Memories are made of this

Some things are just more memorable than others - for me, the end of WW II signaled by a siren going off in the employee housing settlement near Bloomington, Texas; Schortie, my first puppy (a daschund); my sister falling out of a tree and hurting her back when I was pretty small, in Mississippi; my first sighting of the Monterey Peninsula after a hard winter's basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, thinking maybe I had died and gone to heaven; and the list goes on. What are some of your favorites? Topic change - we have had three glorious days of sunshine and largely blue skies - I think I got a little sunburn working in the yard a couple of hours today - wearing short pants and a short sleeved shirt and being plenty warm. More shifts - perhaps only a sentence or two on a topic - met two swell fellows this week, one an audiologist who owns his own practice and gave me some good advice about a possible alternative portal to get back to doing some hearing testing by becoming a member of the New Zealand Audiometrist Society; and a second gent, goes by the moniker of the Lawnmower Doctor (he picks up and delivers) who wasted no time in telling me I had not destroyed the innards of the drated machine, just tilted it too much so some oil got in the air filter and cylinder and he fixed that, and also put the top portion of the handle right side up - I had installed it upside down - very sweet guy. (shift) Carrie is finally really on the upswing - breathing more easily, having less pain where the evil pleurisy resides on her left side - that and the weather have really cheered me up, too. Has anyone seen the movie Teeth - it was playing here but I missed the two days it was shown. Read the reviews - sounds wierd but interesting at least to some of us twisted mind folk. (shift) I really enjoyed watching the Olympics - coverage in New Zealand was mostly on different sports, not necessairily with New Zealand participants though they had a lot of that - devoted up to ten or twelve hours a day sometimes. Thanks as always for your support and interest. Last thing today - I am still on the trail of learning what a squirrel hammer massage is - I called and was told it is like acupressure, but when I asked about its name was told to come in and they would show me - maybe I will go - hope if I do I come back!

Every day . . .

Every day, walking Emily to school, with or without Charlie the wonder dog, or Charlie with or without Emily, I pass by beauty. No matter the season, there is always something in bloom. As we near Spring here there is more - pinks, yellow daffodils, white blossoms on some camelias, pinks and purples too, pansies just peeking out, an occasional limpid, delicate iris, pink blossoms on some trees, small ones, big ones, fallen ones whose delicate flowers Emily enjoys picking up and looking at with the mindful way she sometimes has. Well, I am sleeping better than I had in a long time, and have started what I hope I will continue to do, working out (albeit it lightly at this point) at the Rec center at Carrie's Uni - stationary bike for fifteen minutes (that is my goal - ten about did me in on day one, but did get pulse rate up to about the right place - I think 180), then pumping the old iron for another fifteen minutes, all this post a consult with a lady gym staff who came here from Canada and loves country music. Saw a crazy Japanese movie last night, one included in the New Zealand film festival - sort of a Yojimbo/fist full of dollars cross with two warring sides in a village fighting until all that were left were the mysterious neutral hero who came riding into town earlier, a little boy, and a wise mountain man - plenty of gore, and Japanese actors who spoke exxagerated English! Carrie and I will go to one about Pete Seeger later this week, and I hope to see a few more. I was hurting from my temporary crown but got it smoothed off and is ok now. Carrie is gradually getting better. It is raining buckets outside as I write this. Yesterday Carrie, Emily and I went to a garden center and bought strawberry plants, some seeds, some vegetable plants (lettuce, beets, chives, etc) and if it stops raining will try and initiate our lovely raised beds with them. Thanks for reading this, and all our best to you and yours.

lt ain't over 'til it's over

Darn, shoot, heck, son of a gun, aarrrgggghhh - I thought all the amalgam was gone, but yesterday the dentist found some more under a metal crown we are replacing with a procelain one. And there is one more to go, which will be looked at in about three weeks after I get my new crown. Ah, well. Good news is the sun is shining. The car people callled and will be here soon - was having coolant system trouble but they say they fixed it. Manford

Momma called the doctor...

Momma called the doctor and the doctor said - "Come on in" and so she did and he then said "Go to the hospital" which she did with me driving and after about a three and a half hour wait in the ER at a stuffed, full, no available bed hospital, we saw a doctor who said probably pleurisy, take this iv antibiotic after I do a little needle biopsy to see what we can see, the next day a different doctor says go home, you will get better, and take these pills and they will help too. So it goes. Carrie is not very comfortable and it hurts when she moves a certain way or breathes too hard, but we are optomistic that things will be better day by day. At least there was no charge for anything that went on after we entered the hospital, since it is part of the public health program. I am still reeling a little from an e-mail from the New Zealand auditory society that said I do not qualify for their membership because I have no Master's degree in Audiology - but at least I got an official opinion from their president - so I will do other stuff. I have signed up for a six month trial at the University Rec Center - strong like bull, smell like ox? The weather - will the rain never cease? Then, hark, what is that bright light in the sky - that intermittently peeks out? Have discovered a great cheese factory from a nearby town, whose products are sold in our local grocery store. Had some moisture behind the lens covering the right headlight on our bmw - apparently a common occurrence recently what with so much rain. We are looking forward to spring - already some trees are showing lovely pink buds and some flowers are poking their heads up to see what they can see. Emily is getting better with the violin. Joseph seems pretty content with school. We are grateful for friends and relatives who read this, and wish you well.

Out damned amalgam

The deed is done. The dentist in Cambridge (NZ, not England) removed all the old amalgam fillings this past Friday - the theory being that they were possibly causing me to have mercury poisoning which has caused some of my symptoms - I know this is controversial but I feel I have little to lose and possibly some to gain by doing this. The weather has been - no rain, so we get frost, which killed the plant Emily had grown from seed that we transplanted to the raised bed about two weeks ago - she took it very well. She is getting better on the violin. Joseph was in a chess tournament and got two byes and a forefit and two draws so got some prize money for his games total. Carrie and I are off to Sydney next month. Had to get the coolant changed in the BMW - cost about 96 dollars. I thought the opening ceremony of the Olympics was incredible - how do you put that in perspective of the repressive government of China? We are getting a lot of tv coverage of the Olympics here and NZ is proud of its excellent rowers. The USA is doing pretty well, too. The tax man has begun to take bites out of our income - for our house and for the local government - they charge for rubbish pickup but not yet for water useage. We pay the electric bill separately. We hope all is well with all our readers, and appreciate past comments.

I was doing fine, until...

Well the plate that holds the keyholel of the front door was loose so I decided to fix it. That involved removing the inside portion of the lock and tightening some screws that held the plate in place. I did that. Then I attmepted to reassembee the lock, with the outcome that I dropped the lock, a spring spronged out and pieces were all ajumble, so that the locksmith I called when he came could not reassemble the lock and so we now have a different lock with different keys and are financially poorer for it. So life goes. Saw a car today with the model name "carisma." When I take Charlie out on her leash it goes something like: walk, stop, pee, walk, stop, sniff, yank the collar a little, walk, walk, walk, stop, sniff, yank, walk, walk, walkm stop and sniff with a funny bear like gait, poop, walk, walk, walk, stop, sniff, yank, sniff while walking, stop, sniff all the way around the tree, yank, walk, walk, walk...Carrie is getting better every day. Joseph brought plenty of muddy clothes back from his recent school trip - went swimming in a really cold river, went on a night course without a torch where he had to follow a string, and other equally exciting activities. An reading a book by a not very nice, I suspect, Brit who came to New Zealnd, called "Going as far as I can." I have tried to find an under counter tray for a keyboard, we need to hook one up to one of our laptops, since the N key no longer works and the V key has lost its cover, but can't find one in New Zealand for less than about $ 300.00. That is right, I did not misplace a decimal. Any ideas on how I can get a cheaper one? Where? We have had sun the past few days - somehow when I say I could not figure out what that bright light in the sky was Kiwis find that to be funny. Laughter, the best medicine (sometimes). Tomorrow start the process of replacing amalgam fillings, which may contain mercury, with nonmetallic ones, and before that get my hearing tested and hearing aids (possibly) reprogrammed. Hearing aids are expensive here - the locksmith said he was quoted a price of $ 10,000.00 for a pair - shoot, I could go the states and buy two here are pay my plane tickets and stay awhile for less than that. I will explore further why they are so expensive. Take care. Thanks for reading this. Manford