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Monday, August 28, 2006

Devil Sticks

OK, I suppose I am a little old for this (I turned 47 on August 25), but I had to give it a go.

Devil Sticks.

Yep. Now I'm hooked. I'm carrying them around the house with me all the time now.

Stupid idea really. You grab a couple of pieces of dowel wrapped in rubber or leather and you hit another piece of dowel with tassles on each end of it, and you keep it in the air between the two sticks by throwing it from one stick to the other in a pendulum type of rhythm. Kind of like juggling with sticks.

Sounds easy, doesn't it.

A friend of mine was having a go at the Wellbeing Expo I was at on the weekend. Well, I just couldn't resist having a try. He made it look like it was something that I could actually do. So...

Click click bang! Try again. Click click click bang! Again... click bang. Again... click click click click bang! (The "bang" being the stick hitting the floor - at this stage more bangs than clicks.)

A crowd developed - mainly to laugh at my really unco attempts compared to Aaron's more than halfway decent spins and gyrations. Well, at least they were entertained.

So was I. So much so that I brought a set of sticks home with me, and now after one whole day I can go... click click click click click bang!

This is surprisingly physical. I was exhausted after 5 minutes. This morning I discovered that my leg muscles, my arms, wrists, and various other muscles I obviously haven't used a lot lately, are quite sore.

Great. Exercise and loads of fun all rolled into one. Just the thing for me. I might even master these things - eventually.

Aaron said he intends to start busking in Bright this summer and laughingly suggested that I should join him. I think he has in mind that I'll be the comic relief. He'll show everyone how it's done and I'll show everyone how bloody impossible it is to do. OK buddy, you're on! You and me - devil stick duels in the park this summer.

No, really, I'm serious... honest...

Summer isn't all that far away now. It's spring on Friday. Yikes! I'd better get back out there and practice... click click click....




Sunday, August 20, 2006

Tiger is 1 Year Old

Our little Tiger is all grown up.



From this at 7 weeks old...





to this....

Friday, August 18, 2006



Tiger 1, Pippin 6, Geoff... well we just won't go there!


Happy Birthday Tiger.
May you have many, many, many more.


It's hard to believe that almost a year ago we brought home this tiny little pup that fitted into the palms of our hands and he grew up to be the big, lanky young dog we see today.

Now we have two handsome dogs around the place.











Thursday, August 17, 2006

What A Rip-Off!

Good old VicRoads strikes again!

I rang VicRoads today to make an appointment for my son to take his ute in for registration tomorrow.

After enduring the obligatory press 1 for this, press 2 for that, and the 10 minute wait for the operator to come on, I was stunned to learn that I had to pay $32.60 just to book an appointment.

I asked if Rhys could pay that fee when he turned up for his appointment, but they said if I didn't pay immediately, the booking would very likely "drop off the system" [their words, not mine]. Because I knew he needed to get his car registered as soon as possible I agreed to pay.

I had to make the appointment in my own name, not his, because they needed my driver's license number in order to make the appointment. Then I had to pay via credit card over the phone in order to secure that appointment.

How disgusting!

How much money is that organisation making if they charge everyone who is forced to make an appointment with them? What are they doing with that money? Is it really legal to charge a booking fee for a service that you pay in full for on the day you receive that service?

You think I didn't get on my soap box about this one? Think again! I reported it to a television program. I'm also going to report it to an investigative television program. Nothing might come of it, but people need to be aware that this is happening.

I really hate being ripped off.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The Kidney Transplant Issue

I've noticed on my IGAN (Imunoglobular A Nephropathy) site that some of the members have family members offering to donate kidneys. How wonderful. What a gift.

I'm afraid I'm one of the many who will have to leave that in the laps of the Gods. I was adopted as a baby and only found my natural family a few years back. We have a great relationship, but I feel I could never ask any of them "the big question".

I haven't even told them of my condition yet. I don't want them to feel obligated in any way. It's a strange situation. My mother signed the adoption papers in the hope that I would be given a much better life than I'd get if I was kept with the rest of the family. I think she'd be very upset to know I'm actually dying.

It's not that I think that any of my family wouldn't donate if they could, but my sister and two brothers both have families of their own and grandchildren. I know that there is a high possibility that any of them could develop IGAN some time in the future. My sister is suffering very high blood pressure now and hasn't found the cause. I'm going to suggest to her that she ask her doctor to send her for some tests. It might just be me being over-sensitive to the issue, but you never know, do you.

On the donation issue - I'd hate to think that our mother, father, brother - whoever - donated a kidney to me then found that their own child or grandchild might need one. I just couldn't do that.

I'm hoping that my condition keeps progressing very slowly and that I won't have to think about it for another 10 years at least - fingers crossed.
I am at peace with my condition and my mortality. I have truly left it up to God when it comes to that.


In the meantime... I'm too full of life to let this damned condition get in the way of a good time. Aches, pains and tiredness aside - I intend to squeeze every last drop of life out of this poor broken down body. I was looking forward to becoming old, wrinkly and interesting. I might even make it yet!

See you soon.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

No More Mice in My Drawers

That's right! No more mice in my office drawers. After the spider in the computer incident, I've been a bit jumpy in here.

The other day I discovered that the little rodenty pests had been in one of my desk drawers. Why that particular one and not all the others, I don't know.

Rambo and Dixi made a quick meal each of the two culprits and - to my horror - their offspring. Ugh!

So, today - Saturday morning - I decided to brave the violated drawer and tip everything out of it to inspect the damage.

I was lucky. There were a lot of photographs in that drawer, but the mice only chewed a few bits of paper and a couple of the outer covers of the photo envelopes. Whew! I'm sure glad my father's old war photos were untouched. Those are definitely not replaceable.

I vacuumed out the drawer and cleaned everything down. Then I brought out my master weapon of mouseproofness. Ye olde peppermint oil.

Mice hate peppermint oil. I don't know why. Perhaps it upsets their delicate noses or something. Whatever it does, it keeps them away and is harmless to everything else. Insects hate it too.

I wiped heaps of peppermint oil all over the wooden drawer and made sure it soaked in. Then I wiped all around the desk with it. My office now smells lovely.

The cats don't seem to mind the smell. At this moment, Dixi is sitting with her nose against Sprite's cage watching with a worrying degree of interest.

Remember little Sprite the sparrow I hand reared early this year? She's all grown up now and is a bright, cheerful member of our family. She's such a friendly little bird, it makes me wonder why people don't domesticate them and raise them as pets.

Don't get me wrong, I'd never take a bird from the wild and keep it in a cage. Sprite was just one of those accidents that occur once in a while. She was never meant to survive. But she did. And... like poor old Mintie before her, she's not a bit afraid of the cats!

That's all for now. I have to put the washing on the line, then it's back into The Shadow Runners.

See ya!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The "Other" Kind of Computer Bug

I'm finally back on line again after yet another computer disaster.

This time, thankfully, I didn't have to buy a completely new computer and didn't have to fork out hundreds of dollars. Whew! However, the problem had our resident computer man, Michael, perplexed for quite a few hours.

We'd had a major power break down in Wangaratta that fateful day and I turned my computer off to save it. The emergency battery powered back-up system worked perfectly so that when the power went off, my computer remained on and unharmed until I turned it off manually.

All should have been well. But, of course, it wasn't. When I turned the computer back on, it ran for 10 minutes then shut itself off. I turned it on again. It ran for 10 minutes and shut down again. After three goes at that and a lot of inventive language usage I called in the expert.

The computer was taken apart and put back together and there didn't seem to be a problem. Nothing was "fried". Everything seemed to be working. Michael was a bit thrown. The machine kept turning off after 10 minutes. As you would expect, the machine is not on when it is being "fixed" and while it was off, there were no visible problems. When taken apart, each separate part functioned perfectly.

Not to be deterred, our intrepid expert powered up the computer and stood back to watch it's inner workings. Everything worked - except the internal cooling fan. So, being a good little computer, it shut itself down to avoid overheating after 10 minutes.

Asking the obvious question, Michael removed the fan to investigate. And there, wrapped around the fan, was the problem.

A great big hairy spider had crawled inside my computer and become wrapped around the fan. Result:- dead spider; dead fan.

I'm glad it wasn't me who had to unravel the dead body from the spindle of the fan. I'm having a hard enough time imagining myself sitting here typing while that enormous "thing" was sneaking around my desk mere centimetres away from my hands. Aaaargh!

Moral of the story? Computers can be killed by "other" types of bugs!

I guess this would come under the heading of "Stupid Things That Can Happen to Computers", and - I swear - it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm blonde!!

Catch up with you all soon.

Plurk

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Gypsy Stone Dukkering

Casting the Stones

Long before the Tarot became synonymous with fortune telling, Gypsies used the natural world around them to help them see into the troubled hearts of those who came seeking knowledge and guidance.
River stones, gems, crystals, sticks, needles and bones were often used by the dunkerer [dukkerer] or palm reader.
I love using my own set of river stones that I personally hand picked and charged with healing energy.
When I read, I'm not so much telling a fortune, as looking into the heart of the energy surrounding the person I'm reading for. I believe this gives a more accurate insight into what is at the heart of a problem or situation and can provide real, down to earth ways of helping people deal with what life sometimes throws at them.
Casting the stones is something I love and I hope to continue with my readings for as long as life will allow.

Láshi Baxt Me Zhav Tute

(May Good Luck from me go with you)

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