The honey eaters and spinebills are busy in the stachyurus, the peewees are working in the mud along the roadside, the whipbirds are calling early, and we're hopping a jet today to take us to Townsville. A hire car will be waiting at the airport to take Lib and I to a motel and we'll drive tomorrow morning to 'Percy Springs' outside Charter's Towers to stay at our friend Dave Dickson's place, a cattle property he caretakes with his new wife Jodie whom we've not met before. Jodie is Canadian and shares Dave's Jehovah Witness faith.
On Wednesday we leave the hire care in Townsville and catch the ferry to Magnetic Is for a week of R+R in the warm tropics.
I had to post before we left and record that August has seen plenty of rain and cold, and the twenty year anniversary of my abstinence from cigarettes. Well done Carey.
Bye for now.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Ray of Sunshine
July sure was some month. The colonoscopy came and went. All clear, not even a polyp this time. The PSA test was all clear too. I asked the aneasthetist to record my BP before and during the procedure and it was fine. Lib took our BP machine to her doctor for checking against his, it's accurate, so my tests at home are valid.
That leaves only high cholesterol. I've made the decision to live with that without taking medication to lower it. I don't want to live my life running to the doctor every six months when I'm not ill, to get prescriptions and pop pills that may not be of any benefit to me, and may upset my liver function. I heard Scandinavian researchers on the health report show on Radio National say some time ago that people may be better off taking low dose aspirin available over the counter than embarking on lifetime statin drug usage. I bought a box of Solprin the other day, less than $4 it was for 96 tablets, which if taking a third of a tablet a day would last 9-10 months.
Within reason and on balance, I resist pressure to become obsessed with longevity. There's something sweet about life if you drink every day like a thirsty man, thinking it may be your last.
I had two trips to the dentist in July. My normal dentist charges like a wounded bull so I tried a bloke in Berwick. He seems excellent but has the same bovine characteristic.
The Emerald Museum soap opera took it up a notch to a new dramatic peak. Emails, phone calls and meetings embroiled me to the point of exhaustion, at a time when I've been busy at the farm and of course had BAS and end of financial year committments. I'm so far behind in farm maintenance work and home housekeeping it gets scary.
Just when you think the life raft you are clinging too is about to sink and you are about to scream out to everyone that they can go and get knotted, a ray of sunshine appears and the storm calms.
I was sitting outside the bakery last Sunday morning enjoying my curry pie and divvying up a sausage roll for the the dogs (last Sunday of the month ritual reward for man and dogs) when Micayla came by. Micayla is a delightful lady who lives near us and walks her young children and dogs up the street sometimes and we have a chat occasionally. She's a nurse who does shifts now and again at Lib's work. It was immediately obvious that the unborn baby that Micayla was carrying the last time I saw her was no longer contained in her abdomen. I knew the baby was due in July. She told me she'd had a healthy baby boy named Mathew about a week earlier. On her way out of the bakery she stopped again.
"What was the name of the other lady you told me about who was due in July."
"Lara", I answered.
"She must have had hers too, I saw her at the swimming pool last week, although I didn't talk to her."
I walk past Lara's house every morning and each time lately I wondered how she was and if she'd had the baby. (post 5 May). A couple of days later I was driving past Lara's house when I saw her at the car in the drive with a bundle in her arms. I hit brakes and reversed back. Lara walked up the drive carrying the baby.
"Boy or girl?" I called out.
"Girl. 'Lucy'."
By now Lara was close to the van and I could see her face had a beaming smile. Her older two children were boys and she was thrilled to have a girl. Her husband Adrian came up also and I congratulated them both.
I conclude that July was a great month with the arrival of Mathew and Lucy and my petty difficulties and tiredness pale to nothing by comparison.
That leaves only high cholesterol. I've made the decision to live with that without taking medication to lower it. I don't want to live my life running to the doctor every six months when I'm not ill, to get prescriptions and pop pills that may not be of any benefit to me, and may upset my liver function. I heard Scandinavian researchers on the health report show on Radio National say some time ago that people may be better off taking low dose aspirin available over the counter than embarking on lifetime statin drug usage. I bought a box of Solprin the other day, less than $4 it was for 96 tablets, which if taking a third of a tablet a day would last 9-10 months.
Within reason and on balance, I resist pressure to become obsessed with longevity. There's something sweet about life if you drink every day like a thirsty man, thinking it may be your last.
I had two trips to the dentist in July. My normal dentist charges like a wounded bull so I tried a bloke in Berwick. He seems excellent but has the same bovine characteristic.
The Emerald Museum soap opera took it up a notch to a new dramatic peak. Emails, phone calls and meetings embroiled me to the point of exhaustion, at a time when I've been busy at the farm and of course had BAS and end of financial year committments. I'm so far behind in farm maintenance work and home housekeeping it gets scary.
Just when you think the life raft you are clinging too is about to sink and you are about to scream out to everyone that they can go and get knotted, a ray of sunshine appears and the storm calms.
I was sitting outside the bakery last Sunday morning enjoying my curry pie and divvying up a sausage roll for the the dogs (last Sunday of the month ritual reward for man and dogs) when Micayla came by. Micayla is a delightful lady who lives near us and walks her young children and dogs up the street sometimes and we have a chat occasionally. She's a nurse who does shifts now and again at Lib's work. It was immediately obvious that the unborn baby that Micayla was carrying the last time I saw her was no longer contained in her abdomen. I knew the baby was due in July. She told me she'd had a healthy baby boy named Mathew about a week earlier. On her way out of the bakery she stopped again.
"What was the name of the other lady you told me about who was due in July."
"Lara", I answered.
"She must have had hers too, I saw her at the swimming pool last week, although I didn't talk to her."
I walk past Lara's house every morning and each time lately I wondered how she was and if she'd had the baby. (post 5 May). A couple of days later I was driving past Lara's house when I saw her at the car in the drive with a bundle in her arms. I hit brakes and reversed back. Lara walked up the drive carrying the baby.
"Boy or girl?" I called out.
"Girl. 'Lucy'."
By now Lara was close to the van and I could see her face had a beaming smile. Her older two children were boys and she was thrilled to have a girl. Her husband Adrian came up also and I congratulated them both.
I conclude that July was a great month with the arrival of Mathew and Lucy and my petty difficulties and tiredness pale to nothing by comparison.
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