Missing the action

One of the things I sometimes do is take photos for my swamp blog. (I used to have it on my blogroll but since changing skins I don't seem to be able to have a blogroll anymore, which is a bit sad.) I'm sure no-one else is interested in the swamp blog but me, but I really enjoy looking at it. I must have over 100 photos so far, and no two are the same, which I find totally amazing. I think my kids think the whole swamp blog marks me as mildly odd, but that's okay. I'll take mildly odd over dull and predictable any day. And to be honest, I don't think it's odd at all. I think it's fascinating. (But maybe that does just mark me as a major sad case.)

So, what I hate is when I see some weather anomaly, and I'm not close enough to the swamp to capture it. Tonight it was an unusual sunset, seen when we were descending the Westgate Bridge. Here it is -- would have been the right direction to capture it and all. Never mind.

Now it's me...

falling apart. Today, I lost half of a tooth. I was eating something I shouldn't (of course!) -- some Toblerone -- and said to my son, "Ooh, it's got a bone in it." And of course we both thought this was a bit silly, so then I thought it must be a stone -- only my tongue found this new sharp object in my mouth. Yuck. Lots of new sharp angles -- quite uncomfortable, but the good news is that the nerve isn't exposed. That's the worst thing. I've had teeth play up that hurt when I opened my mouth to speak because the air temperature was cooler than the air temperature in my mouth. This isn't actually hurting, and it's a second-back tooth, so I'm spared the embarrassment of not being able to open my mouth in public. Which is good because I have work commitments and won't be able to get to the dentist for a few days.

In the meantime, as far as the house roundup goes: I have no idea what's happening with the fence. Our neighbours are in a rental property and had contacted the estate agent, and the owner wants to make all the arrangements because he can claim it on his tax. Only we don't know what's going on. And if I'm at work I'll have to make arrangements for my dogs.

In between doing stuff for work today, I've been to the movies to see In the shadow of the moon, and I am just ... WOW! Oh, I have been a space geek for as long as I can remember -- largely because I am just old enough to remember the moon landings, and the huge effect that had on my life. I remember visiting NASA (in Houston, at the Cape, at Langley...) and at Houston, the audience being quizzed -- "Which American made the first space walk?" and muttering "Ed White" under my breath -- knowing all the answers and being too shy to put up my hand, and the guy doing the quizzing being disappointed that no-one knew any of this stuff. Oh, my God. I was as excited to be in those places -- and to visit the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian -- as I was to visit Tintagel in England. Ask my mum about me in any of those places... Pigs in shit and all of that! Walking on an orange gantry! Running my hand along a Saturn V! Is that heaven, or what?

Our birds

I've blogged a bit about our birds lately, and thought it must be time I posted some photos. None of finches because we don't have them anymore. But above are our quails -- you can see three adults (two grey and one brown) and three babies (both grey) if you look carefully. The brown male got away while I was at Philip Island -- that was the Gadget Man's fault -- actually most of our escapees are due to the Gadget Man! The quails are quite amazing because they emerge from their eggs with feathers and running around, though with the awkwardness at first of new foals, but quite unlike canaries, which are featherless, have their eyes closed and just sit there and cheep for food.

And seeing as I had my head in the aviary and the zoom on to get close to the birds, below is one of our canaries too! None of the birds are particularly tame, so they don't let anyone too close. This year we've only had one baby canary survive. Their were plenty of eggs, but the finches kept rolling them out of the nests.

Forgot to take a photo of the pigeon -- it must've been in hiding in the foliage -- but it's only a temporary resident while its wing heals.

Crisis after crisis

Earlier this year we had the solar heating on our pool fixed. Then our pool broke. Today, someone came to pressure-test the pool pipes. (Man, these pools drain a lot of money!) No major leakage, so next we need a structural test. This is before anything is fixed.

Last week our hot water service blew up. We did want to go solar, because it's more environmentally friendly, but the 5 k price tag put us off. Well, put us out of the running, really. You can get a rebate, but it was still beyond us.

Our washing machine is dying. One wash now takes two hours, and requires manual intervention a couple of times at least per load.

And today our fence blew down. Did we do something to offend someone upstairs? lol. It does seem one thing after another at the moment. Last year it was our fridge, just after buying a new computer...

Yeah, these things happen to the best of us, and it would be nice if the daily living bills: car insurance, rego, hot water, gas etc could just take a rest, but they never do. I suppose now I know what I'm working for... But wouldn't it be nice to actually save some money?

Yeah, I shouldn't whinge. It's just life, right? Grist to the writing mill.