Trials and tribulations.

What a week. Last time I blogged I thought I said I felt another trip to Mt Hotham coming on. I certainly thought it. Well, Katrina went to Ski Camp with school. She lasted until Tuesday afternoon when the girl in front of her fell over, Katrina crashed into her, the following girl missed them, but the girl two behind couldn't stop, and she crashed on top of Katrina. Katrina became the meat in the sandwich, and her knee the pretzel after dinner snack. This was during the Cross Country, so she had to ski back to base on a badly damaged knee, aggravating it even more.



She damaged her knee badly enough for the school to ask her to leave the mountain. That was of course day one on the Mountain. It wasn't quite panic stations, but we had to figure out how we are going to get her home. Neither Anita nor myself were up to an all night marathon drive there and back and then be ready to face up to the world and work the next day. We struck a compromise. Anita drove to a new friend's in Bairnsdale, Susans', and stayed there the night. She arrived at around 9 pm, and left again around 6am and drove to Omeo, where one of the teachers had driven Katrina. What was the compromise I hear you ask? I would still go to work the following day and earn money to pay the bills and keep the wolf from the door, and a ten and a quarter hour day proved it was a worthwhile compromise.



The girls managed to arrive back in Warragul by midday, and Anita assures me she stuck to the speed limit, where they headed straight for the local doctors. Anita had an appointment already booked from weeks before, so Katrina took the appointment to get her knee examined properly. The Dr was of the opinion that there was nothing more serious than a sprain, but off for X-Rays just to be sure. Now we haven't had the final word on the X-Rays yet, but the radiologist said that as far as he was concerned, it looked pretty good.



Amy has really struggled this week and ended up at the doctor on Friday, where he pronounced that she had a viral infection. The good news is that she has nearly lost her voice, the bad news is she has nearly got it back again. The better news is that she is now almost over it. She has regained a little more energy, and hopefully can restart her catch up on her school work this week.



Robert is really excited about three things that are happening in the next 5-6 weeks. Firstly he is excited that fathers day is next weekend. He has told me that he will make me something? Then he is excited because he turns fourteen in about 3 weeks, and he will get presents. We have that well in hand, and in case he finds out how to read my blog in the next few weeks, I won't spoil his surprise here! (You'll have to wait too!) The third thing he is excited about is our trip away to see the cousins in Howlong. It should be a good few days away.



Anita has struggled this week, with having to drive to Omeo and back, she has also struggled with increased pain levels and lethargy due to her Fibro Myalgia. I read a recently published article that said Vitamin D may help with Chronic Widespread Pain, which is a symptom of F.M., so I have ordered some Vitamin D for her to try. She doesn't get much natural sunlight now that she is working 5 and a half days a week in doors. I hope this might help.



And lastly, me! I am plodding along, literally. I get on the treadmill every day and do 45 minutes walking to try to help nudge away those winter pounds. OK, I hear you, the winter pounds from 1999. But I am still trying. The weight is slow to move, even though I am exercising more and eating less. So the goal at the moment is to lose at least 10 kilo's by Christmas. Even if I have to spend the rest of my life hiding from them, I am going to lose them somehow.

The End. (of the tail shaft).

Well I promised to let everyone know what the outcome of the tail shaft was! So here is the damage report. It wasn't nearly anywhere as bad as we had anticipated it could have been. We were prepared for 4-5 hundred just to get a replacement tail shaft and then extra to have it cut and shut and balanced so it would fit in our car. As I said previously, our wonderful mechanic, Graeme from Lardner Mechanical, found a replacement that just dropped right in. We still didn't know what to expect price wise, and I was to afraid to ask him. Well I got the account this week. That bottom line was that the tail shaft only cost $150 plus labor costs. Talk about a huge sigh of relief and weight of the pocket.

Health wise for me; I need to have my gallbladder removed, no question there. The only decision to be made was, do I go public or private? West Gippsland Hospital Warragul would be the choice of local public hospital. Actually its really the only local public hospital fo 50 k, so that's a no brainer. The other option was going private, into the Epworth at Richmond in Melbourne. I could have it done as soon as I wanted to. Only problem there was cost. I was assured by the surgeons secretary that he had no extra costs above what my private health insurance would pay and the only question she couldn't answer was what the anesthetists costs would be? Apparently they don't mind charging over the scheduled fees. Go Figure. No offensive to our friend Graeme the anesthetist. (different from the mechanic). The bottom line came down to the fact that by the time we saved enough for the difference in the scheduled fee, the bed payment, and the amount we agreed to pay our health insurance ( to save premium), I would almost be due on the public waiting list. So wait I will and go public I shall. Hmmm ( sorry Yoda). Hopefully the deed will be done by Christmas.

I have decided to take two weeks Holiday in October, and Robert and I will go up to Howlong to visit my very funny cousin Jenny and her brood. Should be a ball. Hopefully this time Jenny won't draw diagrams in permanent pen on the nice wooden BBQ preparation area. I don't know how I will control her though. She comes undone a little sometimes after a few wines. I am really looking forward to the visit, and so is Robert.

So how i the rest of the family I might here you ask! Anita is still struggling to get over a long lasting cold. It has plagued her for weeks now. She is getting better slowly, but her body is taking its time about it. Amy I believe is still struggling to come to terms with the fact the she needs to study from home, and needs to focus on her school work and less on her friends or outside activities. Its all about balance, but from a 17 y.o. perspective why can't they have it all?

Katrina has started a part time Job at the warehouse. She has only done a few shifts, but I think she likes it. She certainly likes the money she gets paid. She is off on a school excursion to the snow this Monday the 25th August. She has her wall sits up to 4 minutes, so hopefully her knees and legs will hold out. That means she sits with her back against the wall pretending she has a chair under her, and it is supposed to help her last longer on the ski fields.

And Robert. What can I say. He's my boy and I love him. But he can be so frustrating at times. A few days ago he crossed his arms and defied his teacher, refusing to co-operate with her requests. Absolutely nothing like his father was at school. The most defiant I ever got at school was the day I left school to start work. I walked past the class I was supposed to be in and ignored the teacher when she called out to me. The trials of parenthood. (I know I ain't seen nothin' yet!) But as they say where there is life, there is hope.

Letting my hair down and Shaking my booty.

Still no answer to the question of how much the tail shaft and service will cost. The good news is, it will cost a lot less than originally expected. So I am told. The car will have to go back to the mechanic this Thursday for a wheel balance and final check on the stalling in roundabout issue though. So I expect more news then.

The car goes in for service the same day I see the surgeon for my little gall stone problem. I hope that again I will have more information about what he intends on doing too! Then in the afternoon a little trip to my G.P to ask him to write a letter saying that I am sane enough to hold a shooters licence. Get those hands down, I am not asking for any one else's opinion on that one.

Last Saturday I ran away from home. Well actually I went to stay at Mick & Liz's in Frankston. Just over night. A boys night you might say, with a bit of input from Liz. I arrived at Micks about 1 p..m., and after some chin wagging, coffee drinking and a catch up on whose been up to what with whom and when, we set about the purpose of the weekend. Which as my lovely friend Joanne described as letting my hair down and shaking my booty. Such a delightful sense of irony she has, with what little hair I have left, and my ability to make Peter Garrett look co-ordinated on the dance floor. Fortunately there wasn't a dance floor in sight, and as you all know if you know me, or if you have looked at my picture, I am follically challenged.

Late Afternoon we sat down to watch Aliens, that science fiction classic with Sigourney Weaver and a whole bunch of butt ugly Alien Monsters and Face Huggers. I had not seen Aliens before so it was an interesting couple of hours. I confess I enjoyed the movie. We the went to visit Mick & Liz's youngest daughter Rebecca.

She and her husband Nathan and baby Lachlan have recently moved to a new house, and I wanted to see how little Lachlan was growing. He was a little grumpy as he had refused much of an afternoon sleep, and has been suffering from croup. The house was run down when they moved in, and with a lot of help from family they have repainted and spruced it up very well.





After we left there we headed off to the Asian Palace in Karingal for a Chinese Banquet. It was beautiful. Thanks Mick & Liz. An hour or two of eating and chatting and we were all ready to pack our doggie bags and go home. Except that we had no left overs to go in the doggie bag so we left empty handed. But Mick and Liz did look like they enjoyed the food.



Back to Mick & Liz's, where we the boys' retired to the comfort of the couch to sit and watch 'Stargate Continuum', a must see movie for all Stargate SG1 fans. Of course sitting at home watching a movie is hard work, so we of course had to fuel ourselves with some Scotch and Coke! Following Continuum we continued our movie watching with Ironman. Robert Downey Jr does a good job, and as with all good comic book movies, it never took itself to seriously, well almost never. but a good flick. and of course it was accompanied by another Scotch and Coke. It was getting pretty late and Liz had an appointment in Ringwood at 10 a.m. on Sunday, so it was suggested we should hit the hay. After some small discourse, a descision was made to watch 'An Interview with a Vampire'. With another Scotch and Coke.

'An Interview with a Vampire' is an interesting movie, well made with some big names at the time and some up and coming little 12 year old actress called Kirsten Dunst. Others of note are Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater. Brad Pitt had what I would have said was the lead role, but Tom Cruise got top billing. Go figure, he obviously made more money at the time. I bet if they made the same movie with the same cast today, Brad might have a good crack at top billing. The vagaries of stardom.

Anyway 3 a.m. came and it was decided that as we had to get up in 3 hours, it was definitely time for bed. Sunday morning we arose to a very cold, very wet Melbourne day. With Mick behind the wheel we dropped Liz at a quilting shop in Ringwood where she would spend the day drooling over fabric and new machines, and learnt how to use her new quilting machine better. Mick and I headed off to the Melbourne show grounds where there was a Militaria and Firearms show. Of course it was a professional development day for Mick, and I just tagged along. It is amazing what some people will spend on what others consider junk. Of course I have to admit there was a small proportion of good stuff, but the rest well.

After our short stay there it was off to Nando's for lunch. yum. But they were closed. So we ended up at KFC for lunch. Then off to D.F.O. at Essendon Airport to grab a couple of Business shirts for Mick, then back to Ringwood to pick up Liz, then back to Frankston. We went to grab a coffee in Bayside (if its still called that, I took no notice) Back to Micks, then the drive home in the rain. I made it home at about 5.30. Safe and sound. Hair still up and booty neither shaken nor stirred.

The Tale of the Tail Shaft

Well, firstly the issue of health. The kids are back at school, which is cause for celebration. Amy is still of course distance ed’ing it. I think she is still trying to work herself into a routine. Anita is getting over her sinusitis. ME, well, this week I am aback to the Neurologist to see what the changes in my MRI means. Ten years since the last one and now change that is “abnormal to a person of my age”. So it may be nothing, mean nothing, or could be early changes for dementia. That would explain a lot. Thursday fortnight (14^th Aug 08) I will go to the surgeon and see what he has to say about my little 2.8cm gall stone.

The Tale of the Tail Shaft. Last Thursday Amy and I went to a funeral in Geelong to support a friend of ours, Cathy, whose brother in law Ronnie had passed away at age 46 from cancer, leaving behind a wife and three young kids. On our way home, with Amy in the drivers’ seat, and ‘L’ plates appropriately displayed, the car began to shudder. At first I thought the car was just afraid of Amy’s driving. After all she has hurt it a couple of times already. Anyway, I asked Amy if she could feel the vibration. She could, and said it was more like it was coming through the seat. I didn’t think she was that scared of her own driving.

I asked her to pull over, and in a nice safe area off the freeway, I inspected the vehicle. Tyres intact? Check. Wheels not loose? Check. Nothing stuck under the car or in the tyre grooves? Check. It seemed safe to continue on our journey home. This is the same day the Westgate Freeway was closed to Melbourne bound traffic because of a phosphoric acid spill. Traffic in the western suburbs was reportedly chaos. As we approached the Western Ring Road I asked to get into the left hand lane ready to take the Western Ring, and I saw all the traffic ahead hitting the brake lights. Whoa that was a lot of red. Needless to say we took the Western Ring Road. Traffic there was heavy and slow. Can’t imagine why. Once we passed Furlong road things started to speed up. Back came the shudder. They weren’t good vibrations we were feeling.

I have the mechanic on speed dial on my mobile phone. (for work) So I rang and booked the car in for a Checkup with Dr Kinraid for the following day. Fortunately the rest of the trip home was uneventful, except for continued vibrations and the usual peak hour traffic on the Monash Car park, er sorry, Freeway. Anita dropped the car off to Lardner Mechanical and Dr Kinraid the following morning, and before lunch I got the phone call. “Hi Glenn its Graeme”. “Gidday Graeme, how are you?” “Yeah um, good. Ahh, listen, about your car!” “Yeah” I said with just a hint of hesitation. “Well there’s good news and there’s some bad news”. Don’t you love it when someone says that to you and you know it’s going to cost you money, big time. “One of the universal joints has gone in the tail shaft. The bad news is that it’s not a replaceable part. I think the way to go is to get another tail shaft, and cut and shut new ends on, then take it to a specialist and get him to balance the tail shaft.” “Any idea what that’s going to set us back Graeme”? I asked. “Well it’s hard to get a cost on these things, but it’s probably going to be around four or five hundred just to get the tail shaft”.

Now I’ve known Graeme a long time, and I trust him. So I gave him the go ahead. Also the car has been stalling as you go through intersection and roundabouts. Not a good thing. And it’s an automatic, so can’t say it’s the driver. So I thought we might as well get Dr Kinraid to fix that while he has it. What the hell, while you have it, it needs a service too.

What I like about Graeme is that he almost gives you the worst case scenario and cost, and works back from there. I got a phone call later on Friday afternoon from Graeme saying that he had managed to get a tail shaft that dropped right in. That’s gotta be cheaper. So now we just have to wait and see how to other little problem comes up. I’ll try to let you know what the damage was, if I can still afford the Internet!