Melbourne

Not a single thought occuring

It's been a crazy 24 hours so I thought I'd share a cute little story with you all.

A few weeks ago I popped into Aldi for a few things and because I pay cash I have to use the wo/manned register. So I'm behind this dear elderly couple, maybe in their late eighties/ early nineties. She has a walker, he as nimble as an elderly gentleman could be at that age.

They go to pay and she's obviously the keeper of the funds so she opens the purse and is handing the young cashier the mullah, one penny at a time. That's ok. I'm patient with the old cheeses. We all get old. Oh no. Somethings gone wrong. Not enough cash. The poor banker is confused. The cashier offers a solution. You can pay some with cash, some on the bank card. Great many discussions were had between the 3 of them. A decision was made. The banker now produces the card and hands it to her husband. The gentleman did not know how to use the eftpos so the cashier helps him. He then carefully punches in the numbers one per minute. Approved. More discussions were made about how they could've got the budget so wrong before they slowly move on with an apology.

No worries mate. We get it. Shits fucked.

So what are the chances that I get stuck behind this couple AGAIN a week later. Probably a million to one but hey just call me lucky. This time the budget was better. The banker opens the purse and hands over the cash one penny at a time while the gentleman is packing the groceries. All done but she hasn't moved from the cashier. A discussion was had. activate the patience button CEO. She takes a tiny step. More discussions. Do not push the old lady with your trolley like they do if you breakdown in the Burnley tunnel. At this point I look at the cashier and she swivels her chair so she could have a little giggle. I look at my groceries thinking I'm hungry. I could start eating them. A few more ballerina steps and the couple have now stopped at the corner where the groceries get thrown at you. More discussions. It appears they can not walk and talk. breathe. At this point the cashier has said "have a good day" at least 3 times. He is now aware they are holding up the line so apologises and encourages her to keep walking. They stop at the end where the trolley goes to pack. The cashier can not start yet. I dare not look at her. I am hungry. They eventually move on.

I waited the whole time with a smile on my face but I'll still refer to it as Helldi.

Moved to Tecoma, near Belgrave last week. Call it bad timing as we've been out of power for over 24 hours.

Luckily we don't eat meat or dairy, so food spoilage is minimal. But I'd like to see what I'm unpacking.

Neighbour left a note saying "welcome to the hills haha!" with his phone number and a recommendation to get ice.

Not 10 minutes ago, Mickey (my cat) was meowing at my partner and I, just chatting. I walk towards him as I leave and say "watch him, as soon as we're out of your sight l he'll beat me up", so my partner crept behind me as I entered the living room, where Mickey has trotted to, and the jerk didn't do a thing.

But! As soon as my partner goes back to the other room, Mickey has pounced and started biting my leg like a Christmas ham.

He's so damn dumb, but he knows what words mean and definitely did that on purpose. He plays softly when my partner is watching, and then claws me up like a mofo when we're alone.

I love him so damn much haha

the culprit

Many of you thought me mad! Some of you even requested transfer to another peanut factory! But as i have my jobbing solar panel on the terrace charging batteries, the camping fans cooling your air and cold bevvys to drink you're glad of my madness now, glad of it!

I have power, but most of the area around me doesn't. Mr Woof and I had a very dark walk this morning with no street lighting. On a positive note the weather obvioudly kept people home and the food cupboard was still stuffed with bread from last night's delivery, and I managed to score some hot cross buns as well as a loaf of white bread for lunch. The trip to work was a bit anxiety producing, as well as the whole area being dark the first two sets of traffic lights were out - I'm glad it was still early and not much traffic as a right turn onto a major road was bad enough when there was only limited traffic, I would not want to try it a bit later.

Can you read cursive?

The Australian War Memorial is looking for volunteers to read and transcribe letters and diaries. They have a ton of material that needs to be made more accessible

https://transcribe.awm.gov.au/

Somehow managed to avoid the worst of the storm and power outages. Sometimes I love my little life bubble

I've reached the point that I can't do a full 8 hour shift just on phones. The anxiety and stress are killing me.

Been applying for work where phones are just a small part of the day and part time work. Partner starts his job soon so it won't be so bad. But I do feel like a failure and worthless. Irrational, but all my shame comes from not being what I think I should be.

Hahahha guy i host for free on my home server is up my arse about his site being down.

I suspect he dwells under a rock.

hugs, good luck to everyone enduring power losses, take care

Took all three cats to the Vet yesterday for their shots. They always feel a little sick after their shots, especially Gwyn he gets really unwell from them. So now today I have three moppy and sad cats who all want love.

Clearing all surfaces of clutter so there's plenty of room for the dozens of flower and chocolate deliveries I'm expecting today. Can anyone else relate?

Power still out at home I assume, am planning on cooking an entire upright freezer worth of food on the bbq when I get home. At least there was no damage to our property, but I would like a shower.

It has been a long day and I am really ready for it to be over. Today has been way too busy for my liking, I think an early bedtime might be on the cards tonight.

Bill Cat brought a live mouse inside. He and Ted have a mission now, a sense of purpose and some much needed kitty fun.

Poor mouse. 😔

My power came back some time over night. The estimate was originally 10pm, but then it shot up to 1pm on the 15th. Thank fuck that was wrong.

Anybody else's kitty shedding a lot? Maybe it's the hot weather. She's not a fan of the comb, wish I could find her actual slicker brush

Still no power here plus the 4G has gone to shit, not looking forward to today

They reckons it will be back on tomorrow by 1pm so I guess I am just doing nothing today.

took me 4 hours to get home last night. 4 friggin hours. I know its not metro's fault, but why the F are we not better prepared in our response? I waiting in a 300m line at Caulfield only for people to keep jumping the queues while the metro staff and PSOs are mostly on their friggin phones!

Power was still flickering and going in and out when I came home.

Spoke with my other neighbour and she was having the same problems as me then all power went out.

It came back up about 20 mins ago and has been stable for both of us since, I think I have power back now!

Yay!

So a refurbished laptop I bought had 1 year warranty.

Invoking it for a noisy fan (failing fan bearing?). Person on the phone suggested I try cleaning it first.

Only problem is that the blades are on the other side, meaning the whole cooling system needs to be detached to access it for cleaning. Meaning it'll need a new application of thermal paste. Meaning I'll need to buy some as I haven't done this sort of thing in years.

I can refuse right? 😪😴

Jeez that was extreme traffic today.

Got back from the bellarine in just under 4hrs. Usually it's 1.5.

Did a quick pit stop for some jackas chips.

I still believe the equation is... RR>KFC>HJ>McD. Always a bit of a let down and I never learn.

Melbcat has been a bit fussy and painy still, from her body language it seems acute (like tummy cramps) and then it passes. I've given her some metacam the past few days and she might have to go back to the vet to make sure the uti is gone.

Hearing about the blackouts... luckily my area was spared, it's stressful as shit to hear about and I hope everyone gets their power back on soon. Especially on these stinking hot days/oppressive nights which have screwed my sleep.

I still haven't fixed the shitty little car battery solar setup I got a few years ago anticipating problems like this... didn't end up troubleshooting the low output plus the wiring pulled out of the crimps when it was moved. Perhaps they weren't done strongly enough despite passing the plier pull test. That needs to be redone, and even if it gets fixed I really don't think it would hold enough juice to run cooling for long. At least I have a few solar phone battery packs and a solar lantern I leave on the windowsill. Cheap but better than nothing.

Doing anything with that actually might not happen anytime soon. I don't even have a multimeter/voltmeter, can't exactly pop down just to get that, and would have to wrap my tired brain around using it.

I did the DIYish sorts of stuff back when I was relatively healthier but right now I'm in a fair amount of pain on a regular basis, have no spare energy, and am basically just scraping to get by. Another hospital admission might be on the cards soon.

I'm not even feeling up to using my cheapie paints that arrived and feel a bit anxious about them. It's fine. They'll still be there whenever the time comes. It's ok that I'm not up to the actual doing at the moment. I can take it easy and stick to just learning about things for as long as I want.