Merry Christmas!

Hi all, pray you have a great time over Christmas, that it's a great time spent with family and friends and that you can take the time to be thankful for that precious gift of Jesus.
Thanks to all who have read my blurbs over the year and have commented and stuff, it's cool to have these conversations.
Pray that you have an awesome year of 2008, see you in the blogosphere!
Glenno

Relate to this?

I'm sure many of us at this time of the year can relate to this photo, taken yesterday by my lovely wife at the zoo.
I kinda think it relates to the fella's a bit more though. I'm sure if he had pants on his hand would be down there and a remote would be on his lap.

The BIG 3 . . . 7

Spent the day at the Zoo yesterday with the fam for the 37th Bday. Gotta say the big 4 . . 0 is creeping up way too fast for my liking. It all depends on the way you feel I guess and actually with my knee giving me curry and a stuffed shoulder 40's sounding about right. Actually . . . was carrying a couple of pavers a couple of days ago, walking between a couple of pallets and my foot became caught in between the pallets which sent me flying. Came off with a great graze on my shoulder and a lump on the good knee. I think this is what they mean when you get old and they say 'he had a fall'? I hope not! I'll put it down to pushing my body to the limit and living on the extreme edge, holding on to my youth and living to the full. Now, where's that ice pack?

Timbercrete Titans Rock the ICA

Okay, so footy season is well and over and Cricket season has well begun. I coach the U11's 'Timbercrete' Titans 1 indoor cricket team. There is a 2 and 3 team also, that means Timbercrete Titans shirts can be seen all over the place on Saturday mornings and they're bright!
Brod's plays in the team I coach and a few others from footy and other schools. They've been playing as a team now for approx 3 years, they're skilled and they know the game. This season, not unlike footy they are again undefeated. They played the second best team in the comp on Saturday, the Crushers and had some crushing inflicted upon them. In 16 overs the Titans 1 finished with a score of 175 runs. One of those batting pairs hit 65 runs off 4 overs. They were very pumped and thought it may have been a tight game, so you could see them putting in that extra effort in the field. The Crushers were dealt a flurry of great bowling, catching, throwing and wicket keeping to be all out for 49. Now it's time for a break, won't know what to do on Saturday mornings for a while, c'mon footy season!

Out with the old and in with the new

Well it's been a few weeks now that Cuddles, the black cat, went missing.
We have come to understand that being in a more rural setting lends itself to certain mishaps that may not normally occur in suburbia concerning animals.
A night or two before Cuddles disappeared Teresea heard a very distressed chicken and found a couple in hiding. One of the chickens now has a limp from what we believe was a hungry fox mauling. She lives to lay another egg though, albeit now with a limp, the others were found and are at to their laying best again.
It is of my opinion therefore, that Cuddles, a cat (kitten then purchased from a suburban pet shop), was also unaware of the perils of country life and found herself in the jaws of that very same fox, never to return again.
This is mere speculation however, as I have some opposition to this theory as they (not to be mentioned for fear of incrimination) think I'm just after a good gory story.
My ground for this speculation though, I believe, is well founded. On that very afternoon we saw Cuddles, near the house, looking as happy as larry on our way out to indoor cricket training at approx 16.15 hrs and 20 sec's. Between the time we came home, approx 1800 hrs, and calling her for tea, 1900, at dusk, she had gone.
No sick cat from a snake bite, no run over cat from a car, no smells of rotting decay (you know) nothing, nada. It is upon these facts, and the fact that she always came in for food, that I believe she was taken, without a trace. . . . .
Anyway, that all over, now we have a new one! Molly. Get over it fast and move on, that's what I say. This one is far more street wise as it came from a countryfide home, next door, for nothing. Hopefully she'll give that fox a good run for its money and take a few mice out along the way.

When the simple things turn bad

Well, I'm happily working away in the shed and I get the call . . . Brody's dislocated his finger at school, can you go and and get him. So out the door I go, it's about 10.30 in the morning. So I'm thinking, should be fine we'll just pop it back in . . . right?
Get to the school and he's just sitting there like nothing's really going on except his hand's all bandaged up and in a sling. So off we trot to the nearest hospital. Not a long wait and the doctor has a look and it's his left index finger on the knuckle closest to his wrist, the first knuckle and his finger is pointing up not straight out. So the doctor gives it a yank to pop it in . . . . and yanks again a bit harder . . . still won't go. So . . off to get an xray, takes forever coz the xray computer thingo has shut down. Come back to emergency and wait, and wait, and wait, you know the drill. Doc comes along with the xray. Yep, dislocated, cool. So now it's time for the real yanking. Gives Brod's a few injections with the trusty local and off we go twisting, turning, pulling . . . real hard this time, now Brod's is feeling a bit of pain and some stress starts to set in. Nup, no go, 'I'll just get a doc who's done this a lot more than I have' the doc says. New doc has another real hard yank, definitely harder than the last fella. Nup, he says you need to go to a bigger hospital. The first doc gives his finger one last good go just in case and sends us on our way.
Now we're really waiting. I'd say it's about 1pm. We're waiting for the hand doctor and I think they had to fly him in from Venezuela or something (slight exaggeration)it took a fair time. We get to see his assistant at about 3.30 and she's not pulling anything. At about 4.30 the hand doctor (plastic surgeon) is ready. He asks a few q's like 'where did they apply the local?' 'in the finger' we told him 'nah that's no good he needs his whole hand dead'. So he plugs brody with more local this time in the wrist! His hand goes off to sleep so it's time for some more yanking! The doc politely tries to ask questions to distract Brody, who is well aware of his schemes, while really yanking hard, so hard I thought he might pull his finger clean off! Actually to the point where this six foot and a bit big doc was shaking because of how hard he was pulling. Nup, you're gonna have to stay the night and we're going to have to cut you open. What! I thought dislocations were an easy fix. Well you learn something new everyday. Not this finger on this knuckle as there's a ligament running up the finger that gets caught in the knuckle (so we're told by some doctor a week after, 'no matter how hard they pulled they would never get it back in' he says) great.
So now we wait for the operating theatre. Some fella comes in and pushes in front coz he chopped three fingers off with an angle grinder! Fancy that, the nerve of the guy. So get this . . . . at 3.30am the next morning Brod's has surgery. What a saga! I was stuffed! Brody was sick of being yanked and was glad the finger was finally in it's righful position.