UP AND DOWN

What can you do?

Looks like I am over blogging or the lack of motivation for doing it. A fair comment would help, like as in, "yep". But the stats say otherwise, so I have to rack my brain... But for this blog, really?

Well, I had put together a new PC, and add W8 to it, and not unhappy or happy- it is working but I am not using it as the office workhorse, the old W7pro machine is struggling, and with Office10 too, and so be it, it loves to freeze up, thus the new machine. But dislike the keyboard- until right then -when I noticed I had changed it out today... [it's dusty. Why?] Conventional Home-End etc at last- boy that previous KB annoyed me. I wondered tonight why it was bloddy dusty- remembered I actually swapped 2nd son's unused KB over, "so there- be happy Tone". Marvined meself...

I told some one the other day I was "slow", the usual reply- then thought, No, actually, I  am not!

I swap from okay to upset and back- and that is not because of the hardware here. Slow means even-ness to me. I am not.

One is the government wants to cut the carer's [my] pension, so it looks like I really will have to leave the kids alone with their big sib and their aunt for days or weeks at a time, so to make ends meet, by flying off to find oilpatch jobbies for a few grand a week rather than a few hundred a week.

Another is the MS medical treatment regime- self administered shots- "Choose a different place for each day of the week"- really? Really. The spots still hurt a little a few days later- I thought it would be a little like a blood test prick on the thumb- Oh No....

The list goes on- But I am happy to say I am still waking up and walking and talking- probably too much shite tho. Health wise: At least my left eye has a bit more going right- nearly back to what it was- I cannot look sunwards anymore- I was thinking "only need one sun-glass lens", that was how bad it was!

The kids are growing up, and the gels like to see how fast I am shrinking... The 2nSon wants to best me at drinking games- "Oh No we don't!". The eldest child lives a shadowy life beyond my reach [and control?] but touches base now and then- I am told not to worry- he is fine- I wish he had gelfren to bring home to show off to us [hint, wink?]

That's the other thing- Fails. I failed to tighten a wheel on a trailer the other month after getting the tyre repaired. The owner was a bit pissed off to see the wheel going past them down the highway. No one hurt. Me- Still alive, but now doubting meself. I tried to adjust the their pool lighting too, and managed to turn AUTO on and not able to put MANUAL back on- bludee heck, gotta leave those poor people alone!

After losing the second pair of reading glasses in two months, the worry may be increasing- I definitely had them today in a safe place so I could do the garden... The kids can't find them either.

The car is pissing me off- had the front wheel bearings replaced the other week, thinking- "Bearings- twenty bucks each and time a bit extra?"
 NO.
NEARLY "FOUR HUNDRED BUCKAROONIES MATEY". THANKS! Sticker shock, glad I did not try to do it myself after all as: Bugger me!Two times a new spindle-hub-bearing [and removal of old hub by a machine] and then and then- STOP, I am complaining- it's a safety thing, and it's only money... Sounds quiter as there was an exhaust tie missing- but today I though it sounded like a HOLEY MUFFER- by gott I am gettin' wound up now.. shshhsshsssshhsh...

I think I am getting ahead, and then it's BILL time again. AND BLUDIE Chrissy too! Power and gas and water and shire[county] taxes are not going up normally with inflation, I reckon anyway. But MORE. Maybe the sickening spiral of costs begetting costs has occurred!

Nevah feken endz!

Waiting to get on an oil;patch wellsite job after two applications put in by a recruitment company.
Nothing- unless some one else wants Chrissy off and then I might get a look see in.  I bbought a new laptop just for the new career- it's getting dusty.

The kids are doing well with minimal parental supervision or bitching or what ever, the withdrawal room should be padded up by this time next year though.

Three teeners... Oh, now they want to play any old vinyl records I may have- Oh boy. "You got any PinK Floyd we can take away and play" and then what? Actually, only Dark side of The Moon, on CD t'ank fek.

The Portable backyard Potted Vineyard is looking okay, but Not especially fruitful this year- about 40 shiraz pots now, so I should be happy. I think I've mentioned the lawn mower needed a new motor... Plus the new window glass... Plus Shite goes on forever. A nice bottle-brush native shrub had decided to grow over and then start falling on my orange tree in the back corner of the block- well- it went through the mulcher today [where I may have lost my reading glasses] after i cut it down last week. Tarn would have been mortified at the Extreme Pruning, but dear- you can't help.

I went with the kids on a Long Weekend for the point of being on a beach, nearly, with them. The hired holiday house was just a dune away from the ocean. Shared with my little bro and his family  and two or three other couples. Nice weekend. And it was near my favourite flat water sailing place too, a perk I thought. they had a boogie board and two surfboards, I had three wind-surfers- a beginners for the kids on quiet days, and two slalom/wave boards for me on the --wind---? on the win---, THERE was NO wind for three bloody days, and the boards were too small according to the resident expert... The new family tent for 6 from Aldi fitted Three Comfortably, apart from the HARD GROUND.

See. Don't like it.

Up and Down.

back in the saddle or what

back in a saddle anyway

Just spent six and a bit days working as the wellsite geologist on a coring job in west Gippsland.

After ten years, to turn up and smell that diesel exhaust wafting past me... takes me back to my first jobs, many years ago now of course.

I think the job went well, apart from it being the weirdest shortest job and EWR ever, and then did not fill out one page on a meter by meter description of---- SAND, CLAYS, and LIGNITE, cos I did not think to ask what else is needed. But next time... I will have to get a BETTER job description [RTFM]. But they paid up quick and expenses too, so an outlay for a large screen lappy is good for the next job I can get at least. But will charge going rate rather than beginners rate- lost out heaps, can see why they let me do it this time. Live and learn.
If you ever get a delivery van---- excellent choice I think for an onsite office..
And only one and a half bottle of red for four nights, reckoned I dried out!

Setting it up

The Rig

Drilling and Geology Office

View from Office

Lil ol bit

Lignite

Another Bad Hair Rant

Should I avoid another bad hair day by..?

Hmmph. Dunno. This week has not panned out as a balance of good v bad.

Helping

I have been trying to help out a friend, and by their absence and lack of telepathy, I have on one hand been not exactly clear in my communications, which left me feeling an idiot at not getting a good Idea of what is required because what ever I have done, it's not quite right or clear and I am confusing people. I know I like to think I am smart, but at the moment... I think I am on the right track now, but also think that a third party might be better employed at the [or for the] required expertise. I hate that, I like to help out and excel in that endeavour, or any for that matter. Kludging not a good trait notwithstanding that I can do that too. Should I have another bad hair rant at my friend- nah, I believe I have to see from their point of view that they really would like to do the chore themselves, but circumstances... Marvined.

Work

The low paying jobby I have has not been exactly heart warming or well paid for the amount of time and effort needed for that either. I really feel like with a brain the size of a planet, and my expectations, the world could be left turning the wrong way. Marvined. And the environmental factors left me seething when the co-workers supplying me with work, did not get things right and I had to walk a few extra meters and get them to get their act together so I could achieve more with less effort myself...

This does not sound good I know, but these days time is money, efficaciousness is not highly rewarded  but enormously necessary and mental state [happy now?] not regarded as required. It appears.

Close, relatively

Then on the family front this month: My dear brother and family are off skiing in a better place and cheaper too. My sister is nearly too busy to go visit, her time is like mine- busy [family, work], and/but/or with the the added twist of a four o'clock start in a week [here you should be able to hear the Simpson's catch-cry of "Ah ha!" or Muttley-like]. Ah well...  My dad and another brother have gone and bought a little yacht to do up, be nice to live that much closer so I can join them on Port Phillip Bay more than maybe the once a year I see happening. Then the youngest brother is off accross the continent to look after his boys racing their Karts in a national championship. And my baby sister is cooling her heels, waiting for the fiance to get home from the rails... And #1Son is visiting NY and the nearby N.Falls for his birthday next week.

Thursday... The washing machine, another bad hair day there! 

The power switch thingo panel in the hall [with the short circuit detector or earth leakage trip detector] tripped Mid Spin of the washing cycle... Last spin anyway. Marvined.

 I spent half an hour or more traipsing about the house going backwards turning off wall switches in each room to track the infidel, and forwards flipping the detector switch back on. I did not want it to be the refridgerator, but at the same time hoped not the bloody clothes washer either. Cannot afford new ones this month of either after the last six months. Bloody Consumer Society, love it and hate it. The thought of a major electrical problem in the house wiring had me edgy too- what about the TV shows I like? See, I am as shallow as... Ended up being the washing machine.

I can sometimes repair stuff around the house, but RTFM was not going to help me out here.

Not happy Jan. It maybe one of the last things in Tarn's "dowry", but I would like to be able to keep things a long time, especially the washing machine. [The drier is out side awaiting its destruction. Or recycling...] The poor old washing machine, a trusted brand, maybe on its last legs too. The repairer will "be straight on to it".When he has time.  Marvined again. I may have to borrow my sis-in-laws machine this weegen? At least the winter holiday break means no school clothes needed for a few weeks, as long as we have enough socks and underwear to last until Buckies verdict on the machine...

Weegen for the boy

I see that as I get older, the care and avoidance factors conflict when it comes to supervising young adults and their Friday Nights Out. A small party turns out not to be, the backyard late night weather turns cold and loud [unfortunately not  rainy- bugger]. I end up having to say to the 2am laggards that don't/can't/won't go to the shady nightclubs- if they really want to be able to come back here at least another time, then they better go home now, and they were smart enough to scat in ten minutes.

The detritus got up late... with bad hair, Ah Ha.

Notta so good

Successes, Failings and successes this week

In black and white: the kids, the cats, the cars and me.

Celebrated Tarn's fifty-first birthday quietly this week with the three cheeky little monkeys. May have a pizza with her dad Friday. Mine soon enough.
[new addition- at bottom 22-5-12]

Family Car

Finally found the problem with the windscreen wipers not wanting to work on the family vehicle. Or, there was a short in the tailgate wiring. The wiring loom passes through lots of holes in the car body, and the auto-electrician I had to see in the end, spotted some bare wiring, on the loom from the car side of the tailgate, not exactly where it passed through to a protective tube, but further inside by a few cm/inches.

Ah backhgh, That Was All!

Mark the car sparky just wrapped some tape around it and we put it back together. Thirty three buckaroonies though, and a 40 km drive. Self findable?

Patience and money, patience OR money?

The Van

Then. THEN... Well, Back then... Last week actually, the van really started to play up.

The battery would not turn the engine over after a cold night. A few times the last month. New one purchased. STICKER SHOCK!
THEN...
There was definitely a wobble from the front tyres, booked in for new tyres. Went along to the wrong tyre garage. The guy at the right one said he had just sent some-one to where I had just been. That was funny. Until the STICKER SHOCK hit me again. There was bare metal showing on the old tyres...

The kids

Gel#1b managed to drop my old fluorescent  desk lamp and broke the tube. New one. And a ballast. And a bit of maintenance.

Gel#1a needed new globe in her bedside lamp. A few nights later spilt red coloured drink all over the old flowery carpet. At bedtime. Her sister's bottle of course. Another late night.

Son#2 was picked up on his job so he could Drive rather than pedal, and as I put the bmx in the back of the wagon, the front wheel dropped off...........!!!
Another front tooth nearly lost? The first one he lost is going to cost an arm and a leg and more to replace. I may have to mortgage his phone and bike...


And the beer, a wheat milk stout, I started to brew last week, does not want to ferment at all. I wonder why- fed it some DAP...

Then...

The white cat left us a smelly reminder this week. We could not track where he had left it. Was it the junk room, cos he fled from there today? No. It was left on some power cords right next to the fermenting beer vat in the laundry...

Me

Trying to buck myself up and it looks like I am losing out more. My credit card is starting to cost me too much ie I am living it up tooo much (?), and employment advertisments are depressing around here- like they know the person they want EXACTLY, like my skill sets are not upgradeable to even an assistant librarian?

I want to vacuum up information, but that is not cost effective either. Who else around here likes to know about and share shit about archaeology, geomorphology, astronomy, geology, oilfield news... No-one.


A fail for my 50th birthday present though- last year my family [sibs n folks] gave me a voucher for a Ballon Flight over The Big Smoke to be taken by May this year, so I was reminded by my eldest son to get a move on and book it. And guess what? I tried to early this week and was told "The company went belly up before xmas, and no-one was told"- so much for the customer is always right?



Cathartic? I have to tell myself that I do like myself, to smile and to vent and rant more.... Make more friends?

Books

I am really enjoying 'guns, germs and steel' by Jared Diamond 1997.

A new Plonking Addition
For my 50th a matching barrel for the 40th, to put the Garage Grape Sherry into!

On the road again

A Not a DIY Situation
I did try but!

Two weeks ago, I took my lil yacht out to the lil lake for some quiet time. The kids were all out with friends, it was sunny and a nice lil breeze from the northeast. Then it got windy...

You know the rest.

The catch up is that the broken down van had a problem at the repairers too! Poor guy was told by Mercedes that the Mercedes Vans [made in Korea by SangYong] have this special alternator and pulley combination- [the power supply and battery charger unit][BTW- a $1000 special!- that will fit. But they sent one pulley for him to fit because the mechanic knew that that was all that was needed. (3 x that in a sentence! Ha!) It did NOT. Back it went! He finally had to find one made for a Japanese 4WD to fit the "Korean built Mercedes branded vehicle". Cos he has seen this problem before. Wow. Anyway, $300 later, we are moving people. Yay. Cost the repairer quite a few phone calls, but good him. Owe him one.

He also told me that he could fix the sticky buggery hard to shift gear lever too. "Seen it before". Again!

Next time I win Lotto, I'll get it looked at. Like the LCD screen in the family car. Lotto. Later.

Marvini Oh Marvino My Van

Short as life is- Score for life this week
Zilch. Yeah, Nah, whatever...

Last fortnight I won a mark on the scratching post- fixed the laundry machine. Yay me. Won some money on a lotto ticket. How much you ask? Enough. For another ticket. Other good news? My nieces and nephews all had a good year. Looks like the latest ones to have finished high school are all off to university. That makes six! Out of Six at uni this year. And not counting the eldest that has finished her course and is starting in the circus of life this week at a Big Smoke Hospital!

But. My narcissistic and hubrisisckity life has become a little flat.
Haha- nobody loves me, I want to feed the worms... I am feeling mortality creeping up, as the kids are growing up so fast, with one one out of the house sort of, and the next one on the threshold of leaving high-school to be a chef, and the gels just starting high-school next month. And the MS effects are back, I see colours when I look down at night, and the left lower leg feels spongey when I get up... Dunno man.

But, see, well.. I have started the week off wrong though.

Last week I thought I had got a tire-shop to fix a punctured tire of my friends ride on mower- "wire in the tire"? Turns out--- twice! I went to check on it at the NuHoose a week later, and the bastard was flat. Again! Went back to the repair shop and said- OI U! Lookat at thart- eets FLART mate! They fixed it again, but we will see next time I'm oot thar...

This week I see on the social network that a cousin had gone past our town to a surf spot up the coast for The New Year. And got home safely too- or there would be no mention or pics.
Forgot I lived nearby? I would have dropped everything for a cuppa coffee with them, offered a bed etc.
Now I won't--- feel too bad, but it's the little things that get ya... Easter with the  extended family seems too much effort for me now. Eldest cousin in the clan, and well - snubbed?

A birthday gift- I have a hot air balloon flight to look forward to. Soonish.
But there was a bad hot air balloon accident in the NZ the other week, so I am a little bit hesitant about taking up the birthday present now...

My internet use was used up by the eldest child the other week by 25% of the monthly use in a few days!
I thought he was back from the Big Smoke to party!
He thought we had UNLIMITED data access... nah mate, after 2am, you can go for broke nearly.
So for the last week, Slow Days At Holiday Time For The Kids...
But surprisingly, they seem to work with that. I am not. Once over the plan limit, back to 25Kbs...
The worst thing, I could upgrade for 20 bucks and then downgrade back to the old rate, FOR THIRTY more bucks!
No data blocks to get! Sucks man, really sucks.
No blogging, just the mail mame.
He got a letter  today for jury duty next month.
Karma?

What else. While I am in the crappiest mood for weeks...

My niece's anniversary passed by, another one. Unbelievable.
Not many get what she got (Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)), an envitable sad time each year for us. Savvy would have been 13 this year.

The vines have been attacked by mildew or mould, and so the whole gallon of shiraz I wanted to make, won't be. Spraying the Portable Vineyard every other week with store chemicals and a homebrew mixture the other. Might get a liter of Pinot. wow...

Worst day of teh week,

The work vee-hee-cal has developed a whining screaming annoying sound lately, at low revs, and the aircon is shite.
I bought a new fanbelt for it.
Before looking to see of I could do it myself, and, well, I can't replace it mahself!
Went to a auto repair shop this morning- he said it's "dry". Interesting. But if it was gunna get worse, better pull the pulleys out. Right.

The second boy went to the surf today- tonight he looks like a lobster. Again. "Sunscreen wore off " my fat ass! Lazy butt head, hope he learns this time.

As the kids were all off with friends today, I thought I would drag out the old 12m yacht- I mean the radio controlled 3 foot thing, cos it looked to be nice after work to be on the lake with it.
The first hour was just fine.
Then the wind swung around and VOILA, the poor beastie was heaving and splashing in the huge 2 inch ripples like a rat in a bath with a cat.
And then the electrics inside it got wet, so it sailed sailed off BY ITSELF to the middle of the lake.
Well I was a bit p'd off!
In a huff I left it to fend for itself in the sticks and weeds in the deep end, if it did not sink first.
I sped off in the van to grab a kayak from home. Ten minutes later, the poor beastie was being hammered by the ripples and it had lost some gear overboard- the boom came out. I paddled out and brought it back.
I took off for home to the screaming kids, fighting cats and the ghosts, and stalled the bastard van at the roundabout...
Thongs and a manual with the seat in the wrong position don't work...

As I started off, there was a NEW sound! A horrible rumbling sound as if one of the pulleys mentioned before, really had stuffed up...

Dollars.........

Bah Humbug

Freezer check
Oh oh.

Looking for inspiration for the weegen menu.

Open freezer door.

Steak, chicken, mince, roast, bacon dim-sims... peas, corn, chips. Bread. Ice-cream.

What the? How much is in there? How Old too? And the "ones prepared earlier"?

Hmm, interesting. There is enough for a fortnight!

Viola- for your "edification", some meat products to be sorted and consumed...

I mean, four people, I am not buying a lot, but seem to be Not Cooking A Lot as planned at the start of the week! As the holidays are starting soon, I better get my ass into gear and turn out a few good meals, get some mates around, I dunno- Oh yeah, the last mass invite was a sham, three guests- at late notice too. But we did do a few homemades and had a cajun time! Thanks A-bell and Jen and AJ.

So the frozen pre cooked can wait for party- there's a few lunches. Some steak- and chicken- for stir fri, and the roast for another slow cooked Cajun/Mexican night.

Just gotta remember man! There is savings of at least 14 meals for four- at roughly eight to ten dollars per meal- say nearly $150 sitting there, not doing ANYTHING but consuming Power. Argh! A whole weeks groceries!

So egslaente, go shopping and ..member, remember, remem...

Lawns- carbon UNsink of the West

"I Need The Lawns done BEFORE your aunt lands"
Yeah but no but.

!

Grreat. I really dislike the job myself [ mowing the yard ] and have an aversion to using the whipper-snipper brush cutter thingo too. It does not always start first off. A pulled shoulder hurts, man, for a week!

If the lawns have to be done by yours truly, then Someone is going to lose an hour or two of driving with the Old Man. Or a month of it if it aint done by next week. Zero privileges. So the warning and stuff goes.

And the rain comes down.
The mower is left in it,
the wannebe money maker slash learner driver is Still sleeping in- 1:30pm...
Obviously pitterpatter on the bungalow tin roof Does Not a Sleeper Awake.
Ho Hum.

[ a muttley sound may be heard though... sky? the sleeper?]

Try Try try again

I was pointed on a new direction
credentials were not wanted

I am a oil&gas oilpatch specialist. My dear brother managed to find someone that could use a Met- a metallurgist, in his home town, the other side of the Big Smoke. Only by an hour. One guy is said to do a Mon-Fri type deal from this side of TBS. It is that or a daily 6 to 8 hour round trip...

This company really want new staff, and for reason, brother thought I could be available...
The reply was, "slightly off the mark! No worries"

Bugger, but I sent off a CV today, will see if something can be stirred up with someone else via that contact.

Fingers Crossed

testing times

This week was interesting.

I received a parcel for personal colon cancer testing, care of the federal government. A kit enclosed for sampling...things. That's nice of them- a freebie for my health.  Free test and free posting.

[What about DENTAL rebates as as well?']

So. Done it and posted it off. There is some tests I don't want to pass... Unless it is a negative for cancer.

And also got a letter from the brain-man about whether or not he thinks I have MS. Threee weekssss later... Well, he does think I have it.

So that's not a good thing. Either I do or I don't. And I do not really trust his listening and hearing- according to his notes I may be an overindulger in certain legal activities- one to wit- wine. I have cut down since 2007, may throw a few empty bottles in a week now. My own home made red wines actually tastes better after a night of breathing anyway. The Bundy mix lasts months instead of weeks now.

Well now I want to see my GP Anna, the doctor that seemed to know what I had was strange enough to get it checked. In three weeks... Boy Oh Boy, I can not wait. Hmph. But we'll see.

DIY? The DW Failed this time, RIP

Beaten by Time
Tarn's Favourite Kitchen Utensil, gone.

The Dishlex 300 Dishwasher [DW] that Tarn got us for a kind of Moving Into Our Own Hoose Gift, finally spluttered to a leaky halt the other day. Another thousand dollar household item bit the dust. For the last year I have been trying to ignore the fact that white-goods Do Not Last Forever.

For those that know, there are tricks into kludging a dishwasher back into life, With Out Resorting To A Repair Man, once he has let on His Secrets. Bwahahaha.... and- HAHA, it's an easy DIY!

In any case, for the hundreds of buckaroonies I have shelved out for the dishwasher' upkeep and good humour since 2007 or so [?], I suppose I should be thankful it has lasted so long.

True, since #1Son moved away, the thing was not much used- two days worth of crockery and cutlery used by four people only just fills up a 12-place dishwasher. Cooking gear aside. And hand washed.

And if I were back fulltime as a RigPigGeo, it would have been replaced about four years ago as a "may as well get another DW, what's a grand anyway...?"

But today, I bit the foolhardy unlucky tooth, gritted my worn out gums, cinched the belt and let the credit card fly. Because this week [do not smirk, dear reader], we had to wash the dishes by hand...

The DW had really worn out. To prove it to myself, I took it apart to discover that rust and leaky parts do not a happy DW make.

 In ten minutes I found: The hinge on one side was nearly rusted through. The seals had gone. The safety flood switch had been in constant use for a month. Could not track the fault. So I did not find out the real problem. For a call out fee of nearly a hundred bucks---- hmmmm. NO!

The poor old thing. The racks were definitely falling apart and the cutlery crate was a crappy 2nd hand thing, a replacement for a worn out original. The rack wheels had been replaced not that long ago as well!

 I could have kept it for parts, but being thirteen years old- for what? I am not a full blown hoarder, but the parts were not going to fit any new machine. Ever.

I have to keep on telling myself that there are "No Reusable Parts"... Anymore. Not even for the Still...

The white-good marketeers had me by the goolies nearly, but a bit of huntin' round found me a bargain I hope. Funnily enough, I must have had a premonition, because I had only looked around the other day... And it is a cheaper, less economical by water and power use than the last one, but the sales guy said that these days, it is hard to expect the things to last more than five or six years... WTF? Anyway, I was not gunna try the extended warranty shite he was trying to get me to buy for Another Sixty Bucks!?

Five hundred doubloons lighter later, and 30 minutes of bastardising around the kitchen, DADADAAAAA!

And then I had to find a way to get rid of the old machine. The hard rubbish collectors had done our street by last Friday, so I had to ask permission of a contact to leave the thing on the roadside at their place, a few blocks away, where the removal guys had not been...

Dear Dishlex 300, RIP.

My way or the..

Trying to adjust to bad  and good news

The neurologist gave me the news, not good, not altogether bad.

MS, mild case of.

So?

Still walking talking spilling beans etc etc

If left eye tells me a thing is red, and the right says, Nah Mate, its greyish and a bit more pinky brown red than red, what is going on.

Three years ago, my eye doc said take a few tests.
And nothing was seen to be wrong with my eye sight.

The year before I remember tryinhg to explain to an uncle and some others this strange thing- nada- blank looks from them all.

But is was there.

Since then I have been wondering about how left and right eye tell me different things in this case.

Finally, after the MS diagnosis- and further free ranging thought, I think this is the explanation:

A signal [red colours] may indeed go to the particular and separate processing places in the brain for each eye, but it must also be shared or leaked between them so a comparison can be made and evaluated as to the validity of the signals captured by the retinas. The overall grayness too can be more apparent at time, especially trying to read.

And then once codified or validated, then passed onto the Mind for further assessment- Red Corvette or Burgandy Corvette?
A test is a Ferrari- no greyish burgandy-ish red Ferraris: so the right eye signals are off by nearly that much.

I once used rock colour chart books in my old mudlogging job in oil and gas exploration, and wished I still had one, and then I could tell you what I mean by a simple alphanumeric code what left and right eyes see.

But now, I see that the website chart available can not go to that finer gradation, that shade tone tint that is the difference I can see. Bugger. Well, today anyway.

happy. or not

What a Question... 
RUOK? 

Wha! Me?
What about you?

me.
Dunno...
really!
listing ?  [...over...]

Not smokin, a hiatus...?
cut down the drinkin,  well...,  example I spose
no womin...woman.
which means/leaves more time for...?

got simplest job in the world, and can occasionally still stuff that up! today in fact
A Muttley situation, twice this week, geez...

complain complain complain

all my special interest and unread magasines
building a small skyscraper on the coffee table
car needs a good service
healthy as I can be
without too much undue exercise
kids as healthy as can be too
so that is excellent
whinge and whine

wanna have a GOOD BLAST down at sandy... last one so disappointing
have all I need without missing out on much
as much tv as I need
internet on tap, wilipedia and g.maps- the world at my finger tips- just ask me, show me!

need more job hours as the kids "need" more
cannot see that happening the way economy and job rates are around Oz

job is not getting me more contacts-
so there is some misleading advice, thanks whoever that was
not advertising, maybe a problem there, but the Net does not help around here, well a FB placement didn't

really, what have I to complain about?
some would say Nada, Zilch, sweet FA!
happiness level, dunno

on the other hand.

model sailing boat needs a good workout, spring is here!
the new house is 99.9999% ready for occupation, on me and ken's sayso

next week- a trip with the gels
their last camp at primary school
did not get to do it with the boys cos of the gels, so better do it properly
so the mags will get a read through on the bus! zo egzalen!

ok
things may get a bit smoother,
no matter the number of ubiquitous annoying little tweeners on the trip!

happiness,
not chasing it,
just expecting it
indubitably. unexpectedly.

hard rubbish

Out it goes
Unclogging the yard

Every year, local government offers to take away hard rubbish that has been gathering. Stuff like old TVs, kettles, chairs, you know? Nearly anything too big for the wheelie bin!

I just do not have the patience or front for garage or yard sale. There you go. Maybe a few grand to replace, but any old junk just, to me now, has to go on the street.

The previous collection managed to clear some stuff up, like a huge old tent that was on its last legs, sorry dad, but it was finally given away, or crumbling away? I did not keep track of the steel poles, but I imagine it was gone quick!

The renovations of the spouting around the veranda a year ago or so left a lot of crap around, and which missed that last collection for the dead spouting somehow- or forgotten? Clogging up the yard. It could have been taken it to the local dump, for a fee... And no trailer at the time did not help.

But! It is all out on the street this week, earlier than required, sure, as... as it is old iron, and maybe someone could take it for recycling? A fine example of hard rubbish anyway. and the yard is unclogging slowly but surely.

Along with that stuff, there is also an old garden table or two, lots and lots of old bike stuff and wheels, gear that Son#2 has... left? For me to clean up...

The basketball pole assembly was a complete waste of time, some teens ruined the counter-weight, and it was used at the most just a few times and had fallen on the hoop a few times and thatt had broken off too. It was put out, and--- was MIA by brekky time!


All the old cookware, electricals, radios, teapots, anything I cannot keep any longer, mismatched twenty year old cutlery. A year old but rusty microwave. My first TV. Three LCD monitors- Dead ones. PC peripherals- obsolete. A coffee drip machine, waffle maker. The list is long. I mean, twenty year old stuff! Out it goes! A 35 year old radio that had stuttered to a hiss and wheeze, Tarn's.

I look in the shed, and oh dear, there might be some junk in there I have been keeping for too many years, like as in Just In Case, you know? Old bolts, hinges, jars of screws and nails, nearly junk, boxes, luggage, but not... The "timber" collection may end up in a bonfire.


The BBQ is looking haggard, to be nice, and is on notice... Anything else?

Maybe an old trampoline frame, a forty year old swing set... but still thinking on those- steel tubulars...

So someone's junk and trash is definitely someone-else's treasure.

The veranda is starting to look better, as well as the yard. Maybe this time next year, there will be only a graveled block left. I mean, I may even get rid of the lawn and garden, just pure minimalist upkeep!

Just me and a tent...

the washing day dragged out

Do you remember to take out the washing to the drying line?

And. When was the last time you were asked- 
"Dad? Where's my washed jeans?"

This weeks' washing was ready in the laundry basket. Nearly all of it was ready to GO!
As I lifted the lid to load up the 7kg capable washing machine, there was a flurry!

"Daddy! Wait, hang on, I forgot last night!"

The plan is to wake up as early as possible on a Saturday, head down to the combined space saving but ergonomically-not designed bathroom-laundry industrial complex, and do a weeks' washing. In one morning.

However. If one is awoken later in the day, and it's raining all weegen, one is are buggered.
It is all dragged out until the next day. Or the dryer rule is invoked, breaking the ubiquitous and /or customery "Quick, it's raining, gotta get the clothes back of the drying line again!"

OR

If one is awoken mid morning, reaches the aforementioned room, lifts the lid to load....

WTF?! Last weekends  load of washing!!!!!!!!!!
[a BLACK load, jeans etc- From The Goths of the clan]

Semi dry, and a bit whiffy. Has to be semi washed and fully rinsed all over again.
Reason left behind?
Wet weegen?
Not really, working on the painting job may have distracted one...
No real excuse, it was just forgotten I suppose.

MARVINED!!

And then one finds out that-

THERE IS NOT ENOUGH washing detergent for four loads of washing!!!

Doubly MARVINED.

AND THEN ONE FINDS OUT-

Not enough pegs to hang all this self inflicted work out to dry!

Can it get worse?
Yes.
Thanks heaps.
Well that's settled.
----------------------------------------------------

A late afternoon exchange prior to this:
"Where's my shorts for school?"
No respect, just a demand.
Put away? In the basket still? I don't know... I cannot sort all the worlds problems out!
But now we all know why there was no shorts or work duds- drying in the washing machine...
----------------------------------------------------
And
Why do the three of them wear SHORTS in WINTER?
The three of them!
Winter uniform for schools is long black pants- not jeans, not chinos, not dress slacks, not tracksuit pants, not swimming stuff, not thongsflipflops, just sensible warm clothes and shoes and socks etc!

Stenciling- as in drafting

Up to about 1991


When I was working in the oil-patch...

All useful data gathered by logging geologists when a petroleum exploration well was drilled were ultimately drawn up as squiggly lines on translucent (plastisised[?]) draughting paper, either A3 or A4 size according to columns. At well TD, or when the reaching Total Depth, the sheets were edited, and joined together for the client, there on to be used in a blueline copier to produce a Log of up to 5 to 20 meters, depending on the scale used. We never actually produced 1:1 scale apart from actual core logs... Imagine FAXING that bugger. And the cost if by Marisat back in the 80's!!

This was before desktop personal computers were the usual useless decoration in the logging shacks.

The Log.

I was a mudlogger, an engineering geologist, abnormal formation pressure detection detective. Also a plumber, carpenter, electrician, computer programmer, installation specialist, in the end a surveying specialist in logging or measuring while drilling and almost a directional driller too BUT...

The Log... Back then...
Drawn by hand, with stenciling pens, and using stencils, templates, drafting boards, set squares, rulers...

Geological descriptions were typed in the righthand column- cos faster than stenciling...

But drilling parameters, dates, events, formation tops were all stenciled in.

I am posting this, LATE, because yesterday was the eighth of August again...

Imagine.

I was offshore Bass Strait, on a platform, looking for oil or gas, maybe just oil.

Rig 19 was old, noisy and annoying. The logging shack was mounted on the drill floor BEHIND the draw-works. A long way away from the shakers too.

And the rotten bastard on the opposite shift left me to stencil in the date on the "log"

It was 1988, August. And the eighth day of August.

To stencil "8", there was two circles in the template to create "8". 


So one had to be Careful to make it straight. And it was the fine 0.25mm pen size as well.

But really. Marvined...

8/8/88

Twice?

Argh. Not happy Jan/Marv!

greeting card for the century

Cheap day.

Do you like this one?

Send off a blank greeting card joined on a string to a pencil, with eraser on its end. Recipient makes out what they want to read, from you, and everybody feels good. And wealthier.

Or this one? Probably a little less subtle. More personal?

Recipient's name printed/penned inside, signed by you, with empty boxes or lines to fill in events.

A few bland diagrams of for example- a tree, a bunny, candle on a cupcake.

Together or on post-it-notes to swap around, suitable for the event required. On the inside or the front.

With the attachment as above.

The other thing is to cut costs further by sending instructions by email, rather than using snail mail, to the intended recipient of the greeting card to make it as instructed above.

Either way its a win-win situation.

No massive profits to the bloody greeting card dupers or to the post, there is money in your pocket for the ISP bill and less useless processed native timber floating around, or on the road or in the sky.
Let's keep the processed timber for the bathroom?

So the point of the card is you have named the recipient, and it's signed with Yours Faithfully, Sincerely, best regards, thanks in advance, truly yours, BFF, etcetera etcetera. With a few little pictures on the front or inside, you have the year covered.
All your recipient has to do at the right time of the year is just rub out the last event/year and fill in the blank.

An ultimate recycling project.

They will always thank or think of you for being a planet saving thoughtful/less tight-ass whenever they dig it up.

Headless Chook Syndrome

Whatever... 


The To Do List is decreasing or evening out 


Or, A weeks "Diary extractions"... 

The front lawn and garden has been deshevelled for three weeks. Finally, it is less so. Some leaves, twigs, branches and logs are now out of sight, once spring kicks in...

The front veranda post has been lifted back, the bearers been reinforced with an eye out for a builder to maybe do a better job. There is a bit of creaking when one walks past... Some wrought iron pieces need to be re-assembled at some stage too.

The painting of gel#2's room is about to start as soon as I think the walls are puttied up enough and clean and smooth. That has been the weekend project, and I think the gels think I am putting off the painting for another week the process has been so slow.

The back yard feature has been fixed and tweaked. The rotten end of the upright has been cut off and an extension bodgied together for ten bucks rather than a new post for ninety... And the cross piece that could not be kludged together to make a longer one was replaced. It was used instead to bodgey up the extension to the post... There is more light in the kitchen now the evil looking overgrowing vine-like weedy bloody plants have met with my friends bonfire.

The trails of tyre/tire marks through the lawns has been sort of fixed.

The weeks washing put away.

A new Portable Vineyard and Alcoholery Blog started.

A Dan Brown book finally finished.

Some suspect moles on upper chest and lower back CUT out at the unearthly time of 9am Saturday Morning! The evidence to be sent off and examined- I suspect there will be a positive outcome. But these days in SEOz, you cannot be too careful if you know you spent the first few years of life naked in the sun, then dutifully tried to look healthily suntanned from mid teens to mid thirties...

And I just boiled the kettle before I started this.... ANOTHER COLD COFFEE- 2 in 24 hours, sheesh!

Carelessedness-itis

I have a bug
With me
About me
Because:

I have so much
house things
I have to do
want to do
need to do
and don't care when it is done....Carelessedness-itis

Garden Blitzkreig UN-complete,
still have to rake up shit
cut up shit
move shit
with a shitty chainsaw
on an extension lead.
Where's Geoffry Peterson's dad Grant? Help!








Removing old shit caused
an outside feature to fall down
and that cost 40 bucks and
time fooling around and
making a huge mess at the backdoor
and a big Kludge on a rotten
post top. Extension anyone?





My Getting
my self bogged twice in half an hour with
my two cars in
my own yard was not on
my favourite things to do.
Last week.






Endless vacuuming of the hoose
The letter box made with
love for the child bride is
falling apart... 13 years is a long time?

The gels need desks for their rooms...?

So many
or
Too many [?]
Sc-Fi mags
National Geographics
Archealogical Diggings
Posts
- to finish

Paint eldest gels room
so she can move in
to her OWN room

[breathe in]

And
Paint the Bungalow too.

Wants.... well don't let me start.

And I find the time for this.............................. Ho Hum I wonder what the rich people are doing?