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Upgrading the bike
I went off to the local bicycle shop yesterday to enquire about a more suitable lock for my bike. The shop was organised rather oddly, in my opinion. I did find a section on one wall which had a selection of locks and some other accessories but I had to wait to speak to someone. When this finally happened, he took me to a completely different location where they had some of the same locks along with other brands. Other accesories were organised in similarly odd ways.
So the lock situation was sorted out and I decided I would finally take my bike in to get a full service. I’ve had it for three or four years and never had anything done to it so it is probably due. I know the brakes aren’t quite right so that is a good reason in itself. So next week I am taking it in for service and having the lock installed along with a cycle computer and a light set. It may seem like a new bike when I am finished.
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Too long between posts…
It’s kind of crazy that I got this website set up for this blog and haven’t been posting. For some reason, I’ve just been busy in a way that it’s been hard to stop and write a bit. It’s nearing the end of Mother’s Day here and I will be off to bed soon. It’s been a pretty good day and the kids were both very good today. The kids fed me buckwheat pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast in bed early today. Lunch was with the scientist’s family at his mum’s house. We had pizza, salad and too much chocolate stuff…We were back home by mid-afternoon so we just hung out with each other most of that time. The Scientist went to bed hours ago and Lego Lover has just gone to sleep. The poor guy seems to have a cold right now and is pretty stuffed up. I have to give him credit because normally he is frustrated and angry when sick, but today he has been pretty quiet. I wonder if the medication he’s been on for over six weeks is finally having some effect. It’s still too early to tell. The Game Fanatic has now also just gone off to bed.
I spoke to my mom for almost an hour and a half tonight. Unfortunately my first attempt didn’t work because she couldn’t hear me. The second attempt was better but she still had trouble. After a while, it just got to be too difficult to carry on a conversation so we left it there. She seems in good spirits right now, which pleases me because she’s been going through some rough times for quite a while. I think maybe she has turned a corner and is feeling better about the world.
No, it was not a bad day at all…
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Timing
Amazing…Just as I was making a long distance phone call this morning, a really loud and ugly noise from outside started. It had been quite peaceful before then. I think it’s a truck with a large mulching device although I cannot see it well enough to be certain. It certainly sounds like a shredder of some sort.
I was on the telephone to make a booking for a short holiday at the end of July. We had had plans to visit Sri Lanka in combination with work-related business of the scientist back in February. The escalated violence, especially around Colombo, put at least a temporary halt to those plans. Instead, we are travelling to the southwest coast of Western Australia to stay in The Snug, which is located about halfway between Denmark and Albany, for three nights. Sadly, this is only our second visit down south. Our last trip, to Busselton, was nine years ago when Lego lover was only eight months old. Come to think of it, we did visit Bunbury last year as a port of call while on a short cruise. So I suppose that should count as our second visit. The ship was supposed to make a port of call in Albany, too, but bad seas prevented travel that far and the visit was cancelled. To amend the above, this will be our third visit down south.
As it turns out, I was partially correct about the shredder device. There were actually two trucks, one with a shredder and one with a cherry picker. The noisy background sounds were provided by both the shredder and a chainsaw. Both have gone now and peace has returned to the neighborhood.
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Slow motion
This afternoon we had lunch at my MIL’s house with all the family present. My MIL made a delicious spread with meat and vegetarian curries along with roasted chicken and beef stew for the non-curry loving members of the family. I ate way too much but the potatoes were just too hard to resist.
Afterwards, I spent a long time trying to assist my sister-in-law to set up a sale listing on ebay. She was terribly distressed a couple days ago because it was overwhelming her so I offered to help her out today. She is trying to sell her daughter’s Irish dance dress so that they can buy another dress for competition at a higher level. Unfortunately, the computer there was really messed up and it was impossible to get anything done. So I brought all the details home to get it listed from here.
We were all outside when my SIL left in one car with two of her children and her nephew. As she pulled out of the driveway, a bush next to it must have caught onto the front bumper and in slow motion peeled most of it off. It looked almost like paper being ripped. We’re not sure why she didn’t stop earlier but I suspect she didn’t realise what was happening to the bumper until part of it was visible. Inside the car it may have sounded differently to outside. Needless to say, she was in a bit of shock and embarassment afterwards. Fortunately, with various family members assisting, the bumper was able to be put on well enough to get the car home.
I spoke with her later to check on a couple details for her listing. I think she was a bit better and she said she’d had a good cry once she got home. She’s had a rough week so hopefully next week will go a lot better.
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My hearing isn't as bad as I thought it was
My friend called last Wednesday and we talked for quite a while but I spent the whole time struggling to hear her. This has occured in the past and I thought it was either the way my friend was holding the phone or my hearing was getting really bad. I had to go out that evening and at one point telephoned to check in with Lego lover, who has been rather clingy lately. The Scientist answered the phone but couldn’t hear me while I could hear him just fine. I hung up and tried again with the same result. Our phone was essentially useless and we decided that the cost of repair would more than likely be greater than purchasing a new phone. So the Scientist and I went out to the three major electrical retailers that are now conveniently situated within five minutes of our house (by car) and checked out all the phones. We opted for a digital phone that actually has a bit of shape so that it fits our ear comfortably. It’s rather new-fangled but we are quite pleased with it. We got a package with an extra handset so now we can call each other in the house which, surprisingly, is a feature that is useful right now although I won’t elaborate on the reasons in this post.
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Stirring up dust
We had a family lunch at my mother-in-law’s house yesterday. BIL #2, who lives at the house with his wife, brought home a new desktop computer on Friday but hasn’t set it up because he doesn’t have a desk or table for it. So the Scientist offered an old metal one at our house to use and he is going to come to pick it up today. The difficulty of this offer was that the desk was pretty much buried under all sorts of stuff that had been stored in the same area. The Scientist has spent the last couple hours unearthing forgotten items, much of it junk. But he did get it cleared out and the desk has been removed. Now he’s in the process of putting it all back. Actually, much of it has been transferred to our recycle bin, and some has been thrown out. So the volume is considerably smaller. It should look a lot tidier once he is complete. I had to leave due to the massive amount of dust floating around.
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Losing it?
Yesterday I went to fill a prescription for Lego Lover for medication he started two weeks ago. The pediatrician had given us trial packs at a lower dose and he is moving up to the regular dose now. It’s a restricted and uncommon medication so it shouldn’t really have surprised me when I went to fill it not long before the pharmacy closed to find they don’t keep it in stock. There was little to no chance of getting it filled so I agreed to have it ordered in. So Lego Lover missed a dose last night (the pharmacist said it should be fine to miss one dose).
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Blood work
During a pediatrician visit in August last year, I was given a pathology form to request two blood tests on the Lego lover. One was for chromosome karyotyping and the other was one for fragile X. These are standard tests now done when a child is diagnosed with autism in this state whereas it wasn’t when LL was diagnosed four years ago. It’s unlikely fragile X is anything of concern so it will rule it out. The chromosome thing might reveal something or it might not.
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New ways
Tuesday is the day we deliver the community paper to about seven or eight streets in our area. It’s 252 papers although we usually have half a dozen or more remaining when we finish. The paper route is mostly a job for the games fanatic but I almost always help out and sometimes his dad helps out too. Last week, he simply didn’t want to do it so he will miss out on the money. It took me nearly two and a half hours to finish, even with the scientist coming out to help towards the end for about a dozen papers or so. If it weren’t for the money GF would have given it up ages ago. I still suspect it will be gone in the not-too-distant future, especially if another means of earning money presents itself. I think most of the problem has been his anxiety. He gets really worked up if people are around and the stress he endures seems to be worse now than when he started. Anyway, he puts in the bare minimum, if even that, to get paid.
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New Zealand/Kiwi shops
The scientist and I went off to visit the local weekend markets this afternoon. After purchasing a few fruits and vegetables, we browsed some of the stalls and discovered there’s a New Zealand shop there. Apparently they have been there for four years and I have never run across it. Wow! What attracted my interest initially was a display of books about Maori culture and language. The shop was selling a variety of items, including many wooden carvings and artworks plus a good stash of memorabilia for the national rugby team, the All Blacks. The affordable items were mainly food items, most especially chocolates. They carried my favourite chocolate bar, called Perky Nana, which is a banana-flavoured chew covered in chocolate, so I went ahead and bought one. It was yummy
We have another regular shop for New Zealand products in a shopping centre fairly near to us but I have never bought anything from there. I find my chocolates supply at one of our local IGA shops, which carries chocolate and some other food products. I know the Kiwi population here is fairly large but it must be bigger than I realised to create the demand for so many products.