To add to my overall concerns I had and still have, some concerns with Benji. He wouldn’t eat the food that he has been eating for the last six months. I tried other “dog food” but he wouldn’t eat that either. I gave one of his treats – he took it from my hand then dropped it on the floor and walked away. A tad concerned, I got into the car and drove down to the  supermarket, which was still open (closes 9pm) and bought a half kilo of chicken mince and cooked that and  rice. That lasted for three days. On the forth day I went back to dog food and he walked away from that, so I went back to the supermarket again and more chicken mince, but by the time I got home, the food  had gone and his bowl was empty. I bought two half kilos and put them in the freezer as a stand-by.        I also noticed that the treat he had dropped on the floor ( which I did not lift) was also gone.  Last night he only finished half his dinner, but I’ll wait before  taking one of  the other things out of the freezer.

Other than that, life has been fairly quiet, although I think the problems with internode is affecting  other areas of the computer, particularly the mail system. John, as I said is back in his lab and I have gone back to looking after Benji -or is he looking after me???   I still meet up with my friend Barry but with a slight change. Barry used to visit me with coffee and muffins and we sat together with Benji and chatted. Then over a month  ago, Barry was involved in a car crash. Both drivers were unhurt – thankfully – but the other car caused damage to Barry’s main frame. This is what happened to me some years ago – damage to the side door but also damage to the frame. When that happens the car is generally written off, which is what happened to me and has also happened to Barry. However,  his insurance will get him a new car once he pays the extra – which he has. Now he is waiting f0r the car to arrive. So, on a Friday morning, I go get the coffee and muffins and I visit Barry – except the two Fridays I was in Adelaide with John. Barry,  and his wife Fay,  were very helpful and kept in constant touch during the whole time of Annabell’s illness.

I did go back to the church, once,  but I found it  traumatic  and kept looking to my left expecting Annabell to be there. I left as soon as I could and went home, got changed put Benji and the stroller in the car and drove to the Wetlands where I stayed for over two hours. photographing the swans and the wild geese. The wetlands is my “go to place” when I am troubled. By then I had calmed down – the ice cream probably helped – and headed back home. I have not been back to the church since. The church was a great part of my life for over thirty years and I travelled much of the state on its behalf. Anyway, that’s over now and at least I wont be travelling around the state again. However, Benji and I still do our walk in the morning – well I do the walk he relaxes in the stroller, Two thirds of the walk takes us back to the house – I go into the carport, take him out of the stroller and we finish the last third of the walk together. We average about 15,000 steps per day, which for some people is not a lot, but I consider it a fair day.

In a week or so I will be heading to Port Augusta again for the Karate up-grades. John is not upgrading and he is not participating in  training. He wants his shoulder to heal before he starts training again. Last time I was there the hall was like an ice-box. We are  expecting a 36c heat around then so it might be like a mini oven this time. I’ll probably take the Canon Camera with me rather than the Nikon. I  have decided to either sell or trade in my Nikon 7000D and going back to Canon. But we’ll see how the Canon does.