Life Gets Tejus, Don't It (4)

I opened the door an' the fly's swarm in

Closed the door and I'm sweatin' again

And in the pros... (a huchh) crack my shin

Just one darn thing after another.

(Recorded by Walter Breennan)

We are still in lockdown here in the West but if all goes to plan we will be open to interstate travellers tomorrow so contact tracing has been put in place.  I have an app which is supposed to record any place where I sit down with other people but I had some difficulty loading it onto my smart phone and haven't tried it out yet.  I will do so tomorrow when I go to knitting over in the Library where the librarians will be able to point me in the right direction.  I loaded it last week in the library but it refused to connect until I returned to my apartment (traffic overload?) so I am not quite sure how may numbers I put after my password.  I will find out tomorrow.

I have been neglecting my blog recently due to the hospitals gearing up to do as much surgery as possible before the State opens up so I have had my long-overdue left cataract removed (short in the left eye to balance the long distance in the right eye as the right eye has no short vision, a thing which I discovered when i got home with the left eye covered and found that I was not able to measure out Poppy's anti-inflamatory drops and had to get GB1, who was babysitting me, to do the measuring.

I have also finally had my painful toe shortened and fused at one joint, something which I have been trying to get fixed for over five years.  The toe is still very swollen and I am wearing a funny shoe thingy to protect it. Hopefully I will be able to get back to exercising in the new year.

And back to my problems with banking on-line;  last time I paid an account everything was shrunken so it looks as though the Bank is planning on making everything Smartphone size.  Grrrrr!

Enough with the bitching;  The Limerick:-

A newlywed lady from Young

Asked the doctor to fix her torn lung.

When asked how it ripped

She replied as she stripped,

"The man that I married is hung!"

Life Gets Tejus, Don't It (3)

 The water in the well just gettin' lower and lower

Can't take a bath at six months more

But I've heared it said and it's true, I'm sure

That to much bathin' will, will weaken you

(Recorded by Walter Brennan)

Life has been busy for the last couple of weeks.  Parsifal has finally been unblocked but it took several days before we got any results. He is now on a small dose of laxative a couple of times per week and has become very cuddly (when he is not beating up his sister who gives as good as she gets) and is mostly in bed with me when I wake up in the morning.  Poppy, now that her loose tooth is out has become very playful and kittenish which is lovely to see . . .so I now have two happy cats.

Last week I received a letter to remind me that I was due for a mammogram so I went and had that done three days ago.  It is something which I hate having done.  I know that it is designed to save me from something worse but now I am waiting for the results.  The technicians who do the ultrasound are not allowed to let the victim know the findings but they usually give some hint if all is OK and I understood that all is well but I need to know for sure as it is easy to misinterpret the hint such as I received this time, “all over and that is good.”

I spent yesterday sorting out my finances to send off to my accountant and only hope that there is enough for him to work with.  What with the dreaded NBN and the chaos it created with my banking I am not sure that I haven’t missed something vital.  I still get a sinking feeling whenever I have to do any on-line banking and since I now seem to have two passwords into my account there is still uncertainty about getting into my bank online.

And since the advent of the NBN my answer phone doesn’t work so I have switched it off and maybe I will have to get a new online phone as I hate my mobile phone which I had to buy in order to get back into my bank account; there is an app which gives me a code in response to a password which I have to enter.  It is all getting very complicated and I pity people in my age group who are being forced to use the internet for the first time in their 75 – 80 years in order to access their social security.

This coming week I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist regarding the removal of my second cataract which should have been done in March until Dr C. decided to take six months off and cancelled my appointment; and a visit to a foot surgeon for about a fifth opinion on the treatment of my sore toes which are seriously affecting my balance which, due to Meniere’s Disease is mostly by guess and by God and keeping my eyes fixed on where I want to walk to; and using my toes  -  which hurts.

The Limerick:-

There once was a pious young priest

Who lived almost wholly on yeast;

"For," he said, " it is plain

We must all rise again,

And I want to get started at least."

 

Life gets tee-jus (2)

My shoes untied but I don't care
I ain't a-figurin' on goin' nowhere
For I'd have to wash and comb my hair
And that's just wasted effort

(Recorded by Walter Brennan)

For a quiet life in lockdown the last week has been surprisingly busy.  On Monday evening I realised that one of Poppy's last teeth  -  a bottom canine - was hanging quite literally by a thread and the tooth was sitting outside her top lip but sometimes pointing up and sometimes down so I decided to take her to the vet the next morning and and have it removed.  Knowing how they both react to the vet I decided to give her a sedative.  As she resisted having her mouth opened I knocked the tooth and it fell out.  It was HUGE.  She was ecstatic that she was rid of  it and galloped around like a kitten.

Then the day before yesterday Parsifal started vomiting all over the apartment; mostly bile (fur balls) and it stains so I spent a lot of the morning cleaning up and by evening I realised that he was not using the litter tray so yesterday morning I phoned the vet, dosed him with a sedative and took him in two hours later.  He was not sedated enough and ripped his clipped claws down my hand; blood everywhere.  The vet and I  decided that he needed more sedation so I brought him home for another pill.   Then yesterday afternoon, using a very devious manoeuvre she anaesthetised him and did a thorough physical examination  including X-ray, heart, lungs and abdominal palpation before pronouncing him constipated but healthy.

He was still asleep when we got home and Poppy was convinced that he had been out on the town without her and growled and spat at him whenever she saw him.  Only now, 24 hours later, will she let him  even approach anywhere near her.  Now I have realised that Poppy is also constipated so they were both given a laxative with their evening meal.  And they are both curled up together finally to sleep.

The Limerick:-

To the nun said the priest drinking gin,

"Drinking gin is a terrible sin!

My condition is chronic

But I do need the tonic,

And something to put tonic in!"

Life Gets Tee-jus. (1)

 The sun comes up and the sun goes down

The hands on the clock keep a-goin' 'round

I just get up and it's time to lay down

Life gets tee-jus, don't it?

 (Walter Brennan recorded it but I do not know i he wrote it) 

My feelings exactly and now the Blog format has changed again and I am trying to find my way around the new one;  I don't need any more changes in my on-line life just right now.  The thought of paying bills still sends me into a cold sweat and now my printer has died.

I bought another one but when I started to read the installation instructions I got that cold sweaty feeling again so I have called on SIL and GB1 for help.  As SIL said, I could certainly do it on my own (probably he is right but . . .) -  and the document which I need to print arrived in some unknown format and I can't copy and paste it so I have sent it to another email address for safe keeping.  At least I can still email . . .

I ordered some carpet runners  -  12 metres of them  -  so that the cats' paws do not get damaged as they get older.  They arrived this morning and Poppy thinks that they are fine but Parsifal is avoiding them and jumps over them if he needs to cross over.  They are not very beautiful, being basically brown but so is the apartment so they look the part.

We are still in lock-down although the only Covid-19 cases here have been returned travelers and our border is still firmly closed so there are not many of those and they all have to go into quarantine.  We are all keeping social distancing but no-one is wearing masks.  I have mine ready for if they are needed.  There is talk of opening the border before Christmas so maybe we will have a first wave here and I will get to wear my masks eventually.

The Limerick:-

God's plan made a hopeful beginning

But man spoiled his chances by sinning.

We trust that the story

Will end in God's glory,

But at present the other side's winning.

 

Person Woman Man Camera TV

 Anyone who follows USA politics will recognise the title to this piece; it was supposedly a part of Mr Trump's Montreal Cognitive assessment.  When I was working in a psychiatric facility people were asked to punctuate the phrase "no ifs ands or buts" which, in my opinion is a trick question because the "and" stands in place for a comma and therefore a capital at the beginning and a full stop at the end would be sufficient but I think that the I was asked to read and recall the words when I did the test so maybe a couple of Oxford commas would suffice.

However, we are on the subject of cognition and last Saturday D2 and SIL came here with jump leads and trickle charger to try to get D2's silver classic Porsche up and running.

For years I have been babysitting a varying number of D2's classic cars, two Porsches and a classic VeeDub. A few weeks go the order went out that the secure parking to the Apartments was scheduled for cleaning and all cars needed to be removed for the duration.  As the silver Porsche which I was minding had a flat battery D2 brought the battery from the red Porsche which did not fit the slot but she connected it anyway and as the battery was in the boot (which is at the front) there was plenty of room for it.  All went to plan, the car was relocated for 24 hours and then back into my parking slot.

However, trouble struck when she came to return the batteries to their rightful cars; the bonnet had jammed the battery was flat and she was not able to do the exchange.  She consulted SIL who had two suggestions:  (1) recharge the battery through the cigarette lighter or (2) attempt to jump-start the car since the motor was in the back and therefore accessible.  I should add here that access to the residents' parking is via tight corners and a steep, narrow tight curve with no room for a flat-back truck and towing is illegal.

Shortly after these desperate attempts were to be tried they came back up to my apartment and told me that all had been fixed the batteries had been changed over and the car was operating just fine.

In trying to open the bonnet, D2 had been pulling the wrong lever.

The Limerick:-

I have posted this before but it is very clever.  This Limerick was posted in the Classified Ads of a London paper and it was a while before the public penny dropped:-

An Anglican curate in want of a second-hand portable font would exchange for the same a portrait (in frame) of the bishop-elect of Vermont.

A little Less light Now.

 I have fixed the blinking light on my fixed-line phone.  Once again I had to search the internet, ask pointed questions and then choose the simplest solution which worked and now I have the proper steady light which blinks only when the phone rings.  Not that it has rung very often and mostly it is people trying to persuade me that there is something wrong with my internet connection.  Since there were a couple of unanswered calls registered and which my phone identified by their number I was able to trace the calls to China, which figures, from the accent of the "technician".

For some reason all the cold calling spammers are convinced that Telstra rules the phone lines and that Telstra is going to disconnect my landline within 24 hours.  They do not seem to have realised that Telstra is not wireless and that if the telco disconnects my cables they would be cutting off the internet which they would be providing.

And my new mobile phone ran out of charge and would not re-boot once charged.  The only thing which the "how to" manual actually gives information about is how to turn it on again if it becomes unresponsive and that worked as well so I am learning all manner of new skills.  It has all been something of a wild ride and all I now have to document is how to delete the unanswered calls on my landline phone.  I have already done it twice but it is all a bit hit and miss so I need to write it down to fix it firmly in my mind.

Hopefully my final hurdle will be next week when I have to turn off my "computer" (for that read modem) for three consecutive nights while technicians check the connections of the shops below.  I used to turn off my last modem with gay abandon whenever a thunderstorm was in the offing but after the last few weeks I do not trust the new one to behave itself when I turn it  on again. That is an indication of how bruised I feel since the NBN was installed but I can always call Techie to fix it again.

The Limerick:-

Of a wounded war hero I sing

Coming home from the war in the spring:

Oh, he may have been lame

But he came just the same,

A discharge is a wonderful thing!

We Shall Overcome

. . . and this is not just floundering around trying to find out how to write a new Blog Post in the new format (which I have already forgotten but I think that it is a link which appears when I click on 'Posting as pinkozcat' .  It seems that every new 'improvement' on the internet involves searching and extra clicks.

What I am referring to now is my ongoing battle with my i-Pad which has steadfastly refused to recognise my fingerprint ID when I have needed to download a new app;  I even resorted to taking myself into the city at one time to the apple Shop to download something which I deemed essential.

Today I tried, in vain, to download the Chrome App and eventually went into google and asked some pointed questions.  The reply I received was easy, worked and should have been included in with such information as using one of my cats' paws or a spare nipple should I feel like stripping off whenever I needed a new app.

Here is what I did, following the newest instructions:-

Launch 'Settings' App
Navigate to 'Touch ID and Pass-code section 
Turn off toggle for 'I-tunes and App Store'
Re-boot the device (i.e. turn off at the switch at the side and count to 20)
Turn i-Pad on again
IT  WORKED

So simple and yet it seems to be one of Apple's deepest, darkest secrets never to be divulged to frustrated i-Pad users.

The red light is still flashing on my land-line phones but I can phone out, receive calls and the answerphone works so I am not too fussed.  I gather that I have to contact my NBN provider to get it switched off but I am putting that off until I recover from multiple repeats of "My voice is my password".

And the Limerick:-

Whenever a nun's feeling wild
She keeps herself quite undefiled
By thinking of Jesus, 
Contagious diseases
And the bother of having a child.

A little light at the end of the tunnel

Techie came yesterday and networked all my computer stuff and, hopefully, things will now work as they should.  I woke up at 4.30am yesterday morning in a muck sweat because I was going to pay an account but throughout the whole debacle Macquarie Bank has allowed my payments to go through with a minimum of fuss even when things were in a shocking muddle -  and Kobo has relented and is allowing me to load books onto my e-reader again.  It has taken about four weeks to get everything sorted so fingers crossed.

I am sort of getting to almost like my new mobile phone and today I bought it an overcoat and screen protector.  This shift is probably due to the fact that Techie suggested that the blinking lights in my fixed-line phones was because their batteries are about to fail. I have ordered more, noting that their warranty is just three years and it is just three years since I bought the last lot.  Hopefully they will keep the fixed-line phones working for a while as I have had enough of electronics to last me for now.

My birthday dinner had to be cancelled because I had a bad reaction to some new medication so it is going to be this Sunday instead.  In order to network my system I had to identify myself to my internet provider and that included voice recognition and stating my full name, address and birth date.  When I got to my Street name I received an incredulous sound on the other end of the phone and had to spell it.  It is unusual and apparently Italian and no-one quite knows how to pronounce it.  At the end of the transaction the operative on the other end of the line wished me a Happy Birthday.  :)

And speaking of addresses, last Friday I received an express package with the most garbled address on it and delivered to me because the only correct part was my full name and the street address although the number was a Chinese restaurant and when I opened it the sender believed that I had requested some special Optus cabling.  I checked that the Optus outlet downstairs was the Unit requesting the cabling and delivered the whole package to them.  I haven't heard anything further and my attempt to phone the sender produced no results.

The Limerick:-

There once was an old man of Lyme
Who married three wives at a time;
When asked, "Why the third?"
He replied, "One's absurd!
And bigamy, sir, is a crime."

O frabjous day!

After two weeks hanging off the telephone to my Bank I think that things are finally sorted.  Some light crept in on the problem when I found that I was two people and I was locked out when I gave the wrong answers to a security question because the question was set by Person 1 and I had morphed into Person 2.

We have now killed off Person 1 and my test money transfer went through without any problems.  So I need not have bought my so-new mobile phone for which its 'book of works' is still pending.  No doubt there will be a time when I will not regret having spent all that money although SIL says that it should be a tax deduction because I need it for my banking.

I would like to say at this juncture that the 'help people' at MacQuarie Bank have been, throughout, friendly and helpful and although we seem to have come full circle I will be endlessly grateful for their help and patience.

I realised a couple of days ago that my drivers' license was due to expire next week so I made a trip to the Department of Transport by the first free train, figuring that so early on a Monday morning in such horrible weather there would not be a crowd.  There were some people ahead of me and a queue was forming by the time I had organised a replacement so that is another tick off my list.  There are a couple of things pending on my to-do list but nothing urgent and nothing as difficult as my on-line banking problems.

D2 has moved her car out of my secure parking place because the secure parking areas are going to be cleaned tomorrow.  I was too tired yesterday to help her with getting a new battery installed and cleaning the greasy drip trays.  Her cars are all incontinent so the drip trays are essential.

I am still in semi-lockdown and everyone is very good about not getting too close and there are bottles of hand sanitiser at the entrances to all the shops and all the shopping trolleys and baskets are sanitised before being handed to me.  Western Australia still has a closed border and D1 will probably not be able to come to stay at Christmas time which is sad.  Maybe next year.  Anyone coming into the State must quarantine for 14 days.

The Limerick:-

This is an old one but so good that it bears repetition . . .

I sat next to the duchess at tea,
It was just as I feared would be.
Her rumblings abdominal
were simply phenomenal,
And everyone thought it was me.

Full of Sound and fury, Signifying Nothing.

I finally had the National Broadband Network (NBN) connected last Tuesday after a week of working with a dying Hotspot which was revived by a man from the Telstra Shop and using my Surface Pro and i-Pad I was able to access the internet but had no fixed line telephone so I had to replace my banana phone with a Samsung fancy one with all manner of bells and whistles which I have no idea how to use.  Luckily I had saved my contacts to card so they are all on my new phone

The first disaster was when I lost my Kobo account, opened another one which I could not access either after which Kobo seems to have died altogether.  Now I have been denied access to my main bank account.  My credit cards still work and I can fall back on writing cheques again but I feel all at sea as things fall down around me.

I spent over an hour talking to the bank in Sydney this morning and they will try to investigate why my account no longer recognises me and I have spoken to my financial advisor who has, hopefully, still got access and can transfer money to my cheque and credit accounts.  Now I just have to sit back and wait.  Meanwhile Techie will probably come by and check for nasties on the hard drive.  It is his invoice for connecting me to the NBN which I stumbled over; the bank refused to allow the money transfer and refused to accept that I knew the answers to my secret questions.  I know which school I went to, dammit!

We are having an amazing autumn and winter so far with temperatures in the 20s but with very cold nights and we have had a couple of quite severe storms  It looks as though the coming week will be wet.

I have had the results of my bone marrow biopsy and they were as expected so no surprises there and I am to have another blood test and appointment with the hematologist in three months after which I will be monitored every six months unless things deteriorate which hopefully they will not.  D2 came with me to ensure that I could question her in detail afterwards if I have any queries.

The Limerick:-

"I must leave here," said Lady de Vere,
"For these damp airs don't suit me, I fear,"
Said her friend, "Goodness me!
If they do not agree
With your system, why eat pears, my dear?"

. . . and all our yesterdays have lighted fools

I had my bone marrow biopsy on Thursday morning without sedation.  The doctor told me that the only thing which could disturb me was the prick of the needle administering the local anaesthetic and that if I had sedation it would take four hours but without it would only be one hour.  

Just after it was finished a rather dishevelled woman rushed into my room and asked me if it really didn't hurt.  After my re-assurance she rushed out again.  I can only assume that she was a nervous patient who had been sent in by the doctor to re-assure her as she seemed to be a bit panicked.

I will get the verdict next Wednesday  but a week today  -  next Tuesday  -  I am having the NBN installed and hopefully I will be able to keep my phone number.  iiNet has assured me that I will be able to keep it but I know of a couple of people who had to fight to keep their phone numbers .  At least iiNet now knows where I live and Custom Strata has told me how to direct the technician to the 'secure electrical box' to make the connection.

It will take four hours and during that time I will not have a phone connection but I can live with that.  Four hours without the internet will be harder but I have a 

'hotspot' and will have it charged up  -  although there is a certain horrible sameness about the news out of USA now which I am already tired of watching so maybe a good book will be the way to go.

On Thursday Custom Strata is holding an Extra-ordinary Annual General Meeting of the Owners Committee on Zoom.  It seems to be an exercise to see if future meetings can be held that way so I have loaded Zoom, sent in a proxy and told Custom Strata that if I can get into the meeting I will be a silent witness.  As there is no agenda I am not going to miss much if the connection doesn't work; my I-Pad was reluctant to let me load the programme as it does not recognise my fingerprint but finally gave in and loaded the app.

It has been a busy week . . .

I am starting to get Cabin Fever so if the weather holds up  -  and from the forecast it will  -  I might have another try at walking around Lake Claremont.  After the weather we had last weekend there should be some water in it again.

The Limerick:-

A fanatic gun-lover named Crust

Was perverse to the point of disgust.

His idea of a peach

Had a sixteen-inch breech

And a pearl-handled .44 bust.

The Covid-19 Letters

Here is the series of letters which I have written over the last nine weeks to my Knitting Group which has been isolated over the last nine weeks by the Social Distancing rule imposed by the State Government.  It has been my way of keeping contact with the group until the Social Distancing rule is rescinded.  I will post them independently complete with the Limerick as I do not know how long this is going to go on for and the document is getting too long.

(1)Hi everyone

 Hoping that you are all keeping healthy.  Take your temperature and if all else fails one of the first indications of infection is that you lose your sense of taste and smell.

I have been knitting wrist warmers but have only 32 stitches to knit to complete a pair ( not counting sewing up) and will start on another beanie tomorrow.  I have plenty of yarn to keep me going for the next few months and maybe, one day in the passage of time I will be able to buy toilet paper again (no, I don't need any)

Keep well 

(2)  Hi All

 I hope that you are all well, washing your hands and slathering yourselves with perfume as well as taking your temperature if you have a thermometer.  If you can't smell the perfume then go and get tested; it is an early sign.

My plans to thoroughly clean my apartment keep getting side-tracked as I go online and listen to the news and play computer games  -  but slowly I am getting there and from the latest news reports I have about six months to clean and tidy before I am allowed to show off my good works.

There has been a strange smell wafting in at about 8.30 every night.  The first time I thought that it was a gas leak but now think that Management is detoxing the shopping centre every night.  So it is probably more virus-free early each day to do your shopping.  But most of the shops are now shut.

I went down to pick up some meat and veg this morning and was able to buy a box of tissues (Coles brand) and there is now plenty of milk, meat and vegetables but still no toilet paper, eggs and butter; Farmer Jack has better supplies of those things.  I look whenever I am in Coles just as a matter of interest but can't believe that the toilet paper hoarders are still hoarding so I think that maybe we have to ask for it at the counter and are handed one packet.

I have finished a pair of wrist warmers (not sewn up, of course) and am at the top of a beanie but it is black wool and I am going to need a good light to do the four-needle bit.

(3)  Hi Knitters

I am still in lockdown but did break out today to take an empty train to Cottesloe to get a flu vaccination and a new referral to see my ophthalmologist.  I had heard that the Lions Institute was cancelling appointments but so far mine hasn't been cancelled so I will be braving the empty bus in my mask and disposable latex gloves  -  which, if anyone is interested are back in Coles along with the Covid-19 Gold  -  toilet paper.



Incidentally, if anyone wants to make their own masks the quickest and easiest one I have found is:



https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-make-face-mask-coronavirus.html



I sized it using an A4 sheet of paper -  it is a good size and readily available.  My only problem was that I tried to sew it up in a bad light and was unable to thread the needle of my sewing machine and had to wait until this morning.  I used an old flour bag from when Cottesloe had a flour mill way back when.  For ties I used a couple of pink bootlaces (super long).



I have, after much frustration, managed to load Skype onto my I-Pad.  It needed a fingerprint which it steadfastly refuses to recognise so I went to google and asked.  The three suggestions I received were:- use a toe print, use a cat's paw or (gag) use a nipple.  My I-Pad knows me and has all my details so it was just being B-minded and I ended up thumping the icon of my right index finger hard and very fast and suddenly I was in  -  so I have been skyping my kids.



I am still knitting  -  finished the beanie and am onto my second pair of wrist warmers and I have started spinning again but limit it to an hour per day to save my thumbs.

I hope that you are all keeping healthy and entertained.

(4)  I hope that you are all well and are bearing up under isolation or too, too close proximity.  Hopefully we will be able to start getting out and about soon.  Personally, if I can't get my hair cut soon I am tempted to bribe my hairdresser to cut it anyway.  I can cope with the fringe but the back flops forward into my breakfast if I am not careful.

The good news for the week is that my daughter, D2, who is an emergency physician at RPH said that her shift last Friday was very slow  -  only two people in ICU (both off cruise ships) and only 17 people turned up to emergency.

Also good news  -  the Cat Haven has all but emptied as people look for a feline companion and from the news from USA (and probably here as well) the dog rescue places are also emptying.  I just hope that people bond with their new pets and do not abandon them when the panic is over.

If you are looking for crafty stuff The Fox Collection has a sale on;  10% off everything and only $1 postage but ending tonight at 7.00pm -  only 12 hours sale time.  I suspect that this sale may be repeated at a later date.

SweaterBabe has 20% off 'through Sunday' for knitting patterns.

I have been knitting and listening to MSNBC and have finished another pair of wrist warmers in an urky brown which was a colour I found very hard to knit. I still have to sew them up but maybe someone will love them; they will be warm and not show the dirt.

No news Chez Moi and I am sort of spring cleaning but am staggered at the amount of cat hair, considering that the cats are brushed twice per day and my Dyson Stick needs frequent re-charging.  At least I know that I will not run out of time or cat hair.

Please all keep well and hopefully I will see you all again soon.

(5) Hi Everyone

 We are supposed to be free at last, certainly there was more traffic on Stirling Highway and Hungry Jack is doing a roaring trade. It has been nice while its nightly closing lasted; it has been turning off its horrid bar of red light which shines straight up into my bedroom but I suspect that it will be back on again tonight.

I am still knitting wrist warmers and I still haven't sewn up the last pair I knitted and am onto the second of the current pair. Meanwhile, the cats and I are slowly going stir crazy.  Parsifal has been roaring around the apartment and trying to find a way into the TV to meet and greet the people in there.  

Last night I got so desperate that I set out to unearth my Miniscule DVDs because he used to love the ants and in my search I came across four CDs of "Music for Cats".  I put the first one on to play and both cats settled down as close as they could get to the CD player and listened.  It is weird stuff and not unpleasant so we will stick with that.

I know that some restrictions on self isolation have been lifted but I want to see if there is a flareup before I come out of purdah because cats can carry the virus.  I can Skype my two oldest daughters and have internet, an e-reader, shelves of books and an I-Pad but it would be nice to be able to go downstairs and sit in the sun with the smokers in the Town Square.

WARNING:  This is clever but don't click on the link if you have Republican leanings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSU0NtaPRDE

(6) Has anyone else been doing battle with technology in the last few days?  I have -  and give me knitting over electronics every time.  I have now finished three pairs of wrist warmers and a beanie and am tossing up whether to knit more wrist warmers or another beanie.  I have some fancy knitting needles which are supposed to replace having to use four needles to knit the top of the beanies in the round.  But  -  at least I have finally sewn up all the wrist warmers and they are waiting to be collected by D2 if/when she emerges from her self-isolation.

I spent two days trying to put my grandson's account into my bank's list of payees as he has a new bank account but with no success.  Eventually I phoned the bank's help line and found that in the "name" field only 18 characters are allowed and that includes punctuation and spaces.  There is nothing on the form to tell you this so that is now sorted after shortening his name.

And my printer decided to re-invent itself and told me that it needed new drivers which I installed only to find that it no longer printed so I had to go to system recovery to get it working again.  My son-in-law lost his C Drive which is far more serious than a recalcitrant printer.  There is something weird going on with electronics at the moment.

My daughter D3 has a heap more knitting yarn from her client who gave us the last lot so there should be plenty to go around when I see her and when we can all get together again

My boy cat threw up all over my bed this morning so I am in the middle of an orgy of washing sheets, duvet cover and pillow cases.

In the days of isolation when there is no team sport being played a sports commentator posted this clip.  I stole it from MSNBC so it comes with some explanatory comments.

https://www.msnbc.com/11th-hour/watch/sportscaster-shares-play-by-play-walking-his-dogs-to-the-pond-82851909856

(7) Despite more people wondering around the shopping centre, less masks and more toilet paper available I still seem to find myself in semi-isolation.

My daughters spaced Mothers' Day over two days; one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  It was actually great because I did'nt have to worry about son-in-law and grandkids so I had D3 to myself on Saturday and D2 on Sunday.

But I am still having problems with my electronics and my printer refuses to scan.  I think that I am going to have to upgrade at some stage but have just put four new ink cartridges into it so  -  not yet.

The NBN is finally coming to the Claremont Quarter and more problems.  The group being connected to iinet seem to comprise about eight shops and me.  And my address was given as 23 St Quentin Avenue which is the address for the whole complex  -  shops and two apartment blocks.  It caused me a whole heap of problems when I first moved in as, understandably, no-one could find me.  So I contacted iinet and had to send them photographic proof of my address.  Since my printer will not scan I had to photograph an account showing the address and had to use my I-Pad and had to be talked through the process.  Where was Sally when I needed her?

And the lift broke down on Sunday so we all had to get in and out through the back door. More electronic glitches!

But I am reading, knitting, doing my yoga and Oriental cats are very talkative so I do not lack for intellectual conversation.

I will try to attach a video clip of Randy Rainbow with his take on a song from Guys and Dolls.  But don't hold your breath . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCW4Xnp_sQ

(8) This week has been interesting but not always comfortable.  The big news is that I am going to have my hair cut on Thursday, just in time before it gets completely out of order.  It has held its shape well so far but is now getting straggly but is too short to tie back.  

I had coffee with a friend downstairs in the Centre and we sat at a social distance in the Town Square.  She has suggested that we expand to a threesome by inviting a lonely and rather obsessive acquaintance whom neither of us felt like tackling alone.  I have left my friend M.S. to organise it.

Then on Friday morning early I got up and went to the loo and then found myself lying on the floor with my left shoulder in the cats' water bowl.  I was wet and cold but in my dazed state I couldn't work out how to get up off the floor so I think that I went back to sleep.  Woke up, got up and after removing my soaking wet nightie I went back to bed and back to sleep.

So yesterday was a day of fasting for a blood test and then fasting again for a CT Scan.

Today I had a man from Metronet examining my apartment for cracks and gaps in case I want to sue them for damage from earthworks due to start on the Claremont Station in the very near future.  

And the lift is broken again!

I have almost finished knitting a watermelon pink beanie in  horrible acrylic because I bought and wanted to try out some rather odd double-pointed flexible needles, supposedly the latest thing for knitting small and circular.  Still not sure what I am supposed to knit with, or how,  but will not be too upset if I abandon the beanie; it is a bit gross.

Sadly I don't think that the knitters group will be getting together again just yet:

(9)  I delayed this email by a day because I had an appointment with a haematologist this afternoon as a follow-up to my CT scan and blood test.

The outcome is that I either have Mgus (look it up) or myeloma and I am off to have a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow morning to see if I just need monitoring or if I need more aggressive treatment.

Meanwhile I have been doing battle with the NBN, iinet and with my scanner which thinks that it is something else and is pretty surly about being made to scan documents.

My problem with iinet is that we are about to be connected to the NBN but iinet, which has been my internet provider since the days of Mrs Malone's garage,  is refusing to believe that I live where I do and keep asking for more and more documents showing my name and address.  

I finally, yesterday sent them a Telstra account and a custom Strata account and hopefully they will finally believe that I do not live at 23 St Quentin Avenue although, to complicate things, the node which NBN has to connect to is at 23 St Quentin Avenue which is the whole Claremont Quarter.

Nothing else of any moment has happened to me mostly due to the weather.  We were asked to clear our balconies but someone neglected to do so and his/her barbecue lid ended up in our swimming pool.  This weekend is winding up to be anther stormy one . . . and then we will have winter.

Hopefully everybody is keeping well and your hands haven't been excoriated by hand sanitiser.

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps . . .

       [I]n this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."  (Wm Shakespeare's MacBeth).

We are lucky here in Australia that the pandemic was never allowed to get away from us and most cases in Australia came off cruise ships.  I have been in lock-down for weeks and life is getting tedious.  I made myself some masks but they are hardly needed since most of the shops downstairs are closed with only the two supermarkets and the pharmacies open, along with Bunnings Hardware and Zoo Pet Supplies, both of which are considered to be essential services.  I did break out to go to the doctor for my 'flu vaccination  -  travelling on an almost empty train.

I have been spending my time listening to The Rachel Maddow Show, looking at Facebook and sporadically cleaning the Apartment, ironing and reading.  I have not panic-bought toilet paper but sometimes shoppings is a sort of Hobson's Choice and you take what you can or, in extremis try again in a day or two.

The cats,and especially Parsifal, have been driving me crazy; they want to go for a run in the passage but cats can get the virus so I am keeping them in the apartment.  Parsifal has been trying to get into the TV to meet all the people there ( he does that every so often) and while looking for  my 'Miniscule' DVDs to keep him quiet I came across a set of "Music for Cats" so I am playing one at the moment and Poppy is entranced; even Parsifal has stopped shouting.

I now have Skype on my I-Pad so I can connect with D1 and D2 but D3 seems to think that I can contaminated her via radio waves and, having ordered me into quarantine has pretended that I do not exist.  And yes, I have phone her a couple of times but have to run the gauntlet of SIL1 who is the telephone answerer.

Enough of my complaints  -  the Limerick:-

There once was a bear at the zoo
Who complained he had nothing to do.
"It's boring, you know,
Just to go to and fro,
I think that I'll go fro and to,"

. . . and Little Captive Drop Bears

I have been in lockdown for over four weeks now and I am getting lazy.  I have lists of things which I should be doing but somehow I rarely get around to doing them and instead sit, knit and listen to the Rachel Maddow Show.  However, there is starting to be a dreary sameness to the news out of America; not enough medical equipment, unevenly distributed medical equipment and people dying for the reasons stated above.

Australia has instigated very strict rules about travel between states, regions and just simply out in public:  wear a mask, wash your hands, wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds and use a hand sanitiser if there is nowhere to wash your hands, do not touch your face, keep at least one metre away from anyone in public and wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds.  It is all very repetitive but seems to be working as 'the curve' is flattening.

As I have now been in lock-down for over three weeks I am in no danger to anyone and am thinking of starting to walk around the lake again (masked, of course and carrying my little bottle of hand sanitiser in my bum-bag) if my sore toes will let me and as the weather gets kinder to walkers.  Walking rapidly in 40 degree heat and humidity would be neither fun nor beneficial.

I have my bear in the window to signify that I am locked down and a couple of days ago I removed the label from around his neck, read it and discovered that his name was 'Dolly'.  He was never a Dolly and he now has a new name  -  Kovid Koala and, of course, he is a drop bear, one of the more fearsome sort but sadly lacking in gum trees to drop from.

I now have Skype on my I-Pad and chat to D1 and D2.  I still haven't tried it out on my MS Surface Pro1.  When I fired it back up and recharged it ready to go it took two days to upload all the MS changes  (literally two days).  All in all about 20 hours and I am fearful of finding out just how it will behave but Teckie phoned me to say that he can fix my computers remotely if they need fixing.  He has done that before but I fear that the Surface Pro might need more than that and I am too scared to try it as it will almost certainly be an "as new" computer after all its self improvements.

The Limerick:-

There was an old man in a hearse
Who murmured, "This might have been worse;
Of course the expense
Is simply immense,
But it doesn't come out of MY purse."

Covid-19 (Mk 3)

I have finally found the hidden treasure  -  a pack of toilet rolls.  I don't actually need any but it was too good a prize to pass up so I bought a 20-pack which I have stored away with my hoarded cat food.

D2, who is back at work in RPH Emergency was very insistent that I should activate Skype.  I have it on this desktop computer but with no mic or camera it was not ideal.  On my I-Pad I have Facetime which seems to simply be a Mac version of Skype and despite the fact that D2 has an Apple computer she refused to use it.  I have the Skype App on my I-Pad but it needed a fingerprint to load it and, as I have found to my cost, it refuses to read any of the fingerprints which I have registered.  It is a problem which I have had before and I had to go into the Apple Shop to load the last app which needed a fingerprint.  That is not an option now that I am in lock-down.

So I went online and asked how to bypass the fingerprint problem and these were the suggestions:  register a toe print; use one of my cats' toes or register one of my nipples.  What??

I was so angry that I started hitting the fingerprint icon rapidly and repeatedly and suddenly I was in.  I am not sure if I just managed to hit some magic spot which registered or if my i-Pad simply gave up the fight.  The silly part was that it already knew who I was as it had connected with the Skype on my desktop  computer and had all my details.

Anyway, D2 and I had a virtual afternoon tea yesterday and later D1 Skyped me which meant that I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn this morning to phone her in Sydney which is three hours ahead for six months of the year.

There was a session on homemade face masks during the TV news this evening.  The best one was a pair of bikini pants worn sideways. The crutch goes over the nose and mouth and the leg holes are over the eyes   I have some which I bought and which turned out to be a two-pair pack and the pair I first wore was extremely uncomfortable so this particular knicker was brand new, unworn and waiting to be given to charity.  I am going to keep it in lieu of my hijabs.  It might give someone a laugh.

The Limerick:-

I'm the very best scout in the troop,
And the very best cook in the group.
Bread I can toast
And lamb I can roast,
And I've tried but I cannot pee soup.

Covid-19 Mk 2

Self isolation with my e-book and computers is mostly what I normally do but I am taking my temperature morning and evening and using essential oils to monitor my sense of smell.  My diet is a bit erratic since I no longer just pop downstairs if I need something for dinner but there is fruit and vegetables in abundance.  Milk is rationed and butter is in short supply (are all the cows in lockdown?) and I am assuming that the New Zealand butter which I use will become unobtainable along with toilet paper and tissues which seem to disappear as soon as they hit the shelves.  Minor annoyances.

More upsetting is the fact that D2 will be back at work after some time on sick leave and she will be at the forefront of the medical workforce.  She is going into self-isolation and has asked me to fire up Skype so that she can see familiar faces but I threw away my earphone/mic set a while ago and there has been a run on them and none are available at the moment.  Hopefully there will be some more available soon or it will have to be telephone contact as we both have retro phones with very little display.

The trousers which I bought online are stuck in Singapore but they are safe and will not self-destruct.  The thing which I have been hoarding is kitty litter and cat food.  And I bought a teddy bear to sit on the window sill as a signal that I am self-isolating.  Not that any passing raven or white cockatoo will understand the symbolism.

The cats were due for their vaccinations this week and Parsifal had his turn on Wednesday, sedated but still managed to scratched me.  Poppy had her turn today, also heavily sedated and when I suggested to Dr L. that perhaps I could hold her still in the kitty carriage while she injected the vaccine and perhaps we could skip the health check she sounded very relieved so we all parted unscathed.

The Limerick:-

A crossword composer named Moss
At joking was quite at a loss.
When asked why 'twas true
He hadn't a clue.
He was two down to put one across.