Tuesday

Now Tuesday and hopefully if all goes well I will hear from the funeral director as to when the funeral will be and whether there will be a cremation. The hospital will hopefully have finished their formalities and release the body to the funeral director. If I don't hear from him today then hopefully tomorrow. I have exactly one week left of my vacation so hopefully the funeral will be before then although I won't have any problems getting time off work if need be, I do have Bereavement Leave, I took it for mother. It would be ironic if the funeral is set for Monday cos that was when mother's funeral was, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I guess Sally's funeral will be added to my growing list of eternally fresh and not-too-happy memories!!

I will keep myself busy today, going to the shops and running other errands. I have to remember that there will no longer be Sally's pension coming in on the Monday so I will need supplies to last me through to my Thursday payday. At the hospital they said I might be able to claim Bereavement Allowance as Sally was on a pension, but after contacting Centerlink it turns out that I earn too much. Basically it goes like this, the full rate of the Bereavement Allowance is about $700/fortnite and you can earn up to about $150 before they start reducing the amount at a rate of 50c per every dollar over the limit, so some simply maths establishes that my wages will be way above the limit where the allowance would be down to zero. As one would say, now I am single again I should have more disposable income, but reality is I still have these one-off expenses to deal with, the ambulance fees and then the funeral and other expenses associated with this whole thing, so it will be some time before I will start having some disposable income to enjoy. I have no credit card debts, just a small loan I had needed to take out to cover for Sally's ongoing medical expenses such as bandages and pads, and the repayments are relatively small and won't eat much of my fortnitely wages. Finance companies actually charges you a fee if you pay off the loans earlier, I guess to cover for the lost interest!! You'd think they'd be glad for me to pay off the loan earlier, but no, they are looking for the profits from the interest that I would be paying with each repayment!! Uh well as I said it is a relatively small repayment and I hopefully won't need any more loans as I no longer have to deal with medical expenses, and my utility bills, electricity, gas etc, will be lower as well. No more doing laundry 3 times per day so our gas bill from the hot water system will be way down, and my climate control requirements are far less than what Sally needed. Our winters are not cold so I never needed heating. While Sally needed the living room kept in furnace-like conditions due to her hypothermia, I was perfectly happy in my frigid computer room and bedroom, I never needed any heating at all. So the winter utility bill will be much lower also.

Then there are other matters that has been put on hold for two years that needs to be attended to. For example the car hasn't been serviced for over two years, and the hand-held control or "clicker" for the alarm has long since died despite a new battery being installed so the car has been without an alarm for much of that time. The trailer needs fixing to make it roadworthy again. And various other matters. Basically our lives has been put on hold for two years due to Sally's health issues, and well as money becomes available over the next few weeks and months I will be able to attend to such matters. The lease on our house runs until October so have plenty of time to get things sorted out there, then will decided whether I stay here, assuming the landlord doesn't want to sell the house or something. If I do move it will certainly be into a smaller place, I quite enjoy the apartment lifestyle, the only reason why we have been in detached bungalows on 1/4 acre blocks is cos Sally liked her space and privacy, she did not like apartment living at all !!!!

Anyway time to hit the boards running for this day.........

First Round

We're half way through the last quarter of the last match but Hawthorn has no chance from there. Therefore this first round have given me a 4-9 results in the tipping, better than I thought it would be prior to yesterday, indeed about the same as round 1 last year. It won't be enough for me to get back up into prize qualifications especially given the catastrophe that is my points variance but it is a respectable approx 50% given there were nine games. Hopefully just like last year I will at least finish in the top 50% of our office comp. Next week it will be Magpies and the Blues, always a good game......

April already

Uhhhh April already, and it happens to be the last day of Passover although Orthodox Jews often add an extra day for tomorrow. The Jewish tradition of adding an extra day to holidays dates back to the times when the lunar months were set by the priests in Jerusalem. The first crescent of the moon is the first of the month and is the reference point by which the holidays are set. When they observe the first crescent of the moon, messengers would be sent out to the various towns and villages in Israel declaring the new month, however it took them two days to reach the towns further away. So to ensure the correct days of the holidays are observed, they observed them over two days to cover for this possible discrepancy. Nowadays we live in the age of instant communications, computer calculations of lunar cycles, and indeed the Jewish calendar is set on a 19-year cycle as this is the cycle of the lunar phases against the solar cycle, they coincide every 19 years. However Jews being Jews like to keep their traditions in commemoration of days gone by so they continue with the tradition of observing holidays over two days - except for Yom Kippur since not many would be expected to fast for two days straight!!

I think Sally's spirit woke me up this morning, well I was laying awake for a while but this prompted me to get out of bed, a large knocking sound from INSIDE my bedroom which discounts any possible prowler activity outside or the house "just settling", it was a loud knocking sound on the dresser table located in the bedroom, followed by other sounds coming from the living room where Sally spent all her time. Being 5am and still dark one could say it was a burglar, but I always sleep with the lights on for this very reason - ghosts!!!! It soon became obvious there was no burglar!! Sally would leave the TV on all night as she slept in her recliner, so I leave the TV on all night and set it to mute when I go to bed, and also a night light in the laundry room near where the toilet is, and a memorial candle burning in my computer room surrounded by crystals, so have plenty of light around. Sometimes the flame of the candle would flicker wildly almost to the point of being blown out in spite of no wind, no fans and no windows being open!! Also a very distinct face of a woman with long hair appears in one of the crystals.  I often receive visits from mother, she'd be trying to tidy my computer room by occasionally moving objects. Indeed I am not the only one to experience mother's presence. Debra shared that she often find 5c coins in places where they weren't there before, that is because apparently mother would always tell her to pick up 5c coins as it is a sign of good luck. So whenever Debra feels down she would always find 5c coins in places where they didn't appear before, or just in her travels such as going to the shops. But for me, mother would be forever tidying my bedroom back in my childhood and in later years when I lived with her at different times. So that is how her spirit manifests to me. I felt Sally's spirit has visited once or twice in this past week, trying to figure out if it is Sally or mother, but there seems no doubt that this morning it was Sally!! This is no April fool's joke. Ghosts and spirits are real, I have been experiencing them since the early days of my childhood. Sometimes they are the souls of those who passed away, sometimes they are just of the many classes of spirit beings that exists in the various realms of other dimensions.

Yesterday was reasonably OK, me going to mother's old house for dinner, and Debra gave me some Lindt chocolates which were mother's favorite chocolates. In the past for this reason I would never eat Lindt chocolates, I would just pass them onto Sally. But now Sally is gone the emotional energy dynamics are different, and indeed I will be eating those chocolates, I already had some last night. Surprisingly Pasco did give up the pay TV subscription and so there was no football showing. The football on free to air TV are often delayed telecasts, part of the tribulations of living on the isolated west coast in different time zones!! I thought with mother gone Pasco would have more disposable income but then he has Justin and Mandy living with him while they wait for their new house to be finished being built, they would take up money too although Justin does have a job. In any case pay TV are way expensive, and these days you can get just about any TV shows online, you just have to know where to look, and me being on a huge monthly 750gig data plan for less than $150 including the landline phone, I have plenty of bandwidth to use up on streaming vids and TV shows online!! I have two screens attached to my computer, one is used for the online TV shows allowing me to watch them while I do my other stuff online on the other screen. Anyway, as I said, I did come prepared with my tablet and had my AFL app going, it meant everyone else was bugging me for scores updates as a few of the others are also in office tipping comps. Up until then Debra hadn't picked any team correctly so I guess I should have been thankful that I at least picked two up until then. But then she picked the Maggies too so should be a bit happier. I somehow managed to pick both matches correctly giving me a more respectable 4-8 result with only one match to go that being played today. It was a barbecue with sausages, steak, marinated drummettes onions, potato salad and green salad. And being warm and sunny we ate outside where the barbecue is located.

So that was pretty well my day yesterday..... today will be quiet, won't be doing much, and won't be going to the shops except to the local deli that is within walking distance, they may hopefully have easter eggs at discount prices. Another sunny day, it never rains here LOL.... well it did rain that night just before Sally passed away but it hadn't rained since and is getting hot again.

My Wonderful Maggies

Ohhhh those Maggies they didn't let me down today!! I was at mother's old place for the first half, and they no longer have paid TV so I had to rely on my little worm on my tablet for the updates, and everyone else had gotten the idea that I was the person to ask for the updates as others had also tipped the Maggies to win. For a while that worm was going in entirely the wrong direction, but by half time the worm made a U-turn and just snuck into the Magpies' half with a single point lead, and I headed on home. By the time I gotten home my Magpies were really hitting the straps and ended up with a pretty good win. Port Adelaide also came up with the goods for me, so I actually got TWO points today, one more than I thought I would get. So my tipping is now on a more respectable 4-8, about 50%. I did say I'd be happy with 4 or 5 points for the first round, so however tomorrow's match may pan out I promise not to be too depressed. Geelong will probably win cos I picked Hawthorn, but then if I change my tip to Geelong then Hawthorn would win and I'd feel even worse cos I had originally picked them. So I am better off just to leave my tips alone!!!!

Sunday

Here I am on what is regarded as Resurrection Day in Christian mythology. It is a major reason why Christians adopted Sunday as their holy day of rest as distinct from the Jewish Shabbat. However when we study the Jewish traditions of the day, the Jewish lunar calendar and other historical data, we come to the conclusion that Resurrection Day was indeed Saturday, the resurrection of Christ occurred late Saturday afternoon or early evening. Being the Sunday of Passover week it is the 1st day of the Omer, starting the process of counting the 50 days to the next Jewish holiday - Shavu'ot known in Greek as Pentecost. Anyway......

Yesterday was a quiet day. I did not visit any shops nor did much in the way of housework. I spent a lot of the time trying to come up with three songs to choose for Sally's funeral. These are not necessarily sad nor sombre songs. Sally had said that if she ever goes before I do she does not want a sad traditional funeral, she wanted people to be happy cos she'd be in a better place no longer suffering from her health problems. The funeral director that I chose happened to go by that same philosophy, that although the choice is music is ultimately my choice he advised to choose songs that celebrates her life rather than mourn her passing. And so I came up with three songs.

The first song is played as we enter into the chapel and the coffin arrives. So I chose "Amarillo" which reflects the city where she was born and bred. After I finished my planned four months of touring around America and was back in San Francisco to board my flight back home, I still had two months remaining on my visa, so I asked my host to "show me the way" back to Amarillo so I can be with my Sally. And so she booked some flights for me that would take me back to Amarillo. It's all history now, it was during those two months that I ended up marrying Sally and my life would change forever........

http://youtu.be/SHuOagWzaws

The next video would be played while we place the flowers on the coffin or otherwise pay our last respects. We ordered only enough flowers for close family members but everyone else can come and pay their respects in there own way, even bring their own flowers. So I chose Yellow Rose of Texas. Sally is a proud Texan. When you ask most Americans where they are from, they will tell you "America" or the "US" or whatever. But when you ask a Texan where she is from, she won't ever say America, she will tell you specifically that she is from TEXAS!! And that is exactly how Sally was. Anyone who asked her where she was from, she would always say "I am from TEXAS!!" Texans are a unique and very proud people. Also the word Amarillo means "yellow". Just as the song says, I would be going back to my Yellow Rose of Texas during my America trip, to spend the rest of my life with her for she was the only one for me. There were indeed other women in America who wanted me while I was there, but no, I'd be going back to my Sally!!

http://youtu.be/IpHiURKkY0Q

The last song is played as the coffin is transported out of the chapel  and (hopefully) into the crematorium.... or alternatively into the burial site. We won't know until this week whether she will be able to be cremated, it depends on her final body weight, etc. Either way I chose a more traditional song, one of her favorites, it makes her cry every time she hears it, indeed it makes her think of mother - both her mother who passed away when Sally was just 13, and my mother!! Now she is with both mothers "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"......

http://youtu.be/PSZxmZmBfnU

Now just have to work on a tribute for Sally to be read at the funeral, but have a few days to do that yet.

Uh yes here's the notice I placed in our paper....

Anyway it is still yet early morning, but later today I will be making the 40+ minutes trip down to mother's old house for lunch. It is indeed a clear sunny day and warming up once again, just typical for this part of the world, doesn't rain often and is often sunny and clear.

Disaster Area

Just as was the case last year the football tipping situation is turning into an utter disaster area in the first round from which I will never recover. With only one point from three matches today my tipping stands at a terminal 2-6 with three matches to go - two tomorrow and one on Sunday. Since "luck" and me are mutually exclusive I would guess that based on current trends I may get one more point out of the next three matches and I hope that one point will be delivered by my beloved Magpies. Either way by the end of Monday I expect no better than a terminal 3-9 from which no recovery is possible therefore this will be the 2nd year in which no prize money will be collected by me. After collecting prize money every year up until 2011, the year of mother's death, I have failed to collect any prize money in 2012, and 2013 seems destined for the same fate. Indeed luck seems to have deserted me in many ways since mother's death, my life has gone downhill since then, and this is reflected in the football tipping results. Bad luck is my destiny and it is only through the scientific analysis of team form which seems to have been established in this first round that I will enjoy better tipping results however with a catastrophic points variance total and a terminal 1st round tipping result, this will not be enough to get me into prize qualifications.

I will be at mother's old place tomorrow for Easter lunch and more than likely the football will be on the TV. Mother never liked the TV being on when guests are over but she'd tolerate it being on while sitting around waiting for the meal, but once dinner is served or even afternoon dinner the TV goes off, mother was most insistent on that!! But since mother is no longer there I expect the rules will be more relaxed. The Melbourne and Port Adelaide match is scheduled for 1:10pm at the MCG and I THINK daylight savings is still in force so that makes it 3 hours difference, so will probably catch the last quarter or so of the match when I arrive there near lunch time. My beloved Magpies are due to play at 4:40pm which will make it 1:40pm here so will probably be still at mother's when that match begins and will probably leave for home around half time with either being very hopeful, or biting my fingernails, or totally dejected and hopeless!! All this assuming of course they still have pay-TV online, and knowing Pasco being the sports lover, I be surprised if they no longer had pay-TV. However I will come prepared with my little tablet which has the AFL app installed and I will at least have the live update going with the worm which I will quietly check at opportune times - I hope that worm stays in the Magpies half of the tablet display!!! I just have to make sure the device is fully charged before I leave!!

I will post another blog in the morning on more general topics including a scanned copy of my death notices in the paper for Sally.

Arranging the funeral

Being Good Friday yesterday was a quiet day, did not go to the shops since there were no shops open, though later that day I did go to the convenience store for a couple of items. I kept myself busy in the morning by doing some yardwork in the front yard, mowing lawns, edgings, etc, all done with powered machinery. Gone are the days of me doing the edges with simply an axe as I had done so in my childhood, the whipper snipper makes is so much quicker and easier. Today is Saturday and being our rostered watering day I will have to remember to water the garden tonight. It rained the night before Sally's passing but as usual in this part of the world it hasn't rained since and indeed it is warming up again into the 30s C (90s F).

In spite of being Good Friday the funeral director did come by my place to deal with formalities, Debra came cos she is doing the arranging of the funeral, and Pasco cos he is footing the bill until I can eventually pay him back. So it was just mainly formalities, getting details for the death certificate and signing various papers. They won't be able to get a hold of her body until the docs at the hospital complete their formalities, declare the cause of death, etc. And being Easter weekend that won't be happening until Tuesday. Then a coffin will need to be made up. And he will have to see whether she can be cremated, there is some chance she will be too large to be cremated but won't really know until he can see the body and take measurements. She has lost quite a lot of weight over the two years of her sickness so am hopeful she comes under the weight limit for cremation. So until all that is established no funeral date can be set. I did place a notice in the paper which should appear in today's edition. There was no paper yesterday being Good Friday. Unfortunately the online version couldn't be done, probably cos my notice is a bit fancy with graphics etc, it costed me a fortune but it's not every day one's wife falls off the perch!! But in this day and age you'd think there can be an online version even with the graphics, but i guess not everyone is up with the times. So will have to be content with me scanning a copy and posting it in tomorrow's blog. It is still 5am so no shops open yet.

Anyway back to football!! We have three matches today. This afternoon Western Bulldogs and Brisbane, then tonight it is Greater Westerns and Sydney, and Gold Coast and St Kilda. So hopefully my tipping record currently in a very sick state will have improved by then.

Easter Sunday I will be at mother's old house for lunch. Pasco is usually at Augusta but didn't go this year due to Sally's passing away, so for the first time in a long time we be having family gathering for Easter. it will be kinda surreal being without Sally, even though for the past two years she couldn't accompany me to any family gatherings due to her health conditions. But this time there will be two widowers at the house - Pasco and myself !!!!!!!!!!