Getting Better

I got up this morning and walking past the toilet, I saw a big, black spider scuttling across the floor so I stomped on it in my slippered feet and made sure it was dead. The other day, there had been a spider in the corner of the ceiling in the loungeroom and I had left it alone and now I don't know where it is. It wasn't the same spider because the one I killed was black, not brown but from now on, I am not going to hesitate when I see a spider although Nathan said that daddy-long-legs keep the bad spiders away. I haven't seen any daddy long leg spiders around. Snakes and spiders are not things one wants to come across in Australia as 9 out of 10 of the most venomous snakes in the world live in Australia and there are also deadly spiders too.

Milly caught her first mouse the other day. It was getting on dark and I thought her tongue looked strange so called her over to me. She proudly presented the mouse and dropped it on the back doorstep. Not being well, I showed little interest in it so she took it away and played with it on the grass.

I had some friends come and stay over on Tuesday night as they were travelling back to Victoria. I had a lovely time with them and reminded them how freezing cold it gets down south. We were rugged up that night, under a throw rug complaining about the cold when we realized that the temperature was a 'maximum' for Victoria's day time weather. Winter is lovely up here as you can see by the photo taken 4 days ago. It can get cold at night but after a spate of freezing night temperatures the week I was away, it hasn't been that bad. Then again, we are only half way through winter. I managed to get caught up on mowing the yard last weekend but will probably need to mow it again in another couple weeks.

After my friends left on Wednesday morning, I threw a load of washing in the machine and as I had a pretty bad headache, headed for bed until it was done. Unfortunately, the headache was just the beginning of a gastro virus and I only got up after that, to use the bathroom. The clean and wet washing stayed in the washing machine for a couple of days although I had opened the lid. I didn't care what happened to it. I didn't have the energy to care about anything, even the dishes in the sink. I slept and ached and slept. Yesterday morning, after 3 days of being sick, I declared myself 'well' on Facebook and then my stomach churned again and half an hour after being up, I was back in bed again. It is no fun being sick and it is even worse when you are on your own. While most of the time I was too sick to care, there were times when I wished for someone to care for me. Left alone with my memories and thoughts, it was hard to be positive.

At one 'well' moment during that period, I went to check emails and delete useless emails from my yahoo account which I rarely use. While I was there, I read a few emails Dave had sent me and that made me cry some more and wish he was there with me. All our hopes and dreams, our decisions and our plans were shattered when he passed away and I still miss him every day. I was watching a TV show and a young girl asked someone, "How do you get over the loss of a loved one?" and the reply was so true, "You don't ever get over it. They remain a part of you forever and you learn to live without them." (or something like that.)

I was wondering what to do with my 'egg chair'. When I had it on the back verandah, Milly had thought it was worth chewing on and when I realized this, (after seeing bits of white thread pieces all over the ground) I put the basket into the shed so that she couldn't get at it but left the metal frame outside. Before my friends arrived, I decided to move it to the corner in the front porch. It is a great place for it and I use it for reading and even watching the sun set. I am so glad I thought of it. Before my friends left, they put the bulls-horns on the rear window of my car and it is bright pink. I like it even though it was bigger than I first thought and takes up the whole window. My brother-in-law Dan said when he saw the photo "Looks like a lot of bull to me... kind of a feminine bull at that!" which made me laugh. I miss him and the rest of Dave's family, too.

Now that I am well again, I will need to catch up on my studies. I'm only half a week behind as I had started the module for the advanced counseling subject but I had planned on getting ahead because all too soon, I will be teaching full-time again and then will have limited time to work on my course. Well, the sun is out and I am feeling 90-95% better so things are looking brighter. Maybe I will go and eat my lunch on the front porch and perhaps read for a bit, in my hanging basket/egg chair.