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GRIPES


Phil Perry

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I hate Chloris! Chloris truncata that is. Known amongst other names as Windmill Grass. C. truncata is found in temperate mainland Australia extending to central Australia, but is absent from the Northern Territory. It is associated with dryland grasslands and woodlands on most soil types, ranging from grey cracking clays to light sandy soils.

 

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On ripening, spikelets turn black and seed easily shatters. An abscission (Abscission - natural shedding of dispersal units or other plant parts) layer forms at the base of each flowering stem which may break off and blow along the ground, scattering seeds as it moves. It's this "tumbleweed" method of dispersion that annoys me as I live beside a big paddock where this year the damned stuff has grown in profusion, and is now doing its "sowing wild oats" thing.

 

I don't know why, but the winds here have been blowing constantly for days on end at around 10 - 20 kts. These winds carry the grass from the paddock, over the fence and around the house. As the wind swirls around the corners of the house in eddies, the vanes of the windmill get tangled and form big clumps of dried material.

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It's a bugger to try to gather with a rake and all you can do is move the clumps out into the air stream so that it can blow away. Unfortunately, in the morning the wind often reverses direction during the day, so what blew away in the morning, blows back to where it began by the afternoon.

 

Apart from being annoyed at the untidiness of it all over my yard and into sheds, this stuff is so dry that if it caught fire it would go "wooof" like a magician's woofle dust.

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We have wild Turnip here, it's out of control and grows like wildfire. It dries out and the stem breaks off and they form big "tumbleweeds" that build up against fences, gates and buildings. They're a PIA.

 

We also got skeleton weed from NSW, thanks very much. We spent tens of millions eradicating it and every now and then there's still a bit springs up - and the authorities pounce on it and quarantine the area.

 

We've got Qld fruit fly recently, the authorities have quarantined a sizeable metro area and are hammering it, let's hope it gets wiped out. Beats me how it got in, the border quarantine must be getting weaker.

 

Surprisingly, it seems the baiting for the Qld fruit fly has also wiped out a lot of the Mediterranean fruit fly, I've seen very few MFF's this season. Maybe the long dry spell helped.

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I've got one .

At last , I have a gripe 

I bumped my arm . THEN three days later it became .

painful  . Ho so painful .

Xray & ultrasound,  then the result .

It's an inflamed Bursa .

I've only vaguely heard about it .

now, I know how painful it is, even to touch the skin .

So I'm sporting my Badge , " of get out of work " .sling .

No LoL . Please .

spacesailor

 

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Oh yes, nothing like an inflamed bursa for sheer agony! I injured my shoulder about 18 mths ago and incurred an inflamed bursa in the shoulder joint. The pain was like nothing I've ever endured before!

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You should be careful of what you wish for.

 

For the past few months it's been hot and dry at my place. Temperatures in the mid-30s or better and humidity in the teens. I've bitched about it and wished for cooler weather. Yesterday a cool change came through and dropped the temperature to the mid-20s. This morning I woke up to mid-level overcast; temperature around 25, but humidity 50%.

 

Now, apart from the humidity, those conditions are not to complain about. However, Sunday is the day I do my laundry. In the recent past I have been able to get my washing on the line and been able to bring it in by lunchtime. But today, I don't know if the washing will dry by the end of the day. I might have to dry my clothes in the dryer, adding to the humidity in the house.

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I reckon I never really experienced pain till I got gout from an inflamed bunion. It sounds a lot like an inflamed bursa to me.

The gout is from uric acid in pockets which come out of solution for some reason , and it is quite painful. A bit like shingles, which is painful because it attacks the nerve-endings.

My advice is not to get old.

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I booked a slipway for 4 days to do routine antifoul on my boat. Summer should be nice an warm, right? Day one came around -  cool, windy and drizzle. But I managed to pressure wash a lot of gunk. Day two was 13 degrees, showers and gusting 30 kts. I didn’t get much done before going home for a hot shower. Day 3 and it got cold, rainy and gusting 40kts. It would blow the paintbrush out of your hand. Too wet to paint anyway. I managed to negotiate a  extra day. Day 4 and the weather's improved. At last the hull is dry. Rain stopped and wind dropped. So did the temp. Temp might momentarily go right up to 13. But the fine print on the paint tin says 'only apply at 16 - 30 degrees Celsius'.

Gripe - winds are always perverse.

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On 03/03/2024 at 10:25 AM, old man emu said:

You should be careful of what you wish for.

Well, the clouds cleared and the sun peeked through about lunchtime. The washing dried and I even was able to do the ironing while I listened to the commentary of the second League game in Vegas. I was suitably de-griped.

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On the subject of gout, I had it a couple of years ago.I was in hospital. They placed bags of ice on the affected foot. I've been taking a Frusemide tablet every day for a couple of years to deal with uric acid. 

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Always ask. And if you are on something for a long time, ask again.

Especially ask "are there any interactions with my other medications?"

 

A regular review sometimes results in fine tuning the prescriptions.

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