Monday, August 21, 2006

Spring is in the Air

We've had another busy week at home. Flat out all last week at work, football on Saturday and Alex's team won 38-0 against Tumut, and we went to the circus on Saturday night. Today I've enjoyed the day at home from work. Washed all morning, but leisurely. It was a beautiful day out and this afternoon I drove over to a friend's house. All along the road were blossom trees in white, pink and dark pink. It was lovely, and even more so because it's still a couple of weeks till Spring. It was nice just to enjoy it all.

Alex isn't required to go to Albury for the athletics carnival so I get tomorrow off too. I might go to Wagga and wander the shops without the kids. I rarely get the chance to do that, and when they come with me it's a constant battle to hang on to my money. They're both still prone to tantrums when they can't get their own way, even if it is in the middle of the shopping centre.

Lauren said that Zeke is starting to get a bit of a temper, and I warned her that it only gets worse. How you nip it in the bud when they're little I'd like to know. Carly is staying at her father's house tonight and it's been peaceful without the raised voices and arguments.


Here's my dribbly little grandson, Zeke. He's 14 months old now and starting to run all over the place.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

A Busy Week in Junee

Tonight I'm sitting on our new lounge and it's just so comfortable that I'm on the laptop instead of being stuck in the bedroom on the computer chair. Our old lounge is still in the lounge room too so it's a little crowded. Lauren and Daniel are coming over on the weekend to pick it up. Looks like I won't get out of re-covering it after all. Lauren will want it re-covered for sure, and I'll at least have to help her.

Work has been flat out this week. I have a questionnaire from the Department of Planning that has to be completed by the end of the month, with questions about approval times and costs for every development application that came in last financial year. I have pages and pages of notes, but actually getting the time to sit down and do it seems to be the hard part. I've organised to have next Monday and Tuesday off and with the work I already have waiting for me tomorrow, there's no way I'm going to get to it. I'll bring it home tomorrow night and try to work on it at home, but time is a rare commodity at home too. I've had a map-making week. It's been fun, but very time-consuming, and because I don't make maps very often, I'm stumbling around in the program to do what I'm asked. The end result is always very rewarding though, so I struggle on.

Saturday is the first round of the finals for the Junior Rugby League competition and I think we're off to Tumut. There or Temora, Alex will find out for sure tomorrow. In a fortnight the touch football summer competition starts, and there'll be a couple of weeks overlap. The same thing happened last year.

Originally, I took the couple of days off because Alex thought he had to go to Albury next Tuesday for the Riverina stage of the school athletics carnival. I told him today that I could drive him there and he informed me that he didn't qualify after all. He came second on the day for shotput, but someone else must have thrown longer than him. He was disappointed. I'm not, because I get a real day off after all. One day when I can just potter around home, or get stuck into a bloody questionnaire that's haunting me. I'm waking up in the morning and it's the first thing I think about.

At least I'm not waking up any more and Graham is my first thought. He's not even my last thought at night any more, and though some nights when I'm trying to go to sleep I do think about him and his fucked decision to end it all, I guess it's true what they say about time healing wounds. It's been nearly 2 months and I guess I've come to terms with it. Mum also said that she has stopped crying when she goes to bed at night. I don't even want to think about how I would feel if it had been my son. Being my brother was bad enough.

I took Alex and Carly to the cemetery last Saturday when we were in Wagga. I told Mum that visiting cemeteries wasn't my thing, but I ended up there anyway. We didn't stay long. I straightened a little rag doll that one of his girl's must have put there, probably Shannon, and watered a pansy-looking plant that was in a little pot. Grass is starting to grow over the dirt and it looks cared for. I just had a sudden impulse to visit Graham and I'm glad I acted on it. An old friend of Dad's died the same week as Graham and is buried in the same row. A guy David works with told him that Graham is in a good "street" at the cemetery and has neighbours that he knows. I don't know if he was trying to be funny or comforting. Knowing the guy, he was probably serious.

Anyway Graham, I hope you're resting in peace.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Our New Lounge

We had a weekend off from football so this morning the kids and I went to Wagga and bought a new lounge. I can't wait to get it home, they'll be delivering it on Wednesday and will ring me at work so I can fly home and let them in. I'm looking forward to it.

I met a friend from Junee that I haven't seen in ages and we got to talking, and I showed her MY new lounge. We sat there for a good half an hour, and the kids joined us on the other chairs, making ourselves very comfortable in the shop.

It was nice to think that soon I'll be able to sit and talk to friends at home without feeling a little embarrassed at the state of the lounge. I've had a roll of 30 metres of material looking at me from the corner of the room for about 2 years now. It's a big job to re-cover the damn thing, and this way I'll get out of it. I don't even feel guilty about it.

We caught up with Lauren and Emily and Zeke, then with David and Pauline, and Alex was rapt because we just caught the bike shop before it closed. He wanted new grips for his bike, and some new brake pads, and paid for them with his own money that I think he felt proud of doing.

It was such a beautiful day. Spring is only 3 weeks away and already the plum and almond trees are in full blossom. It's nice to see everything green again: a big contrast from 7 months ago when the bushfires raged through here. Some of the trees will never come back, and it's now easy to see which ones they are.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Junee Schoolboy Football Carnival

We had a full day of football today. 150 teams converged on Junee for the annual Schoolboy Carnival. The weather was nice and we had great day. Alex's team won all four of their games and came home with the pennant. They've won it four times out of the last five years. I volunteered to score for an hour and was still scoring two hours later. It looked like the whole town turned out to support the carnival. Mum and Reg were there, and Braidy and Kyle with Julie's mother. I saw heaps of people that I haven't seen for ages. We got there at 8.30 this morning and didn't leave until 5.30. It was a long day, and started to get quite cold by 4.30 when the shadows started getting long. Alex is worn out and so am I.

This week has been another hectic one. It's my turn to prepare the monthly Business Paper at work and that always makes for a stressful couple of weeks until the Council meeting. Carly has been sick all week with the flu and a throat infection and she spent a few days home from school. Alex had one day home with a sore throat. They're both better now and I managed to avoid catching anything. They must be better because the fighting has started in earnest again.

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