The countdown is on! Kaylia is charged up for Christmas and counting the days. Of course we all are .... and especially since Zoe will be here in 3 weeks to spend Christmas with us. It's been a long time since Zoe was last here ...... February 2013!
Each night Kaylia wants the story of our trip to Busselton.... what stops we will make on the drive and where will go when we're there. She especially looks forward to eating at Al Forno..... its a beaut pizza restaurant.
Excuse me on this occasion ... I feel like I have to let off steam! I've been online with everyone's favorite government department (who have the cheek to call themselves a service ... NOT) ..... I've been waiting for 3 weeks for my pension to restart .... I have a letter from them to say that it would be paid on 2nd of this month .... still nothing.
On their website they say that an urgent payment can be requested so I thought "Why not?" I began the process online and went through about six screens of questions about why I needed an urgent payment ... and then at the final screen ....
...... "You cannot apply for an urgent payment online." !!!!!
So why start the process?
What strange weather! In November we expect the days to be heating up .... usually pleasant low 30's with a few high 30's thrown in ...... but yesterday was another very wet day .... we've had a run of cold days 15-19 with colder nights. Today was cold again with occasional showers. It's weird. I wonder if the cold weather will continue in December? It reminds me of that time it snowed on Christmas Day ... I think it was 1956.
My work on Bob is continuing... the winch electrical connections are finished and the cable has been wound onto the drum. Part of the electrical work has been to set up the vehicle for dual batteries. The winch is now ready for use when needed. At the moment I'm changing the seats so that it can carry 3 people. Before now it had only 2 seats. Then I will be building another storage box under the passenger seat.
Kaylia is in a good space at the moment ..... she's enjoying her life and her nighttime routine is low-stress for her and for us. Today she's had her Saturday fix of DVDs at the op shops. It included a reminder to me that in some ways she is just a little child ..... we went into one shop and another customer had left her own purchases on a seat near the door ...... and the purchases included some DVDs of the sort that are highly valued by Kaylia! Kaylia spotted these and dived on them! We had to physically restrain her and explain that those DVDs belonged to the other shopper - she couldn't have them. Eventually she accepted it ..... but it was hard.
Phew ... I've been slack... no posts for a week.
No particular reason ... Kaylia is cruising. The medications are working well and she is happy and calm. She has a fairly full week now. Mondays and Thursdays she has her "Curve Style" online clothing business..... she has a support worker (Lee) comes in to assist her. The business has had its first sale. On Tuesdays Kaylia has another support worker (Jenny) who takes her off for drives, shopping and general activities from 10 till 3. On Wednesday and Friday Kaylia goes to "Workpower" from 9 till 3. This is an employment training group that aims to improve her skills ready for work.
These activities give me a good break to tackle my own interests .... it makes me feel as if I am actually retired! Much of this revolves around Bob the Beast. This week I've been constructing the mounting frame to fit my new winch to the front of the vehicle. I still don't have engineering approval to allow it to be licensed. The delays just seem to keep coming ..... each time I jump one hurdle, another pops up to delay things further. It's very frustrating.
Kaylia is quite excited ..... she's going to a Halloween party tomorrow night! The party is being arranged by Workpower .... this is the group that are doing 2 days per week of training to improve her skills in the areas that are needed for employment. Tomorrow night we will drop her off for the party and pick her up afterward. (She will have a support worker to help her at the party.)
An added benefit of this party is that Naomi and I will have a night out to ourselves! This will be the first time in a number of years as it has been a long time since we've had support where we feel confident in leaving her.
I had a nice parcel today .... a winch for Bob
Tonight was another "UH OHHH!" ........ several stacks of her DVD collection came down ..... the floor was completely covered in coloured plastic. So it was "Fill up the cartons .... we can take them back on Saturday. I'm not sure that the op shops will thank us when we flood their stocks!
Tonight was a minor celebration ...... early this year when we were applying for Kaylia's disability pension, Centrelink approved her pension .... but suspended my age pension! So it's been 6 months of very little income ...... and tonight they advised that my pension will resume (Yay!) and the date of resumption is the date it was suspended! Even better as there should be a beaut bit of backpay. It will clear the credit cards that I've had to live on.
The saga of Bob the Beast continues...... I took it to a different engineering shop yesterday to get a small job done. But not only was the little job not done ... they informed me that in their opinion Bob would not be approved because the body was rigidly fixed to the chassis! That then led to a day of heartache and research. In my initial over-reaction I assumed that I might as well sell Bob.
My research then took me to the Dept of Transport Technical people who stated that they have no requirement for the body to be rubber mounted! The Landrover Series 2a vehicle (as originally built) was always rigidly fixed ..... so according to DOT Bob is OK. (They said that it's up to the opinion of the engineer. So I have to "shop around" and find an engineer who agrees.
The drive today was "East ... York" We didn't go all the way. About half way to York there's a small area of national park .... with a high spot. This is the view from Mt Observation looking east toward York
Saturdays follow a set pattern ..... Naomi goes off to work while Kaylia and I sleep in! Then we eventually get up and the first item .... after breakfast etc .... is a drive to Ellenbrook where Kaylia is able to visit the first op shop of the weekend. (It's only on weekends that she is allowed to buy DVDs.) Then K and I have lunch and head home. Naomi comes home then and we all head off to the next two op shops .... more DVDs at each ..... then home again. I then have about two hours of shed time!
Today I'm servicing the Subaru .... oil change, new brake disc pads and a new front axle. The disc rotors are ok but I'll replace them next time the pads have to be replaced.
The shed is very satisfying place for me as I've got it well organised and I know where to find each tool that's needed. I have a good selection of equipment and it's unusual for me to find that I don't have the tools needed. This weekend is the annual "verge collection" so we've been carting everything possible up to the road verge ready for the shire collection.
Bob ..... I'm still waiting for the next inspection by the engineer. The process (of gaining the issue of a certificate) must be nearing completion because each time the items that need to be fixed are more and more finicky! This certificate is required before I can have the vehicle inspected for registration. I've been working on this for 9 months now. I'm thinking that I'll be doing well to have Bob road-worthy before Christmas.
During the past few days I've constructed a storage compartment under the body. This is made of sheet aluminum and the space is accessed from inside the body. Eventually I plan to make another plus fit a water storage system. The compartment that I've just made is to house the built-in air compressor and all the tyre tools.
The rain is fairly constant! I don't think we've had this sort of weather for many years. It's very welcome. Around the yard the water table is clearly very high with water flowing from underground streams.
Yesterday was one of those days when the care arrangements all fell through so Kaylia and I went for another long drive ..... we drove up to Toodyay then north along the Bolgart road .... then turned west till we came out 10km north of Bindoon. The drive was through very good farm land .... then lots of state forest ..... then more farm land.
