Geez! I hate that!

[Giant Cranium]

Originally Posted by The Yeti

I've been stewing on this bugger for a fortnight now.

A few months back I had arranged to drive my mother 5 hours to regional NSW to visit my sister (no big deal its what you do for family and I'm happy to do it) it turned out the weekend my mum had planed was the AFL grand final weekend and as my sister and her partner are mad Swans fans they had organised tickets and wanted to head to Melbourne got the game.

I figured that was fair enough so the suggestion was to go the following weekend but being the long weekend I had already booked that up.

So being the nice big brother that I am I agreed to give up my Bathurst weekend to drive down Saturday and back Sunday, under the condition that I was allowed to dominate the TV for the shoot out on Saturday and the start on Sunday.

So when I was offered box passes again for my son and I had to decline as I had already committed myself else ware

That all seemed pretty fair I thought.

So I got to my sisters at 3pm and my 5yo Nephew meets me at the door with the remote and a drink (hes a good kid ) and all's well

So we get down to talking and I asked how the big trip to Melbourne went and said something like even though the swans didn't get up it still would have been good to experience the atmosphere.

to which I'm told, Na we didn't end up going we decided it would cost more than we were prepared to spend so we staid home and watched it on TV

Now I'm a reasonable man and I retained my composure but seriously inside I said WTF

oh i just got angry reading that

[poppa smurf]

Hey Yeti........we just got back from a trip in which we came across a head on, not sure how many died but it was a horrific one, absolute carnage and loss of life.

I won't elaborate but we did what we could for those who could be helped until essential services arrived and then we proceeded.

our destination was a large family/friends gathering for a 60th birthday, a 40th wedding anniversary and a 2 year "survival" from a heart transplant.

celebrations went all weekend but I couldn't get the picture of the roadside carnage and obvious loss of life out of my head.

I found it very strange that we could be celebrating and having a grand old time with glorious weather and fantastic people when my heart went out to the family/families who were having the worst of times with unimaginable grief.

with your situation I really feel you have wasted two weeks of your life procrastinating about the situation when you could have been enjoying life and all it's pleasures.

bottom line, life is too damn short to concern yourself with trifling annoyances, I am not a believer in karma but I am not a disbeliever either (if that makes sense), not particularly religious either but I do believe in the "serenity prayer" that goes something like "

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference."

it goes on but I think this is relative to almost every situation that life throws up.

bottom line mate, mongrel's are going to be mongrel's, family is going to be family, good or bad.......accept it and move on.

I know how you feel but put it behind you, store it away for future referral by all means but don't let it waste any more of your life, give your wife and kids a hug, tell them how much you love them and thank the powers that be for allowing us one more day in paradise.

it can so quickly be snatched away.

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

Hey Yeti........we just got back from a trip in which we came across a head on, not sure how many died but it was a horrific one, absolute carnage and loss of life.

I won't elaborate but we did what we could for those who could be helped until essential services arrived and then we proceeded.

our destination was a large family/friends gathering for a 60th birthday, a 40th wedding anniversary and a 2 year "survival" from a heart transplant.

celebrations went all weekend but I couldn't get the picture of the roadside carnage and obvious loss of life out of my head.

I found it very strange that we could be celebrating and having a grand old time with glorious weather and fantastic people when my heart went out to the family/families who were having the worst of times with unimaginable grief.

with your situation I really feel you have wasted two weeks of your life procrastinating about the situation when you could have been enjoying life and all it's pleasures.

bottom line, life is too damn short to concern yourself with trifling annoyances, I am not a believer in karma but I am not a disbeliever either (if that makes sense), not particularly religious either but I do believe in the "serenity prayer" that goes something like "

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference."

it goes on but I think this is relative to almost every situation that life throws up.

bottom line mate, mongrel's are going to be mongrel's, family is going to be family, good or bad.......accept it and move on.

I know how you feel but put it behind you, store it away for future referral by all means but don't let it waste any more of your life, give your wife and kids a hug, tell them how much you love them and thank the powers that be for allowing us one more day in paradise.

it can so quickly be snatched away.

Smurf you are very much right, I wasted 2 weeks, and I vented yesterday and its time to build a bridge and get over it,

you said it was hard to justify celebrating after coming across the carnage from the accident, many years of dealing with those sorts of incidents has taught me that's the very reason we celibate birthdays anaversayrs etc

wasting 2 weeks was a stupid thing to do as you said there is always going to be someone that will **** you off, if we let them they win.

after typing that message yesterday I was driving home and got a phone call from my sister who told me that my mum had been for here specialists appointment and that her lung tumor had started to grow again. so that brings things in to perspective, its gone from wasting my Bathurst weekend driving my mum around the country to see my sister and her family to spending a weekend of quality time with my mum and kids back in Jan 2011 they told us she had 6 months or a 20% chance of making 12, its now nearing the end of October 2014 and this is the 1st real setback so from July 11 until October 2014 has all been time we weren't suppose to have. And shes not done yet we still have a meeting with her professor to find out the action plan.

Thinking back what a waste of time that was dwelling on missing a race

[poppa smurf]

that's the way mate.......life is made up of "moment's".....treasure the moments we have.

I have a mate in the ambo's, paramedic I think, he told me once "we are all just a breath away from death at any given time", I've never forgotten and have witnessed many "instant, unexpected" deaths, fine today, gone tomorrow which makes his statement ring true all the more.

I'm sorry to hear about your mum, I hope she has a long and prosperous life, wouldn't be the first to out live the predictions of a doctor, no-one can predict the future.

but anyway vent away, it's a good thing, never "dwell" that's a bad thing.......make the most of the time we are given.

[Ford17]

Not sure if already mentioned, but council (or subcontracted) workers whipper-snipping the grass on the side of the road during peak hour times.

They must consider it to be the maximum opportunity to stone-chip passing cars.

[Lotte]

House hunting.
Need I say more....

[poppa smurf]

so the grandkids cubby house is looking a bit worse for wear.......out with the tools (including first fix nail gun)

fired into a frame, skewed off the knot in the 3x2, bounced off another and hit me behind the ear.

just enough to penetrate and draw blood.......didnt think much of that......second time this year a nail gun has got me.

might have to put them all in the "too dangerous for Poppa" bin.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

so the grandkids cubby house is looking a bit worse for wear.......out with the tools (including first fix nail gun)

fired into a frame, skewed off the knot in the 3x2, bounced off another and hit me behind the ear.

just enough to penetrate and draw blood.......didnt think much of that......second time this year a nail gun has got me.

might have to put them all in the "too dangerous for Poppa" bin.

Can't be trusted with a Hammer and Nails Eh ?

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Can't be trusted with a Hammer and Nails Eh ?

can't drive a nail to save myself......lose too many digits to blood loss.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

can't drive a nail to save myself......lose too many digits to blood loss.

Maybe you could start with an Office Stapler and work your way up ?

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Maybe you could start with an Office Stapler and work your way up ?

not allowed to play with the stapler, after I stapled my pinky to the carpet last christmas.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

not allowed to play with the stapler, after I stapled my pinky to the carpet last christmas.

Oh dear........

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Lotte

House hunting.
Need I say more....

Yep... After a year of open houses and real estate BS we bought land instead and designed our house exactly how we wanted it to be... No compromises!

[Yellow_Festiva]

The whole concept of pre packaged kindling! Who the hell buys this stuff? Do people actually go into Bunnings and buy those little A4 sized bags of twigs for the $15 odd dollars they charge?

Our local Bunnings always has a stack of soft wood pallets stacked next to their bin for disposal, 2 minutes with a hammer and you have $60 worth of kindling...

Better still, go for a walk around the block or in your local park.... You always find stuff lying around...

Would never give them the satisfaction of buying something that's freely and easily available :-)

[Road Games]

Picked up a low km BTR for a mate last week and then this week damaged the front of my car and didn't realise the trans cooler has collapsed and fry my own transmission LOL

Oh well Bigger and Better now

[Uncle Niceguy]

So, today a new chapter starts in my life, moving to a new share house. Hopefully it isn't like the last experience, but it shouldn't be as after taking yellow festiva's advice l found a place that is organised with landlords that have been doing this for some time, they have good rules in place and there is no tolerance for fowl behaviour, and they have good common sense rules all over the place, more so they explicitly told me the only other people that has a spare key is themselves and that no one living there has access to my room, regardless of this though I'll be keeping my sentimental and valuable stuff (whats left of it anyway) at mum and dads house witch ain't getting broken into anytime soon (unless the lowlife takes a long drive outta town, witch l doubt would be likely), so l have hope that this place will be a lot better than sydney was although l'm still nervous of taking this step, it is time to "fly the coop" witch l'm also excited about, thank you to everyone in hear that has listened and helped through them awful times, and l guarantee if a gripe happens l will probably never attempt share houses again, although l still have another year to save enough for a house/unit/flat deposit, witch is going to happen this time next year regardless of circumstances.

Cheers
Brendan

[supershifty]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

so the grandkids cubby house is looking a bit worse for wear.......out with the tools (including first fix nail gun)

fired into a frame, skewed off the knot in the 3x2, bounced off another and hit me behind the ear.

just enough to penetrate and draw blood.......didnt think much of that......second time this year a nail gun has got me.

might have to put them all in the "too dangerous for Poppa" bin.

SWMBO suggested that our daughters (3+5) should have a cubbyhouse. No xbox or playstation back then. This was 15 years ago, I was on 3 months compo with a torn plantar tendon in the right foot - bloody painful. So we hobbled around various places that sold cubby's. Cripes, but they were dear. Found one for $1300 which we both liked. After a bit of thought I said to the bride I could build one cheaper and better than that - I was bored ****less.

Not real familiar with working with timber, metal and cars are my thing. I bit off more than I could chew, and one idea turned into another whilst etching out plans on paper. I went overboard! Cost $1700. It's footprint is 6' x 8', has 1/2 sandpit and 1/2 deck underneath (for a "tea" table and chairs), Mrs bought one of those plastic play kitchens for upstairs and plastic play furniture.

The girls got plenty of use out of it, and it still stands in the Mrs backyard today. Geez, but I wish I had kept my mouth shut and bought the $1300 one.

Here's a pic of just after I built it, sorry for the quality. Cheers!

[poppa smurf]

she's a beaut.....very similar to my kids cubby, ours has been standing now for.....hell it would be 30 years or more.

I'm afraid I went a bit overboard with ours, gun turret's, lookout, slide, sandpit underneath, wouldn't like to pay for it today.

yours would be way better than the $1300 piece of mass produced crap......well done you for loving your kids that much.

[poppa smurf]

termites are back......been fighting these little buggers for decades....ah! well, where's my drill and masonry bit, time to renew the barrier's......

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

termites are back......been fighting these little buggers for decades....ah! well, where's my drill and masonry bit, time to renew the barrier's......

Have a chat to b2tf, zapping the little buggers is his job. You might be a bit far for him to come but he could probably tell you the best stuff to use.

[poppa smurf]

trouble is they are so persistent they get in the slightest gaps......so I'm doubling my barrier (double rows) in case they slipped in between.

I'm using the most powerful termiticide that the public can legally obtain, if I was still in the smelters I'd flog some arsenic and feed that to them like we used to........ah! they were the day's.

we've got a couple of houses here that are empty, so no termite control plus a few that don't treat so the battle is constant.

just let my hand get some feeling back after boring 100 holes with the rotary hammer then I'll get back into it........another 100 should see it finished!......if I don't strike another pipe like last time (6pm on a Sunday, never mind that's what friends are for)

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

just let my hand get some feeling back after boring 100 holes with the rotary hammer then I'll get back into it.

What ? do you mean that there's something that an Iphoney can't do ?



(The Apple fan club wont be happy to hear that )

[poppa smurf]

don't speak to me about bloody iPhone's........if the dragon see's or hear's anything to do with multimedia device's I cop it, advert on TV, I duck and cover my ear's.

in for it this weekend, outlaw's are coming up for a quaff and guzzle.......topic of conversation, ....yep! ......poor old Poppa.

funny how no-one else EVER does anything wrong.

[tut0r]

My iphones great for p***ing off android lovers.

[Bushbasher]

Ya know what I hate this week, bloody halloween. The whole idea of halloween gives me the irits something fierce. It's a bloody seppo tradition not australian but was foisted upon us, and promoted and driven, by the big corporate retailers as a way to get suckers to buy more crap, and it seems to be working unfortunately. I happened to walk into Bunnings yesterday to find some paint and all the staff were dressed up in full costumes including the facial war paint. It bugged be so much I just turned around and walked out.

Just another example of the undermining of our unique Australian culture and way of life as far as I'm concerned.

[Tonz]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

not allowed to play with the stapler, after I stapled my pinky to the carpet last christmas.

what the 'ell were you doing. Or shouldnt we ask!
Pinky is supposed to stay inside your pants dude or maybe you are into some kind of 'adult' games.....kinky!

[CoupeKing]

When you go away camping with some mates, be it overnight or a week, and friends of friends decide to just come up for the night. Yeah thats good, new faces. But all they arrive with is beer,smokes and the clothes on their back. Soon as you get up to to grab a can or put some wood on the fire you turn around and they`re in your chair, or even worse, sat their barge *** down on your Esky and warped the lid

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by Tonz

what the 'ell were you doing. Or shouldnt we ask!
Pinky is supposed to stay inside your pants dude or maybe you are into some kind of 'adult' games.....kinky!

whilst you may call your nether region appendage "pinky".....mine is known as "goliath".

"pinky" is a common term for a little finger.

I was assembling a sewing table for my wife (this one for her overlocker), the fixing method for the back was pretty weak so I grabbed the senco brad/staple air gun and fired a few into the back to hold the backing on.

while I was placing the gun back on the floor it fired and stapled my little finger to the floor through the carpet.

and yes......it did hurt.

[Tonz]

Oh my we are humble arent we! Who calls it Goliath? Yes you Iam sure ...but does your wife or are you mistaking 'goth' for goliath?

Poppa, Iam sure your not always serious............

[poppa smurf]

we were touring up through the centre a while ago when we came upon a pub in the middle of nowhere.....

stepped inside for a cooling ale and spied a money jar on the counter overflowing with dollar coins.

I asked what it was for and the barman said they had a sad donkey out the back and that if anyone could make it happy the jar of money was theirs, so I paid my dollar and went out the back followed by the barman.

I whispered in the donkeys ear and he started laughing his head off, tears rolling down his cheeks and rolling on the floor stamping his hoof against the stall wall.

barman said the money was mine but asked me what I said.....I wouldn't tell him.

a few months later we were touring through again and went into the same pub, money jar overflowing on the counter, once again I asked what it was for and was told if anyone could stop the damn donkey from laughing the jar of money would be theirs......I paid my dollar and was followed out.

this time I wouldn't let the barman see what I did, the donkey stopped laughing and started crying.......

on the way back the barman said not so fast tell me how you did it before I pay you.

easy I said, the first time I told the donkey my member was bigger than his......the second time I showed him.