Almost a white Christmas

Well, not for us ... but just a couple kilometers away by the crow's path, it hailed decent sized chunks! 

Anyways, I had told myself that I would write a bunch of stuff over the past couple weeks, but I, once again, have failed to do so.

Instead, I'm here to condense a couple things into one post.  As I'm sometimes overly long-winded when concise would've been much better, perhaps this is a good thing.

First: Snowball.  Ruthie and I are doing much better since the whole ordeal.  Still not awesome, as it isn't really a fun thing to have in your memory.  We continuously have our windows open, and every now and then I hear a noise that is very similar to the sound I hear when he fell out of the window and my heart skips a beat.  But other than that, we contributed to Snowball's emergency bills in hopes that would help some, and then relied on the kind words of friends, family, and even a random coworker to whom I'd only spoken two words to previously to get us through it mentally.  Aside from the empty feeling the apartment had after he was gone [amazing how quickly you can get used to having a fuzzball running around], the worst part was that it just kinda felt like child services had swept in and taken our kid from us.  Needless to say, we are not on good terms with the rescue.  For what it's worth, from stalking the rescue's facebook page, Snowball has recovered from surgery [at a bill of $4900], and is recovering at the home of one of the owners.  The poor guy has a long road of recovery in front of him, though.

Second: Motorcycle.  When Ruthie first called VicRoads, the local department of motor vehicles, she talked to a really nice guy and we had a great first impression.  We got the idea that maybe Australian bureaucracy wasn't nearly as bad as ours.  Turns out we were wrong.  Ruthie has now talked to at least four different people, and has received a different story every time.  We've gone from one end of the spectrum where we would only have to pay a nominal fee for an unregistered vehicle permit to the other end where we have to treat our vehicle as a permanent import, getting it officially registered.  So a week ago, we made an appointment with a local mechanic who does inspections.  He turned a blind ear to the pipes being too loud [thank goodness!] and only cited me for the bald back tire.  So now that I have my official Road Worthy Certificate, I can go through whatever hoop is next.  From what the mechanic was saying, I will have to take my motorcycle to VicRoads so they can physically see the VIN and engine serial [seriously, engine serial!?].  Ruthie was trying to get it so that we would have the motorcycle for this week between Christmas and NY, but there were too many hoops to clear before every thing shut down for the holiday.

Third: Vacation.  Speaking of everything shutting down for the holiday, I currently am off of work.  I left the afternoon of the 23rd and won't be going back until the 4th.  Courtesy of the Australian government, the entire facility is shut down, so I cannot actually do work if I wanted.  Fine by me.  Ruthie looked into getting us to travel some where, but since the entire country is off, prices are 500% higher and she looked too late so everything was booked.  Instead, we've just been lazy bums around the apartment for the past couple days.

Fourth: Christmas.  Christmas itself was super low key.  We got up Christmas morning and skyped to my parents' house where our families had gathered for dinner.  So with the luxury of technology, Ruthie at least go to see and say hi to her mom and brother and eventually-to-be sister-in-law.  While it poured rain outside, we stayed in, watched Scrooged, Christmas Story, and a couple episodes of Firefly.  Ruthie also decorated the flat a bit with the wreath and ornaments she brought from home.  She also managed to get us a tree.  But that's an interesting story.  First it's not like our Christmas trees back home.  That's fine, and we were totally expecting that.  What we weren't expecting was for the stump to be so incredibly soft that it wouldn't stand up in our base.  First we thought it was because the very bottom of the stump was crooked.  So we hacked and trimmed off the bottom.  And then we did it again.  So our tree turned out kinda small.  And then our tree fell over again.  So now it's decorated, with lights, and is propped up by the walls in the corner of the apartment.  It is truly, in Ruthie's words, a "Dr. Seuss reject".  But I still think it's kinda cute.

-EP

Rough day

So last night was not a very good night for us.  Ruthie and I were watching TV, relaxing, when I heard a noise behind me.  To our horror, Snowball had been sitting up in one of our windows and had fallen out down to the tile patio four stories below.  We quickly rushed down, and fortunately the apartment owner was there.  She let us in, and Ruthie got Snowball contained in a box and wrapped in towels while I scrambled back and forth between apartments and the garage to get everything we needed for a trip to the emergency vet.  The initial prognosis was that his back hook joints [first joint up from the paws on the rear legs, like our ankles] were dislocated or worse, and that there might be some internal damage.  He also spit his lip [but didn't break his jaw, which apparently is common with falls], and broke a front toe / tore his nail pretty deep.  But the latter were minor compared to his hooks and what might be inside.  The poor guy was so good at the vet, for as much pain and panic as he must've been in - he really hates new places.

Ruthie, of course, was, and is, devastated.  She blames herself something fierce.  The short of it is that she feels like she might as well have tossed him out the window.  Even though we both convinced ourselves that leaving the windows open was okay, and allowing him to be out on the balconies was safe.  I even managed to look down to the patio below just the day before, saw the awning the owner had stretched out and thought, Well at least if he falls, he'll land on that.  We're both pretty shaken up by it, but Ruthie's been taking it really hard.

I took today off, so that I could stay with her and try and help in any way I could.  Ruthie emailed her mom and Shane earlier this morning, and they both have since called her to try and console her.  I think that's helped some.

In the mean time, we've got an update from the vet through the shelter owners.  Apparently both hook joints are broken and he will need pins/screws as well as an external brace, therapy, and regular care through rehab.  Fortunately nothing internal is damaged.  Like I said, we learned of this through the ladies at the shelter.  As a bit of background, this isn't a big shelter - it's just three women who have gotten together to save as many cats as they can help.  I spoke with one lady last night when it all happened [Ruthie was in no condition to form complete sentences on the phone].  But today, another woman has been communicating with Ruthie.  My gut tells me that there might be some personality conflicts involved with the decisions regarding Snowball.  Ruthie and I tend to agree that it might have been worth putting Snowball down.  Even though the vet / surgeon gave a promising story, is it really going to be easy on Snowball to make a recovery with both back legs broken like that?  The one with whom I spoke last night seemed fairly pragmatic, so it makes me wonder that if I/we had continued to deal with her something different might have happened.  Instead a different lady stepped in today.  So the decision was made to proceed with surgery on Snowball and provide him with the rehab he needs.  The lady from the shelter looked to us, and out of guilt I think, Ruthie said she would take him post-op.  However, immediately after the conversation, she began to second guess herself, and I called back.  I tried to have a reasonable conversation with the woman about caring for Snowball and that we might not be able to do it, but she cut me off claiming she was late for something with work.  Since then the Facebook page has been updated to detail Snowball's situation and there's a line in there about needing to find a place for Snowball during rehab and after.  So I'm guessing they've cut us out.  Which is fine, but I'm simultaneously irritated and apologetic that things have gone down the way they did.  So we'll see what transpires over the next several hours to see if anything comes back from the shelter at us.  Last night we paid for half of the ER bill - $300, as it only seemed right.  If they throw it in our faces, I'll be really pissed - but I honestly don't think that will happen.

Poor Snowball.  The little guy has been just having a terrible month.  His former human loved him so much and she was so devastated to give him up, but Snowball seemed to be scared of the guy she lived with and/or the other cat.  Snowball developed a UTI, and then was forced to move.  He came here with all the new smells and people, and didn't come out from under the bed for two days.  In the week and a half he was here, he'd actually made significant progress, and was actually starting to cuddle with us.  He even let me hold him a couple times for a few minutes.  And now this.  Man, it's just so frustratingly upsetting.

-EP

PS - Ruthie pointed out to me that if anyone who reads this feels sorry for us / Snowball, you could donate to the shelter on our behalf with a statement like "Erin Maloney is not usually an animal killer."  Well, on further investigation, there's no actual way for direct donations - just an account set up for Snowball's care.  Contact one of us if you pity the guy [or us] enough to send money.

PPS - Here's is the FB link to the shelter - there's a post about him an entry or two down.  http://www.facebook.com/melbourneanimalrescue?sk=wall

On two wheels

Once again, since this blog has “bike” in the title of it, it’s time for me to wax non-poetically about transportation and how many wheels I use.

Most days, I use two.  Two wheels and no motor.  I’ve been riding my bicycle to/from work just about every day.  Which means that if we don’t go anywhere on the weekend [which I think has only happened twice since we’ve been here], I can go weeks without driving a car.  And it’s actually been kinda nice. 

Now, I’m not a fast rider by any means.  They tried to poke fun at me for my coworker passing me on the way in to work one morning, and I just openly admitted that I’m not a speedy rider.  For example, one of the super-fit riders said it would probably take him 7 minutes to get from work to our apartment.  It takes me about 17 [more often 20, as I’m not usually in a rush]. 

And while that’s been great and all, I’ve been itching to ride my other two-wheeled vehicle – the one with the loud, rumbly motor in it.  Unfortunately, we’ve hit yet a third speed bump in that road, and my poor machine continues to collect dust in the parking garage.  The mirrors finally arrived early last week.  I took the day off work on my birthday and put them on, refilled the oil, and got a bit of fuel.  Battery wasn’t strong enough to crank all the petrol through the bone-dry system, so it had to go on the charger.  But I haven’t gotten any further than that because meanwhile, Ruthie’s been back and forth to VicRoads [their motor vehicle department] on my behalf, only to find that instead of an easy bit of paperwork and a couple hundred dollars for a permit, now I may not be able to ride the motorcycle at all.  It has something to do with how the motorcycle was brought into the country and us lacking a carnet de passage.  It’s all a mess, really, and I’ve send messages to the people who might be able to help – but I’ve gotten no where fast.  This, aside from frustrating, is fine because VicRoads said their policy department was going to have to make a judgement on if we’d have to pay some sort of tax on the motorcycle and they would get back to us by letter in two to three weeks. 

Poor motorcycle.  Just sitting there, looking pretty – all dressed up [in dust] and no where to go.

UPDATE: 

I actually wrote this on the 25^th – the day after I penned the previous entry.  [I just totally failed to update the blog with this.  Whoops.]  In the mean time, we’ve received the letter from VicRoads stating that I’m allowed to apply for the permit, but no instructions or anything beyond that.  Ruthie’s made an appointment with them, so maybe she’ll make some progress the next time she goes in there.  Fingers crossed.

-EP