If it keeps on rainin'

The levee finally broke tonight. I've known all along that herself was scared. You don't share your life with someone for some twenty odd years & not get to know them fairly well. The symptoms have been there a while. She has to be either constantly doing something, in her case, gardening, walking & knitting, or sleeping. Sleep has long been her way of making bad stuff go away for a while.

She didn't pick a good time to want to talk. Right in the middle of the season final of Dr Who to be precise, but we got there. It's good that she has opened up, because now we can talk a lot more openly about things. You see, I'm terrified as well, & its been hard trying to put a brave face on things when you are faced with losing the most precious person in your life. I'm trying hard for her. I'm finishing all the projects that I have been promising her for years. This weekend saw the spouting repaired that has needed doing since we moved in. I didn't realize how badly I have been sleeping & how much it has affected me over the last couple of years until I got some sleeping tablets to help me smooth out the current bumps. The doc isn't all that happy about me using them long term, but for me, its a case of what ever it takes to get by.

Next weekend, her daughter is going to put on a birthday party for her in Auckland, so hopefully, I will be able to bring back lots of pics & herself will be able to add to her store of happy memories.

I really do hope it rains. If only for the satisfaction of looking out the kitchen window & not seeing Niagara Falls there. I really have done a damn good job of it all even though I say it myself. Oh & by the way, if you missed it , the season finale of Dr. Who was an absolute ripper. It really is going to be a hard act to follow next season.

I've had a good day..

Herself scored some nearly new spouting from a building renovation site this week. Today I started putting it up where the old stuff had rotted through. The two worst places were in the courtyard, & over the kitchen window, running down into our vege garden. Its that bad there, that in the winter time, I generally have to chase off various Asians who want to plant rice there.

I decided to start with the bit in the courtyard, as its a relatively short span of some 4.6 meters. Just a straight run with a down pipe at one end. Rip the old stuff out, cut a new bit to length, graft in a PVC end cap because I can't be stuffed soldering a metal one in, marry it up to a PVC collection box & graft the whole lot on to an existing metal down pipe.. Walk in the park stuff for a seasoned handyman like myself.

And it would have been too, apart from the fact that the space to put it in is very limited, & not having arms like a gorilla, I had to keep shifting the ladder from end to end to get it all set up right. Plus we are talking new technology here, as PVC & steel fittings are similar , but not exactly alike. Praise be to Allah for silicone sealers is all I've got to say on the matter. Now that I have the technique down pat, the existing run along the front of the house should be a walk in the park hmm..

What complicated things was that one of my workmates had asked for my help to fix a leak from his toilet cistern. It was a result of shoddy replacement of an old cistern with a bodged bit of pipe putting strain on the plastic bit of the ballcock. I could have just done it for him & saved myself at least half the time that it took for me to explain what needed doing & standing back patiently while he did it himself. That way, he has learned a new skill & acquired a bit more self confidence. When he had finished, he looked at me & said, "Y'know, you're like the father I never had." It took the wind out of my sails somewhat. Nobody has ever said that to me before. It made getting behind with my spouting well worth while.

Herself went to a meeting of the Red Hat Society today. I think we both hoped that a little bit of silliness would help take her mind off things a bit. It didn't. They were far too noisy & trivial for her. She much prefers the quiet & companionship of the patchwork group.

Straight as they come

I do like someone that delivers what they promise. I seem to be surrounded by them at the moment. I have some very staunch personal friends who have offered of themselves unconditionally if I need them & that is very comforting. Through one of those said friends, (thanks Morty) I eventually made contact with the MND support lady from Waikato Hospital. Not only is she Scottish, but she comes from Inverness, & more amazingly, she wasn't one of the famous four & twenty.

She promised a lot of things for us, which I took with a grain of salt, but it all happened within two days, including a talking machine & a meeting with all sorts of ologists at Waikato. For a Lassie that is only paid 20 hours a week, she gets around. I got to see her having lunch with a client when I made a delivery in Waihi the other day.

I had a good day at work today. I got to go to Hahei, Cooks Beach, & Hot Water Beach. Nice day with nice people to talk to....

RIPLEYS BELIEVE IT OR NOT...

As opposed to the Russian version, Ripskey's Believe it or Else. We actually got a helpful letter from WINZS the other day. They have told us that we can claim quite a substantial amount from them to help towards Karen's funeral, & that they will help us do it. I remain to be convinced that its that easy however

R .I. P KAREN JEAN LESLIE

Well, my big sis has finally solved the big mystery. She was 68 when she quietly slipped away at a local rest home. She had developed leukemia in the last 12 months. I thought I knew what responsibility meant when I had to choose for her between the options of subjecting her to the pain & indignity of chemotherapy or just to keep her comfortable & let her slip away with dignity. It's relatively easy under the circumstances to choose the latter, but the realities of seeing her slowly ebbing away are different.

You see, it wasn't a choice that she was capable of making for herself. Karen was born mentally & physically handicapped, to a frightened 20 year old whose new husband not only brought the Rubella virus home from military training camp, but also had to leave to serve his country in Egypt, as he had already volunteered for the army. It wasn't as if Dad didn't try hard not to go. He cut off his trigger finger with an axe in an effort to stay home with his new bride. It didn't work, so off he had to go, being invalided home after 3 years with chronic dermatitis & amoebic dysentery. He was , I guess, one of the more fortunate ones, as his battalion was absolutely decimated at Crete.

It took 10 years & my Dad threatening to leave before my Mum overcame her fear sufficiently to consent to trying to have another child,me. Because we lived in the country, I didn't see my big sister as different. She used to go off on her own every morning on the school bus to school, which I thought was pretty exciting. She also used to read me stories every night, running her finger along under the words, to keep her place on the page. Because of this, I could read quite well before I started school.

My Dad finally got sick of nurse maiding trout & wanted to get back into the bush, liking the look of Thames, so off we went. Karen by this time was 15, so Mum & Dad elected not to carry on with her schooling, leaving me to try & become the family genius. Karen stayed home, doing odd jobs to help Mum & churning out dolls clothes on an old hand operated Singer sewing machine & adding to her ornament collection every Xmas & birthday. She soon became a favorite with all the younger girls on the block who loved to play with her collection of dolls, both the paper cut out variety as well as the conventional type as pictured above.


Time passed. Karen turned 50 & Mum turned 70. By this time, Karen had been enrolled in "Occupational Therapy" & used to be collected & go to "Therpy" every Thursday afternoon, sometimes going down to the old folks home at Tararu. When the time came that Mum was too worn out to carry on caring for Karen, the transition to the home was an easy one for her, & on family gatherings when you went & collected her it was heartening to hear her say, "I'd like to go home now please." And home it was. I've lost track of how many potential suitors she outlived, even asking Mum on one occasion if she could get married. For 18 years she made it her home, still very proud of her family. Whenever you went to see her, if there was a lull in the conversation, as there often was, you would be introduced yet again to whoever happened to be within earshot.

In these more enlightened times, Karen would no doubt be introduced to the supported lifestyle system & be integrated into society a bit more, but in those days Mum was given the choice of caring for her at home or institutionalising her in an insane asylum. It says a lot for my Mum that she elected to take the tough option, namely care for her at home for 50 years.

So , she has now gone on, probably to catch up with Dad & all her suitors & all her other friends that have gone on. It was a lovely service. We didn't expect a lot to attend, but it ended up with round 30 people who came to pay their respects. I was even more pleasantly surprised at the number that wanted to stand up & pay their own tribute to my big Sis after I had said my bit. Normally , at such time, there is an embarrassed shuffling & maybe one or two will get up & say a few words. I was nearly killed in the rush. I didn't realise that she had had such a positive impact on so many people's lives.

Goodbye Sis. You set very high standards to follow. I never knew you to drink, smoke, swear, tell lies or say anything derogatory about anyone. Thats a tough act to follow. May the sun forever shine on you, the breeze be fair & warm & the path be smooth & easy. I love you Sis, goodbye.

End of the Golden Weather.

Well, that's it I guess. It's back to the Salt Mine tomorrow. I shouldn't grumble, I've had 5 weeks holiday. More than I have had in one hit for years. Not that I didn't need it. Even before we had the bombshell of Herself''s condition dropped on us, I needed it. In the 12 years or so that I have worked there, I've not had more than a week or two off at any given time.

It's been good in a lot of ways. It's meant that I have actually been able to be with Herself for support during a couple of scary examinations & a couple of other specialist appointments. Not that I don't intend to be there in future for her. Its been good to spend some quality time with her, as the last few weeks have been a fairly scary time for both of us.

As you know, we also had our week in Dunedin with my boys & my grand daughter. That time I wouldn't trade for anything. It is a great comfort to know that even though we are separated by quite a distance they are still there for me if I need them. In fact, its quite humbling to actually find out how many are there for me if I need them. I still feel out on a limb a little family wise as I still have a mother & a sister, but neither of them even recognise me let alone have any comprehension of what is happening in the world. Speaking of my sister, I had a call from the nursing home today to tell me she is failing fast. We went down to see her this afternoon. She just looked so old & frail it broke both our hearts to see her.

On the good side, I finally finished Herself''s Shade house. She has been busier than a bee with a bum full of honey ever since. I also took the unprecedented step of doing a bit of weeding for her. Do you know Dock Plants have tap roots that go down at least a foot & unless you get it all they will grow back ? And did you also know that they are about the only bloody thing that will actually grow through weedmat ? Scary isn't it ?

This is the finished shadehouse in all its glory. Have I not done well?

Talking 'bout my Generation

This is three generations of us. As you may have guessed, I have finally managed to download the photo's from my camera to my computer. This my eldest son Sean, (A very proud Daddy) myself, (A just as proud Poppy) & Anna Jayne, who you can tell by the pic is either going to be a hellfire & brimstone preacher, or a politician.



This is herself getting to know Miss Muffet a little better. Aren't they both beautiful? I got a text from Sean yesterday telling me that she is crawling properly now & has cut her first tooth. God it makes me feel old. Old, but proud. Oh, if I didn't mention it, today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. 58 years of undetected crime. Sighhhhh.......