Could be at sea...

Sailing
Wading

My littlest conned me out of the house and down to the lake for a sail. It was a weegen and had nuthin else any way better, so I reckoned YEAH

Hm, and I could pass on some skills too? Lil Ms M took the pictures, and they turned out well!
I "raced" some little manned dinghies around the lake for nearly two hours, rather enjoyable. Until the ruddy bugger entangled some sheets[control lines] and drifted uncontrolled into the reeds and willows, in Deep Water

Uh oh, it's .....here

The Kid Doc Prog...
Looks Like "We are There"

Penultimate visit, climatic moment, the pre bit is over, now I am in for the Terrible Teen Twin Syndrome.
Fer Shure...

With luck, some nice female rels I know may bail me out, by taking them away? Or being on permanent Red Alert (hint) for the next two years. I am prepared, bathroom cupboard has essentials, and by last weegen phone calls, the bitchy part of nature is starting to reveal itself too I think. The recent sweet school photos are hiding something, or maybe I am paranoid. Since Easter..... things are changing.

Son#2 was or can be even now a sullen sob at times, and now that I have been through that shite/going thru I can see the "evilness" coming upon me. Woe is me. Why was Son#1 so easy at this stage. Or. Was. It. ? Hm.

I am in no position pike out of it either. It is somewhat amusing that I keep thinking now, "Tarn would be/do/not/hoping/glad/panic/...etc/etc"

I may even have to enlist some of the boy's female friends to find out whether I am on the right track or not.

The kid docs prognosis is [twilight zone music or gremlins?] that we, they, are officially not far off a visit to.....

Myers Bra Outfittery?

marvined memory kitchen

Woke up this morning  lalala

Dishwasher stuck in drain mode last 8 hours.
Call-Forgotten to be at friends place earlier in the week for vine pull.
wash sort hang out
Phone calls left right and center
travel
Buy gels goods
travel
wash sort hang
fix bastard machine
hang out
travel
pull
travel
buy
washing in
tidy
catch up messaging
dinner for one

post.....

One of those days

Slack time not.

One of those days you wake up to smell the... BRING BRING    BRING BRING

What the?
I only had two kids at home this morning, one out at a sleepover, one sleeping in and one dozing...
The phone rang, can #2gel have a talk- re sport?
She was still in her room, so, "No Steph. Call you."
Woke Sleeping beauty up anyway- re sport?
She-Still sore from soccer and taiko drum concert[?].
Called back, "Sorry. No, Steph."
Go to kitchen- dishwasher in drain mode since midnight... buggerisation!!!!
Rushed into laundry, sorted the whites in and pushed Start.
Another call, re last Tuesday vine pulling job? Ah, bugger, FORGOT.
"SORRY. I will be out this arvo Harry!"
Next load dirty clothes in, hang out first.
Beautiful Winter's day!
Rushedly dressed to go shop for birthday gift for gels' friend.
Home.
Next load, darks in, mixed out to dry, rush about fixing dishwasher (had got clues last time repair done).
Get a call. While Under Dishwasher...
Gels want to go to bonfire?
Oh yeah! But had to wait for #1 daughter.
Fix the machine, win!
Last load out to line and go to Harry's, Son#2 can look after gels.
Retrieve threatened vines from a mulching death, buy new pots.
Home and gels gone.
Son gone.
Organise myself! These vines here, those there, fix driveway, COFFEE TIME!!!!!
Son back. To go out to work.
Read messages, and Dear Diary Here.

Whew, and it's dinner for one..... What Will I have?
Leftovers...

Strange is life

Strange but true
Woke up and did not want to

Insurance thing for the little business is a mess!
Besides that I received a email. From an old friend. Made me perk up a lot. And A longer than usual phone call from a newish friend just before that- while I was watching progeny#4s' team win a soccor match.


Msg excerpt-

I reminisced about my time working on the Maersk Valiant rig too.

Early this morning I googled ‘Gearhart Geodata Australia’ and came across your sites and also the photo I took of the Maersk Valiant (well, I think it’s the photo I took, as I’ve just compared it to mine and it looks exactly alike).  

Bugger me, I did a search and I was on top of the list! Well, my CV was!!!!!

Connections, is it an omen?

Will I ever get back to being a geo again?

I hope so, at a basic level anyway.
Nothing wrong with a bit dirt!


The call was about how crappy is life and jobs, and our kids (the young a-dult-s that is) next excuse for a drinkies- birthdays of course!


So thanks W and J for perking me up.

Bend over Stupid

Jones'd Again

Part 2, the Weeks Stories 

Office Upgrade

To repeat myself- 

"After a bit of research on-line for office goods needed and some insurance policy changes, I thought I found some bargains! It was half the main street price! A whole utility bill cost saved!  Bargain. I was so excited, I spent the next few days pinching myself, and getting three quotes on the so called bargains."

I laid me money down for an online bargain on a modem/router/WiFi and a new larger screen, and waited for the mail.

Yesterday, the new toys arrived. Not shaking with excitement, but one eye on the clock, I ripped the wrapping off and delved into the manuals. Yeah, I do read them.

The screen was a dream, so much better than the old fill-in, for which it replaced a bunged large screen that I still cannot fined the bloody receipt for! The settings had me worried, different font sizes etc between the two screens, yeah two, becauseI lucked IN by having a dual OUTLET from the graphics card on the bargain pc I bought last year. 

But had a job to get to.

Back, and into the new setups. After some head scratching, key punching, AltTabbing, menu searching and a few swear words, the screens were in sync. The bigger one by a percent is further away to the right of the bodgy desk setup- A Roman Column Visual Trickery sort of thing I guess.

Then the new modem kit.

Was Not A Modem at all.

MARVINED again- quick thinking and send it back or search again?

Nah, it was a quality thing, I maybe doing a Jonesey thing with my brother, but then, it was quality and no messing around like with the bloody Insurance Scams!

Set the kit up and it all worked pretty well straight out of the box. Great. A catalogue had came in the post during the afternoon, and my new toy was more than twice the price in it! Bargain!!!

Search again for a new modem both online and down Main Street, found some okay prices  and a sale and had to make a shop keeper "bend over a barrel". Well, I asked for a written quote on the Sale Item that was the same brand as the "Rooter". "Hmm. He discounted it even more! Wow!" A Muttley-like Herherher, I thought, he is trying to outsmart the next guy!

Took the quote around the corner, checked out Hardly Normal. More expensive, but better rangeWell, just in case, do the 3 price check on gear at the RetroVergin joint and Cox Jones shop. 

"Have you got that piece I looked at yesterday? Hmm. Oh, look, does this one do the same thing?"

"Yes"

"Ah. Can you match THIS" and presented my written quote.

"Oh. Yes, we can" with gritted teeth.

YAY me, a win for once, and handed over the moolah.

Back in the office after another job, and set it up, all in less than fifteen minutes too.

So there is the Keeping up with the Jones's Story. 

Better than the Marvined Story Of The Week.

Serves me right

Jones'ed or Marvined?


This weeks stories anyway, part 1


After a bit of research on-line for office goods needed and some insurance policy changes, I thought I found some bargains! It was half the main street price! A whole utility bill cost saved!  Bargain. I was so excited, I spent the next few days pinching myself, and getting three quotes on the so called bargains.

Insurance Story
'Cos I have done fifty years penance, I transferred policies on various things to an older persons rate, thereby saving $400 a year! Wow.


So I rang up the old company (under the same umbrella as the new one, go figure) and wanted to cancel out of one, and the fella on the other end said "Well, you will be charged..." "WHAT THE HELL!?! Charged again, but I am CANCELLING!!!!"
"Wait on,  have not Finished, Sir!"
"Oh."
"Cancel out before that date, or you will be into the next billing cycle..."
"Oh, well thank you! You better check the other policy I just cancelled then too. Please?"
"Okay"
Done. I went into a meltdown, but he managed to utter the right words and ALI KAPOOF! it was fixed.

THEN updated the new place, bringing forward the dates. Bloody hell, different :"customer-"
Fisrt, "Oh, it's more if you have not got that security, you know?"
What the? "Not mentioned in the origianl quote- I said no that, this!"
"Hang on please"
"Oh well, we'll leave it then, but... Now the other policy... Personal use only, tick.."
"No- it's a DELIVERY VAN for my part time business!"
"What? Ah, well, we cannot cover you or that!"
Bloody hell, "Well, who do you suggest then?" I asked icily.
"Try these numbers?" and "Will we do ahead with the other matter then, sir?"
ARGH, "Yes. Goodbye"

Three calls later, end up having a convoluted conversation re the situation.
"Ah, then the business policy, and the van policy is under that policy, but the public policy..."
ARGH! What did it all mean?
I was not covered properly in the first place by two companies, and now will have to get a new quote from various brokers...

It may mean the end of self employment if the insurance policies are too much.

Oh the joys of life, what a dumb ass.

Marvined...

So dad cant do more than one oh oh ooo!

Woddya mean I can nae do more?

Mixing priorities

Saturday is washing day. Laundry. But I mean to catch up with the PVR and do the taxi driver thing for three kids and do a bit of housework and play on the pc. And read my book. And it wants to rain.

winning and losing

The last few weeks are not going to be greatly remembered for anything more than me making it to the winning old age of fifty. Greys through hair and beard, little pot belly annoying the aching back. Need a trim as well. Bothersome bloody life. Maybe I should be auditioning for St. Nick!


If anything, losing a bit of weight would be nice, but choc covered liquorice and a block of chocolate, a few rum and lite-colas is too much to pass up! And the new dinner plates are bigger than the old, and so I have to add a little more to make it look enough...

I noted to Son#2 today that I have not been at all busy with my model boats. Scratching time out for that is harder than I thought lately, or my enthusiasm has been quenched- been there- done that. Nearly full PVR[s], so I am not entirely stuck in front of the idiot box mindlessly sipping coffee or liquor or dozing off. Much.

However, minding the collection of pc's takes up a bit of time too- looking for needs to upgrade on the net, or googling and wiki-peering things also manages to distract and procrastinate things a wee bit. A bit of blogging and associated research and reading other peoples doings... I hated researching stuff at BCAE for a report or essay, but if it interested me, well!

Updating the genealogy... A death and birth in the family jungle meant booting up the older pc for a balance. It takes ten minutes to be warm enough to start pecking away! And marked off my mum's cousin Cutch, the first along that side of my grandmother's neffs-n-neeces. I think. And then added my cousins girl in the births ledger. Losing and winning.

The family wagon is back in use as the school taxi while daughter#1 recovers from a chipped fibula. It sounds terrible as I crank it up and move it down the road. The mechanic I used  for a service on the blasted thing last year was required to report back if it needed fixing- no report- so must be okay? Winning? Poor old car, been abandoned while using the van for nearly everything else. Long road trips aside of course- the van does not fit the family! Only me, work trips and HOBBIES and SPORTS equipment!(This is the Old Adelaide collection- similar in size to current, imagine nearly all of it on a Maza 323? No?, then here you go then)

The garden, as noted elsewhere, is starting to piss me off. The weeds and shrubs and trees all need a complete make over. Long live a concrete yard please. Or gravel. The grapevines have been looked after, a bit early but while the sun shines and I do not have to bend over- bugger it, cut it. The baby hedge is "still in nappies". The plan to make a new gravel path and reduce the greenhouse effect (using the lawn mower LESS) is still fermenting near the front of the brain, rising to the top of it as I trudge to the post box to collect the next bloody bill. At least on that front I have reduced some insurance costs due to being half a century old now... winning!

Not as good or bad as

Hurt good or bad?

Symptons
The First Daughter was in a school fund raising event and hurt herself running a around the school block.

At home, she said it was because of the running, and a swelling was above the ankle.

Home Diagnosis
"Hmm. A slight sprain my dear, ya'll be fine"

A week later, "Can we go to the doctor?"
"For a sprain? Let's try a wrapping?"

Troubling
And nearly another week, the tapping down the hall before brekky was definitly signs of a limp!
Tap tip Tap tip Tap tip. Obviously it still hurt.

Lists not done to be done

done at least

Spouting

Boat back to Dad
Wine making '11


to be done

garden path weeds and  trip points

hedge planting continued
'vranduh tidy, clean and dump junk
grape vine pruning
fruit trees pruned back
weeds snipped/sprayed
yard clean, old spouting!
junk junked!
hedging on hedges to be hedged
yachting stuff back to Dad
Spare room Spruced for new occupant mid year
etcetera
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that list above is a week old now!
And Nothing completed.

Today I sorted out my bedroom/office... Yep, vacuumed where it had not seen light for years and years and years, NO! A while, yeah. Ah, old utility bills! An expensive recharging station for NiCads etc went to the vranda today, and other nineties and early norties pc stuff too, and room looks so much better. Nearly. Have to decide on kicking out a new but shitey 23" monitor! Cannot find the receipt... yet.

Poor excuse to keep away from the kids, as they were up to date with their room [tidy and clean]. Just. If only because they were having guests for a sleep over this afternoon.

But, I had to knuckle down and sort and tidy and clean and and and etc etc etc my work area. Had to show some sort of example! I really just wanted to sort out my USB hubs actually, and with so much junk, there had to be a spare power adapter somewhere to power a hub or cobble one up! Keep on getting messages "faster if used a USB 2.0 connection". Bullshit, motherboard is slow! A netSearch reveals may need a new PC, YAY me. Bullcrap, NO WAY.  Success after an hour or two. Check th eDevices, looks like hubs are High Speed and the connections a full speed ie SLOW! Not sure on downloading files and upgrading motherboard and bios, but, never ever know if you don't give it a go... Not yet.

It's a bloody long weekend too top of it all! I had said If Things Were Done, I might take the Gels to a beachside town where we might spend a bit of loose change on mini-golf or something. We were away last weekend, were we not anyway? And this being the Longest Weekend for Winter...  And They Have Tue-sdee orf too... [Teachers need to report back to me and assure me their charges are doing well.] Importunately, it may be just a cold wet windy day at the "resort".

Well, the snow bunnies can have the snow this long weegen, they have too much money and no sense-  It Is Cold Up There You stupid rich bstds!

And I have lists to compile, do jobs and and and... You know. What I want and can't have, all over again.

Not Alone Halfway time

Family gathering
as I make it Halfway through My Allotted Lifespan.

Growing up, a favorite calculation I liked to make was imagining the year 2000 and how old I was going to be. And because death by then had never occurred to me- that was confidence that I was going to get there!

halfway

Big milestone over the weegen.
Halfway to a century old!


This is the Marvining site, where lifes' tribulations, some times tributes, are turned over, examined minutely and completely disregarded by me and the [other?] smart alecs*people. Well, I hope not. Lets KISS.



*Special note at this point. Looks like I hit the wrong key somewhere at this point in time and put published unfinished business out to air, another point to the post in any case, like how fast is the Alzymars catching me. And I was caught out in seconds by a friend!!!! LOL or what! Refer to FB entry of 5Jun11@10pm!


To continue... A. Ahem.


The Marvin highlights of the weekend. 
BEFORE the Weegen Away For Me. A Fiftieth Celebration


I was to get the old sailing dinghy out and tidied to take to dad's place. He wants to fix it up. I am not interested in it anymore. The kids were terrified of the open water and tipping over and It Was Not Fast Enough For Me... A lot of Marvin situations. So I pulled it out into the yard, hung the sails out to dry and let my attention walk away. Until Friday of course. On Friday, Work, then I washed it down, & tossed out any shite. Off to Work again. Back and cleaned more, and out to work again. Start of a comedy of errors.


Waited for the kids to get home from school, packed my crap, showered, coffee-ed up and got the kids to pack their crap in the wagon. 


Hitched the dinghy trailer to said wagon and tried the lights on the back of the boat. 
Nah. No working mistah! But it did six months ago!?
@$%^&& ! WD40 sprayed and nails and scratching and swearing and banging and then the second son seconded to watch duty as I tried desperately to get the shitful NEW light system going! 


"Brake, Left flasher, Right flasher, lights?" nah, yeah, maybe, nah, yeah. @#%$%^ !!
Gee-zars Iscariot, was I cross with me! Timetable was shot to shite!
"Ah, nearly all, forget about the left flasher, lets check the tires".......
Hmmm. Flattish. "BIKE PUMP?!" Hmmmm. Nah.


To the petrol station!


By this time the kids had been waiting for an hour, patiently mind you!
At the air filler. 8lb..15lb beep 10lb...16lb beep. Took ten minutes as the "SPECIALLY designed" digitally enhanced air compressor kept telling me THERE IS NO AIR in the tire, Fill, beep, off, on , fill,  beep.... To Son#2- "Whats the pressure needed?", "Wha?" "I have not got my glasses on me, what's the proper operating pressure?" "Um, 44?" Nah, I don think so, but stuff it, it felt hard to hit with a fist, and spent another ten bloody minutes doing the same thing to the other one, and then the car tires.


Finally-- LETS GOOOOO!!!!!!!!! But I did not check the spares.... Took off in a pall of sound and smoke. Not.


So I missed out on going to see a football match with Son#1, Son#2 and my second brother(Bro#2). By an hour. The whole point of going to the Big Smoke for the night! But if ya miss the first bounce, why the feck bother going at all! Boy I was pissed off. With me. Had a week! Ah well. Mind the size of a planet and the power is off, or, no-one home...


NEXT day-Travelling to Bro#1 place for a light luncheon and plenty of grog....


Early enough start.Two thirds of the way there, nearly breaking the speed of light up a huge fecking hill and passing everybody else chugging away CTYTY CHT TAGR GRTS BANG CHTHER!!!!!!! SCREETCH KAK KAK a KAKAAKA  WHAT now? Look behind and the Boat and Trailer are sitting behind me, sitting pretty on the road, not like a missing wheel situation, and no one flashing lights or banging a horn away at me, so What The? I better stop.


Pull over and open the door into the oncoming traffic, feck em, and walk back and see that the adjustable leg stand had fallen down to the road, and lost it's foot.... Thankfully, that was all. I had not put the fencing wire pin in properly, and it had taken four hours travelling at 100kmh [plus] to work loose and let the stand down. Boy. Retrieved leg. Stomped back to the wheel and screamed off again.


My boys were on a promise to ride with my brother that day outta town. After the broken leg and  missing foot of the trailer, time to swap pillion passengers at the next off ramp. Swap done. Then took off mad as a bat thru green fields and down country roads away from the freakin freeway [and did not turn left as directed...] 


But we got to where we were goin'. Bro#1s' place. Luncheon. So excellent. 


After lunch and a nap, and just before dark, my old boy, Tezza, was going to take the boat home, but no one had a cross-over for the trailer lights... He had a round 7pin plug and a round 7pin-to-5pin cross-over round type, and I only had a 7pin-flat to round... MARVINED!!!!! I could hear Muttley in my head... trailer departure another time, driver and place...


So a fine day of Wine and dine and wine and dine til nine[?] with three videos and then bed and at 6am- acid burps, fecking shite! 
Sunday, travel to see Bro#3 and my sis-in-law. The gps tomtom sent us the back way... MARVINED again, but what the hell it was a different way there from last time!
And. This time we only left a cheapo windcheater behind.


BUT. We all got home safe and sound.
And had a good weegen overall!!

The week that was...

Interesting as it were.
Hobbies enjoyed.


Speedboating
The new RC boats are trying to Marvin me- like a try to upgrade two steps means really, ONE step. And the home made wine labels need a bit of differentiation too.

Aside from that, spent a few hours chasing swans and geese and other water fowl on the nearby lake with the speed boat, or impressing the passing elderly walkers with my absolute lunatic aspirations of traveling the globe on my new yacht. Not.


Spent more time trying to rejuvenate the bloody batteries! Charging them. Discharging them. Zapping them. And getting between 4 and 6 minutes out of each on the water. Yeah man. About 5 minutes. Lucky I have five of the bastards. Then the cooling system stuffed up- the water intake snapped off... Found a bit of copper tubing and now that is jury rigged with new larger tubing, and it works fine. But I am afraid the new system may be too heavy, she did not want to scare the wildlife yesterday morning... Back to the drawing board/Net...


 Yachting
The yacht is a fine thing. And Finer. Now. Been busy this week, wanting to upgrade it.

Tried to get into the RC unit to replace the batteries and could not! Searched the Net again for ideas. Manufacturer no good. Finally cracked it! Easier than what I was thinking- a sealed power source that lasted for a while then chuck the whole lot out? No.



I upgraded the rigging after searching the net for ideas. I found out the special I got on the price was NOT special. Of course. Anyway, always wanted one, and now I do. The stupid string rigging that came with it has
been torn away and replaced with 60lb plastic coated braided fishing wire. Ooh-la-la, ver' nahce, even if Ah do say so mah self! An it was cheap at the supermarket! Some other stringy things were replaced too, not sure that the main and jib sheets should be just yet.

Yesterday I went to the lake with the new shrouds and stays rigged up and had to find a spot away from the MADDENING CROWD of shoolies trying to keep dry in kayaks. First spot, very weedy, nearly had to walk in to retrieve the bloody thing. On the other side is a jetty, so off we chuffed, van, yacht an' me. Plunked her in and off we went, nice stiff breeze, but WET! Had to empty the bilges by hand. After about 45 minutes, thought I better get up from laying down on the jetty (easier to retrieve the bugger to empty the bilges) and get home to  greet the kidniks and cook dinner.

Today, replaced some chain-plates and fore-stay plates with customised aluminium bits scavenged years ago (thanks for that tip dad, save anything that could be used again). Then noticed jittery goings on with the RC and the servos! ARHG! Net search- wet thingamajigs? Yep, so out with the hair drier. All good now. Just have to waterproof the hatch and cover properly... And find the fine wood bit I just bought for the drills.

Grapevines and Wine
Pruned the Portable Vineyard shiraz back, selecting canes suitable for cuttings propagation. Marvined by rotted posts in a couple of pots, and bunches of weeds- yech!

Had half a bottle of Longford Fitzroy Shiraz the other night without realising it! I thought it was interesting enough, but noticed the next day it was the blend, and the last half was good that night too. Marvined by the label, thought it was the 100% Longford! I think it is a great little drop.

Checked the 2011 Fitzroy vintage while in the Alcoholery doing the Chandlery stuff. OCH WHAT? White scum in top of the barrel- she-yet! Taste test- NOT OFF! Good. Quickly cleaned up new "barrel" and racked it all off, topping the smaller container up with 2010 Longford Fitzroy, and now finishing that bottle off too. Noice Joyce!

Life's good.

T-shirts and Religions, A Clash

A double row of plates down her back.




Growing up, and deciding what is what

Remember Charlottes dinosaur tee shirt, the ridge back thing? Maybe you don't, but somehow or other, she has one that has purple stegosaurus plates sewn in a row down the back. I do not know whether Stegs were yellow or had ponytails and a snagglely tooth, but the current walking talking one does.