Be nice to be talking about the sky, though to give credit where it's due we have had a few fine days in June finally, cold though and there's the blues. Thank goodness for the trees we and friends cut down last year and chopped up and stockpiled. Our woodshed is down the back of the section darn it and I get a bit of exercise loading the wheelbarrow and pushing it up the hill at the back and tipping it up the top. We have steps from there down to our backyard so not able to get it closer to the house. I do the wheelbarrow because Kent can't bend his foot so can't push the full barrow up the hill, I tip it up the top and he carries it into the house by the basketload.
As you can imagine I have been heading up to Auckland every second weekend to see my brand new very first granddaughter Katherine Mary. She is changing and growing so fast and I just love to see her and hold her. However with petrol at around $2.00 per litre (there are 3.8 ltrs to an American gallon) it is quite an expensive pastime and I will have to limit myself in future. I found two other women who travel up regularly but it seems that we just haven't been able to connect for trips as yet. My eldest daughter Laetitia is also expecting a baby, due at the end of
August this one is a boy so soon I'll have two reasons for travelling north.
It's strange isn't it how the relationships in families can be. In mine it seems if I don't make contact with my children they don't make contact with me. Not sure if they are that way with all of their family but it has often been hard for me to accept. Maybe having grandchildren will allow more communication, dreams are free :)
Big news - I have bought myself a bike! Yes I am now the proud owner of a 1200 Harley Davidson Sportster. I love the look of it and it's a great ride, have to watch it because it is quite powerful and ready and roaring to go. Kent's Harley is off the road for servicing and a new back tyre so resting for 3 months and will be back on the road mid August and we'll be riding together. When there is a fine day on the weekend and we have a spare hour or three we head off but have to say it's bloody cold... Really looking forward to the warmer finer weather now that we are past the shortest day. Time passes so quickly!
I think now and then about dying, I don't feel I will but have those moments when the thoughts slip in there. I guess it's natural having had cancer. I try to think of living my life so that I don't wish I had done something when I have no chance of doing it for some reason (let it be old age). Hence the buying of the bike for myself, sometimes it's hard to do something just for yourself, it's easier to do things for other people. Kent and I plan to do as much riding as we can, we belong to the Sulphur City Motorcycle Club to which Kent has belonged almost since it's inception about 26 years ago. The club has fairly regular rides and has a major one planned for November 2013 a 3 week ride down to Invercargill and the Burt Monroe Challenge (google it). We are really excited to be heading off on that one with all our friends, we are all saving up now...
We have a new flatmate in our home, Phearet is of Cambodian descent and has been here a month or so. She's in and out so we don't see that much of her but love her company. Prashant has gone on a jaunt back to visit family in England and to pack up his house in Spain then come back to NZ via some more family in the USA. While he's away we are going to work on his rooms downstairs so when he gets back it will be warmer and cosier. Discovered his old fridge was in the act of dying, so we bought another secondhand one for him which looks like new. Quite a responsibility owning a house, constant upkeep really. The weather has been SO wet that moss is rampantly growing everywhere it can. We bought some 'Wet & Forget' which we sprayed as per the directions and will now forget a while and see if it works, here's hoping!
Muppet and Molly are doing just fine, Muppet is of the age where he loves to find bits of paper and tear it up and he and Molly race each around inside crazily, they are so funny to watch but one day will break something. I go for a walk with Muppet each morning I can for about 20 minutes, although it looks like I am taking him for a walk it is really all about me. Exercise reduces the reoccurance of cancer by about 60%. We walk in the park nearby or over in the Redwoods. Sometimes we meet other dogs and I have finally stopped being too protective of Muppet who has this impression that he is a huge Alsation or something similar. Big dogs chase him all over the place and he can run pretty fast but I thought he was enjoying it all never-the-less until the other day when he disappeared into the woods rather than meet the three retrievers walking towards us. Personally I think he was overreacting as they didn't seem the slightest bit interested in him but who knows what doggy speak was spoken. Thought I had lost him for a minute but he never goes too far away from me and he was just taking a one dog route to where I was.
Kent's been having stomach problems, pain after eating etc. We ended up at the emergency department a couple of weeks ago because he thought he was having a heart attack. He rang his doctor from work who told him to ring the ambulance which was too over the top for him so he called me and I took him up. We were there for 7 hours and heart problems were thankfully ruled out. So he is on antacids for about 6 weeks to see if it will settle and if it doesn't they will put a scope down his throat and take a look see. He is still really enjoying his job where they have him working on designing new systems for the swinglift to measure the weight it is lifting. All very amazing and technical, he is in his element :)
Loving our home, loving our lives, loving life, loving each other.
