Tag: traffic

Traffic Comments and Walking with WaWa

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
I think daddy set up this bed for me. Isn’t he kind..

A long weekend has just concluded and things will get back to normal. Anyone with any degree of intelligence, stays away from Adelaide at this time – unless there happens to be a specific reason for going – conference, Adele Concert, International Cricket Match, and so forth. Even at the best of time Adelaide traffic is heavy, but then as I keep saying, 15% of the land mass is occupied by 85% of the population – give or take the odd percentage and South Australia  is bigger than most European countries and bigger than Alaska. We are fortunate in that we do not

Oh that’s what these things do!?!

have the traffic problems experienced by other places – mind you there is only one other place in South Australia- Adelaide, so generally our drivers here in the north  are still largely courteous and considerate, although we do find with younger drivers that no one has really impressed on them what that lever on the right of the steering wheel is for. That’s the one that goes backwards and forwards and makes a strange clicking sound. Other drivers find the sound soothing,  strangely comforting  and just leave it on. Other than these little quirks, driving here is  good.  I find the drivers in Adelaide, rude and impatient and very intolerant – but then, I suppose that’s no different from any other major city.  However, the roads into Adelaide get so congested that it doesn’t take much to bring traffic to a halt and create a  major back-up. An event – whatever – and half the city is closed down. I’ve been caught up in that once. Never made that mistake again. On a long weekend like this everyman, woman and their dogs head north and the generally quiet Port Wakefield becomes a major bottleneck since all traffic – coming or going – has to pass through it. One slight problem and the traffic can be banked up either way for quite some distance.  But to compare our traffic to  the USA or any other major European City, is just plain silly. The entire population of South Australia would probably  fit into one of the Boroughs of New York.

Out last night

The family were here at the weekend and they were amazed at the changes that have taken place with the WaWa.  John came in and she started by barking at him then

Bit better – not much, but a bit

jumping at him, so I told him that she wanted him to pick her up. He was reluctant to do so, but then he bent down, put his hand under her and lifted her up into his arms. He was amazed at how she was. Andrew came in later and she did the same thing to him, barked then jumped at him and I told him to pick her up. Andrew thought it was a bit of a joke, but on  assurances from John and I he bent down and picked her up. She snuggled into his shoulder and he wandered about the house for the next half hour with the WaWa on  his shoulder. The boys just could not believe the changes in her in a week. I am very pleased that all our patience is starting to pay off and she is becoming what she really is – a friendly, lovable and playful little thing. First few days of our walks I carried her part of the way, now I don’t and she walks the whole distance. We generally walk within the bike lane. I pick up her leash and her tail is going fit to create a hurricane  I have to admit though in the early morning when I have Benji out on his own I don’t mind his stopping at every tree, bush and clump of grass  to have a sniff – it’s  the almost forever NCIS investigation of every blade of grass in that clump that gets me.

We are hearing from Sooah a bit more frequently now and she has responded several times to the photographs I put on line, which is very good and I am well pleased. I think she  must have been reading from the start and was upset by the fact that the initial behavior of her dog was causing me problems. There are still problems with Benji when they are in the house, but outside of the house they are more like Big Brother and Little (adopted) Sister and the play and walk well together. Something we need to work on. I have to say that the changes have been quite remarkable, but very welcome. Now if I could just get her to stop ambushing Benji ……………………….

 

Chienne, Angus and the Road’s End

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

WHEN I began writing this I really didn’t know what I wanted to achieve. I joined the old  My Place and wrote a blog on there for a few years. I didn’t have followers and in essence the weekly post was a way of talking to several friends who had moved away,  keeping them up to date on what we were up to in town and at home. (I still sort of do this on Google+) So it was a sort of public/private letter. A few years ago MySpace changed hands and the blog feature was discontinued. I had an account with WordPress but never used it. Once MySpace closed down, I re-activated it and have been here ever since – well a year or so.

Our house, which we bought some years ago, is right on the very edge of the town. The garden was in a bit of a mess so I thought it would be an idea to write about what I’m doing in the garden. I have two dogs that I love dearly – Chienne and The Man  (Angus)– and they would be included, as would comments about the family.  I dismissed the notion of writing about church activities because  I had this horrible feeling that all that would do for me is fill up my inbox with comments from would-be theologians.   Once I started I began to look for other posts that I felt I would like and be of interest – gardens and dogs and some general interest. Some of the blogs I looked at were interesting, informative, funny and serious and I joined a few. Some people even joined me, which I thought (and still do) was great.

 “Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses that you may the better judge.”

 Lately, however, I am finding that some  posts  have become much too serious – almost taking on the dimension of a Dissertation on The Meaning of Life. My other, and perhaps the more serious concern, is that with all I have to do, one post every week, or even every couple of days – which is how many of these started – is quite acceptable – but three – or four – posts from a single site, almost one on top of the other,  every single day, is too much and my inbox is just clogged up. Like everyone else they started out as a post every few days but this has changed to a post almost every few hours.  So, having said all that, I may have to consider withdrawing from a number of places if only to unclog my inbox for a while. I just cannot handle nor process the volume of traffic. If any I have offended, I am sorry but my continued sanity ( which, to be honest, is not all it’s cracked up to be) demands that I make this change, and the crash gave me an opportunity to do so with the new system – which is still not fully functional as yet. I still have some bugs to iron out and get used to an “All-in-One” system.

Now the Wallaby!! Sorry.

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
rufus
Meet Rufus

The previous post was incorrect in that I forgot to remove the Wallabies part from the title. The Hospital part ran on (ok, so I’m long winded!!) more than I meant it to and I took the part about the Wallabies out. In essence it was that a friend  who lives in Tasmania has Wallabies who are frequent visitor to her garden. Recently she noticed that one the regulars ( she named him Rufus) had been injured – probably an altercation with a car. She called the Wildlife Park who sent out two wardens. She assumed that they would tranquillise  the animal and attend to his injuries. No so – under Tasmanian Law it is illegal to discharge a firearm (tranquilliser gun is a firearm)  within 200 meters of any dwelling.  Instead they tried to hand capture the the already stressed animal.  I can think of many  things I would like to do, but trying to capture a Wallaby (fully grown) by hand is most definitely not one of them  :o) She sent me a number of photographs and I’m sure she wont mind if I pinch one of them.

I see Kangaroos  from time to time and I keep a tight lead on the dogs. These silly  things would take off after it or them And I would be unlikely to see them again.  About 20 feet away from the end of the road  a fence has been erected  so we don’t see them as often as we used to – which is sad in one way, but in another it keeps them safe and away from any traffic since it can get busy at times when  strange people think this is a through road out to the main highway some  seven kilometres away. They stop at the end of the road and come back. I have redirected traffic several times when out with the dogs and pointed them in the direction where the road does go out to join up with the highway.