Woodhenge

Today Karl and I started building a woodshed on the site of the old Wash house.  The old wash house received its building consent in 1910.  Its not longer there but conveniently the concrete base and low walls are.  Having no idea what we were doing, we set off to buy an impact drill, a masonary bit, a spirit level and dynabolts.  Jesse and Karl were hopeful that it could be built this Sunday afternoon.  I was more realistic and decided on 3 weeks (weekends only after deducting rugby and rugby training).  By 3.30pm our backs were absolutely shagged and neither of us could stand up straight any more (to be fair, yesterday we did do a heap of work around the property.  Karl started his rough draft of the woodshed, and I mowed the lawns, weed ate the top half of the bottom section and pulled apart most of the cartage pellets the woman who sold us the place left behind).  Our backs called all the shots and we threw in the towel for the day.  We will get back into it next Saturday, but at the moment the woodshed has its uprights (the studs) only standing.  It looks like a wooden version of stonehenge erected to pay homage to the sun the area in which the woodshed will stand so desperately desires.  That's actually part of the problem and the reason for the woodshed.  There is almost no sun in that area so the wood for burning manages to attract damp - this of course is non beneficial to the wood burner.  The wood burner incidentally pumps out 21kW of power.  That's a huge amount of heat compared to most heat sources.  I brought home a thermostat from work for the weekend to measure the heat in the house.  I was pleasantly surprised to note that the lounge (which is the room in which the wood burner resides) when the fire has been going for about an hour, has an average temperature of 26 degrees celcius (top temperature is 30 degrees which is far too hot), and the bedrooms, after the heat transfer system has been on for about an hour, has an average temperature of 19.4 degrees celcius.  It is just wonderful to go to bed and never have to feel cold, or get dressed quickly lest jack frost bites your member.  All in all, we are very very happy with the fireplace and heat transfer system when they operate together.  The fire is sonderful on its own but the high stud (12') holds all of the heat in that room.  Back to work tomorrow.  Mum has now been home from the infirmary for the past 4 days and she is steadily showing signs of improvement.  She still gets tired, but her sleeping binges seem to be getting further and further apart.  She had a smoke yesterday.  Very disppointing.  She has had a couple today as well.  Less disappointing - mainly because I knew that as soon as she had her first one that would be it.  Hopefully she manages to keep the number of smokes per day down to the bare minimum, but seeing she's been smoking since she was 13 years old, I think that unless she stops fully, that will be unlikely thing.

Jesse's first day of the term tomorrow, and he's not looking forward to it very much.  Never mind, only 5 months until Christmas.

Nite nite everyone.

Interim diagnosis

Mum is set to come home tomorrow; still very crook with 70% of her left lung damaged.  It seems likely that she has Legionaires Disease, contracted from breathing the dust of potting mix.  A week and a half ago she re-potted the Yukkas.  The hospital say that they will know for sure in 3 weeks time, so I guess they will be growing cultures to see exactly what it is they are dealing with. They have her on a new set of anti-biotics which by all accounts must be working (seeing they are sending her home).  They have told her that she should start feeling a little better in about 3 months time, and should be back to full capacity in 6 months or so.  Can you believe that?

Her resolve to give up smoking seems still to be there - have I mentioned this?  She has accepted the advice of the stop-smoking counsellor at the hospital.  That's a really good thing because I reckon the timeframes for wellness will be based on someone who doesn't smoke.  All Karl and I have to do is come up with some way of supporting her through it, although without actually giving it up ourselves that will be really difficult.  Tonight I will remove all tobacco/cigarettes from the house so that she isn't tempted by their sensual winks and suggestions.  A load of wood is being delivered tomorrow that will block her car in the driveway so she won't be able to drive to the shops to buy a pack, and her lung won't allow her to take dhamks pony the 5 blocks to the nearest shop.  This I think will be harder for Karl and I than it will for Mum.  Jesse seems rapt by the whole idea. 

Pray for us!!!

Pneumonia sucks!

Mum was admitted to hospital this morning with pneumonia in her left lung.  She was very dehydrated and in extreme pain.  They put a line into her arm and gave her saline and, just as magic water on the rugby field can make an injured man miraculously cured of all that ails him, the saline perked her up almost immediately.  Didn't take the pneumonia away but it certainly made her a lot more lucid.  It also made her hungry and she managed to put away a bowl of hospital soup.  When asked how long she is likely to have to stay in hospital, the respiratory doctor said that she'll be there at least until the weekend is over.  They have to make sure that all of the pneumonia has gone before she's allowed to leave and they will also be looking o see if there is anything sinister that might be causing it.  I certainly hope not, but the smoking can't be helping.  She's had about 2 cigarettes since monday - a drag here and a drag there, and tonight when I saw her the hospital I sensed that she might actually be thinking about giving up.  I reckon she's had a bit of a scare.  I learnt something today.  The doctor asked her how long she'd been smoking, and she said since she was 13.  Thirteen years old!  Jesse's 9 now, which means that in 4 years time he'll be the same age as his grandmother was when she took up smoking.  If he does the same there will be serious trouble in our household.  Not that I can lecture him too much about the evils of smoking seeing I indulge myself, but until he's brave enough to defy me (and to buy his own) he won't be smoking while he lives under my roof.  The reality is though that he'll sneak them while he's out (hopefully at some reasonably old age) and by teh time I catch him he'll be addicted to them and I won't be in a position to do anything about it.

We'll see what happens, but it would be really good if Mum could give up after all this time.  If she attempts it then I'll do it too - at the very least she'll need support.  I just have to convince Karl that it will be a good idea for him too, but to give up smoking you really have to decide it for yourself. 

Its quiet here tonight.  Jesse is at his friends house for the second night, Mum is in hospital, and Karl is recovering from his own dose of influenza.  Its so quiet I think I need a cigarette.  I'm hanging out for sex too!  Karl being sick and all doesn't really help much.  Never mind, I'll have a cigarette and pretend that its post coital.

Good night kiwi.

Saline, stat!

Karl is clearly on the mend.  He's taking fluids now and has eaten something for dinner.  The course of anti-biotics prescribed to him obviously, it seems to me, are doing their job well.  He's still lethargic, although he's getting pretty tired of being tired, and that in itself is quite tiring.

 

Mum on the other hand isn't doing so well.  Her visit to the doctor this morning resulted in a course of anti-biotics, not to treat the influenza the doctor says she has, but to prevent the onset of pneumonia.  She's suffered from it before so it is an obvious complication for her following the flu.  She is just the most miserable I've seem her in a good number of years.  She tells me that she is suffering all the same symptoms as she did when she had pneumonia last time.  She's in bed now, but I'm a little afraid to go to bed myself just in case she deteriorates and needs me during the night.  Unless the anti-biotics start having a very real effect by the morning I think I'll be carting her off to casualty and ask that she get anti-biotics by I.V.  I don't actually know what the danger is, but its scary nonetheless.

Good night, Vance.

Bring out your dead!

Our house is full of sick people.  Karl and Mum both suddenly, and unexpectedly, came down with what I think is the flu.  Karl was acting like a bag of broken arseholes at work yesterday (which isn't that unusual but I read the subtleties) so I knew he was stricken by some class of lurgie.  When we arrived home last night we discovered Mum asleep on the couch.  She too had been struck down by a bug of some sort.  Its the first week of school holidays so Jesse is at home and he has a friend staying for a couple of days.  That's a good thing, except when the person (Mum) who had planned to take care of them is suffering from the flu.  This morning Karl and Mum were both much worse but I tottled off to work anyway, then came home after lunch with the intention of taking the kids out to do something so that Mum and Karl could get a little peace and some uninterupted sleep.  That plan turned to custard because the snow decided today was a good day to come - too cold you see to start dragging the boys all over the city.  We did baking and made soothing (yet disgusting) lemon drink for the casualties.  This afternoon I was so concerned about them (especially Mum) that I telephoned the doctor's surgery.  The doctor diagnosed (over the phone) among other things sinusitis for Karl and faxed a prescription of anti-biotics to the pharmacy and ordered paracetomol to bring down the fever and as much water as he could drink but at the least 1 teaspoon every 15 minutes.  One teaspoon!  Is that really enough to sustain life?  Possibly if you are a cactus.  Although Karl can be a bit -- prickly -- when he's under the weather.  The paracetomol and water order was for both of them.  The doctor wants to see Mum at 10.45 tomorrow morning so I think she'll probably get a handful of medication prescribed to her (hopefully some anti-biotics at least).

I was to be going to Christchurch tomorrow to attend a manager's meeting, but in light of the home situation have cancelled my flight.  Jesse is going to stay at the home of the friend he has staying here tomorrow, and he'll stay for a couple of days I think - or at least as long as the parents can cope with having him there.  They have been good together actually, pretty much moving in a constant circle between the Playstation, the TV and the PC.  They would have been playing outside were it not for the bleak weather conditions.  Actually speaking of the cold, we've just installed a heat transfer duct that moves unused heat from the lounge to the three bedrooms.  The lounge is heated by an excellent wood fire but the bedrooms remained cold.  Its been operational for the past week and didn't seem to be doing much, until tonight.  I've just worked out how to use it properly.  It helps to have the bedroom vents open!  They were open but only a little bit, and because of that, forced the air into the rooms at a great rate of knots.  Because of the speed the air cooled down.  By opening the vents up more the heated air enters the room a little slower but remains hot and now all the bedrooms are almost as warm as the lounge.  The only difference between the two is that in the lounge you also get radiant heat from the flames.  Great invention and well worth the $700 we spent on it.

The boys are sitting up in bed watching Oceans 12 we booked on Pay TV, Mum is asleep on the sick bed I made up on the lounge room floor, and Karl has tottled off to bed.  As soon as I post this I think I'll too head off to bed because as soon as I've taken Mum to the doctor, dropped Jesse and his friend off at the friends house, I'll be going back to work, hopefully to catch the last part of my Christchurch meeting by teleconference.

Till next time, Vance.

Election time again - sigh

Who can hardly notice that election year is upon us?  The political machine is beginning to whir into action with those parties opposing the Government making shots at everything it has done this term and in terms past.  Most like people to believe that they are shots across the bow warning the Government (and the public) of the horrendous things they will expose as the time of the ballot draws nearer, but I think the public are becoming more and more savvy to the way things political work.  They are less shots across the bow than they are the results of inaccurate coordinates.  Parties like New Zealand First would have us believe that the Labour led Government have introduced pieces of anti-family legislation such as the Care of Children Act, the Civil Union Act and various Executive Policies to bring down the country from the fine upstanding christian position it has been proud to maintain.  What a load of codswallop.  National are on that bandwagon because its leader is looking for anything it possibly can to use as leverage to seize power.  As an illustration of how ludicrous is the way in which the political mind works, National's leader would have us believe that he chose to support the Civil Union Bill (as it was) during its first reading, and to oppose it at its second and triumphant third.  His reason was that while he supported the principles of the Bill and would support it, he believed that only members of the public should make a decision of such magnitude and that it should go to referendum at the time of the next general election.  Again, codswallop.  If that is the position, why on earth do we put people into positions of power such as we do with our New Zealand Parliament?  We trust them to make the big decisions don't we?  Of course we don't, but that is our democratic process.  We put people through their paces at the time of Parliamentary elections - test their mettle as it were.  If they pass the test we effectively hand them the cheque book to the country and hope like mad that they don't bring us to war, bankrupt us, or overturn exceedingly sensible policies like our nuclear-free stance (National by the way want to allow US nuclear powered ships back into our waters because they say it will be good for the economy - no matter about the environment or the safety of our children).  National's leader wanted the referendum (the call was led by the NZ First Party) to cloud the general election issue, which of course is "who is best equipped to govern our country for the next three years?"  If you start adding referenda on questions where one or more political parties have a policy position to general elections, the elections become more about the referendum issue and less about the overall ability to lead.  Opposing parties will spend time and resources attacking the referendum, and the supporting party(s) spend time and resources defending it.  The result is a single issue argument about any one political party's abilities.  There are always far greater issues to argue, such as justice, community health and education, defence etc, the list does not end only the degree of importance to most New Zealanders varies. 

Anyway, I may or may not have made my intended vote(s) clear.  I don't care.  Of couse this blog is writen some 3 months ahead of the election and my views may change depending on the result of any reasonable political debate about current or future issues facing our fine country, secular as it is.  I doubt it but I'm open to suggestion.  I'm not open to brain washing though and, I suggest, neither should you be.  Have a great week - eyes, and mind open.