Stepping Back

I am tired and overwhelmed.  Physically, mentally and emotionally.

In the next few weeks I have a lot to do, including arranging some overdue medical appointments for me and for Batty and some long neglected paper work. Not to mention weeding.

So I am taking a blog break and hope to be back at the end of this month or perhaps early in March.

I will miss you.

Take care. 

Back Soon. Ish

 I am going on a blog break.

I am tired and overwhelmed and have been neglecting things that are demanding my attention.

I hope to be back towards the end of next month.

I will schedule a post to let you know where next month's Words for Wednesday can be found.

Have fun, and stay safe.

Time Out.

Neither my body nor my brain are playing nicely.  I am sore, tired and overwhelmed.

I am taking some time out from the blogosphere and hope to be back some time in March.  (I will put up a post early in March to let those of you who play know where to find the Words for Wednesday).

Take care of your important selves.

I have turned comments off for this post.

Sunday Selections #454

  Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.

Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.
  
The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.  Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle.
 
The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me. Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
I usually run with a theme. While our visitor was with us we went back to the Australian National Botanic Gardens.  It was windy that day.  Very windy.  So windy that most of the gardens were closed for safety reasons.  We still spent a very happy couple of hours there - and enjoyed ourselves.  There was colour everywhere we looked.

 

There were plenty of water dragons too, in varying sizes.

We were told that the Eastern Brown Snakes were about too - but didn't see any.

There were birds...

Magpies are one of my favourite birds.  I adore their call.

An Australian Wood duck family.

And a crimson rosella.

There was a heap more colour too.

Do you wonder that we love it?

In other news.  My head is not in a good or a safe place.  I am struggling a bit at the moment and am largely stepping away from the blogosphere.  Despair and darkness are my strongest emotions at the moment and I am in the middle of a vicious attack of the inadequacies, which is a truly rotten time to try and interact with others.

I will continue to post Words for Wednesday, but will probably not play.
I am still working out the schedule for this fun meme for the coming year and will let you know the outcome when it is finalised.  Huge thanks to all those who volunteered to provide the prompts.

I may continue to post splashes of beauty for Sunday Selections but will, as I have this week, turn off the comments.  I hope to return sooner rather than later. 

I hope your lives are full and happy. 

PS:  I am having huge problems with my email at the moment.  When I send a message it appears in my sent folder.  And maybe it has gone, and maybe it hasn't.  So, if you are expecting or waiting for an email from me, please nudge me and I will try again.

Time Out

This has been a long and bloody hot summer, and it has taken its toll on me.  The nights are mostly blissfully cool now, and the days not as hot as they were but my body doesn't cope with big temperature swings much better than it copes with heat.

Essentially I hurt.  Physically, mentally, and emotionally. To add insult to injury I am mired deep in the throes of a severe attack of the inadequacies.

I have been neglecting some essential tasks (including self care) which are starting to shriek for attention so I am stepping away from the blogosphere.  I will return in the fullness of time.

River has been doing a wonderful job of hosting Words For Wednesday this month.  Next month Delores will be hosting.  I hope to be back by April.

In the meantime, have fun and look after your important selves.  

I have turned the comments off for this post.

Sunday Selections #364

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  Our summer has been hot.  Sometimes brutally hot.  To add insult to injury a little while ago I contracted a lurgy.  A coughing, aching sort of lurgy, complete with pounding head and appallingly sore throat.  I have been running a temperature and have spent much of the last week going from

HOT

  
To COLD (to the extent I was shivering in the shower).

To HOT

To COLD

And back again.   And of the two extremes the wintry one (though all the images were taken in  the summer 0f 2004 at Antarctica) was much the best.
MS likes the heat.  MS thrives in the heat and it doesn't matter whether the heat is external or internal.  Some of its manifestations were familiar, some were new, and none were welcome.

The lurgy is in retreat now.  Most of the time.  My throat is still sore (but no longer bleeding), I am still coughing and still unwell but the temperature has mostly diminished.  For which I am truly grateful.

A summer spent skulking inside away from the heat has meant I have let a few things slip.  Some don't matter (much) and some do require attention.  So I think I will take a leave of absence from the blogosphere for the month of February.   I hope that it treats you kindly, and look forward to catching up when I return.  And March is festival month in my city.  Enlighten and the Balloon Spectacular.  Both must see events on our calendar.

Dual Purpose Post

Words for Wednesday is a moveable feast.  A big thank you to everyone who has stepped up and provided the prompts to keep it going.
 
At the moment it looks like this.

 

January 2017:  Granny Annie provided the prompts, and they were excellent and got some new people playing - which is lovely.

February 2017:  We are coming full circle and Delores will post the prompts on her blog. 

March 2017:  River is providing the prompts on her blog.

April 2017:  Lee has joined us in providing the prompts.  They will appear on her blog.

May 2017:  I will be providing the prompts here.

June 2017:  The prompts will be here again, but provided by Margaret Adamson and her friend Sue Fulton.  Her prompts will include photographs taken by her friend Bill.

Thank you one and all.  Margaret and Sue have generously provided me with sufficient prompts for two months, but as always I am hunting for more people to contribute.  If you are able to do so, please leave a note in the comments, suggesting which month you are able to provide prompts.

The other issue is less positive.  I am feeling physically, emotionally and mentally sore, tired and overwhelmed and have decided to take a break.  I will be back in March, if not before.  I will miss you, but need to find some equilibrium again.  Take care of your important selves and have fun.   

Tomorrow

For quite some time now for a variety of reasons I have been putting myself to the back of the queue and treating myself with ignore.

Which is wrong.  And I know it is, and am (slowly) starting to do something about it.

My MS is progressing and, like the unwelcome visitor it is, has made itself right at home.  My pain levels are up, my fatigue levels are up.  Other manifestations include a foggy and forgetful brain.  Muscle spasms.  Spasticity.   My hands and legs are reluctant to obey simple commands and I am never quite sure where they are.

Which has become dangerous.  Our shower is on a hob and I have to step up and over a metal lip to get into it.  I have damaged my toes multiple times and I am always bruised .  And I am well aware that a dramatic fall is a real possibility.  Probability even.

So I have bitten the bullet and we are having extensive bathroom modifications.  Extensive and obscenely expensive modifications.  Which will take three weeks to complete.

The existing shower will be ripped out and replaced with a walk-in one.  Which has to be located (for drainage reasons) on the other side of the room so the bath will have to go.  The floor will be pulled up and non slip tiles laid.  Grab rails.  And, since we are doing this much I have agreed to replace the vanity (which has to be moved anyway) with a wheel-chair accessible one (which with luck I won't need for some time).  As an aside, we cannot buy a wheel-chair accessible vanity here.  It has to be custom made.  A stand alone basin?  No problems.  One with a bench so I can have soap, a toothbrush and other things to hand?  Nope.  Hiss and spit.  Some drawers wouldn't go astray either.

I have been wishing painful haemorrhoids on most of the tradesmen who came to give us quotes.  Two of them gave us quotes which included items we hadn't requested and didn't want or need.  They also ignored things we had requested, and included vague statements such as 'if asbestos is present the quoted price will increase'.  When I asked questions they disappeared faster than speeding bullets. 

There is another bathroom in the house but it is, if anything, less accessible than the one that we are having modified.  The work starts at seven thirty tomorrow morning and the next three weeks look like being chaotic.  Builders, plumbers, electricians, plasterers, tilers and painters.  And the asbestos removal team because there is sheet asbestos in the bathroom.  The tradesman we selected tested for it.  $1400 to have it removed and disposed of.  Sigh.

Jazz loathes and detest visitors, particularly white van men, and will piddle copiously and inappropriately to express his displeasure and reclaim his territory.  Jewel will retire to the wardrobe and moult up a storm. Part of me sympathises with them both. 

I am tired and overwrought even before it starts and expect to be largely absent from the blogosphere.

And on a much more serious note my youngest brother is also having issues with asbestos.  Much more serious issues which make my heart hurt for him and his wife.

Between 1968 and 1979, a private contractor from Canberra known as "Mr Fluffy" (such an innocent sounding business name) insulated residential dwellings by pumping friable loose asbestos fibres into the roof cavities.  And my brother's home is a Mr Fluffy home.   The house was insulated before his wife bought it.  In 1990 when the danger of loose asbestos was better understood it was removed.  And we now learn that residual asbestos remains.  And there is no safe level.  At the moment it appears likely that the house will have to be demolished.  And they will get no choice about it.  A compulsory reacquisition and demolition.  When?  No-one knows.  Who pays for it?  No-one knows.  Has the asbestos contaminated their furniture and clothing?  Perhaps.  Testing will take place.  When?  No-one knows.  So they are in limbo.  And worried for their health, for  the health of his wife's children (who grew up in the house) and for that of the visiting grandchildren.  So I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed.  Which adds to my mobility issues.

Have fun in my absence.  I will miss you, but will be back in the fullness of time.  And with luck will be able to stop in on the weekends at least.  

Excuses, excuses

Soon (we hope) the smaller portion will have yet more abdominal surgery.  This will be the seventh and might even be the last.  Hysterical laughter surfaces as I typed those hopeful words.  No dates yet, but we are thinking February/March.
His sister is coming down to help me.

The house and the garden are shambolic.  I look at them and shudder.  Repairs, restoration, decluttering and tidying are desperately needed.

There is some urgent paperwork which needs to come out of the 'I will get to it' pile.

My body and my mind are misbehaving.  When I can't avoid looking at them, they also make me shudder.  I am in the midst of a serious attack of the inadequacies. 

I could weep and whinge for Australia, and my psycho bitch is close enough to the surface to be able to lash out.  Which she does.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I am taking a break. 

I will miss you, and I will be back when house/garden/paperwork/body/mind are a bit more under control.