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This is the thirty eighth posting in this ongoing, if not somewhat ad-hoc column called "Ruminations From My Veranda".
It's been a while since I've sat on the verandah with a glass of wine, and given that it's pretty cold out here, I may not be out here now except for the fact that I have no electricity. So what else can a poor boy do? The sun is frantically trying to find a way to get through the clouds and at times is succeeds but it has no warmth in it. The solstice has just come and gone and I guess as that heralds a gradual return to more daylight, we might reasonably expect a gradual return to warmer weather.
I hope so, frankly even though this rather adequate glass of Rothbury Estate Cab/Merlot has some warming properties, I'm sick of the cold! I don't know where the bottle came from. I certainly don't recall buying it and usually avoid like the plague any wine that doesn't have a date of the wine crop and when I look at the label and read that it is made from grapes grown in "premium wine growing regions", I begin to get suspicious that it's blended from grapes from everywhere and possibly, from a variety of years.
I'm not too sure of that and even if I wanted to Google some information, I couldn't because - I have no electricity! This has been going on now since September of last year. For the first 3 or 4 months we lost power for between 9 and 10 hours, but as the months have gone the frequency has increased to a day every fortnight, and with unscheduled over-runs sometimes we have been without power for up to 15 hours.
I can hear you now. What the "f" is going on up there in the hills around Belgrave?
Regular readers of my ruminations, if indeed you actually exist, would be familiar with my stories of SPAusNet (That's SINGAPORE AusNet), a wholly owned company from Singapore who own and through the company Ausnet, operate the power transmission lines. Since coping a fair hiding from the inquiry into the Black Friday bushfires of a few years ago, where they were found to be negligent in maintaining their transmission lines, the company has dropped the "SP" to become known as AusNet - it's a public relations decision to kind of makes us all feel warm and glowing that at least it's an Australian owned company - when in fact it's not! So they came up here in my locality ostensibly to put the power lines underground. OK, that could be seen as a good move given that while we haven't had a bushfire affect our power in the 25 years I have lived here, it certainly could. We also suffer from high winds that can bring down the lines.
Guess what? It wasn't until the job was well underway, that they discovered that we actually live in an area that is volcanic and they weren't able to bore underground to lay the cables underground. Oh please! So, they are replacing the poles with beautifully sculptured concrete monstrosities and replacing the overhead cables with thick ugly twisted bundles of cable. Meanwhile the people in this area now have their power off at least once a fortnight, regardless of whether it's freezing cold or not and believe me, it has been bitter up here.
If that is not bad enough, well it's 4:10pm and the power which went off at 8:15am, when we were told 9am, is not back on despite it scheduled for 4:00pm. Am I surprised? Not at all. In every, without exception, every time they have worked the power has never been restored when scheduled. In fact it has never come back on even within 30 minutes of the scheduled time. Along with my neighbours, we are so sick of ringing up and complaining. I'm sure I mentioned this in a past rumination, but once when I complained bitterly to a company representative that it was 3 hours past the scheduled time, once again - I was told, "Oh well you know to add 3 or 4 hours to whenever we say it will be restored". Furious does not begin to describe my reaction.
So, the sun, or rather the pale glow of the sun, is about to disappear over the hills and the real cold and damp is about to descend and the hills are alive with the sound of generators. So many people up here have had enough of this idiotic inability of SPAusNet to keep to their schedules, they have gone out and bought a generator.
Now this is a late at night addition to my thoughts, let me tell you that the power eventually came on at 7:15pm - 3 and a 1/4 hrs late!! Is this 2015? Is it a sign of times to come?
I guess I could sign off here as darkness descends, but I'm not really in a "bad place", in fact apart from being cold things are going well in my pocket of the planet (if we ignore the power company), so I'd rather keep topping up the glass of red and push onto other matters.
My 34 year old son has left home! Yes, he has gone. Really? I hear you say, what's he doing at home anyway. Well he is the one that about 7 years ago was in a hit-run accident. I really don't want to go over all the now dead coals again, but the response from the TAC was less than acceptable and his rehabilitation was very slow. If you think it's hard to get a job, try getting one when you have been injured in an accident and rendered unable to work for several years. Even with a positive attitude and being highly motivated to work, it's not easy getting a job. Well he was going in and out of some dark places. One thing he did have was access to the net, and through the net he met a woman in the USA.
They struck up a friendship and over the course of many years grew close. She lives in Ohio with her young son and is a hard working and loving mum who has the support of her family, but was alone. She and my son discovered they had many things in common and last year he managed to save from a part-time job, sufficient money to visit her for a few months and it confirmed the strength of their mutual feelings.
The long and the short is that a couple of weeks ago he left June and I, went to the USA and married her. We, of course, are incredibly happy that he found a person that he wants to spend his life with. We will miss him dreadfully, but now he has two families in two countries and he gets on like the proverbial house on fire with the son, and also her mother, and her brother.
The extended family have a business in the towing industry, so my son has a job lined up once he gets his green card, and in my mind, if he puts his head down and his bum up there is no limit to where he may end up in the company. We would describe it in Australia as a medium size business and being a family business, while they are giving him a wonderful opportunity, and he just loves all things mechanical, they expect him to really contribute and, in some ways, you have to work even harder when it's family.
I'm over the moon because I know my son just needs an opportunity as he is fiercely loyal, and when it's something he loves, he gives 110%. So now he's engaged in the not so easy job of proving his worth to the US Government. He has to prove his marriage is not one of convenience (just like in the movies) and he and his partner can be subjected to random visits by US officials any time, day or night. He is currently undergoing biometric analysis, fingerprints, background checks, all because of the heightened fear of terrorism.
He has to go through rigorous medical checks, and was even asked to prove what vaccinations he has had over his entire life. Try finding records of vaccinations done over 30 years ago! Fortunately my darling wife, June, kept his baby medical records and I scanned them as pdf's and stuck them in a dropbox. Now we are waiting to find out whether my scanning of his baby records constitutes an official record.
It prompted me to start thinking about citizenship and what is going on in our own country now, with the Government pushing on with stripping people of dual citizenships, of their Aussie citizenship if they fight with terrorists or visit prohibited countries. I have some serious reservations about all this. Of course on the surface, and as someone who came to this country at the age of two and chose to take out citizenship and holds dual citizenship, it makes me wonder. Let me get something straight. I believe that despite our current "loonie tune" government, that this is one of the most stable and desirable countries to live in and be a citizen of, anywhere in the world.
Of course I don't want radicalised muslims, christians, or radical supporters of the great green arkleseizure to live among us and ferment dissent let alone working toward the breakdown of the wonderful Australian way of life, our morals and our values. Nor do I want these people to gain from the fruits of this wonderful country while fighting against those Australians who chose to enter the armed forces and have to end up dealing with these radical nut cases in other countries.
But I am not a blind Nationalist, who is unable to see past the waving of the flag and the chants of meaningless but emotive cries.
So if we can prove someone is a "radical", has fought or supported these pieces of filth, that is fine. But how will we determine this? What safeguards are there in place that innocent Australians from other countries are not labelled as dangerous radicals or falsely suspected of inciting against Australia? I am old enough to recall the stories of those dreadful McCarthy years in the USA, where unless you wrapped yourself in the US flag and constantly sung the praises of Uncle Sam, you could be named as a "Communist" and hounded unmercifully. It destroyed families, it destroyed individuals.
Checks and balances, that's all I want to see, and so far the Government has not shared its plans for these with the Parliament, let alone us. This could alter at anytime, and I hope that these are made clear, and that they are fair. After all, one of the founding principals in this country's modern day development, and you won't find this in our Constitution", is a fair go for all!
Let's make sure that this principle is nicely embraced with the fine words of the laws, but in a way that those of us who care for this country and yet do not subscribe to the meaningless nationalistic fervour of some, can clearly understand, and so support.
Never forget, this is not a White Anglo Saxon Country - it was first inhabited by the native Australians, and since visited by the English and colonised, has striven for and been and should always be, a fair and equitable pluralistic society where we really celebrate our differences and our commonality, and not withdraw into a cocoon of fear over that which we find is different.
My son has gone to make his life in the USA, and others come and make their lives here. This is right, it is correct. So while we should be vigilant in these times of uncertainty, we should not be fearful.
Now, the cold has grown so bad that even Vandella the cafe heater is struggling and once again the bottle is empty. You know, now I have drunk it, even though it was a mixture of grapes from many locations, it actually worked because it was blended with care and love.
There is a message for me here, and maybe for you. We can blend people from all over the world into this country, if we do it with care and love. Cheers from The Verandah.