The Day Technology nearly got the upper hand.

It was a day like any other day, with me getting up at 5'0clock and servicing R2D2 (my oxygen producing unit)  to get it ready for the day.  After dealing with the morning household chores I got the TV going and discovered that TV guide function was not functioning.  All the normal steps which I usually apply to sort out such a problem was to no avail.  Next step - call Multichoice help desk to see if they can't solve the problem.  After 30 minutes (it may even have been longer) Victoria, the consultant who tried to help me, could not give me any joy.  Her suggestion was to take it to the workshop for a checkup which immediately posed a different problem.  My dependence on  oxygen made a trip to Garstfontein  problematic.  Fortunately Dean came to the rescue and so on Friday 10 August he came and fetched both our decoders to take it to the workshop.  By late afternoon he was back with the news that the technician reset the decoder and that everything seems to be fine.  Indeed once all connections and antenna cables were replaced all seems to be OK and after they had coffee, Dean and Mabel went home.  I am very fond of the sport channels and when I tuned into one of them the picture on my big screen TV had shrunk.  I used the TV remote to rectify that but to my distress it tuned the TV to a different channel which did not function with any of the remote controls.  Phoned Dean and told him of the dilemma.  They were kind enough to help us out and the final solution was discovered by Mabel.  Whenever the picture is of the wrong size, use the shift and TV-guide buttons on the remote to rectify it.  This is very confusing, but it works and I could not thank Mabel enough for her ingenuity.  Now the only problem is to get Granny to accept  this method of making these minor adjustments should it be required. But that bridge will also be crossed one day.

A Winter wonderland in Wierdapark.

7 August 2012 was the day the snow came down in Wierdapark.  This phenomenon was first picked up by Granny when she came back from Unitas Hospital and she heard over 702 Talk Radio that snow in Pretoria was reported.  If I am not mistaken the previous snow occurred more than 50 years ago.  Sonja and Stuart recently moved to Guinevierre, a housing complex within a couple of kilometers from us, and Sonja phoned us to say that it snowed by them and to prove her story she sent us a photo showing the whitish landscape in their little yard.  I did not think snow will reach us but when I picked Cheryl up at the school she was over thje moon with the news about snow in Pretoria.  She was very anxious ton see snowflakes coming  down and was continually pointing at anything she thought could be a lost snowflake.  In the distance toward JHB I pointed out to her that the clouds seem ominously like they may be carrying snow and to please her I took a detour to get home, just in case we may encounter more snowflakes.  We got home and fixed lunch.  I retired to the spare room to watch the Olympics - everything nice and peaceful.  Roundabout 3 o'clock I heard a commotion which gave me a bit of a fright and I made a quick effort to find the reason for the commotion.  It was snowing outside and it was an unreal picture that greeted me when I looked out of the windows.  The snowflakes were slowly drifting down and formed a white sheet over the paving and the grassed areas.  I did not know whether I was sorry or glad that the snowfall only lasted a couple of minutes and any sign of the winter wonderland disappeared very quickly.  At least it satisfied Cheryl's curiosity and we had something exiting to talk about!   

A Catastrophe of minor importance

Every weekend while the Super 15 rugby competition was on I take stock of the entries.   A pattern has been established and I know which of the competitors are early to respond and who are inclined to procrastinate and wait until the last minute.   Among the early members to respond I can count JP, Barry, Stephen and Damien.  At the other end of the scale I have to contend with Meghan, Steven and Sonja.  The rest of the group is difficult to forecast because they vary submitting their predictions from early to late or mostly halfway through the week.  I do whatever I can to keep the members on their toe by submitting my own predictions as soon as the fixtures for the next week have been sent out.  During the week I may give little snippets of information of the upcoming matches.  On top of that I make up the results of the Super 15 competition and distribute this as soon as all the scheduled matches have been played.  This is all done to maintain interest and getting all members keyed up to improve their positions on the log.  This should, I hoped, make it unnecessary for me to “run” after them to collect outstanding scores.

An interesting piece of information that came to the fore in this rugby competition is that you do not have to be a rugby genius to do well in this competition.     My wife is the living proof of that.   She won the sub-competition of the highest score of the last 18 scores of all the matches.  I thought I had a chance to slip in.  But no hope, the middle positions were taken by the “unskilled” members and they even improved their positions.   I compared our results with that of Australian Footie  which runs a similar completion and based on averages we performed as well or even better.

Operation Catch Up

Second night that Enid is back and we realised that our rhythm of watching TV in the evenings is badly disturbed, partly as result of my grand idea of saving the episodes that she missed while in Australia.  That meant that she had to catch up on the recorded episodes before joining me on the current ones.  Problem is that as result of our system of high definition TV I have to watch Villa Rosa and Binnelanders on the big TV in the lounge.  And so it was agreed that I would watch my soapies in the morning after until she has caught up.  Monday afternoon  we had a visit from Stuart and Sonja and when they left we finished watching Drop a Million Dollars after which I went to sort out the dishes for the dishwasher, watch 7de Laan and catch up on some household administration.  I kept R2 D2 going and had the bonus of extra time earned towards my minimum of 15 hours.  Enid started on her job to catch up on back episodes but when I looked in on her she was fast asleep (jet-lag?) and I woke her up, but she insisted she was not sleeping.  Why argue.  So, I went to bed at 10 o ‘clock and slept until the early hours of the morning and realised I was back to being lonesome in our bed.  I slept some more and got up at 5, took my handful of pills, made the bed, sorted out R2’s water and hooked him up ready for action.  Then, I found that Enid was not sleeping in front of the TV but spent the whole night watching the back episodes.  She did well because at eight o’clock I could watch the latest episodes with her.  Half of the mission was therefore accomplished and maybe sleeping alone was limited to the one night.

Back to the salt mines

Sleeping next to a human hot water bottle in the middle mof winter is preferred over an electric blanket.  Although I have nearly forgotten about this hot water bottle’s ice cold feet looking for warmth by rubbing against my warm leg.  Brrr..., that part was not so nice.  Since we last shared a bed I had to energise myself with oxygen and the contraption had to remain inserted while sleeping.  Because I have to do 15 – 18 hours a day on the oxygen generator I retire to bed at 10 o’clock which gives me 7 hours if I get up at 5 o’clock.  So today was the first morning since the 25^th of May that the partnership was intact again.  Rude awakening – the suitcase that came with a lot of washing and because this chore is mine to take care of I had to get busy as soon as I filled up R2 D2 and moved him with all his pipes to his corner in the small lounge.  All went well until the wife discovered that the bathroom scale is not responding and worked out that somebody removed the batteries.  Of course you know who got the blame me, Stuart and Sonja.  On closer inspection I found that  the battery was not of the normal A4 penlight sort but was a coin shaped the size of a R1.  I fetched a replacement at the dry cleaners, replaced it and everything was OK again.

Am still struggling to get into the routine of household chores and absorbing oxygen in two hour stretches, but I am getting there.  Decided today that I must  invest in a portable oxygen unit, to use when I have to go out.  According to the catalogue this may set us back about R4000 but may be worthwhile.  I will follow this up with Ecomed to bring a unit with when they come to service R2 D2 in six week’s time.   

The Homecoming

It felt like it would never happen but finally the day is here when Enid returns from the far end of the world.  She left on the 25^th of May which makes it close on two months that I had to live without her.  There was not a day that went past that I did not think of her.  I even made her side of the bed up in the mornings!

She is due to arrive at 16h30 this afternoon and Mabel and Dean is ready to fetch her at the airport.  I did not prepare the proverbial fatted calf, but I did make a pot of soup.  It has the advantage that it can be heated up with very little fuss and leftovers can be frozen.  It is still winter and soup is always a winner if you get hungry.  I also thought it would be nice to have her car washed and filled up with petrol.  This nearly backfired because the regular carwash was out of action (their machine was broken) but fortunately I remembered that Michael once told me of a place where he took his car to be washed.  This carwash is very efficient and I was helped quickly.  To top it off they are cheaper and I only paid R30 for a wash and dry which cost R45 at the place I usually take the car to.  I will henceforth support the cheaper one, even a full job – wash, dry and vacuum cost R50 compared to R60.

The dramatic weekend

I had to find something worthwhile to do while I am linked to the oxygen generator (for lack of a better description).  My investment in a portable computer can now be put to good use.  After considering all the options which my few talents may be able to cope with I decided that I will give Blogger a go.  I like writing and this concept, as far as I know, is very much on a personal level and not to be confused with constructing fictional stories or even a book.  With Meghan's enthusiastic assistance I got started and have already partly finished my profile.

The heading of the first entry is the Dramatic Weekend which refers to the Super 15 rugby competition which had an absolute dream of a conclusion of  the qualifying rounds.  I run a competition for the family in which the 14 members predict what they think the results would be.  All the entries are directed to me via e-mail and I use a formula which Michael worked out a number of years ago by means of which points are calculated for picking the winner end guessing the score difference.  When Saturday 14 July dawned I prepared myself for a proverbial wall to wall rugby for the day.   Even my parrot, Verdi, who is spoiled on such days, was extra chirpy.  The first match was played in Canberra and started a little after seven in the morning (SA time).  The result was  probably the worst that the Brumbies expected and this virtually set the scene for the rest of the day in which a further 5 matches had to be played.  When the last match, Bulls versus the Lions, started the final qualifiers were still in the balance.   Enid was still in Australia and the whole day belonged to me and Verdi - I did not even open a door.  I just saw to it that the two of us had enough to eat and drink.  By the end of the day I was emotionally drained and I left all the admin work for the next day.   Although it was nice not to be disturbed I did miss the presence of somebody to share the ups and downs with.  Unfortunately Verdi's vocabulary is very limted!