G'day,
Here's another post. But really I don't know why I bother sometimes. It seems like I am wasting my time here when I read lots of other peoples blogs and leave comments and very few people bother to even look at my blog. But then again I should go back to why I bother to write in here. Is it because I want to write or because I want something else. Ah well! A bit of both I suppose. How do I grow my blog. Any suggestions?
I had a lovely visit from my nephew Terry, his wife Linda and their daughter Olivia last weekend. Terry is the youngest son of my sister Thelma. He is 40 now I can't believe he is that age. Wow. He is also my son David's god father. We shared a meal. Mum, Linda and I shared a bottle of wine. Out of all the people in my family I think Terry gets my sense of humor and he can always make me laugh. Olivia is a quiet little girl but by the end of the day she was talking and laughing more and enjoying playing with our doggie, Rufus. I did the, "I will tell you some stories about your Dad when he was little" thing, and she really enjoyed that. It was nice to see that they seem to be working as a family so well together. They are from near Newcastle and were visiting on their way to the snow up at Jindabyne. It should have been good up there last weekend. News reports said that there was 2 ft of snow fell on Wednesday and Thursday.
In the news; Lots about the state of the Murray River. For anyone who does not know, the Murray is the biggest river in inland Australia. It runs from the mountains in the east of Victoria. It forms the border between the states of Victoria and N.S.W. and meets the sea in South Australia near Gawler. All of the inland rivers from the top of inland Queensland and through N.S.W. Victoria and South Australia, eventually drain into it. This makes it the biggest river system in our country. All the way along the east of the country. Along their paths they are dammed, sucked dry, diverted, dumped in and it all goes downstream into the Murray. All done for us!
So the Murray river system is in big trouble. It has been for decades, but it is now thought by some to be irreparable. The new labor govt. voted in last year is trying to do something about it, I hope it is not too late, but none the less they are going to try. It was an election promise they are following up with. A billion dollars has been allocated to do urgent repairs to try to salvage the river system. A huge job. I guess the biggest portion of the money will go to consultants to make them richer, but now I am being cynical.
Anyway, my beloved old Murrumbidgee River is one of the rivers that flows into the Murray. It runs through Canberra where I live now and also down stream through Wagga which is my home town.
There has been plans made to suck a bit more much needed water out of the bidgee to upgrade and enlarge Googong Dam, Canberra's water storage and supply for the future growth and development of the city.
Canberra's cut of the 1 billion dollar govt money, is to be put towards the building of a water treatment plant which will remove 80 tons of salts daily from Canberra's waste water that would otherwise be sent , as it is now, straight back into the Murrumbidge river. I was shocked when I read this. Then there are all the other towns along its path adding more and taking more. My dear old river!
I am no great brain so I don't have some wonderfully clever solution to our water problems, but isn't that, although a local solution of sorts, giving with one hand and taking back with the other? I guess it will be quite a while before all plans are actioned. Hmmm.
O.K. thats my rant for the day.
The oil light came on in my car the other day so I checked the oil when I came home and it was not even registering on the dip stick. Pete had a look and topped it up, and reckons the oil is leaking out from around the oil filter and when he looked it was loose. He reckons it is cross threaded. Nice since I had my car supposedly fixed of oil leaks just a month ago and it cost heaps. It is also staining the driveway of our rented house which will put us in the bad books with the real estate agent. Today I have to go back to the mechanic who fixed it and confront them. I hate confrontation. I am such a chicken when it comes to that sort of thing and I know I can easily be conned because of it. I will probably end up paying out more money. Which is very scarce at present.
Michael's driving is going along well. He is driving in the traffic quite well and even asking to drive. All is well except when he gets the gears mixed up and changes from 4th gear into 1st gear, like he did yesterday. Not too good for my poor old car nor for the surrounding traffic or my nerves, fun.
Bye. Love Linda.