April 29, 2009 at 8:39 pm (general mutterings)
I never knew chickens could speak English … until last night.
At exactly 2:49 am I was woken to the sound of a screamed “help, HELP”.
It was coming from outside and I realised it was one of my chooks …and that the dark shape slinking around their cage was a fox.
(well at first I fixed my myopic eyes on what I thought was the fox only to discover that it was just a shadow and the actual fox was sitting much closer to the window I was looking out of).
Their cage is really quite sturdy
…and yet I worried about my hens.
So I did what any self-respecting woman would do in the middle of the night – I poked hubby until he woke up and told him to go and sort out the kerfuffle.
So her turned on the flood lights and went back to bed … ’cause you know how much foxes hate floodlights right????
Apparently they aren’t too bothered by floodlights because it was back within minutes. This time I had a good view of it poking a paw through the mesh to try and hurt my beloved Henrietta.
So I poked hubby in the side yet again.
This time hubby barricaded the cage.
He was asleep within minutes but I spent an hour listening for sneaky Mr Fox to come back …. thankfully he didn’t and the hens were OK.
But why I’m sharing this story is because of my 6 yo beautiful, loving daughter’s reaction:
“Mum, I’m going to trap the fox tonight. Then I’ll spear it do death with a stick, chop off its tail and bum it over the fence”
WTF!!!!
I’ve raised a psychopath!
(No idea why she wants its tail and not really sure what “bumming it over the fence” means either).
Strange child must take after her father…..
7 Comments
April 24, 2009 at 8:42 pm (educational mutterings, general mutterings)
Tags: cancer, acoustic neuroma, teaching stuff
I’ve been studying for my Dip Ed you see.
Working hard. As my brother has said, its the first time in my life when I’ve actually had to *study* for something instead of pulling stuff our of my arse like I usually do.
Its been worth it though (warning – shameless bragging follows):
So far I’ve submitted 3 assignments and received a 6+ (didn’t know you could get a “+” , a solid 6 and a *7* (the scale runs from 1-7 with grades under and including 3 being failing grades and then increasing from a pass (4) to a credit (5), a distinction (6) and a high distinction (7) …
So I’m one fairly happy girl right now.
At least I would be if I could stop dreaming about Essential Learnings and sequencing lessons on time measurements for maths…… (yep – I’m fun like that).
In other news, Dad had his MRI today. No results yet, but he said he could hear the clunking in his head for hours after the test was over.
Please God let the tumour be small like they think it is…..
5 Comments
April 19, 2009 at 5:15 pm (Life can be hard sometimes)
Tags: cancer, prayer
Thanks Magic Quilter for asking about my Dad.
I’ve been meaning to write an update but am not really sure where to start.
The good news is that the cancer is very slow growing. the other good news is that the really bad balance was caused by an ear infection and not the tumour. The other good news is that the chance of fitting is very slim so Dad can still drive (he’s not a bad driver at all).
The bad news is that an operation probably won’t fix anything and has a 20% chance of causing a stroke … and Dad is a good candidate for a stroke.
The neurosurgeon has said its 50-50 as to whether he’ll operate as there’s every chance that it won’t cause any further effects for another 10 years … which will make dad about 84…. and there’s a fair chance that Dad could end up worse off.
BUT
Nobody will really know until after an MRI which isn’t for another couple of weeks AND a visit with an ENT specialist to see if there’s any other considerations to help make the decision on risk of op Vs risk of leaving tumour alone.
I think Dad is leaning towards not having the surgery and I can’t say I blame him. Still, he’s waiting to see what the results of the MRI and the ENT guy say before making a final decision.
BUT a big thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers. I know I’ve been slack in responding, but I’ve really been avoiding thinking how I feel about it all. Its the realisation that my parents are starting to get old. My family has good genes for living well into their 90s so its a bit of a shock for me to have to consider that a man of 74 can be considered “old”.
7 Comments
April 13, 2009 at 9:06 am (Life can be hard sometimes)
Tags: cancer, stress, prayer, acoustic neuroma
has an acousitc neuroma.
If you are going to get a brain tumour, this is the one to have ….apparently.
…and given that the symptoms include going deaf, having raging tinnitus, being wobbly on your pins, and periodically complaining of motion sickness *whilst not actuality in a vehicle* and hurling your guts up we probably should have worked out that he had a problem many years ago.
Dad’s been deaf in one ear for years. But aside from a complete inability to whisper and a penchant for only catching half a conversation, we thought it just went with the territory of having worked with noisy equipment for half his life.
The tinnitus? …same thing.
The dodgy pins? Well he tore the ligaments off his left knee about 8 years ago so no wonder he was getting a bit wobbly. Not to mention the three rounds of major abdominal surgery he had last year making him a bit weak.
But now that I really look at him and not tune out when he whinges* about stuff I am noticing that he’s really *really* dodgy on his pins:
- He couldn’t walk up the hill to our front steps last week and that never used to bother him.
- He was walking around the front of my car as I reversed out the driveway a few weeks back and he had to grab the wall of the house so as not to fall over. I thought he was still struggling a bit from the major surgery he had at Christmas time … but as it turns out he’d been looking at my car as he was walking and as soon as his point of reference started moving, his balance gave way.
Tomorrow, he sees the neurosurgeon. I’m hoping and praying that the news is all positive. I hate to ask again, but please keep any spare prayers and good thoughts flowing in the direction of my Dad.
*He does go on about his health like a hypochondriac … but annoyingly when he says things like “I think my bowel is blocked” or “I think I have a brain tumour” … he is actually right … I mean there’s no family-humour-pay-out-on-him value in that.
9 Comments
April 9, 2009 at 5:08 pm (general mutterings)
I’m breathing almost normally again….. It seems the tumour is benign but enormous. This means he’ll have to have surgery and radiotherapy but its curable (we hope).
8 Comments
