Playing Nurse

Two weeks ago Taylor went in to one of the local surgical centres for his hernia repair operation. I had the job of picking him up and getting all of the briefing from the nurses there with the post-op care - Nurse Kayger (they used my real name of course) as they called me!
Thankfully Mum and Dad have both had similar surgeries in the past, so I know all about keeping the painkillers up and not letting them lapse, etc., and I also had first hand experience with running around doing things for the said patient, helping them of and on the couch and being a general "lean on" support if they needed it when they walk for the first day or so afterwards. Those abdominal surgeries must hurt (rather them than me!) and you can't easily use your stomach muscles - hence the need to support them when the stand up and sit down again.

It was exhausting, I'll be completely honest. He sorta seemed to flick between my house and his Mum's house for the first couple days. Simply because I was working and no-one could be around 24/7 and he got bored very quickly. The likes of my family would just relax with a book or watch some movies but he's an active/physical hobby person rather than a sit and read a book sort of person, so it was difficult keeping him occupied...
But I would drop him at his Mum's, then go to work. Then a few hours after my afternoon milking finished he would call and ask me to pick him up so he could stay with me, much preferring to hang out with me than at his Mum's for some reason. On the way there or back I'd stop in at his house to feed the kittens - a daily occurrence, which was fine. But with driving back and forth for work, then doing so much extra driving, making sure he was taking the right painkillers at the right time, along with doing life in general was super tiring. Not that I minded, but I do believe I won't be taking up nursing any time soon!
He's had two weeks off now, but this week he has been allowed to drive again and can run after himself which has given me a bit of a much needed break!

We went and saw Beauty and the Beast on Monday as it was my day off. I've never seen the original animated version, or read the book so I didn't really know the story line, however I was determined that we were going to see it, so we went. Hmm. Yep. So uh, if you haven't seen it, and you intend to and don't want a spoiler, perhaps skip this section.
They wouldn't stop singing. And I mean singing. Whenever they had an issue, they'd sing about it. At first it was OK, then after a while I felt myself wanting the lazyboy chair to swallow me whole because I knew Tay would be hating it! Especially when I found it a little awkward and over the top. It was more like a musical than anything, in saying that it was a good movie. But as I was told afterwards..."It's definitely a YOU sort of movie, isn't it?!" It was more of a movie I'd see with Chantelle, and not really one I'd see again. But it was a pleasant film.




Then he was super sweet and bought me a chocolate bunny for Easter - never had a proper bunny before!

There were a fair few dramas to be had for Mum and Dad with fencing this week. When they began to move Kermit, the tractor, from one job to the next a filter or a seal burst, spraying transmission oil all over the road for a short distance. The guy who came to repair the damage to the tractor seemed to think a stick must've gone through it somehow, causing the incident. They tried contacting the council to come clean up the road, but after a couple hours of them not turning up they got in touch with the local police and chief of the local fire brigade. They said it was odd, hearing the fire brigade siren, calling all the volunteers to work, knowing it was coming for them! They closed the road and spread some sort of kitty litter on the road to soak up the oil, rather exciting really, however I just got to see all the photos!
Then on Tuesday when the rain began, Dad somehow managed to bust the leaf springs on the big trailer when he was carting materials to a job. That night an accident was on the main route home, so he took one of the gravel back roads instead. We couldn't understand what was taking him so long (as we can keep an eye on eachothers' whereabouts on the family iPhone link app - for safety reasons). Turns out he got a puncture on one of the ute tyres, so had to change it in the dark, in the rain. Poor him! So many dramas!

As Wednesday was not very pleasant at all, and I was already headed north that morning to take my car for a warranty repair (the plastic surrounds on one of the back door handles had broken), Dad decided it'd be a full day off due to the weather so they could head north too to sort all the repairs that needed dealing with.
I dragged Taylor along for the ride up there, otherwise I'd have been on my own and I went to Specsavers while I was up there for my biannual check up. I've been having a fair amount of difficulty with my eyes lately, getting not very pleasant headaches every day and it's hard to drive some days too. Thank goodness, with the purchase of my car I got a free AA Membership for a couple years meaning my $60 eye exam is free every two years. Yay! As it happens, in the last two years my seriously bad right eye sight is declining rapidly. The optometrist explained how they work in quarters. Two years ago my right eye was a 3.5 figure, now it's a 4.5 figure. If it had changed by about 0.25 I guess it would've been ok but it's changed by a whole 1. Not great - especially as it's not exactly an age deterioration, and I need new glasses again. I guess this is going to be an every two year issue I'll need to deal with!
Now it has gotten to the stage that the right lens is getting too thick, which effects the frames I can use. I'll soon have to start paying an extra fee to get the lens "thinned", then it won't be too heavy for the frame or look ridiculously obvious either. It seems this eye will plaque me for the rest of my existence! Specsavers are great with their two for one deals, meaning I got my new glasses and sunglasses for just $299. Thanks Specsavers! I'm going to start donating my old glasses to the Lions Club, who pass them onto a foundation who get them overseas to less fortunate people who need them, quite a good idea, that.


The final installment of The Fast and the Furious came out yesterday, so we watched that while we were up there. It was great, if anyone needs any encouragement to go see it :)

The weather around home was rather intense yesterday, so I hear. I wasn't home all day so it's the mentions of road closures on facebook that let me know. Nick was great, as he didn't have any work at all yesterday he offered to do my afternoon milking so I didn't have to rush home in time for it. Then this morning I was meant to work with Taylor's boss and milk on that farm. But the other guy who relief milks there, and has been for the last couple weeks while Tay's been off sick, got in touch with me last night saying that he was rained off work (he's in building) and that he could milk this morning if I didn't want to do it. I've never been so happy to hand over work! Especially in this weather! I would've had to start at 4:15am and get the cows in, in the pouring rain. But instead I got a sleep in! As it happens, they seem to think that Cyclone Cook hasn't even really started yet, we're just getting the weather from the outskirts of the storm. It's due to get much, much worse and they might even shut the almighty Harbour Bridge if the winds get too strong.
It's hard not to get complacent when we've had heaps of rain for the last month or so, every week there's a big downpour causing flooding, this has so far seemed rather innocent and placid compared to one a couple weeks ago, it's hard to believe it's meant to get worse.

Last night's training I skipped due to the weather. During the school term our training nights have had to be changed to start at about 8-8:30, finishing at about 10pm because the gym/hall is being used by a dance class and a ballet class at our normal time of 6pm. So I didn't want to be on the road at that time of night, if it was going to be nasty.
However the two weeks prior when I have gone, they've put me in as Centre, it's a great position to play. I find that I can cope with all of the different warm ups - last week warmups were very ball oriented, all about catching/throwing and landing correctly, keeping focused on where the ball is etc. Then we split into our two actual teams so we could learn to work with our own team in a half game. Then we played the proper game with me as our team Centre. There's just so much running around to do as a centre, and it's hard throwing the ball out to begin with, as the wing attack on my team I'm aiming for often loses it to the wing defense from the opposing team, so I'm prepared to run forward and help work the ball up the court, only for the ball to suddenly be working it's way in the opposite direction. It's exhausting, very hot in the gym without airflow in there, but fun nonetheless!

We're getting hoodies too, with our names on them that we get to keep for ourselves. They're $55, but I've always wanted a team jersey. One guess what name I asked to be put on mine?!

My poor chocolate bunny is suffering a major loss of body. He he, oops! Keeping a rabbit's foot is meant to be lucky - isn't it?