Wednesday
Adelaide, Bunnings and a Strange Experience..
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
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..
Wednesday
Stormy Weather. Welcome to Spring
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
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
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
Victoria, Bendigo, Ballarat and several other places. I hope Bev and the Doc are ok.
Wednesday
Getting it from both ends!
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 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..
Wednesday
Wednesday
The Bridge, the Hill and a Starship
Other than church, I am having a day of rest. Tomorrow at noon I go into the hospital. All being well I should be home tomorrow evening. Yesterday I took Benji down to the wetlands, mainly because I wanted to do a nosy at the progress of the footbridge. I swear the Forth Bridge was built in less time. The footbridge saga seems to be going on forever. It’s close to seven months and I still think it will be elaborate and expensive rather than just a simple footbridge. The two sides have been extended into the pond, then the large concrete supports have been partly sunk which have further reduced the gap, so by the time the bridge eventually goes into place it will only reach across about nine/ten feet. I understand that it will have people
walking on it and people pushing prams or strollers and people walking dogs, but are such large concrete supports really necessary? I mean these things are about fourteen feet tall, filled with concrete and sunk down into the pond. It will be interesting to see how this develops and how elaborate this structure will be in comparison to the back area footbridge. Yes I understand the safety aspects but I still wonder if such preparations are just a tad over the top.
I know I said a day of rest but, Benji and I drove out to the Wild Dog Hill Conservation Park. Managed to save that from being taken over by the Army like everything else in the entire surrounding area. It’s nice that they have a Playpen bigger than some countries. Anyway, we drove out there and I was not all that happy with the drive out there. It is popular and I can understand that – wilderness within easy reach.
However, the road is in a poor state of repair and if they want to retain Wild Dog Hill as a family picnic area they really have to do something about that road. We rattled and skidded and bumped all the way in. Don’t know who suffered the most me or Benji. The place was deserted but the Benji and I climbed to the top of the hill. It was blowing quite a bit so we had to stay away from the edge, thus I was unable to take photographs looking down which would give an idea of the height. I did manage to take some photographs from the top but only when I could get a break in the wind – and some of them I deleted. It was a ‘spur of the moment’ sort of decision to go out there and I could have chosen a better day rather than a high wind day. It has been many years since I was last there and it has not changed any. I remember we used to have evening movie nights and we brought chairs, sandwiches, flasks and blankets – but that was a long time ago.
I did not have the operation today as planned. I got as far as the Theater and it was terminated for safety – my safety. The fluctuations of my heart were just too erratic to allow the operation to proceed. Apparently I had misunderstood the instructions regarding medication before the operation, so now I am home and will take medications and the surgeon can work around that since the procedure will only take about twenty minutes. However, I have to go
for an ECG on Wednesday and depending on the results of that the operation will take place on Thursday afternoon. I had things planned for this weekend but not now by the sound of things. Oh well, worse things happen on a Starship.
Here, There and Home
MustafaAdelaide;
The drive down from home was uneventful and quite pleasant until I reached the Tin Man. I still had the best part of half a tank of fuel but I wanted coffee as well as fuel. Fortunately I went into the service station before I did anything or I would have really been in strife. Their computer system was down
and they could only take cash for fuel and food and I didn’t have more than $10 on me. It is over 150k to Port Wakefield but I felt I had enough fuel to get there. Besides there were a couple of fuel stations between the Tin Man and Pt. Wakefield if I should feel it was not going too well. As it happened, I had more than enough to make the distance so I was able to fill up with food and fuel.
Up until then the drive was pleasant enough but after Wakefield the rain started, a few light to medium showers with a couple of heavy showers in between. Nothing too difficult but it made for an interesting drive to Bolivar. I did some wandering around Adelaide and visited several camera shops looking for an item that I discovered in the very first stop ( Camera House ) is no longer made by Sony and thus no longer in stock. My old Sony camera will probably be put out to grass because the memory card is falling apart and I cannot find a replacement. Probably find something on line – ebay – but I feel when you have to do that and get something sent from China, it’s time to move on. Of course I have my Canon Canon but that’s too big to just shove into my laptop bag and wander around with, so I need a camera to replace the Sony. I did have a look at a couple of Nikon models in Adelaide and I will have a think about
them. I could, of course, stay with Canon, but I want an alternative and Nikon will probably fill that bill. Adelaide in between showers was not my favourite place to be over the weekend and I was glad to get out to Para Hills, attend the meeting, and then head home. I was home for two days and
then drove back down to Adelaide for another meeting – and these should be the last until November. This was the West Terrace Committee Meeting, which only occurs twice a year and unfortunately it occurred when it did.
Home: (Finally)
In the last ten days I have been away for five of them and to say My Man is not happy is something of an understatement. From the time I arrived home yesterday right up until this morning he has hardly ever left my side. At the moment he is not in his bed but underneath the desk at my feet. Perhaps he thinks I am going to take off and leave him again. We did go out for a walk last night so that kind of settled him down a bit. I think he might have some sort of separation anxiety but not knowing his background we can never really be sure. He was five years old when I adopted him last year so what happened to him in these years is unknown. We still have no idea what will happen regards the WaWa in October, and we have heard nothing from Sooah. I feel in a bit of a bind because in all conscience we cannot just get rid of her. Apart from being wrong it would be unconscionably cruel just to dump her somewhere, either with someone or with the RSPCA for Adoption. When Mustafa, our vet returns from Turkey (his mother has been ill) I’l have a good talk with him and see if we can come up with a solution. I haven’t really did anything because it was only until October, but I think that’s a bit of a dream now. The Arrium problems and the State Unemployment problems make it unlikely that they will be back in October – or, indeed, any time soon.
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