Author: Splinter

My dog Monty had to leave us today. After a few weeks of treatment for degenerative disc disease. This is where there is calcification and fluid build up around the discs in his spine. Today he lost complete movement and control on both of his back legs. Treatments have been unsuccessful and the next option was full back surgery on the three locations along his spine. The chances of this being successful were low and with his poor response to the general aesthetic when the x-ray was done we decided it was better to let him go quietly.

So today ends over 10 years of our time together.

Monty as he just a year ago.

As he was on my lap watching TV with me.

As a puppy with a full coat, easy to see why we fell in love with him.

Between 6:30 and 9:00pm last night we had some very savage storms that included nearly 40mm of rain and winds up to 30km/h.  All in all we got off pretty well, no broken trees, roof tiles gone and no garden furniture in the neighbours yard.  The Garage/Shed leaked but it always does.

However just before bed I went to put my shoes in my wardrobe to discover the floor was wet.  Further inspection showed that the entire contents of my wardrobe was wet.  All my hanging clothes, all my shoes, all my jumpers and hats.  So our dining room looks like a walk-in wardrobe now and we are trying to dry things out.  This morning I checked the roof and gutter near that wall and pulled out two handfuls of leaf litter, not much but must have been enough to stop the flow during the heavy downpour.

Firstly an apology to all for not updating this blog in a long time.

I have been spending a lot of time on the Electric Motorcycle Blog so this site has been neglected.  My new job and my electric bike has been taking a lot of my time and so my photography and other projects have been put on the back burner.  Dani has also been sick for the last few months, finally the doctors figured it out and took out her gall bladder.  Dani is now recovering but everything looks good.

At work we are doing a major refresh and redesign of a system that will save approx $350,000 a month!  This is why I got into this job to make a difference by doing sensible architecture and doing it right.

So I am home today not feeling too well and it is all my own fault.  On Saturday while getting stuff ready to go to the recycling center I bumped my head.  Doesn’t sound to bad does it.  Well I bumped my head on the latch of the garage door, you know that sharp angular piece of metal that hangs just a little lower than the rest of the door.

So there I am sitting on the ground with a small amount of blood saying very nasty things.  Dani helped me inside and I placed an ice pack on the spot for about an hour.  I had only grazed the skin no real wound, just one heck of a bruise.  Later that day I felt fine but Sunday I had an extremely bad headache and doing anything just made it worse.

Monday morning I felt fine and went to work.  Monday afternoon another large headache and home early, same on Tuesday.  I saw the doctor yesterday and although nothing major is wrong, no bleeding, no clots and no breaks she gave me the rest of the week off to relax at home.  Apparently even with  mild concussion I may be getting headaches for a couple of weeks…  wonderful.

After 13 years with my current employer I am moving on.  I have the opportunity to join a new team within one of our Federal Government Departments and make a significant difference to the computing systems and software development methodologies.

So far this year has flown by, quantity of work and pressures to deliver on time has not given me much time to do much other than work and live.  I have started work on an electric bike but effort has been limited to about 4 – 8 hours a week.

Dani is currently up in Queensland organising her fathers funeral with her sister and brothers.  Life has been more than full for both of us this year.  I am glad to have Dani with me though it all.  I hope I have given her the same support.

In the next week or two I should have some major news. Stay tuned.

Ok so for the last couple of months I have been run down and feeling a little overwhelmed.  After a little prompting from my wife I made a doctors appt.  My doctor sent me off to get a series of blood test.  One week later I had the results.

So my cholesterol is fine, my thyroid is fine, actually it all came back good.. except for one measure my vitamin D level was low very low, near the “significant deficiency” level.

So I am taking 1000mg of vitamin D every day, hoping to feel better soon.

My son left a note for Santa last night. He didn’t tell us he was going to do it and he was very hi-tech about it.  On his bedside table he left his DS running with the chat program up. The message “Hi Santa” written large on the screen. What was I to do, ignore it? write a response?

So I left a short “Hi xxxx, I am glad you have been good.”

He was so happy this morning, even before the gifts.