21 June: Readings & Comments

5.1  /  91  Pre-Lunch       16:27:15  
7.2  / 129  Fasting         08:10:22  
9.3  / 167  Post-Bfast      11:37:10  Crumpet toast & PB. Fever.
5.8  / 105  Pre-Lunch       13:05:43  
6.8  / 122  Fasting         10:01:41  
6.3  / 113  Post-Bfast      12:51:39  Crumpet toast & PB
8.1  / 145  Post-Tea        20:14:54  KFC
6.7  / 120  Bedtime         23:51:35  
7.8  / 140  Fasting         08:47:36  Fever.
8.3  / 149  Post-Bfast      11:33:04  Fever.

I haven't been very good about readings lately. Probably because I'm a bit discouraged since being feverish makes my readings high and there's not much I can do that will fix it.

I was supposed to have the colonoscopy this past Tuesday, but it was cancelled (halfway through a liquid diet day, but fortunately before I had to take the laxatives for it). Now I don't know when it will be as I go to the end of the waiting list. It was cancelled because the nurses are on strike (they call it 'Industrial Action' here).

As to being feverish, I've been taking antibiotics since a couple weeks ago, and they worked well on the hole in my side. My back no longer has a build up of fluid and it feels better. The nurses tell me it looks good. However, it hasn't taken care of a lovely sinus infection (in the last 5-6 years I tend to have a constant sinus infection over the course of the whole winter), and a chest infection. So I went to see my GP today and we changed to Vibramycin from Keflex for the antibiotics and I got a new prescription for ventolin. My other puffers were well and truly expired. I don't use them very often. The expiration date on the 2 I had were for 2005!

Not a lot of news, I know, but not a lot to share, really. I will try to do better at testing more often.

OH, I'd installed Wine on my Linux box in hopes of using the Windows software I have for my glucose meter so I could use MY computer instead of the Laptop (which is a Windows machine) for updating my readings. It worked great the first few times, and then there was an update to Wine and suddenly accessing the meter was VERY VERY slow. There's been another update, and now it doesn't read my meter at all. So I'm back stuck having to use the laptop for updating my online database for my glucose readings. Really not to happy about that. Hopefully the next Wine update will have it fixed.

13 June: Readings & Comments

6.8  / 123  Fasting         09:05:16  
7.9  / 142  Post-Bfast      11:49:21  crumpet (not crumpet toast) w/ pb 
7.8  / 141  Pre-Lunch       13:38:31  Pretty high for pre-lunch.
8.4  / 152  Post-Lunch      16:00:29  What the?  Tuna on tortillas.  Fever
4.4  /  79  Pre-Tea         19:13:05  
5.5  /  99  Post-Tea        21:39:28  Ham, Potatoes, Cheese Bake. Feeling VERY shaky. Fever.

I didn't sleep well again last night and managed to 'catch' my temperature rise several times, as opposed to waking up in a cold sweat after the fever breaks. It's weird because it goes up for several minutes and then drops down to below normal and the pattern repeats all night long.

Aside from not having a good night's sleep, I had a pretty good day - quiet, but not feeling really sick or anything like that. My readings were definitely weird today... much higher than normal during the day (for me) and this evening fairly low. The fever came back about an hour ago (9pm or so) and has done it's usual rise and fall a few times, but the really weird thing is suddenly tonight my knees are feeling like they want to give out on me and I have that weird 'not enough oxygen' feeling (light-headedness?). Anyway, aside from my body being a twit, *I* feel fine. I've stayed busy on quiet projects and made tea (wasn't too hard). Meanwhile Rod came home and fell asleep this afternoon and then after tea has gone back for another rest. He seems to be taking the rest I don't feel I need (but probably do).

Anyway, tomorrow is my clinic appt and we'll see how that goes. I was planning to take the bus, so I hope this 'weak in the knees' crap goes away by then. Anyway, I'm going to call it a night and go to bed.

Better care

Last night I didn't sleep well. I woke up a few times after having had fever dreams and was drenched in sweat. The RDNS nurse and I had another round, but she assured me she'd still be looking after me and wouldn't make me go to the clinic. I don't drive, I take pain pills that make me not really safe to be taking even public transportation (just look at the number of times I've taken the wrong bus from Flinders Hospital and ended up at Colonnades instead of home).

The nurse wrote a note for my doctor listing fever, pain and purulent exudate as well as pockets of fluid in my back and asked for advice about antibiotics for me. (Nurses have to be careful not to step on toes - they can't come out and say I think she has an infection, give her antibiotics). So I made an appt, but couldn't get in see my own GP. I ended up with Mum's GP, Dr. Liew. He's not as bad as I thought. He actually looked at the hole in my side and did a culture. The results of the culture won't be back until Tuesday, but meanwhile he put me on strong antibiotics and told me to ring on Tuesday for the culture results. I'll also stop in and get a print out of the results to take with me for my appt next Thursday. So, more than a week after I developed signs of an infection, at least I finally have some positive steps taken that should lessen its damage, I hope. I'm feeling a bit run down today, and even took a nap earlier. It's quite painful as well, so I've just been pretty much taking it easy. I just really want this to go away. Soon.

I'm also down on the roster for every other day including weekend days. That's good.

I was left without waterproof dressing again, but that's OK as the wound can breath this way. I'll have Rod put Opsite over it on the weekend when I want to have a shower. Meanwhile, let it breath and heal.

The brown soft warm winter wrap I ordered on Mothers Day arrived today. OMG, it is SO soft, and So warm. It's like walking around being hugged. Or a bit of guilty pleasure... wandering around wearing a blanket around my shoulders. And it has pockets!

I learned today that my son Chris was given a Citizenship Award during his graduation ceremony and that one of the teachers told him later that the vote was unanimous. I am SO proud of that kid. There was even a speech given before giving him the award. Oh, how cool. I'm so bummed I wasn't there to see it, but I'm also just over the moon for him. This is really fantastic. He tells me someone took a movie of the ceremony and that if he can get a copy, he'll have a friend of the family make a DVD of it for me. That's be great! He's also going to try to get a copy of the speech that was given. I'd love to see that. I think I might burst with pride if I don't watch out!

Beyond a Joke!

I'm fed up. I'm fudging well fed up. Last week I started experiencing more pain above and below the 'hole' I have in my side, and the nurse noticed that I had a few areas that seemed like they might be pockets of fluid developing. I also had a rash in the exact shape of the best bandaging they've been using on me. The rash only started because instead of seeing me daily or even every other day they switched me to every other day during the week and not at all on weekends. One Friday my current nurse didn't put the protective wipe they use on my skin before putting on the bandaging and that's when the rash started. So last week Friday she left me with bandaging that wasn't waterproof and I had to endure a weekend of no showers.

Last Friday I rang the clinic to find out what they wanted me to do and they more or less fudged me off and told me to see my GP. He couldn't see the pocket fluids (you'd need to feel it rather than see it visually and you can really feel it). He gave me a talking to about what to watch for in case the pain in the area turned out to be shingles because it's the area of the body where the blisters usually appear. And sent me on my merry way with a script for more Fenac - an anti-inflamatory I take for my arthritis. So come Monday, I hadn't had a shower since Friday morning, and the dressing leaked during the night. Ugh. Same thing yesterday. I woke up completely wet on that side from leakage and when the nurse came to change it she remarked at how much more exudite my wound had, and used twice as much Seasorb inside. Well, last night I had another leak because the dressing she was putting on was tiny - only 10cmx10cm and didn't hold the exudite.

All the other RDNS nurses I've had have always said if I had a problem to ring her. So this morning I rang to let her know it was leaking and she walked in and the first thing she said was 'You know we're not really a call out service.' WTF???? I like this nurse as a person, usually, but as a nurse she's a disaster. She's very untidy and today I found the rest of the aquacel (another absorbent thing they stick inside me) on the floor and it had to be thrown away. Along with that, there were other bits and pieces on the floor as well.

When she changed my dressing today she said it was even wetter than the day before and found that by pressing on one of the pockets she was able to get out pus and blood from my wound. She called the clinic for me and was only able to leave a message, but said if they rang her back she would let me know the results. She also said she would see me tomorrow and access how often I should be seen in light of the fact Monday is a public holiday (Queen's birthday). I may need to be seen on Sunday and then Tuesday, Thurs, Saturday, etc.

She rang me back about half an hour ago and the Wound care clinic says I'm not their problem. I'm to be seen next week by Plastics. And Plastics said that their normal clinic day is Monday but because of the holiday on Monday the nearest time they could see me would be next Thursday ... which is when I have my appointment! I was polite on the phone, but when I hung up, I said to myself, this thing is going to explode, and they're going to be telling me I should have had it looked at sooner - to which I'll say I TRIED, and no one wanted anything to do with it! It's not like I'm a rude patient. OK, today I had to stand up for myself (I'm still ticked with the 'We're not a call out service' remark), but as soon as she looked at my dressing she had to eat her words. I wasn't being a nuisance, I NEEDED it taken care of.

It's on my side, so it's not like I can do it myself, and being a deep 10cm hole, we need someone professional to deal with it. Otherwise, I jolly well would deal with it on my own or with Rod's help. But not when it's a 10cm tunnel! I've always been nice to the nurses in the clinic. I made a bookmark for one of them, and they always know me and more than one has remarked that I have the patience of a saint.

I'm tired of this merry go round I didn't ask to be on, and I'm fudging fed up. Yesterday was the 3 month mark. I've been dealing with this for 3 months plus 2 weeks prior to that when I was feverish and ill but had to wait until it came to a head THEN before anyone really paid attention and did something about it. Looks like I'm travelling the same road again now and I want off.

GRRR. Well we're off to do grocery shopping and pick up some KFC for tea.

Weight Loss

Vicki put a few photos on Flicker today from her grand-daughters 11th birthday a few years ago. For her birthday, Lakita wanted to have a girls baking day, so April and I took over Vicki's kitchen with her and her sister. We made a whole day of baking lovely goodies which would be part of the goodies for her birthday party the next day. It was a wonderful day and fun to spend time with two girls. April was amazed with my patience. Yeah, right - it's hard to yell when you're full of chocolatey goodness!

What astonished me was how much weight I've lost since that piccy was taken. I've asked Vicki how old Lakita is and when I sort out how long ago the pic was taken, I'll add that info here.

It's so heartening to be able to really see some tangible progress. I know I have a lot of pairs of pants that no longer fit as they're too large, and equally as many pairs that used to be too small that do fit now, but these two photos really sum up the changes for me.

Before (2003 ?):


After (Jan 2007):

31 May: Readings & Comments

5.8  / 104  Fasting         08:25:23  
6.7  / 120  Post-Bfast      11:47:28  
5.7  / 102  Pre-Lunch       13:14:33  
3.9  /  71  Pre-Tea         19:36:02  
6.3  / 114  Post-Tea        21:42:35  Beef and Black been stirfry
5.9  / 106  Bedtime         00:05:10  
6.9  / 125  Fasting         10:22:04  
6.6  / 118  Pre-Lunch       12:58:05  
5.3  /  96  Post-Lunch      15:09:22  sausage roll

Tonight we're off to see the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra perform the music of Queen. If it's anything like the concerts they did of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, we're in for a treat.

[Added Later: WOW, what a treat it was too. We had no idea when we booked our tickets that we were going to wind up in first row sets, in the center!! A bit hard to see the whole orchestra but it was excellent otherwise.]

In today's mail, I received something very very precious to me... my middle son's Graduation invitation along with a great personal invitation. I wonder if Kerstin had any invitations? Chris had told me to expect mail and that it was of great importance to him, and he's right. A few years ago he was a faceless teenager in the vast sea of Arthur Hill High School students, and next week he's graduating with honours at Omni, a much smaller, MUCH more personal school. I am so deeply proud of him for this achievement!

Rod is still waiting for a parcel from the states to arrive. I'm currently working on a website for Breaststroke (the support group I'm part of), and otherwise keeping busy.

As an experiment, I've now tried Xfce as my window manager on my recently updated Feisty Fawn Ubuntu operating system. It's lovely and light. For a day or two I played with having the background windows fade to transparent, which was cool, but it's a bit time consuming as it shifts between windows so I gave that up, but it was fun to play with.

Speaking of fun to play with, I have bought myself a sleeping kitten. No it's not real, but it looks sorta real (aside from the fact it has no whiskers!) and looks PURRfect sitting on my wood rocking chair, complete with a multicoloured afghan draped over the back of the chair. I can also pick up the curled up kitten and give it a bit of a cuddle. It's not the same as the real thing, but as furniture decorations go, it's pretty cool.

24 May: Readings & Comments & OH MY!

8.3  / 149  Fasting         08:08:08  
6.9  / 124  Pre-Bfast       08:40:03  Really fast drop from fasting reading.
7.7  / 139  Post-Bfast      11:14:01  Crumpet & PB (square - had both halves)
4.8  /  87  Pre-Lunch       14:14:02  
5.4  /  97  Post-Lunch      16:24:14  2x vietnamese cold rolls, cottage cheese
5.2  /  94  Pre-Tea         17:45:49  
6.9  / 124  Post-Tea        19:58:47  Chilli, tortilla, sour cream, cheese

My fasting reading was pretty high, at 8.3, but even weirder was that it took a plunge and within 32 minutes it was down to 6.9. I've never had that happen before. Normally it starts out reasonably low then after a cup of regular black tea (with milk) it goes up a bit. Today it was the opposite. Rod made a comment as we were having our coffee/tea that I had some colour today. The next thing I knew my heart was racing and I had the shakes. Not thinking of my glucose readings, I figured it just struck me that hard that he'd noticed how pale I've been the last couple of months. But no, it was my glucose. Have no idea why it would have dropped like that. Strange!

My appointment with the Gastro specialist went fine. She took a bit of a history, read all the results of my recent blood tests and had a bit of an examination. I will have both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy done. Basically, that's both ends in the same day. Great. Anyway, I don't have to worry about it as it'll be a couple of months before it happens.

The bus was early to take me to Flinders, but my changeover bus had to wait for a late one to arrive, but I still made it on time to my appt, where I sat for over an hour waiting to be called in. The buses were still running late when it was time to come home. I stopped off at a shopping centre to pick up an ingredient for tonight's tea, and ended up waiting for a bus that was late. Got to the changeover place and again we had to wait for a bus that was late. Very frustrating.

No parcels arrived today. We're expecting a few so I hope they all show up tomorrow.

I made really delicious chilli for tea tonight and have enough for another meal put away in the freezer.

And now, to the Oh My subject...



.....












.....


I'm going to be a Granny! Jenny and Terry are expecting, and I'm delighted for them. Jenny is 6wks along and Terry has taken over her diet and her parents are thrilled. I'm very happy for them, even though I wish they were a bit more settled in life, but I know these things happen - and they are a lot more mature than I was when Terry was born (I was 20 and alone). I've decided that I'm Granny Gaelyne. None of this Grandma stuff. Or Nanna. Granny suits me just fine!

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll hang on every detail shared and you won't be able to shut me up about the new little treasure that's soon to be in our lives!

23 May: Readings & Comments

6.4  / 116  Fasting         09:46:54  
7.9  / 142  Post-Bfast      12:35:53  Crumpet & PB (square - should have only half)
5.4  /  98  Pre-Lunch       14:10:03  
7.3  / 132  Post-Lunch      16:18:52  sausage roll
4.6  /  83  Pre-Tea         18:27:58  
6.3  / 113  Post-Tea        20:41:11  Yiros meat pack & chips

Tomorrow I go see the gastro specialist at Flinders Private. Other than that, I've just been doing work and housework and leading a pretty boring but normal life. Makes a nice change. :-)

20 May: Readings & Comments

Saturday & Sunday Readings:

6.6  / 119  Fasting         09:35:40  
5.4  /  97  Pre-Lunch       13:56:44  
5.5  /  99  Post-Lunch      16:43:54  Eggs, Bacon & toast
7.9  / 143  Post-Tea        21:22:00  Subway
7.7  / 139  Fasting         09:46:00  
7.8  / 140  Post-Bfast      12:35:01  Crumpet toast & PB
5.6  / 101  Pre-Lunch       14:41:04  
6.8  / 123  Post-Lunch      16:50:16  Eggs, Bacon & toast
5.9  / 106  Pre-Tea         19:32:35  
9.7  / 175  Post-Tea        21:55:16  Pizza

We've had a quiet weekend. Tea tonight was my homemade pizza. Very nice, but I should have had more green tea tonight after dinner.

Butterfly Folding Cane. I don't need a cane at the moment... my back is much much better, but if I should ever need a cane on a permanent basis, this would be my pick. How cool! The cane website was mentioned in the Happy Hobblers mail list I'm on for people with Osteo-Arthritis. I'm trying to catch up with mail at the moment and thought I'd add a comment since its the prettiest cane I've ever seen.

18 Mar: Readings & Comments

7.6  / 137  Bedtime         23:10:01  
8.1  / 146  Fasting         08:58:39  Feverish overnight
7.2  / 130  Post-Bfast      12:00:36  The usual crumpet toast w/pb
6.3  / 114  Pre-Lunch       12:54:16  
4.8  /  86  Pre-Tea         19:05:05  
9.3  / 168  Post-Tea        21:32:55  Fish & Chips. Still not feeling well.

17 May: Readings & Comments

8.4  / 151  Post-Bfast      11:01:11  Took reading early: had appt
6.1  / 110  Post-Lunch      16:00:49  
6.3  / 113  Random          17:11:00  Exp: Coffee Mate in green tea
5.2  /  94  Random          19:19:54  Exp: Coffee Mate in green tea
6.7  / 121  Pre-Tea         21:39:20  
6.4  / 115  Fasting         08:56:06  
6.8  / 122  Post-Bfast      11:46:28  
4.9  /  89  Pre-Tea         18:50:38  
12.6  / 226  Post-Tea       20:56:35  KFC. Oops.
10.5  / 189  Random         22:00:20  Coming down.

Well, that 12.6/226 reading was because we had KFC for tea. This normally doesn't go so high, but this time I had a small mashed potato, some chips, and the dinner roll too. I also hadn't had much tea during the afternoon, but my pre-tea reading was 4.9, so it really did take quite a jump. This is the highest reading I've had in the last 60 days. It does kind of prove that I can't be complacent.

My appointment with the Wound Clinic went fine yesterday. There's no real change in the depth of the wound (still 10-12cm) but the outside hole is definitely getting smaller. My next appt for this is in June with the plastics treatment group (they're the original people who did the surgery even though this is FAR from cosmetic or anything lovely looking).

The appt was quite quick and I was really happy that I managed to catch the bus back home within the hour so my ticket didn't get a new mark on it. Sadly though, I'm an IDIOT and for the umpteenth time, I managed to get on the wrong numbered bus so ended up going to Colonnades (the shopping centre at the end of the bus run here in the Southern Suburbs of Adelaide). Now, this wasn't so bad in my book, as I'd kind of wanted to get our weekly shopping done, so I rang Rod and had him get the shopping lists (one for a hardware store, another for groceries) and meet me there. We got the shopping out of the way and bought a sensor light set up for our patio. This way the light comes on with movement and we don't have to turn it off or manually... this is good because the switch for the outside light is in a closet in the laundry room.

This morning 2 of my mothers day gifts arrived. The speakers, and the Dymo LetraTag label maker. Both were quite easy to figure out, and the speakers are lovely. I can now listen to my MP3 player in the bedroom through decent speakers. They're small and they have great sound.

In the Afternoon, I helped a lady from down the road with her computer. She wanted to learn how to burn CDs so she could get her photos to a CD. I found the cause of her previous problems, and was able to help find a way to get the files on the CD in the order she wanted them.

Tonight I finished a book I've been reading on and off for about 3 months now. I've selected another book to read at lunch time, something a bit lighter than what I have been reading.

14 May: Readings & Comments

7.6  / 136  Post-Bfast      12:00:33  
7.2  / 130  Post-Lunch      15:52:00  
5.3  /  95  Post-Tea        20:29:33  Pizza and white shiraz
6.1  / 109  Fasting         07:49:13  
6.8  / 122  Post-Bfast      11:15:04  
5.9  / 106  Post-Lunch      14:32:10  sausage roll
4.5  /  81  Pre-Snack       15:49:03  peckish and bgl low
7.3  / 132  Post-Snack      17:49:34  toasted cheese sandwich
5.1  /  92  Pre-Tea         20:18:28  
6.5  / 117  Post-Tea        22:27:44  Chicken curry with rice.

I've been pretty busy the last few days.

Last week, my GP rang me about the referral to the Gastro clinic at Flinders public, to let me know that they contacted him and there's a 9 month waiting list to be seen. So, he wanted me to see a Gastro specialist outside of the public health system, which would mean a gap fee but there's nothing for it as it needs to be dealt with. He gave me a doctor's name to ring for an appt, and when I did, I found the gap fee was $50 with nothing back from Medicare. Ugh. But, a couple of days later I got a call from Flinders Private Gastro clinic and apparently they handle some of the overflow from the public hospital. Their gap fee is $128.35, but I'll get all but $15 of it back from Medicare. That's better. So I made an appt for the 24th, and cancelled the appt with the other doctor. The other thing I feel much more confident about is that the doctor I'll be seeing is a woman.

Last Wednesday, I went to my local Bakers Delight with Carol from Breast Stroke, and we presented them with a thank you from our Breast Stroke group for their May promotion supporting BCNA (Breast Cancer Network Australia). The franchise owner was SO enthusiastic, it was wonderful. And while a lot of the other bakeries Carol had visited only made a limited number each day of the pink buns that were part of the promotion, MY local Bakers Delight made lots and also included all of the sticky buns as being in support of BCNA. 100% of the price for these buns is given to support BCNA, and that's absolutely wonderful. Carol took photos, and once I have them, I'll add them to the new website for Breast Stroke that I'm slowly developing.

After our visit to the bakery, (and of course purchase of some sticky buns and scones/biscuits), Carol and I had hot chocolate and a little coffee shop across from the shopping centre. It was great as we were in a side room and had it all to ourselves. It was a bit like having a cuppa and chat at home, but someone else did the cleaning up. It was excellent hot chocolate too - warm milk and real chocolate that needed to be stirred. And my glucose levels stayed OK too, which is even better.

I spent thursday doing fun stuff like laundry and working towards setting up some software I've been meaning to update. I didn't finish the software project (installing an ad server) until Saturday, but started reading the documentation and preparing for it on Thursday.

Friday the RDNS nurse came to change my dressing and I made a comment about having finally turned the heater on the night before and she asked if we were pinched financially. I said no, not really, just being frugal. And before I knew it she rang up the head office and requested a fee waiver for me. Wow! Even better, later in the day the person doing the waiver rang me and I asked about the current bill as it arrived during the previous week. She said to rip it up and she'd take care of it. Another Wow! I was reading Email and Rod had received a request for help with the Zen cart software and the fellow said he'd be willing to pay for the help. Rod told him he didn't have to, but if he still wanted to pay something, he gave our bank details. Today the guy put some funds into our account. How nice is that?

In the afternoon, I went to Breast Stroke and visited with my friends. We had a fairly big turn out and it always does me good to hug and be hugged by my Breast Stroke sisters. There was a bit of excitement for a bit since one of the residents (we meet at a retirement village) set off the fire alarm and all the fire doors were closed. Geez, between the siren and seeing these closed doors, it really made me feel claustrophobic. The fire trucks came and they investigated but apparently it was a false alarm. The girls went on to the pool and spa, I went to wait for Rod to pick me up. Normally I take the bus home, but Rod and I had plans -- a cheap meal at the Food Court at the Central Market and then some serious shopping in the market. It's one of my favourite things to do, and I kept up with Rod pretty well this time. There have been so many times in the last year that walking around the market (which is HUGE) has been so painful, but it really was much better this time. No pain! Well, my feet were sore when we finished, but that at least is NORMAL.

Saturday I managed to finish installing the ad server and get our little ads from the previous software into the new one. I ended up having to wait to do one site, but finished that on Sunday.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and this year I worked most of the afternoon on the ad server project, but by late afternoon I was ready to pamper myself. I took a shower (can't do bubble baths as I still have this hole in my side), did my hair, put on some perfume and a lace 'robe' that I bought for $85 a few years ago and only wear very rarely. I LOVE it, but it's for special times only. It's probably the most expensive item of clothing I've ever owned and worn only once in a great while, but when I DO put it on, I just absolutely love it. It's soft and pretty. I then put some incense on, lit some candles, got out the wine and wine glasses and felt pampered for the rest of the evening.

Last Friday, I'd told the Breast Stroke girls that I was going to find something for Mothers day for myself at the market and it'd be my gift from my kids to me, since they often don't think about it until the day, and besides, shipping from the states would be too expensive for them. Well I didn't see anything I wanted at the market, so Sunday and today I did some online shopping. From the Avon clearance catalog (that landed on my doorstep Sunday morning) I bought a soft wool brown wrap/scarf with pockets and a pair of lovely earrings - all for under $15, and then today I ordered a pair of speakers that I'd been looking at for my MP3 player, and a label maker. Then I sent my kids a thank you note and listed what each gave me this year. The wrap and earrings are from Terry, the speakers from Chris, and Kerstin gave me the label maker. :-) Now I just have to wait for these to arrive. It'll be exciting and each thing was something I really wanted, and each for under $20.

Today I continued setting up adverts to work with the adserver, and I did a write up advertising the fact that we've made my book, "The Internet for C64/128 Users" (TIFCU for short) available in our online shop as a downloadable PDF file. The write up I sent to the Homestead list (a mailing list with about 250 subscribers for Commodore enthusiasts that Rod and I host. I also added it to the News section of our Commodore website. And I created ads for this for the sidebars on my site and the CBM site. This has been something I've wanted to get done for awhile now, and it feels good to have got this off my 'to do' list. Now hopefully we'll get a few orders in for it. :-)

Rod's been in bed for the last half hour or so. He says he stills feels 'hung over' from the night before. Sheez, we only had 2 bottles of wine between us. I don't seem to have any ill effects from it, but I am running a fever tonight. So I think I better skedadle and get some beauty sleep!

8 May: Readings & Comments

5.4  /  98  Fasting         09:10:42  
7.7  / 138  Post-Bfast      12:31:22  
7.6  / 136  Fasting         08:59:31  
5.7  / 102  Post-Bfast      11:48:03  Crumpet w/ Peanut butter
4.9  /  89  Pre-Tea         19:26:42  
6.1  / 110  Fasting         08:06:20  
4.6  /  82  Pre-Lunch       13:35:22  
5.3  /  95  Post-Lunch      16:16:40  1 slice pizza
4.4  /  79  Pre-Tea         18:33:01  
8.6  / 155  Post-Tea        20:41:34  Hot chicken and rolls

A couple of things to report. First up, a week ago Monday I saw my GP in regards to tests I had a few weeks ago (it took awhile for some results to come in, and he was on vacation for some of that time). He referred me to the Gastroenterology department at Flinders with the recommendation that I have a colonoscopy to find out why I'm still anemic. I also had a chat with him about disability because it was recommended to me as a valid option, in that I do have a lot of physical things that aren't right and I'd probably qualify. He told me his job is to give all the information possible and then the final decision is made by others who use various criteria for it. He agreed that it might be worth checking out. So I made a double appointment for this week, with plans of taking in the paperwork, but one of his last suggestions was to maybe wait and see what the results are with the gastro department as there may be more to add to the paperwork. So I kept the double appointment and instead of doing paperwork with him, I had my flu shot (more on this later) and a pap smear I'd been informed I needed way back in February. I don't have those results yet and won't ring for them until Monday. Yes, in Australia it's your GP that does these kind of GYN tests. And no stirrups required. We're so much more organised here.

So last week, I got the prescription for the flu shot and filled it at the pharmacy. It then came home with me and sat in the fridge till this week's appointment. Now, drugs in boxes come with information sheets and I'm normally pretty good at taking time to at least glance at them. I didn't this time, and last night couldn't quite understand why I was so itchy. Well a bit of research on the Internet and I found the source of my problem. In all previous years, the information said not to have the flu shot if you're allergic to chicken eggs. This year was different. It was if you're allergic to Gentamicin or chicken eggs. Sigh. I AM allergic to Gentamicin, and my main reaction is skin rashes and itching. I about went nuts last night and after several itchy hours, I took an additional Fexotab 180. It took about half an hour to come into effect, but it worked, and I could finally sleep. So while I was researching this, the top of the hour came around and I recently made it so my computer will play a random funny sound bite on the hour. I had to laugh. It was a singing one... "You are an Idiot... Ha ha ha". It was SO appropriate. But, having an itchy rash overnight vs getting the flu and being very sick ... I'd probably have had the shot anyway. It just would have been better if I'd informed myself first.

Another outcome of yesterday's GP visit is that the arthritis I've known I've had in my fingers was actually recognised and diagnosed as osteoarthritis. Damn. I shouldn't feel too down about it since I've been dealing with it for years, but in the back of my mind I always hoped it was just the cold and my body's reaction to it, and not something degenerative. But no, I have tell tale symptoms in the form of 'Heberden's Nodes' on the first joint of my fingers, nearest the fingernails. On the bright side, I'm absolutely positive the finger arthritis would be far worse today if I were still living in Michigan. Particularly since it took my being in Australia for a year and then returning to Saginaw to discover that the tap water in Saginaw was a definite source of arthritic inflammation and pain - not to mention the *really* cold weather over there in winter. And I really have been fortunate. When I was living in Saginaw, there were a lot of times that the pain in my fingers and hands were all I could think about as it was quite intense. A few weeks after coming to Australia it cleared up (drinking rain water vs tap water with additives) and I've only had problems in the winter time here, and NOTHING at all like what I went through in Saginaw. So I have to appreciate that it's not as bad even if it does finally have official recognition.

These nodes are the ones that can make your joints twist and turn so that when you point your finger straight it looks like you're pointing to the right or left because your joint has shifted. I had a teacher in 6th grade, Mrs O'Connell, who had this, and I don't think a day went by in her class that I didn't think about how hard it must be to have your hands deformed so badly. She was a nice lady though. I've been thinking of her a lot in the last two days.

My GP recommended Volataren gel in addition to the Fenac I'm taking for the osteoarthritis in my spine, and to keep my fingers warm with fingerless gloves. I have some, but they are knit, and so I'm looking for the really really thin but warm gloves that 3M makes - thinsulate or isotoner gloves that are fingerless. Or rather have only the tips of the fingers missing. If you see any for sale anywhere online, please let me know. The knit gloves I'm currently using are black, and anytime I see them, my first though is that I have 'ninja' fingers.

In better news, I do seem to be having more energy and being able to do a lot more in a day than I had been. I'm still anemic though, and sometimes the paleness I see in the mirror really bugs me, but that could just be from the infection I had. Meanwhile I still have RDNS nurses coming in, but this week I've graduated to every other day. It is finally actually healing and getting better.

I didn't intend for this entry to be completely health related, but I guess that can't be helped. Anyway, it's time for me to finish this up and get to bed. We were both up at 8am this morning and it's really catching up with me tonight.

28 April: Readings & Comments

5.5  /  99  Fasting         07:23:32  
7.7  / 139  Pre-Bfast       08:48:38  
7.7  / 138  Post-Bfast      11:23:47  Crumpet w/ peanut butter
4.9  /  89  Pre-Lunch       13:16:44  
5.8  / 104  Post-Lunch      15:57:49  2 crumpets w/ sf maple syrup, 1 egg & bacon
5.1  /  91  Pre-Tea         18:12:47  
7.7  / 139  Post-Tea        20:16:35  homemade buffalo wings

Nothing much new. I'm still having daily dressing changes done by the RDNS nurses. It's been raining the last three days and it's great as we haven't had a good steady rain in a long long long time.

I've installed Amarok and have been having fun rating my music collection and checking out the program. I quite like it.

Whoo Hoo! Samba & Network Printer... ALL BY MYSELF!

Well the title gives it away.... but before noon today, I'd managed to get Samba going securely so that on our windows machines when we connect to my Linux box it requires a user name and password just once, but allows access to our individual home directories (for the person logged in ONLY) plus the other few folders we mutually use. The test area for websites in development, our music, and downloaded files.

And then not more than half an hour after that success, I was happily looking at the test page print out. The printer is connected to my Winblows laptop and accessed via the network from Rod's computer and as of today, from mine as well. Yes! I have a printer again. For the longest time I was saving files and accessing them from the laptop to print. No more extra steps for me!!

I reckon those two things were the highlight of the day. The rest of today I've just been mucking around and setting up various things to make my life easier. Amazingly, the one thing I had to search for today was an Email notifier. I've been using GKrellm, but most of it's functions take up less space by using the Gnome panel applets (little mini programs that run on the top panel of my desktop). But it also has a mail notifier that I've used for years and so I needed something to replace it on the panel. I did finally find one. Gnubiff, if you're interested. It has a cute little penguin that sleeps until mail comes in. Now I'm waiting for an Email to come in to test it. Where's the damn spam when you want just a test message, eh??

24 April: Feisty Fawn & Getting it Together

In my last post, I whinged about things not making sense with getting the data off my glucose meter. Well tonight I realised what was wrong. Somehow my monitor's date got set for a day ahead of the current date. The PC software that came with it is stupid and only wants to know about dates that are current and not in the future. OK, so I suppose that's the way it's programmed, but a good program should have told me my meter had dates in the future that it wasn't going to import. At least then I would have had a clue. I only discovered this when I wrote down all 25 readings on the meter tonight before importing the data and then marking the dates on each. So I tricked the software by changing the date on my laptop to tomorrow's date so everything would get imported from this batch of readings. Then before importing to the database that shows everything on the web page, I manually adjusted the date. Pity I didn't notice about the times until later... at some point I changed the setting on the meter to use 12hr time. Big mistake. It got it's AM and PM confused and so I had a bunch of 6am readings I marked as 'fasting'. Turns out those were probably my pre-tea readings. So have put the monitor back to 24hr time, and after uploading the data and making sure I hadn't lost anything, I deleted the data on the meter so my next readings should have the right date and time. I'll have to keep an eye on it though - the date & time could be getting changed inside my case when I've got it in my purse.

The reason why I had 25 readings on the meter is because 1) I was afraid to try downloading the data after last weeks fiasco, and since last Friday, I've been otherwise occupied with installing Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn on my computer. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution, and I've heard and read lots of good things about it, and I was a bit annoyed with my previous distribution - Debian - since it hadn't been updated for so long. I had quite a few issues I hoped that Feisty would resolve for me. For example, I have a 4 port USB port, but none of the ports have worked with Debian for months now despite my attempts to resolve the problem. I knew it was a software thing because I could use a 'live' Ubuntu CD and have access to the USB ports without a problem. So it wasn't the hardware. I also had problems with my Email software, Evolution. I couldn't upgrade it on Debian due to library issues and it had bugs that were fixed in newer versions but not being able to upgrade meant I just had to deal with the bugs as best I could. Most of the time it just meant closing and reloading the program, but you shouldn't have to do that several times a day.

So Friday, I stayed home to be a geek. My first order of business was to make backups of my essential files. Unfortunately this took most of the day but those backups have been a good investment as they've saved me heaps of time in getting things back to how I like to have my computer set up. I didn't finish backing up to DVD/CD until about 10pm Friday night and then started an install on a USB Hard Drive. It took ages and then it turned out as I finally sorted out on Saturday morning that my computer BIOS says I can boot from the USB HD, but reality says 'No'. So I installed on my computer, and actually made it so the drives I didn't want formatted weren't visible or 'installed' so that I didn't have to worry about losing Gigs of music and downloads. That went much smoother and faster.

My next order of business was to get mail set up. I'm not a typical user. I don't just have my mail program do a POP3 poll for mail on the server. Oh no, I had to install Exim4 (a Mail Transport Agent), procmail and fetchmail so that I could have the same arrangement as I've been using. Fetchmail uses Pop to go out and get mail for me from my main server at VCSWEB and also my Yahoo account, and then passes the mail onto Exim4 which is a mail server, and that in turn looks to procmail and my procmail filter file to sort my mail into various folders (and I have a LOT - all neatly organised). This actually went quite well as I had my previous mail spool and all my folders copied over. The nice thing is once everything is set up (in the right order) and running, it's all done behind the scenes. Fetchmail runs as a daemon and every 5-10 minutes goes out and collects the mail and the other programs just deal with it for me.

Where I ran into problems was in copying over my older config files for Evolution (my mail program). Some how the file permissions were wacked and I actually CRASHED the computer (something that only happens very rarely with Linux) when I tried to convert an Email to a task (what a cool thing to have as an option!) and the task directory wasn't writeable. Everything has worked fine once I fixed the file permissions on like every file in my home directory (so it seemed).

I was able to easily work out what I needed to do to get my webcams working on the new system. It only required one line in the /etc/modprobe.d options file. I had jotted down the two key pieces of information (card number and tuner type) from my old system which saved me hours of trying to figure it out again as we've been through this exercise a few times in the past.

The only snag was that when I rebooted after making the change, somehow the system lost my 'window manager' (metacity) and that made it so I only had one window to work in, and there were no tops on program windows so I could resize or move them and things like alt-tab didn't work to switch between windows/running programs. I found the answer to the problem using Google and fixed it. I had to add metacity to the list of files that get run when I log in and then re-log in. Worked a charm. I'm sure a newbie wouldn't have been able to work that one out though.

The very first bit of software I installed was mc (midnight commander) as I'd be lost without it. Basically it's a file browser that runs in text mode, and shows two directories at once so you can copy from one to the other etc.. It has a lot of built in things though like a text editor and you can look into archived files with it, copy files from archives to where ever and run all kinds of commands on files. The only thing is that I use it both as root and as 'me' but Ubuntu doesn't have a root login, so there's no home directory for root. This means that the configuration settings for mc (like being able to store frequently used directories to get to them quickly) keeps disappearing for either user (me or root). I have to admit the graphic file browser that comes with Ubuntu is quite nice, but having screwed stuff up in the past with graphic file browsers, I tend to use mc instead as it's safer -- for me.

I'd wondered if my little script that I found online to make the backgrounds change every few minutes would work with Ubuntu but no worries. So I have all my nice family photos and other neat pics as my background and it changes every 5 minutes or so.

I'm also a bit weird. I don't mind using Gnome, but there are certain KDE programs that I must have available. KDE and Gnome are desktop managers - each are different and come with their own base programs. For web design work, I prefer to use Quanta which is part of KDE, and I also prefer to use Konsole for my term (this lets me type commands and use MC and such). Gnome's term uses different key strokes for certain things and it messes up my ability to use mc which uses the F-keys and Esc key for many of it's functions. I didn't have any problems installing either Quanta or Konsole, and was pleased that it didn't like it had to do a complete install of all of KDE just so I could use these two programs. It only installed what was actually required.

And Quanta is MUCH more responsive. I've no idea what version I had and what one I've upgraded to, but what a huge difference.

I spent last night trying to get Samba going the way we want it to work here. Samba is a server that lets other computers connect to my machine to share folders. I need it to require a user name and password for our personal directories and so far I haven't succeeded in getting this going, and that's despite having our previous config files. I'll keep at it though.

So what with the bug fixes in Evolution and a faster Quanta program plus other nice touches, today I finally feel like I've accomplished more than a few things that have needed doing. Having the ability to save a list of tasks is essential for me - my short term memory is horrible these days. Being able to organise tasks and just the nice feeling of crossing them off the list is a great feeling. I still have lots to do and catch up on. I haven't read the mail from the various mailing lists I'm on since Friday, and because I reorganised where I store the web sites I work on, I need to do a lot of work in setting up the 'projects' in Quanta for the sites I'm responsible for (it's only about 20 different sites!). Meanwhile though, I'm just tackling things as they come.

Tonight I compiled the two little programs that I use, and finally got my glucose readings online since I hadn't done this since last Thursday. I also added more postcards to the Flickr site. I had 4 come in today. One was from a lovely teenager in Germany. All of them had neat stickers on the back too. I've put a link on the sidebar for the blog here to the Postcards on Flickr, and also earlier today added this link to the sidebar of my website.

Basically, I've just plain been getting things DONE, and that's a nice feeling!!

19 April: Spilled Tea, Etc

Yesterday I showed the nurse two areas on my back that are feeling odd - one was just a bit of pressure on the side where all the healing is happening and the other is a small little nodule that hurts on my spine, right on top of where I had the arthritis flair up last year. She was quite concerned about the area where it feels like a bit of pressure and said it looked swollen to her. She rang Flinders and got me an appointment for today. She couldn't see anything special with the other little area.

So today at Flinders they couldn't really see what the RDNS nurse was on about - I think perhaps the swelling was being a bit like a car you take to the mechanics and had actually settled down before my appointment. But they gave it a full irrigation - ie poured clean saline into the wound and let it come back up on it's own. The nurse doing it said it was really weird. She'd pour it in, the water would disappear and then come back out a minute or so later. This helped get some minor/normal gunk out and I have to admit it felt like I'd had a 'shower' there on the way home. Hard to describe, but it had a clean feeling. Still hurts like heck when they do the dressing changes. The doctor could feel the little swelling on my spine but didn't know what it was but didn't think it was much to worry about. That's good.

As far as healing goes, the area looks good but the size is still the same (and it was painfully painstakingly measured today. So I'm happy it's looking good and doesn't have signs of infection. The rest will come along eventually.

I also have an odd pain on the side of my right leg (same side as the hole). It was there last week too but I figured it was just caused by a change in posture and walking and such while carrying Boris (the 2kg VAC pack) on my other shoulder. It's become more noticable this week though, so if it continues I'll have to ask my GP about it too when he returns from his holiday. He'll be back on the 30th. It's not intense or anything like that so I'm not overly worried about it, but thought I'd mention it just so I can reference it with a date if needed in the future. It feels like I bumped into something or perhaps slept on it wrong, but I'm not sleeping on that side either. Probably just a change in posture because of the hole, I reckon.

While waiting for my appointment I had a book with me to read and it's a good book. But I had to stop reading and couldn't even play solitaire on my phone because I kept having problems with double vision. Grr. Have never had a problem with double vision before so dont know what's up with that. Was OK later today, at least for playing solitaire.

I hate typing this stuff as it makes me feel like a hypocondriac, but I do need to note stuff in case I need to know when it started. And of lot stuff with me is only short lived nonsense that settles down without the need to do anything further about it.

So this afternoon, once home and getting settled in, I spilled a whole lotta tea. Here's what I wrote to the BC List as we've all been complaining about random clumsiness lately...

ARRRGG!!

I was making a pot of tea today and had just poured a cup of tea as well (half cold tea from the pot, half hot water - thank goodness. I'm pouring into the pot and have a sudden muscle spasm, reflex, whatever, and end up knocking over the full cup of tea which dropped to the floor and broke the handle. I burned my finger, got tea all over my clothes and thank goodness that cup wasn't full of just boiled water or I'd be burned in several different places.

Now, I haven't mopped in awhile - I have that hole in my side and mopping isn't something on the list of things I should do. Sigh. Well, part of the floor got mopped with paper towel as I wiped everything up, and I can't believe how dirty they came up either. On the bright side there's a few clean spots now and the cupboards and counter got a good wipe down. They really didn't need it though.

And I broke my favourite tea cup. Boohoo!

Rod kept typing away at the computer in the next room and I was really annoyed he didn't even come to have a look when I shouted out that no, I probably wasn't OK. So all while clearing up my mess I was brewing about his lack of helpfulness, or even just plain curiosity. Turns out he
didn't even hear the accident or my shout. GRUMBLE. How can I be grumpy when he didn't even hear me? Sigh. Anyway, maybe I'll get it out by just sharing with y'all.

Hugs, (Cuz I NEED one!)
Gaelyne

-----------------------------------

Later, after a few Emails from others sending love, I wrote back .....

Thanks! I am feeling much better now. Isn't it funny how sometimes the smallest things can make us fall apart when bigger things going on ( the infection and hole in my side, a cancer scare, etc etc) we seem to just weather somehow?

Today with the 'teapot episode', I was very near tears and angry way beyond the scale of the situation. Maybe I just needed a release. I later took a nap and slept very soundly without moving for a couple of hours. I feel much better for it.

------------------------------------

I find I'm still a bit unscrewed this evening, as my eyes keep leaking and I found myself really missing Mum. We used to have such nice complaint sessions together ... and I can even see/hear her doing a 'Tsk' with a nod of the head in understanding. A bit like my German friend's 'Aaachh!' but more the British version. :-)

When I copied my readings from the glucose monitor tonight, for the first time before checking things, I deleted what was on the monitor. DAMN, because what got saved to the computer doesn't make any sense, has different times from when I did my tests, and has tests missing. Like I had an 8.0 this afternoon (I tested because I was feeling funky at that time), and then it was 4.4 an hour or so later. Those readings aren't there. I tested at 7:10 this evening and it was a 4.1 as it was my before tea reading. It's not there but instead there's a 7:32 reading that's 6.2. And there's a 5am reading in there, and I don't even remember getting up last night. This makes no sense.

I really hate that Murphy's Law guy. This beyond a joke.

Anyone care to come help me get my floors vacuumed and mopped?? All the tea you can drink! LOL.

OK, I just recieved some work via Email so I better get it done while I'm thinking about it.

Am still waiting for the official Ubuntu 'Fiesty Fawn' release so I can upgrade my computer. Am really starting to look forward to that, but with Murphy hanging around, perhaps I should wait a bit.

17 April: This and That

My little boy's growing up! See: link


Nothing much new to report. I wrote an article last night and today. Am now letting it 'rest' so I can come back and edit it with fresh eyes. Last night our neighbour visited and posed a challenge to us. He had a bet with a friend and wanted to know how many languages there are in the world, and how many words are there, in all languages. The answer to the first one we could find - it's 6.912. But the second is an impossible question because so many languages are merges of other languages. So the answer is 'infinite'. Still interesting stuff. He's a real Aussie bloke and quite a character. A very nice distraction although sometimes the timing isn't all that great. Still, I'd do anything for our neighbours as they're exactly the same with us.

I had a good sleep last night and awoke to the doorbell - my nurse came earlier than usual today. It was good to get that over with for the day right away though. Yesterday and today she's used a 'barrier wipe' on my skin before putting the tape on and it really has helped me stop being itchy anywhere the adhesive meets my skin.

Yesterday I had a few postcards arrive, and then later in the day I had a book arrive in the mail too. It was a book I've read that was on my Wishlist, as its one I'd like to keep. The title is "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. The really amazing thing about this particular book is that it was first purchased in Tehran, Iran. The person who bought it registered it on bookcrossing.com and then sent it over here to someone in Australia, eventually winding it's way to me. What an amazing journey!

Today I had a few more postcards and a lovely card from my daughter (which she designed the artwork for) as well as a photo of her and her fiance. You can view the postcards as well as the card and photo on Flickr.

For the last two weeks in the paper there's been a voucher for a free 9in pizza at a new pizza place that's just opened in Woodcroft. It was one free pizza per person per voucher, so Rod and I each got a pizza for tea tonight. We had to stand in a long line for it, but the owner brought around soft drinks and we even had a free slice of pizza while waiting in line. It was excellent pizza too. What a very successful opening they've had today.

Well, I need to get back to work so I'll mosey on out of here.

14 April: Readings & Comments

5.4  /  98  Fasting         09:42:00  
6.2  / 112  Pre-Bfast       10:18:08  
6.1  / 110  Post-Bfast      12:28:44  
5.2  /  93  Pre-Lunch       14:54:18  
5.7  / 103  Post-Lunch      17:09:54  salad, sausage roll
5.3  /  95  Pre-Tea         18:08:48  
5.7  / 103  Post-Tea        20:40:53  4 Tacos. Yum.

Wow, really pleased with tonight's results. Mind, aside from the shells, there's very little carbs in a taco. It's mostly protien and veggies.

Had a good day in. Did 4 loads of laundry. Had my dressing changed, made tea. And finally finished setting up a new web client. They were all set, but I had to set up their stats and such. Meanwhile some directories had been moved so along the way I needed to update my little menu program that lets me step through all the things that need to be done so it could find all the files that I update.

My next project is to write an article on finger picking for the ADI mailing list. I'm off to get a start on that now.

12 April: Good News

Apologies if you've read parts of this in Email that I sent out.

My results finally came back, and the blood test showed it was a bit abnormal but NOT in a bad way... ie, no cancer. No Myeloma.

I also had an appt at Flinders today, and we have 'abandoned' Boris, my 2kg VAC pack as he wasn't helping me. In fact one doctor who last saw my wound before the VAC was put on said aside from not looking infected the size of the wound hadn't changed at all in the 3 weeks I've had the VAC pack attached. And it isn't infected at all. Just taking it's sweet time
to heal.

Instead of Boris, I'll have regular dressing changes at least every two days (once a day if necessary) and I don't have to see anyone at Flinders for two whole weeks!

Regarding surgery, the current doctor looking after me conferred with Dr. Dean, who had been a registrar and looked after me when I had thereconstruction surgery (which also turned into a nightmare of wound infection(s)). The general consensus was that surgery for me wouldn't
be a good idea. As I'm susceptible to infection, we could end up with a much larger area... infected, which wouldn't be helpful at all. Additionally with my current health - being quite anemic and having diabetes they really feel strongly that anesthesia wouldn't be the best
for me either.

It feels funny not to be carrying Boris around with me. Tonight we came home from being out for a bit and I forgot all about the fact my purse was on my shoulder because I've been so used to dragging Boris around with me for the last 3 weeks.

So, good news all around. I've got iron tablets for the anemia and have had a couple more tests regarding that, but my GP is going away until the 30th, so we'll deal more with that when he comes back.

We went to the fireworks tonight -- the ones rescheduled from 2 weeks ago. They were great - all 5 minutes of them before they cancelled the event due to NON-EXISTING 'high winds'! The place was packed with families and kiddies in Pajamas too. I came home and looked up the weather and it said:

IDS10034
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
South Australia

Adelaide Forecast
Issued at 4:00 pm CST on Thursday 12 April 2007

Warning Summary
Nil.

Forecast for Thursday evening
A fine warm and clear evening. Light to moderate east to northeast winds. Early
evening sea breeze.

So what a crock. What there were of the fireworks were great and hopefully I'll be able to upload to youtube the bit I took with my camera. It even has the announcement that they'd been cancelled in it.

Anyway, Rod's packed it in, so I shall be following. I bought myself some marked down Easter eggs tonight and have been good so I can enjoy them. I think we'll be watching Heroes tonight.

My plans for tomorrow are to finish up some work and otherwise take it easy.

OH, what I didn't mention in my Email to people is that on Monday with the ride we took (in the car, not the bike), my side/wound started really hurting, and when the changed the dressing on Tuesday it was the most painful I'd had to date. I had to cover my mouth so I wouldn't scream. Well today was much worse - I did yelp and I actually cried. It REALLY HURT. And I apologised because I'm not a yeller or screamer, but it was very painful. And that was on pain pills too. The re-packing was OK though, as it wasn't trying to push the foam into me, and by then the 2nd Panadiene Forte I'd taken was in effect. So that's another reason I'm happy to be free of Boris. The nurse felt really bad about 'making me' cry (it wasn't her fault), and gave my back a good rub down with Alpha Keri cream. It really helped stop the itching and my back is still feeling like it's been well creamed, and it's now hours later. I might have to get some of that for myself.

Oh and for the Geeks ... my computer is now telling me it's up time is 99 Days, 9 hours. In a few days, when the new version of Ubuntu comes out, I'll be upgrading to it. My first upgrade in over a year. I'm looking forward to it. And I'll have my son to help guide me since it's the system he uses. :-) Funny, I used to help him, but now he's the one I ask silly questions of. What a nice change.

Anyway, G'night Y'all