Lost in the woods

Bugger me if Banjo didn't get lost in the Pines.... again! Buddha dutifully came back but no sign of Banjo. Back I went a couple of hours later after cleaning the house, a Friday task that MUST be completed for my peace of mind, calling him out of hiding but to no avail. So it was off to town for some things that Nuran hadn't got on her Thursday shopping trip and a resolve to go looking for the damn dog when I came back. It turned out there was no need as when I checked the back yard there was Banjo! Now when he had come home is a mystery as Nuran had been around the place all dayand hadn't heard come through the gate.And he certainly wasn't there before my trip to town but home he was. Somewhat tired and chastened but home anyway. Train him better was the call from King Jim but once he gets the chase going all other sounds disappear from his cognisance. The thing to do is to stop the chase happening in the first place. Still it's good to know he will come home and I won't bother going to look for him if he is lost, he can find his own way home!
Today was a pleasant ride in the Pines. I kept both dogs at my pedals with the smell of doggy treats in my pockets and the occasional reward. There were no kangaroos to tempt Banjo away just butterflies with both dogs loping along trying to catch them with the occasional pounce or leap in to the air and a snap of closing jaws. And we all came home together! Much better.
Now today is Saturday and there are a couple of big games on the TV one involving the team Nuran supports so we are having a BBQ to get right into the atmosphere of an Aussie afternoon. Sausages, chops hamburgers , a beer and the TV screen to yell at!
One of life's simple pleasures and that suits me .... no I am not a simple person!

Worry worry

There are some in this world who do not realise the extreme pressure that losing two dogs causes.
The dogs are like children and like all of our children we fret over them. So when I took Buddha and banjo for a ride in the Pines this afternoon i was worried alright, would they disappear like the legendary Kelpie into the Pines (see Wikipedia ) would they actually do as they were asked and come back? How could someone who has no worry in the world except whether his Plasma screen and his computer would interact possibly appreciate the angst this doting parent was feeling as he cycled along the track with two dogs at his pedals! Ah what a day with a warm breeze blowing but the shadows lengthening so the tracks were cool and dappled , but the dogs needed exercising and the morning had been spent in making sure the electrician re wired the fuse box and house to my satisfaction.So the afternoon it had to be. Banjo tried twice to race off into the Pines but my sharp command brought him back to pedal, heel would be better but pedal is more correct. Ah nice 5 km cycle down the break to the fence line and a turn south until the centre break was reached, no Roos or any wildlife except a few magpies. Relief! back along the centre break and an Emu appeared, banjo took off , the Emu wagged its tail like Road Runner to Wily E Coyote and fled. Come back Banjo I roared, bloody come here Banjo, Banjo! My commands rent the peace of the forest and the shadows seemed to shrink and then Banjo got his brain into gear or the Emu went out of sight and he came back. Buddha never leaves unless Banjo starts his baying as Buddha is basically an idle meat eating dog but Banjo's baying must over ride his innate laziness and trigger a chase instinct. However Banjo came back and was rewarded with a pat of relief and we cycled on. Actually I cycled on and they loped on. We arrived home after just an hour and it's so much better than the four hours or a car trip it takes to bring them home lately.
So one worry has gone, the house is rewired, another worry has diminished as I think I have the technique to control the dogs in the Pines, Nuran came back from her shopping trip to town with no crumbs in the car another needless worry. Jim must be able to see again as he can write comments, John is in Adelaide for another RAAaf interview so I don't have to worry about beating him at darts and the footy tipping is done for the week. Ah bliss is an evening in Tarpeena... don't you worry about that!

Ant Aftermath

The sting from the bull ant has subsided and in fact it was as if nothing had happened yesterday. Nothing much did happen yesterday!. The school voluntary work just consisted of supervising the kids shifting some wood chips to under the slides and other playground equipment,nothing taxing.
On Monday the car got returned to us with all rust spots removed and it looks nice again.Seeing as it was still Easter not a lot else went on though. We did hear from Jim and Tony and they are alive and well! Jim had been on a camping trip up on the Snowy River hence no communication and Tony has been working and studying. Bill and Olivia have been away too but Nuran caught up with Bill as he was packing to go on an Adelaide trip! He is becoming a bit of a media star in the business sector it seems.
A wire burnt out in the fuse box this morning, again! The same fuse that burnt out a month or so ago.When this place was wired most of the power points were placed around the outside wall and then looped into one fuse. Crazy! Of course with the modern day reliance on all things electrical the loop is getting overloaded. It's especially silly since there are two other power fuses in the switchboard and they each only have two internal power points on them. So I bit the bullet and phoned up Gabriel Electrical Contractors in the Mount and placed an order for them to come up and rewire the circuits! I have asked Aaron Ilsley to do it but seeing as he works 12 hrs shift he obviously finds it difficultto fit in a trip so I am using a contractor expensive as it is it's better than getting the house burned down.
At the moment we have extension cords going all over the place using the two good power points..... I hope they don't get overloaded!
John has been skiting about how he never loses the Kelpies , see Johns Blog, well last night he lost them in the Pines and as it was getting dark he came back to get the car to find them in. Ha I told you so , John, when they get on a kangaroo chase they are brain dead. Anyway he found them but then the car needed cleaning, not because of the dogs but because John had taken a cut lunch with him in case he had wait out there a while and left crumbs all over the new seat covers. And of course the sand from the tracks got all over the new spray job. Never mind I enjoyed washing and vacuuming the car today.
I have learnt how to re point the darts but the points I put in were too long so I had a brainwave and decided to take the points of out my spare set and put them into the good set. Does anybody know how to get a broken point out of a dart? My spare set only has two good darts now! I had no trouble taking the points out of the old brass darts that I bought for Nuran and which she never uses and putting them into my good darts but the spare set has points of a different nature it seems and now one point is broken!
Never mind I have new points of the right length in my good set and now that the spare set is incomplete will stop me changing darts when things go bad.

Stung

I hardly ever get a reaction to a bite or a sting, neither mozzies or bees worry me but do get itchy when a spider bites me. Tonight I got stung by a bull ant. The bastard was in the laundry and I was sublimely washing out the empty beer bottles in the laundry sink after having dried the dinner dishes when a burning sensation engulfed my toes. What the fuck was that ! bastard bastard bastard I think were the exact words I used. I found the ant curled up happily stinging my little toe and I got my revenge on the bugger by smashing it with a beer bottle. Lucky the bottle didnt smash too. Then the fire engulfed my foot. I remember that Nuran had to go to hospital once, a long while ago, after she got bitten by a bull ant as she had a reaction to it but this bugger was just filling my foot with fire. I was having a reaction alright, anger! Vinegar is the antidote for stings and I screamed for some, but Nuran was too busy to bother finding it and John was watching Myth Busters. Where is the Stingose I cried, no fucking Stingose, no fucking vinegar no fucking anything that would take the fire away! John did look in his room for the Stingose and Nuran gave me bicarb of soda. I don't want to bake a fucking cake just get rid of this burning was my unhelpful response. Where the fuck is the vinegar!. Anyway I found the Stingose but pissing on the bite would have been better as warm water is an antidote for stings too and uric acid is a bit like vinegar. Not that I have sprinkled piss on my salad to try but I have heard that its properties are the same.
Then I smothered my foot in the Stingose and cream for bites that the Doctor had given us as Nuran is always getting bites of some sort and , in desperation, the Bicarb of soda. Nothing worked. Finally I delved into Nuran's larder and found squirrelled behind All Bran that is three years old and oil that is two days old a bottle of vinegar. Ah sweet relief the burning went and all I have now is what feels like a lump on my foot. Lucky I ride the bike everywhere and don't walk so much so hobbling is not too bad.
Nuran said serves you right for not wearing socks... John went off to record Supernatural....Sympathy? Not here. I shall go and smash the ant again!
I have gone back and smashed that fucking ant again and again but voodoo doesn't work and I still have a sore thick foot but at least the burning has gone and I wont have to go to the hospital, I hope! I still have a sore thick foot and I am sure that one of these buggers bit Banjo as he was lame yesterday and could hardly walk today but he was O.K. when we came back from the run whatever caused his lameness was in the garden. Banjo is a lot better now so I expect I will be too but if I see any more of these bloody ants around they will get stomped on and sprayed on and pissed on until the whole genus is removed from my yard ..... Click on this link and read a wanker that likes ants! Ant Lover

Saturday Night Live

One of those rare events happened last night when there was actually a function of some sort over at the football club rooms. When there was a football team here in Tarpeena there was a do on after most home games and the night calm would be rent by the sounds of karaoke or discos and drunks brawling and cars doing burnouts in front of the house. then the football team folded and peace was restored to the quiet country town. That is unless there is a function on over at the oval.
We thought it was Peter Mathys 50th birthday party but it turned out to be the tennis club karaoke night and windup. They got wound up alright and the raucous bellowing of the guys on the karaoke machine disturbed the calm of cricket on pay TV and kept the early sleepers awake. Thankfully the beer or the licence to sell it ran out at midnight and we only had to listen to three cars trying to take all he rubber off their tyres on their way, no doubt,to the Mount and the night club scene after 1 am and then calm prevailed. There are some things that we don't miss and that is the football club Saturday evenings. I like having the cricket on at the oval during summer and the tennis team are normally well behaved so no one begrudges them their wild night but the football team never knew when to stop and go home!