Last Day of 2009

Dec. 31

John woke up surprisingly refreshed from having slept in quite a warm room. The temperature outside had barely dropped to 24 overnight and the day was already heating up to the predicted high of 38 again.

He got up and headed downstairs where Janice was preparing breakfast (back bacon, eggs and toast) for all three. He ate well. As in the day before, Janice said her back had been really hurting for a couple of weeks and that she was going to see the doctor in the afternoon. She said that she had been going downstairs when her beagle, Barnaby, had clipped the back of one knee as he raced down ahead of her and that she had tumbled. She thought she might have bruised a kidney. She seemed to be in a LOT of pain when she moved in one particular direction.

So, they just kind of hung around and talked. At one point, Glenn and his best friend and best friend's wife came over for a visit to wish his Mum a Happy New Year. She is due in May or June, according to John, although he often misses details like tat.

After they left I wrote the blog while John tried to figure out how to use the 'dongle.' It is like one of the Rogers thumb drives that can connect you to the Internet via a cell phone connection. It is quite expensive $10 for 1Gig of data transmission. John spent some time trying to install the software and get the dongle to work on his computer.

The signal strength was very poor. Janice said that it had to do with being in a brick building. So while she was out taking Stewart somewhere, John went outside and sat on the ground with his laptop doing his Email and uploading two posts. John was very surprised and happy to receive a comment from someone in NZ noting that one of John's posts had incorrectly named the mountains around Arthur's Pass. He decided not to change the original post because that would have made the comment seem out of place. However, he very much appreciated learning how Arthur's Pass got its name. And he realized that perhaps he had other readers as well. So, welcome to all readers and if I have made errors in descriptions please let me know.

Anyway, Janice went to the doctor who told her that she had some cracked ribs, a very painful condition, and gave her a prescription for painkillers. They will take weeks to heal.

In the evening John and Janice walked over to the local shopping mall that has many restaurants to have a meal. Stewart had made a reservation for them at a place called Red Salmon (which reminded John of the name Red Lobster but this is more upscale) while he was going off with some friends to an outdoor concert for New Years Eve. Janice insisted on buying a bottle of wine while John got the meal. It was very nice though as their meal was nearly finished the skies opened up and it poured. John had thought Australia was dry these days but the lightning sparked across the sky and the thunder rolled. After it eased up a bit they walked back - about 15 minute walk but got soaked to the skin. At least it was warm rain. But the temperature was dropping as the cold front was moving through and John knew that he would get a better sleep. John did wonder if it had rained that hard at the outdoor concert where Stewart was celebrating.

The two friends watched the fireworks at midnight on television from Sydney before John said he was so tired from sharing that bottle of wine that he had to turn in. Janice decided to stay up to enjoy the continuing celebrations.

It was 2010.

John and I wish you all and everyone everywhere a peaceful and happy New Year!

TRB