There Is Always something To Do!

All the forms have now been sent away for my Pension, except my birth certificate because it is still to be posted up from Melbourne.

There is always something to do. I have been a little busy with the Community Association website. There are photos to take and to put online. This week is a Newsletter delivery week and I have over 100 A3 newsletters to fold and deliver. This was all done yesterday morning.

There was another 'brew' to put on as well. The brew was put on Tuesday and I washed bottles today. They are almost dry right now.

I had a call for help from an older couple regarding their PC. I don't know what people do to their computers sometimes. I recently disinfected this one from a nasty virus but then about a week later it seems it got reinfected again. The anti-virus on it has been disabled, Windows Firewall settings can't be changed and you can't get on the internet!

It is a fairly new PC without much on it so I will reformat it for them next week. They only have a wireless dongle for the internet connection so I am getting them to bring it around here where there is a decent connection. You will need an internet connection so Windows 7 can update.

I re did Tricia's Caloundra Arts Centre association website in a different template this morning. I prefer this one but Trish isn't too keen.

The old original version is HERE.

The newer version I did is HERE.

Last night we went to the local Thai restaurant with one of my friends from Computer Club and his partner. We had a great time and enjoyed the night very much. Trish has Trivia tonight so I will have the TV to myself.

The humidity has gone and we are enjoying normal (if not a little cooler) summer weather. The pool temp has fallen with the cooler weather and is again refreshing to swim in, especially after my 13+k bike ride this morning.

I'm Getting Old

Sometime next week I turn 65 years of age and become eligible for the pension. You have to put in a 'claim' to get the pension here. So I am putting in my 'claim'. The biggest mistake I have made recently has been to allow my passport to lapse. If I still had my passport all would be fine.

The document to prove who I am for my passport is called Schedule Two. It s like your Birth Certificate or "Extract" of Birth. So I was going to use my Certificate Two to prove who I was for my Pension Claim. This isn't good enough! A Current Passport is good enough and a Certificate Two is good enough to get a Passport but a Schedule Two isn't good enough to get the pension!

I think we will eventually get there though. I hope to have an 'original' Birth Certificate in about 10 days!

Did you know it took about 5 minutes to deal with an inquiry at Centrelink in Caloundra today. This means if you have 8 people in front of you in the Enquiry Queue, you will be seen in about 40 minutes. I had this happen to me twice! I spent over an hour queued up today!

The humidity here has been incredible the last few days. Recently the humidity reading in Maroochydore was 97%. Even running the air con all yesterday only saw the humidity drop to 65%. However the cool change (seen here in the photo left) rolled in about 8 am this morning .... just as I was finishing my bike ride. We have had a much cooler day today but it remains a bit sticky. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and that should wash all the humidity away.

Our One 'Cyclone Yasi' Legacy

The Sunshine Coast has fared fairly well following Cyclone Yasi hitting Australia on Wednesday. We didn't cop any extra rain or wind from the cyclone which is over Central Australia and is now classified as a rain depression. However yesterday the 'tail' of Yasi dropped "Queensland quantities" of rain on Victoria, especially its south eastern suburbs with some areas receiving over 7" (180mls) of rain.

The photo above left is from Mission Beach near where Yasi first crossed the coast. During our 8 month trip in the caravan some time ago we spent a week or two at Hull Heads 15k's south of Mission Beach. It was here I went fishing and caught mackerel, a day I will never forget. Hull Heads township now really doesn't exist! What wasn't blown away by Yasi has been swept away by the sea following the storm surge.

Sydney has experienced 6 consecutive days where the temperature hasn't dropped below 30 degrees, there are bushfires in Western Australia and the cleanup continues where Yasi first crossed the coast 1500k's away, just to the south of Cairns.

However the one legacy we have had here on the Sunshine Coast has been the level of humidity. It has been said our weather the last few days has been like what you would expect in Cairns. Our days have been extra sticky with humidity around the mid 70's which is very high even for here. The humid weather has been blown down to us from the north. Our ceiling fans have been working overtime and our pool has been a popular spot 24 hours a day!

Our big screen plasma TV is almost 5 years old now. Unlike LCD TV's, plasma TV's create quite a lot of heat. This is great in our cooler months but not so good right now in this hot humid weather!

I did my Blogger presentation at the Computer Club yesterday and afterwards I had several people say they were going to give blog pages a go! It was extremely hot in the hall where the Computer Club meets.

Meanwhile I popped into the local Aldi store on Thursday morning and picked up a High Definition Set Top Box which also has the ability to show my downloaded movies, and, can also 'record' TV shows to an attached USB drive. All of this for under $40. Trish has a small flat screen Standard Definition TV in her sewing room. She has an old VCR attached to it on which she records (on tape) some of the shows she likes. I set the box up there.

I was pretty impressed with what this little machine can do, the only downside was the poor remote control which came with it. I have an older "Harmony" universal remote control here so set it up as the remote for the new box. It does a great job. Trish isn't so sure!

We have had a couple of showers overnight and a few more are lingering this morning. This has given us a brief reprieve from the humidity. However we expect to get to 31 today and it will again be sticky. A south east change is due tomorrow which should blow the humid air away. It will still be around 30 degrees but it should be heaps more comfortable. It is raining again right now with a brief shower. The garden gets a quick water and the pool has been topped up and is now full again via the 'water diverter'.

Meanwhile thousands of kilometres away in Texas USA, Lou-Ann has been shut up in her home for several days now owing to the late winter snow! What an incredibly different way things can be in this world of ours!

The photo was taken in her front yard.

Friday Funnies

I am again doing a presentation at the Computer Club tomorrow about "Blogger" so this should get the session off to good start:


ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said , 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do..
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes , voodoo.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor , isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep , he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son , the 20-year-old , how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20 , much like your IQ.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you kidding me?
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them.. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral , OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not , he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________

And last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practising law.

All Is Quiet & Well On The Sunshine Coast

Despite the fierce cyclone currently devastating northern Queensland, all is quiet and serene here where we live. The weather has been extremely humid the last day or so and the waves at the beach are hitting record levels whipped up by the cyclone to the north.

Tropical Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast at least 300k's north of where the the cyclone from the weekend crossed. So this is about 1300k's north of us!

But we don't have any severe winds or downpours of rain.

We have minimal cloud overhead and the pool is up to 30 degrees now. It was so hot and sticky yesterday afternoon we relented and put the air conditioner on for 4 hours. During that time the humidity level in the lounge room plummeted from about 75% to 55%. About 8pm the outside temp was a comfortable 26.5 degrees so we turned off the air con and opened the house up.

A cool late night swim then into bed with the ceiling fan on full and we slept very well.

It has been a busy couple of days for me with the Community Association. There was a Committee Meeting on Monday night followed by an Airport Forum Meeting on Tuesday evening. Both of these events needed to be recorded on the website. Then I transferred much of the information from the website to the Newsletter which is due to be printed this weekend.

Trish has been to her usual Wednesday sewing group, she is doing the Information Centre this morning followed by Trivia again tonight. She has another sewing group tomorrow. During her spare time she does more work on the website she has designed for the Caloundra Arts Centre Association. You can see the latest version of the website HERE.

I washed bottles recently and bottled yesterday. I pressed a fan into service yesterday during the bottling. I even found time to begin my application for a pension for when I turn 65 in a couple of weeks. I am hopeful my brother Geoff is able to fly up during March for a visit too.

I have been riding most days but I have decided to give it a miss today. It is very sticky outside right now and I am driving Trish to the Info Centre at 9 am. I deserve a day's rest!