Wrote that last Wednesday.  Been busy.

Yep, got it done, submitted it on Friday, phew.  Now stressing about Essay 2, as predicted. It’s worth 45% of the marks for the semester.  Essay 1 was worth 40%.

The depression is a bit better.  I cried when I heard that Maurice Sendak had died, but hey, didn’t everyone? I saw the Helpful Psychiatrist again this last week ($$$ ouch) and I’m staying on the higher dose of med1cation for a while.  Hmmm.  The silver lining is that we’ve hit the government’s safety net so we get most (not all) of our prescript1on med1cation for the rest of 2012 for free.  We’re also about to hit the Med1care safety net so the doctors visits get significantly cheaper, too. Yay.

The Big Bad Tooth is okay so long as I don’t chew anything hard on it, or let my face get cold.  Coming into Winter, with some overnight temperatures already as low as 3C, that’s fun… but I’m doing my best not to upset it.  I saw my regular, lovely dentist on Monday 15th and she agreed that if we can just let it settle down, we might be able to avoid extraction…

Poor old silly old cat is not doing so well – she’s weeing in corners.  I am reluctant to have that as the only reason for her demise, but I fear her kidneys are going… and we won’t let her struggle on in pain.  For now, she’s happy but a bit  demented. I’ll keep cleaning up after her for a while yet. I hope someone eventually is as kind to me. Since writing that, the time has come… she just isn’t in there a lot of the time any more, when you look behind her eyes Miss Kit Tern has already gone somewhere else.  It’s getting painful watching her walk down the yard, let alone up the stairs.  And while she’s drinking a lot and weeing a lot, so far she doesn’t seem to be in that awful rapid stage of kidney failure, thank goodness.  We will be able to spare her that.

(pardon the blurriness – it’s not you, it’s a low tech phone photo)

Today Mr Beloved dug the hole;  there is a lovely mobile vet service vet who will be coming to the house on Friday and poor old cat-cat will drift off to sleep in the arms of those who love her, with Miss Connie Woodle kissing her goodbye.  We didn’t want to stress the cat by taking her to the vet – the only time she’s ever been was when she was a teeny little kit and had her “no more kittens out of this one!” operation, so we were very glad to find a mobile service who could come to us.

We’re very sad – Miss Kit Tern is 15 and has been a very good cat – apart from a few mice a sparrows when she was a younger and more agile hunter, she’s never attacked the wildlife, and she adapted remarkably well to the sudden appearance 8 years ago of the cockatiels, followed a few months later by Miss Constance the poodle…

Speaking of whom, we’re worried that she might grieve almost as much as us.  We weren’t going to get another cat – and we really can’t afford another dog (we DEFINITELY can’t afford another toy poodle) but if Connie doesn’t cope on her own we’ll have to re-assess the situation.  Oy vey…  Connie’s already clued in to the idea that something different is going on, the cat is not behaving “properly”  and we are making too much of a fuss of a the cat (which makes for a grumpy dog with GREEN jealous eyes).

So … many tears, many happy memories of a lot of good purrs, but at the moment I am mostly in teary mode.  So you’ll pardon me if I don’t post again for a while…

That was what we heard non stop from about 5 pm last night until just before midnight when the police finally roused the neighbors (who I can only assume had passed out DRUNK and/or drugged) and issued a noise abatement notice.

We’d tried knocking on their door at 10pm, having been tolerant up until then… when no one answered, we called the cops.  When it was as loud as ever at 11, we called the police station again, so they’d know the job still needed attention.  The police tried the front door, then the back, then the front again for several minutes before they got any response…

Our houses about about 3 metres apart and made of wood.  So they act like giant speaker boxes. Very resonant. Very LOUD.

I had a panic attack.  And in case I haven’t mentioned it before, even with the magic “stop the panic attack” pill? I still get full on gastro symptoms. As in instant dysentery.  Oh yeah, it’s GREAT fun. And takes me hours to settle down again. You can imagine.  Thank goodness for a constant supply of frozen hydralyte pops.

I like the blackcurrant ones

(And now it’s nearly 6 pm and Sullenteena has started it up again.)

And of course I was supposed to go to my uni lecture this morning.  Nope. Didn’t get there.  Thankfully it’s taped, so once the video is uploaded I can watch it. Maybe after group therapy tomorrow.  Hopefully before the tute on Thursday.

And in other fun news, the local council sneakily, without any community consultation or even changing the signs in the park, suddenly took away our dog walking park.  Yes, I have written a letter expressing my anger. And sent it.

*sigh*

And with all this going on I missed my chiropractic appointment – but they were very understanding and rescheduled it for slightly later.  Ahhhhh!

And it’s raining again.  Looks like the clothes dryer is going to be bought THIS DAMN WEEK. I think it’s going to be a basic Fisher and Paykel model with the vent/lint filter in the front door – because it’s right price and the right configuration for our space.

But at least the flood peak at Wagga Wagga (where  I went to school and where Mum and Dad lived until very recently) has hit 10.6 metres and is now receding – so it didn’t go over the levee!! There are in a declared State of Emergency with lots of evacuations, and I see on their live radar they’ve got more rain coming too – and a visit from the Prime Minister – sheesh, haven’t they suffered enough?!

OUT!  CONNIE, OUT!  Good Dog!

Much ducking about with torches and banging with sticks, followed by walling off the area with moving boxes (and swearing).  In these cases, my job is to hold the dog.

Cause of Miss C.J.’s interest was soon discovered:

Alllllllll the way in the furtherest corner...

A luvverly big blue-tongue lizard!  We like them.  They eat snails and slugs and generally if you have a bluey around, you don’t have snakes at the same time. YAY!

But he couldn’t stay in the shed. So Mr Beloved wrangled him into a box

So much for my new laptop packaging!

and from the box into a tub for a quick photo or three before release back over the fence.

Grrrrr...

He looks grumpy, but there was no threat behaviour from him – he didn’t flatten himself or poke out his lovely blue tongue – so the whole thing was more of an inconvenience than a problem.  They do stink when cornered, but that’s about it.  I hope he’ll be back in the yard before long (but not in the shed!)

Mr Beloved pointed out that we can’t go out in sheets in public – one set is on the bed, one set is wet on the line (and now will have that awful manky smell from being wet for days, ugh) and one set is in the cupboard – but there’s only one flat sheet per set.  So only ONE of us can wear the sheet.  Hmmm.

Poor Old Cat had another indoors accident last night – she was sent out to go to the loo, but we suspect that in the driving wind and rain she sat on the top step and decided NOT TO GO and then was caught short.  Oh dear.  (Please don’t suggest a litter box – she misses those too.  Her mind is going, not just her aim.)

Still, the forecast is for “Drizzle clearing” so we can hope that if we put another load of wash through the machine it might have some chance of drying this week…

I’ve been able to log on to my courses already (ah, the wonders of the steam age!) and changed my mind about what I was enrolling in and how may courses I should attempt  – arrrgh!  After much to-ing and fro-ing and general messing about – ONE.

One course this semester – it has 4 contact hours, and that doesn’t sound like very much, but combine that with the one day a week at group therapy and the other medical appointments and the expectation of at least 10 hours of private study to back up those 4 contact hours and  – well, that’s more than enough for my poor muddled brain.

(If you’re interested, it’s one of the courses in the recommended enrolment pattern for the Writing And Society major, CMS1010 “Introduction to Communication Studies”.  Yep.  More semiotics.)

I’ve already booked in for a “Super Library Session” on “Finding Information for Your Assignments” – anything that will give me a leg up!  Things have changed so DRASTICALLY since I last studied at this level – the sheer volume of online information, and referencing – sheesh, I have to know how to reference podcasts!  (I do know how, in the university approved Harvard referencing style. I looked it up.)

darn this newfangled technology!

So this week I have to buy a new laptop to take to uni (Or Big School, as we are jokingly referring to it in family conversations) and a bag to lug that around in.  Textbooks are on the way from bookdepository.co.uk, where they were $29 each instead of $39.90 each at the University bookshop (really, I can’t support the local shop when their price is so much higher – I can’t afford principles on the pension we live on!).

A visit to The Government Department Which Controls Our Lives is also on this list of chores this week *shudder* – just having to interact with them is stressful, even when they’re helping us.

And that’s about all the news that’s fit to print – except to mention that our poor old cat is failing.  She’s 15 and is starting to forget that she needs to leave the building before she goes to the loo… oh dear.  She’s been a lovely cat, and as soon as she shows any signs of suffering we’ll make sure they stop peacefully, but it’s going to be very hard to let her go.  She came to Mr Beloved as a tiny scrap of a kitten and they have been inseparable ever since – I think they have probably only spent a handful of nights apart.

Poor Connie will have to get used to being the only 4 footed furry for a while when Kit Tern goes…

Yesterday we watched the sky getting darker and a funny greenish colour, then BOOM!  No lights, no power, no phone lines.  Luckily the mobile phone network was still up, and the nice lady from Ergon Energy called to let me know that they couldn’t tell me how long the power would be out.  (I’m on their “Life Support” list – because I need the CPAP machine to sleep.  And it needs power.  I’ve thought about getting a back-up battery for it but they’re (ouch!) $560. )

We’ve had 54mm of rain so far this month according the rain gauge at the airport  but I’m sure that place must be in a rain shadow – our yard is definitely soggier than that!

Meanwhile:  Tuesday, group therapy day. Tough one today, some deep dark stuff came up, ugh.  And that’s all I want to say about that here.  Apart from that group therapy continues to be AMAZINGLY WORTHWHILE and I am incredibly fortunate that my health fund pays for it.

My darling Mr Beloved made a beautiful Valentine’s Day card for me this year (he does every year), but I haven’t checked if I have permission to share, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s creative and awesome.

And I’m on tenterhooks waiting for the paperwork to arrive from USQ so I can get officially enrolled and get organised looking for my second-hand textbooks etc!  Until I have a student ID I can’t take the next piece of paperwork to  The Government Department Which Controls Our Lives.

*sigh*

That’s  it from me. Have a random picture of a meerkat being given a bath, because I just remembered that I have to give the poodle a bath tomorrow (and no, that’s NOT a euphemism, for my more prurient readers, and yes I AM looking at you, ROBERT.)

go here to see what’s going on!

(And if you need more info after that – go here)

(Mr BandiCoot prefers to dine on Whiskas Older Cat Dry food, or Whiskas Furball Formula Dry Food – yummy yum yum says Bandi!!)

Bolly, mid shower

[clicky for biggy]

You can see Dorian’s grey tail at bottom left of this picture, but he didn’t want to be photographed today.  It was so hot again today (33 with a hot dry wind) that I though the birds might enjoy a spray through the bars of their cage.  Bolly and Dorian used to come into the shower with me but I have been forgetting to do that.  They absolutely love getting wet on a hot day,  turning every which way to make sure every feather gets wet.

Just as well I keep my feathers numbered!

Bolly and Dorian’s boy, Yarrow, had his first ever spray mist – and he loved it too, hanging upside down and twisting to get more spray – and ringing his bell when I stopped, cheeky bugger!

Wet is GOOD!

The dog has enjoyed some more ice cubes and I am sitting with a damp towel across my shoulders again.  Far too hot to be trying to nap, unfortunately, so I’m here when I would rather be horizontal…

Oh NOES! Curse that passionfruit seed!

Oh noes.  Fortunately we are still well stocked with oil of cloves (it’s the only thing that worked to get rid of the mould that came with last year’s rainy season and floods) so I can make a temporary poultice if it starts hurting too much…

The big thing is NOT TO PANIC.  Mr Beloved is helping, reminding me to “Notice… observe….” and I’m doing my best.

Journal page

I’ve been trying to get back into more regular art journal writing and collaging.  Keeps me out of the pubs and picture shows, as my Dad would say…

Happy New Year girl collage

(as always, clicky images for bigger)

(collage uses bits from  Tumblefish Studio, Paula Kesselring, and some magazine I had lying around.)

It’s hot here today, 34 degrees as I write this.  We don’t have aircon but we do have pedestal fans.  Now that we have a ceiling that can support them, we might one day think about ceiling fans… but for now the pedestal fans do the job.  My poor family over in Adelaide sweltered in some much hotter temperatures this week.

I’m very glad I cooked zucchini slice the other night – it’s nice straight out of the fridge, no need to heat up the kitchen! Oh, and as a treat we bought sausages from the butcher, so Mr Beloved will probably cook those on the barbie tonight.  I popped out to the greengrocer earlier, and the sweetcorn has been lovely, so I grabbed a couple of cobs.  I mainly went out to get some more grapes – I’m having a thing for frozen grapes again at the moment, yum.

Also bought some sugar free gum to have on hand as a temporary  fix for the broken filling – I don’t normally do chewing gum because I have TMJ issues, and after watching an episode of Jimmy’s Food Factory where he made his own gum (plastic pellets!  PVA! yuk!) I’m even less inclined to put it in my mouth, but needs must.

Journal page waiting for writing...

(Collage contains more bits from Tumblefish Studio plus others that were lying about…)

The flea saga continues – the cat is speaking to me again (after being bribed with milk) but the poor dog continues to get bitten – we suspect the fleas are in the grass, so every time she goes outside they jump on again.  The new medicine seems to be working, though, because the fleas that bite her DIE (muaaa haa haa) but of course she gets itchy with each new bite, so she’s still unhappy, poor little thing.   I spent HOURS vacuuming the lounge and the lounge room and the bedroom, enough to make my back ache – I’ll have another (less intense) run at that tomorrow, probably.

Tomorrow is the official unveiling of the Toowoomba Flood Monument – and perhaps fittingly, thunderstorms are forecast.  Supposed to be another hot day beforehand.

And even though it’s still hot, and Mr Beloved isn’t feeling up to it, I’m going to take the dog to the park for a quick walk.

Connie (Picture taken last year when we had grass not weeds!)

Poor little Connie dog!  Poor miserable itchy little pink dog!  We noticed she was scratching herself more than usual before Christmas, so we gave her @!&(^ chews which were recommended at the pet shop… but we didn’t know that those (^$*&^ useless chews DON’T KILL ADULT FLEAS.  What’s the point of them then? ARRRGH!  I only bought them because they were touted as being THE thing… and had no idea that they didn’t do the same job as the back-of-the-neck stuff that we’d always used.  So a week later – she’s itchy again.  And this time I noticed little black crawling dots… OH NOES!

I felt like the worst person in the world – poor little dog, miserable and itchy, because I had done the wrong thing.

Luckily as I was looking in the box of the CAT’s back of the neck stuff, I noticed that one of the dog’s doses had been put in there by mistake.  So I used that on Connie. BUT – maybe it was out of date, because this week: MORE FLEAS!!

Result 1: We’re NEVER going back to that Petst0ck store.  EVER.  I have cut up my “loyalty” card with them, I am so angry!

Result 2: A trip to the vet this morning (KerCHING$$$!) was followed by a handful of dried liver bribes, and with me trying to get the dog to eat the supposedly “chewable, beef-flavored tablet”:

“Connie, open.

OPEN.

GODDAMN IT, OPEN YOUR MOUTH YOU STUBBORN LITTLE BEAST.

*sigh*

Okay, Connie, TREAT!  TREAT!

*SHOVE*

Good girl! Now swallow.

*pop, out comes the slightly soggy pill.*

OPEN YOUR MOU… TREAT! *Shove, holds dog’s mouth shut, strokes throat* TREAT!

Gooood girl!  Now eat your chicken necks  – wait – let me put your bowl on the ground and… Holy cow, did you even CHEW that at all?”

Fingers crossed that the new product works as advertised – supposed to help within 30 minutes and kill adult fleas within 4 hours.  We’ve already washed all the bedding in HOT water and now I’m just working up the energy to vacuum everything…

ARRRGH!

Apparently fleas are really bad here at the moment.  I just hope we’re on top of them now…

(And yes, the cat is still annoyed with me for dosing her with back-of-the-neck anti-flea goop.  She’ll forgive me in a couple of days or so…