Suzy McHale’s Diary: 2006
Events of note: Chris, Michele and children moved from Rochester to The Gap, Queensland in January as he had been ostracized by his church in Rochester. Mum got a tooth removed on 8/3; Sasha the dog also got some teeth removed. Dad had some episodic blackouts, thought to be some sort of mild epilepsy, so he had to take medication for that and was not allowed to drive for 6 months until October – which put the burden on Mum as I could not drive.
January
Sunday 22/1
Australian summers are hell. It is 41°C outside, as it was yesterday. New Year’s Eve was 43°C. It is a murderously hot summer and I can barely function in this heat, as can my parents. The air-conditioning doesn’t extend into my bedroom, so it is like an oven, despite having a fan on. I only slept fitfully last night, and tonight will be the same. I hate this damn climate.
In Europe and Russia it is a cold winter; in Russia it is down to −30°C or more; I don’t know which is worse!
Nothing of interest for last year, except in the virtual world: I got my own domain name and hosting. I am still unemployed (admittedly I haven’t made any attempt to look for work. But what could I do?).
Michele, Chris and kids are in the process of moving from Rochester to a suburb called The Gap in Queensland; they departed on Friday 20 and are driving up, staying in Canberra for 4 days on the way (they are there now). Chris had to leave because of some people at his Church who took a dislike to him and eventually forced him to resign from there; he has a new posting at the Qld. church. I am so f*cking bored with and sick of church politics, and religion in general. It is all my parents seem to talk about now; their lives are narrowed down to the Bentleigh Church and the people there. They have nothing outside of it.
My own life is still going nowhere, and I still don’t know what to do.
I have been writing in my online diary, so have neglected this one. I might write here about personal/family things that I wouldn’t want to put in a public journal.
~ Ended 3:54 p.m.
April
Tuesday 4/4
The year continues to pass. Mum had to get a tooth removed on 8 March, and Sasha had 2 decayed back teeth removed last Tuesday!
I haven’t heard from the person (Sasha – Aleksandr) who bought me my domain name last year; his last e-mail was on 11 November 2005 and not one word from him since! He gave no indication he wanted to stop corresponding; it is as if he has vanished into a black hole. I have a feeling something bad has happened (i.e. an accident of some sort), but have no way of finding out (he lives in Albany, California). It is just weird.
I spend most of my time obsessing over my website. I rather wish I could take a break from it! But I have nowhere to go.
Autumn finally seems to be here; the cooler weather began this week. Unfortunately Australia’s climate will be heating up over the next few decades, no thanks to the impact of human activities on the environment. One thing I hate about this country (aside from the Howard government) is the environment. I can see the accumulated sun damage to my skin from Australia’s harsh climate; it is really become noticeable in the last 4 or 5 years, and my skin looks awful without makeup.
~ Ended 2:29 p.m.
July
Sunday 23/7
Mum and Dad are away again, for a week at Rosebud this time, so I am bored and feeling isolated and trapped.
Dad had another mysterious blackout at church on 9 April and then had a few tests done (MRI scan which came out normal, heart monitor test), but nothing conclusive – the doctor thought it might be a sort of epileptic fit! So he was put on some tablets and was not allowed to drive for 6 months! (Until about October or so.) A major inconvenience as Dad has been the main driver forever. As I can’t drive, the burden fell on Mum. I really wish I hadn’t stopped in 1991, but lessons are expensive now and high fuel prices ($1.40 a liter or more) don’t help. It would be useful if driving simulators were made available for public use.
The condition could possibly be related to the attack of shingles Dad had in May 2002.
Mum and Dad have been increasingly afflicted by various ailments since 2000 or so and it is horrid to see them in a gradual decline. I am still dependent upon them (they are like a buffer against the outside world) and I don’t know what I will do when they go. I try not to think about it.
The next-door neighbours finally got around to erecting a (very high) side fence.
Three old liquidambar trees have been felled in the nearby streets (including the one in front of the house diagonally opposite ours, and one in London street behind) this year, which is distressing, as these trees are lovely and shady in summer, and colourful in autumn. This neighbourhood (like many others) is becoming overdeveloped and overcrowded, and much vegetation has been lost as the huge ugly oversized “McMansions” that replace the older 1950s houses leave little room for a garden. It is a hateful trend (one imported from America) – ambitious greed is everywhere in this society and the new homes reflect this. I am increasingly hating living here, but I don’t know where else we could go (if we could afford to move), and I would be homesick as I have lived here all my life so far and know it well.
STS-121 Discovery launched successfully on 4 July (after much rather tedious fuss and bother) for a 12-day mission to the ISS. I tend to write about space stuff in my online journal, so I won’t mention it much here anymore.
Michele and Chris have settled in at The Gap. Her birthday is coming up (1 August); she will be 34.
I am bored and frustrated. I will be 36 this year, and my life is nothing. It will be five years since I quit That Awful Place. The years are slipping away and I am still paralysed with inertia. I simply can’t make any effort to do anything. I still don’t know what I want to do. There are other things too that I don’t want to write about. I’ve stopped caring much about anything.
~ Ended 1:57 p.m.
October
Monday 9/10
Dad is allowed to drive from today.
The warm weather started early, in September; this summer is going to be hotter than ever because of global warming and El Niño. We also haven’t had the spring rains needed to top up the reservoirs, so these are getting lower every week. There has been a drought for 10 years and there seems to be no end in sight. All this while the population continues to increase and the governments and businesses want more people because this is good for “economic growth”. The blind stupidity of this doctrine is unbelievable.
Water is a basic resource (along with gas and electricity) and these should be in Government control. Unfortunately the same stupid economic policy saw these privatized, and the private companies who own these valuable assets have priority towards their shareholders and making a profit.
Dry weather continues to see storage volumes fall
Last month was the first time in more than 36 years that Melbourne’s total system storage volume fell over the month of September, and Melbourne’s water storages have continued their decline this week falling a further 0.4% (6989 million litres) to 45.6% (809,179 million litres) full today.
Storages are now at a level 14% lower than at the same time last year when they were 59.6% (1,057,376 million litres) full.
The catchments continued their dry run this week with just 2.0mm of rain recorded at the Upper Yarra Reservoir - the highest rainfall total of the four major catchments.
Streamflow totals for the week were also very low in each of the major catchments after the lowest streamflow on record was received in September.
And with the outlook for more dry weather, Melburnians are being urged to continue to conserve water. Average daily water consumption for the week exceeded the spring average this week after a burst of hot weather late in the week.
Stage 1 water restrictions are now in place. Full details are available by visiting the Our Water Our Future website www.ourwater.vic.gov.au or by contacting the government water retailers.
I find Word styling formatting very awkward to use and implement (I still haven’t got the hang of it – I rarely use Word now anyway), and much prefer HTML webpages which are more straightforward. The only thing I like about Word is that it automatically inserts “curly quotes” – in HTML I have to type them in using a keyboard code (alt + 0147, alt + 0148).
A certain family member (not me) has to get a coloscopy today and in preparation they had to eat only certain foods yesterday and drink some formula. I don’t want to describe the results of drinking this formula (a type of laxative) last night. Just – ugh.
~ Ended 12:15 p.m.
November
Wednesday 29/11
Nearly the end of the year. My birthday was the same as usual.
It appears Alexandre Koukarine (the buyer of my domain name, whom I have not heard from since last year – see April 4 entry) is still alive: I Googled his name and came up with a few mentions, at this page:
Subject: ETX125 How to open the OTA to fix the focus knob shaft?
Sent: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 12:45:30
From: Alexandre Koukarine (sand@coresrv.berkeley.edu)
Thank you very much for your site!
I have a problem - the focus knob shaft fall inside the OTA and I can’t get it back.
I’ve searched the entire site but didn’t found any guide for that.
(though, I’ve found this question asked once in archives, - the answer was not given).
Please help! The Mercury transit event is coming!
Best regards,
Alexandre Koukarine
CORE IT Support and Development
School of Optometry, University of California
387F Minor Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2020
And this page at Pagebites.com (from where his resumé can be downloaded).
Most peculiar! Despite the few emails I tried sending, he has not replied, so for some reason he decided to stop talking to me (last email was 11 November 2005). I just wish I knew why. He gave no indication he was going to stop in that last email (I might note that this is not romantic stuff!).
~ Ended 6:21 p.m.