Some days have a few extra challenges. Today when I checked my emails I had a note from my ISP telling me the direct debit they do each month had been unsuccessful, so problems with my bank account. Then just as I logged into chat the banner across the top told me my Java was now out-of-date, and would I like to run it just this time? Yes please as I was already late. And then a neighbour popped into the house to ask me if I knew my power line was almost down on my driveway? Help!

So I was late into chat, I had to ring the power company’s “Major Emergencies and Hazards Line” with my problem to solve because I had Ray away at Daycare and the bus would back up my driveway, catch onto the wire and I would have been responsible for barbecuing a busload of oldies. Please, where is the sense of humour in all of this? The whole world seems to be laughing at me some days.

Sorry chat group if I seemed a bit distracted this morning, I was worried that 1) my Internet would be cut off or 2) my power would be cut off. That is why I scooted away while you were all still chatting away there. I don’t usually run out on people like that. My apologies to the new people who had only just come in, next week will be different, I promise.

Thankfully the nice lady teller I spoke to at the bank cleared up one mystery, my virus protection provider had taken our their fee a month before they were due to…so insufficient money to pay my ISP…easy fix, just add money. Then I emailed my ISP to resubmit the account. Phew!

I had agreed to go to a Carer’s meeting at the facility Mum is in now. I had never been able to go to it before as it is on the third Wednesday of the month. So I went to that this afternoon. Of the nine people there four of them I already knew. The coordinator is the chaplain that came to comfort me when Mum did her “dying swan” act so she and I are well acquainted. I was asked to tell my story and told it as briefly as possible. Stunned silence. I guess the way I tell it from looking after three people to looking after two and now looking after Ray and supervising Mum’s care is a bit of a “tall tale but true”.

I told my online chat group I was going to a “live” chat group and John (john88) rightly asked me if they are not “live”? I guess I meant face-to-face not “live” as of course you are all “live” just as I am sitting here typing this out now. Very alive indeed and as mad as a hatter some days….lol. But I guess all is well that ends well. When I got home the power line was back where it should have been and my next-door neighbour said he saw a truck with a ladder and a man doing something up the power pole so it was fixed not long after I left this afternoon. Whew!

If the rest of the week goes smoothly I will be grateful.

Yesterday Ray and I went to the podiatrist and she gave Ray the all clear, the foot is officially healed. He has to go to the vascular surgeon tomorrow so we should have an opinion of whether or not he needs the veins and arteries in the left leg further scrutinized. The circulation is not good due to the diabetes. I am praying that if there is something that can be done to make his circulation better it will be done.

After we had seen the podiatrist we went across the corridor to see the orthoptist. The orthoptist did the plaster cast to make the AFO (brace) and Ray no longer needs the heel padded just “double socked” so I will pad the left foot by putting on one short thick sock and the usual walk sock over the top and see how that goes. Ray knows he has had a lucky escape with the blister healing and still having both legs. So if you still have two legs that is something else to be thankful for. I am thankful for mine and for Ray’s.

On a good note I had the visit from the English cousins on Monday and enjoyed it immensely. Marilyn is really nice and had been up to see Mum’s step-brother’s widow (Mum’s step-brother was her full cousin) and it was good to have news of how Jean is getting on. She was caregiver for her husband, Mum's step-brother John so you all know that after the loss it can be very hard to take on yet another “new normal” in widowhood but she appears to be handling things well.

And so good people, this is Sue, live from her computer in her house on the lovely Central coast, east coast of Australia, signing off as usual with “bye for now”.