Small hours of Thursday, Sept 2nd.
Steve walked into our home at Milnes Bridge at midnight on Sunday night and found that it had been overtaken by mice! The evidence was thick, smelly and everywhere, even in our bed! I feel sick just writing about it! It was such a cold, wet winter down there and they would have come in looking for warmth and food. It's easy to get into an old weatherboard house.
Steve left here on Sunday morning and drove 12 hours home, stopping for only very short breaks on the way. It was a totally uneventful trip, thank goodness. Today, the clutch "went" --- good of it not to do it out in the bush!
He thought that he could be back here this weekend but his Mother, Betty has two doctor's appointments on Tuesday 7th and he'll stay for those. Betty is coping extremely well, considering that she came out of hospital last Friday.
I have been busy shopping for Christmas presents online, for the last few months. They were stacked under the bed and had reached the point where there would be no room for the under-bed items that we brought with us. Steve had the idea of taking them home with him. The plan was to stack them in a bedroom. He decided that this was probably not a great idea, given the mouse invasion. (Although they have probably all gone by now.) So, the presents are outside in the garage, locked inside Dominic's broken down car!
We did a big shop before Steve left, with me insistent that I would need "comfort" foods, as well as the normal bread, milk and cereal. I would have liked to go home too but we would have had to spend 2 nights on the road each way (and it wouldn't have been very comfortable at home, as it turns out.) I would have loved chocolate but given my addiction, I felt sure that a cache would have disappeared in a couple of days. Therefore, I got hedgehog, which satisfies the chocolate craving but I'm not tempted to eat more than one at a time.
I ordered my meals from the kiosk. Bugger the expense -- this way I get all of my veggies and I don't get to drop anything, burn myself or forget what I'm doing until it's midnight and I can't work out why I feel sick!
Marion and Richard, Lindy's parents, run the kiosk and they deliver my meal each night. Truly delicious, with 6 vegetables. They are all so helpful to me. They are very social people and they can't understand that I'm not lonely and I like my own company. Lindy has sent the girls up each night after school because SHE would feel terrible if she weren't surrounded by people all the time! She just rolls her eyes when I say that I like being alone. (Of course, I would prefer Steve to be here.)
The next door neighbours are also extremely helpful. Margaret comes over every day and rattles off the names of groceries, from A to Z, in the hope that I will get her to buy something. I've begun to feel guilty for not wanting anything. I have assuaged my guilt by giving her and Lionel the garbage to take down to the bin! I'm really appreciating Keith, over the road from me. He has expressed his willingness to help but he doesn't knock on the door. We communicate by email!
It was a glorious day today ---- the temp reached 25C and it's forecast to be 27 tomorrow. It's still 15.6 now, at 12.23am. The high temps for the next 3 days also have a forecast of 70-90% chance of rain. I don't much like the sound of that -- very muggy.
I heard the sound of rushing water today and on investigating, I found that a hose had burst and the backyard was like a lake. Good job I went outside to the toilet. I had the radio playing loudly inside and it must have masked the sound. I have the bedroom radio and the satellite radio (on the television) tuned to ABC classical music station all day.
The first snowdrops are out. These bring very strong memories of my childhood. It's hard to believe that the little green teardrops aren't painted on by hand.
Happy Birthday to my cousin, Karen Garoni, at Myrtleford. The first day of spring is a lovely day to be born!
~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~
