Cold Winter Now

Awhile back, Mrs Fitz bought me a Kathmandu puffer-type jacket, and one for herself, from her Airport Shop.

They are really good things. I'm noticing, coming home, its about 11.30pm now, and its about 5 degrees C and I'm really comfy. Not cold, not hot. Just had a walk around the cold courtyard, and impressed upon it some more ideas of what to do with it, and came inside. Bloody cold inside the house too, still no need to turn on the heater.

We don't want to use the big gas heater in the roof much, although its good, and very fast, until we see how the bills are going.

Got a nasty shock last month. The gas bill went from $50/month to $280/month and we don't want that to happen again. Damn you, Zelensky, you and your cohort of n'er do wells and certifiable rapscallions, spending all my future pension. Ah well, after that I guess the USA will be spending all my pension on not giving us the nuclear submarines we paid for. You can trust the Americans in that way. They never pay their debts.

It's about an hour and 15 minute drive from work to home at night. Mostly all freeways, but still slow, as someone is usually fixing up some part of it around the clock.

I stopped at McDonalds on the way home and got us some warming food-like stuff to eat when she gets home soon from work and we have our enjoyable late night long yack about life, the universe, and everything. Some nice wine is left too.

Work was good. I love not being in charge. I can manage to look after 8 folk and not be so concerned about the other 14 or so. After all, my stoic stellar career in nursing is well and truly over and now this is just rewarding part time stuff that pays okay, especially on weekends, and I'm okay at it still, and still learning, and I like the company I work for, and the folk I work with, and that's a pretty rare gift at any time.

Work was good. Interesting how group dynamics can change so quickly with the absence of just one person and the addition of another. Amazing. From cohesion and compassion to down right horribility. From no problems to all problems. I guess the whole world could be like that. And, of course, there's always Protestant Christians, always deceitful, and up to no good, as we know, and as we were warned about in that holy precious Catholic primary school of the one true faith.

I work with a lot of Chinese and Indian and Sri Lankan and Irish nurses, and that's great. I feel at home.

Then, an extra benefit at the end of the day, I get to come home and study the garden.

Yes, I'll need to raid the consultant's garden again for some more nasturtium plants, and then put them in the birdbath here and let them soak for a day or two, then put down 4 more bags of earth in the side yard, and then plant them out all the way to the end of the yard where Phil, the statue, our Gardening Angel, will look after them through the cold winter.

Spring could well be very interesting.

Gardens are great. they teach you to plan the future, but not too much, and without great certainty, because the world is like that, and, indeed, so are we.