Fire Bugs

Img: Colleen Kelly

The fire flared in a reserve at Brown Hill Creek when a car was set alight and rolled down an embankment on Tilleys Hill Rd.

Task force set up 

It's very worrying. We have arsonists or an arsonist in the McLaren Vale area and now the hills. It's a nightmare for people and the CFS. The firefighters are  doing a great job but it means they are not home and resting. The police are doing a great job trying to get a strategy into place to catch whoever it is or whoever they are. What impresses me about the article is that it gets the information out and has kept it very straight forward so we can take it in and think about it. It's true, people are the best resource in these kinds of situations. They have eyes , ears brains, technology and the local community will know what is right or wrong about their area. Police can map strategies and the fire brigade obviously have quick response times and are able to manage. It's awful, though. The other thing which is impressive about the article is that it has drawn some sensible and workable ideas for how to deal with this because of the way it has been written. It's true, anyone who has or knows a child who is overly fascinated with fire needs to have an avenue they can approach to get early intervention. The other thing which is clear is that we understand that arsonists are not well. We have to stop them and we have to harness them but we have to help and treat them too. There is a great deal of compassion in the article and comments about the state of mind of arsonists. That will be our best weapon because we find them very hard to understand. Why would you light a car and shove it down a hill? Would you then pop off home on foot and watch a bit of tele, listen to some music maybe, check on your sleeping children? I cannot work out where these thoughts come from. Often it is in the earlier hours of the morning. Do they set an alarm and get up to light a car and push it down a hill or do they stay up all night and develop a black frame of mind which means vengeance is theirs? They must have a lot of physical and emotional energy to be doing what they do at the times they do it and setting fire to a car means they have stolen it or are prepared to burn something they own.. Given they are as dangerous as they are and are capable of wholesale damage to flora, fauna, homes, communities and other peoples' lives, it is in our own best interests to watch and to get a better understanding of how these people think and operate. In South Australia we can operate in a very low key but connected manner to resolve community issues. We need to raise community awareness again to get ourselves thinking.

Spindle Cell Tumour in Dogs

My dog has just come back from a day of blood tests at the vet. You can clearly see the spindle cell tumour in this photo. She has had it for two and a half years now. When it was first operated it stayed down for a year. I am blogging about it because if you click on the link you will get  the links to all my other posts. If you are here it is probably because you have a dog with a spindle cell tumour. They are nasty but my dog has lived happily for two and a half years and the good vetinary care and some googling on my part have enabled her to be a normal , happy dog. She literally takes it in her stride. She was at the vet today to have the blood tests to see if she really does have Cushings disease as I blogged about in my last post. It could be caused by the cortisone and it could be that she has developed it as an older dog.Recently she has had trouble getting out the back. She can no longer go up and down the steps and she has trouble getting up the ramp. She does it though. The heat made her breathe hard and we need to know what is going on so she can be helped. The bare skin on her leg next to the lump is from where she had her anaesthetic for her dentistry! She is even famous and on the vet website. She was glad to get home today but they had taken great care of her and said she had spent a quiet day, as she does these days. The lump has ballooned a bit because she needs the cortisone to keep it down but had to come off the cortisone for a few days so the tests could be done properly. It is a big balancing act. She'll lie quietly these days and then amble around the back garden. Her spirit is very strong and at peace but her energy levels are quite low...but then she is eleven and a half, likes to take an interest in things but is content to mosey along!

The violence has to stop

"When he realised I wasn't going to let him go he punched me several times in the face, so subsequently I took necessary action to stop him from doing that and sat on him essentially until the police arrived," he said.

John Elferink, a Port Darwin MP came to the aid of a woman in Adelaide whose mobile phone and car keys were stolen.  I was thinking he feels very confident when dealing with difficult, unstable situations and he caught and restrained the man until it could be dealt with by police. Most people would stand and watch. We have lost that level of self confidence here mainly because a number of people have been badly injured or killed while trying to intervene and help someone. You just don't know who you are dealing with anymore. John Elferink has reminded us we can do something about it if we use our heads and our skills. I have known others to intervene by using their mobiles for pictures or calls to the police but at the same time judging whether they are putting themselves at risk or not. It is not easy. I was wondering why the guy stole the mobile and car keys. If it was random it would not have done him much good in terms of cash. If he was known to the woman then it was just a mean act. It's a bit disturbing but John Elferink has dealt with it all in a level headed manner to show us you can do something about it and take the control back by being matter of fact . We wouldn't all have his capacity to deal with an onslaught of punches and we are not all in the situation where we can. There is another article about the cost and concern of violence in our hospitals. The government needs to urgently clarify when restraint can be used because that apparently has not occurred and we need to stop putting money into protecting ourselves from violence in hospitals when that money could be put to better use to help heal people. People are flaring up for all sorts of reasons. Like the lady who went spare at me because I backed my car out BEFORE she had got into the lane at the shopping centre car park but she was angry because she had to wait until I straightened my car up. Flouncy , self serving behaviour is becoming too common and people just go off. Some get violent so you have to be wary as you step around town and shopping centres. If it is a hospital then that is unthinkable and staff will then be tied up dealing with someone and their anger issues instead of people who need medical help. I can well imagine doctors and dentists may well be facing the same irrational anger problems and it will put them off the job. Is it expectation? Is it education? I remember sitting on a bus in Noumea and the  bus inspector got on. I thought, there is no way anyone would mess with him. He was super polite as they are. He was really nice because he actually helped me find my way to the right stop when the driver was dealing with someone else. It was all very civilised...but you would not have done the wrong thing on the bus...nor brought on fish that wasn't in a thermal bag as the big sign said.

Potato Power

Image: Carolyn Keeney

Personally I wouldn't go past local potatoes. I even grow a few of my own because fresh potatoes have a taste and class of their own. So I feel for our potato growers. The article articulates the situation well and in a well thought out manner. People do look at price and convenience and tend to think a bag of frozen chips will be easier to manage than real potatoes. It's not true and it means we probably have to do a bit of customer awareness and education. If I use potatoes out of my garden people  always notice. They taste really nice. I don't get many so they are usually put into a potato salad or cooked with other vegetables. I buy potaoes by the bag and make my own oven fries, oven wedges, roast potatoes and the French certainly have plenty of recipes for potatoes which are actually quick and easy. Layering potatoes with other things like onion and a bit of bacon makes for a quick, easy treat. I also make potato pancakes which are a huge hit and people always are asking me to make more. So it's a matter of getting the information out about how to easily prepare real potatoes. There is quite a variety in Adelaide and it is good to try them. My favourites at the moment are the white ones with the little purple spots. They have a name which I never remember. I also give my dog some cooked potato on a regualr basis. I chop and microwave them. They are for her potassium levels which she needs. She loves them mixed in with her dinner. Now we have the information,  we need the action. The newspaper article did a good job of drawing attention to the situation and everyone was talking about it...so give us a plan. Let us help!

Bonne Année - Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a really Happy New Year . Je souhaite à vous et à vos proches une bonne année 2012.

Spindle Cell Tumour in Dogs

My dog is still here and she is eleven and a half now. She still has her spindle cell. She also has the hard skin on her back still. Last week she had her teeth cleaned so she would not get any infections from her back teeth. They had suddenly become quite discoloured . While she was under anaesthetic the vet had a chance to take blood tests and have a better look at her. She has been on cortisone tablets for quite some time now. He shaved some of that hard skin off and told me to halve the dose of cortisone. She has Cushings disease which does not have a good pathway but dogs can live with it. It could be the cortisone has brought it on or it could be a tumour on her adrenalin glands or pituitary glands and the vet needs to establish what is causing it. In the meantime we have to manage that lump on her leg which grows without the cortisone. Cushings was not news to me. She has  all the symptoms - the black, hard skin and loss of fur at the back of her, the panting, the excessive drinking and  then the food fixation. She also pees a lot when she does pee. It varies from week to week how the symptoms are. She has been living with it because it seems to have been brought on or exacerbated by the cortisone tablets. She has been happy and led a quieter but pleasant life. You can see she is quite relaxed and has a really good coat  except for near her  tail. Since I have cut down the cortisone a bit then her hard skin is starting to soften and there has been a bit of an improvement. She doesn't pant as much. She has been fairly droopy though and not as energetic as she used to be. I have to take her age into consideration and that stupid spindle cell tumour on her leg. It has grown but not affected her walking at all. I take her back next week because Christmas week probably wasn't the best week to see how she was going. At the moment I'd say not too badly at all. My concern is she has a quality of life and can live with whatever comes her way. So far I have been able to navigate that path along with the help of my vet. His knowledge and level of care have been invaluable in keeping my dog going well. I am just taking things as they come and going from one day to the next. I am glad we have managed to get her this far because it is two and a half years since the operation on her spindle cell tumour. She has not put on weight as it says in some of the articles about Cushing's disease. She has lost a little but that is not a problem. So we'll see how we go.

Messenger Press Online

I knew the Messenger Press was online but I didn't realise I could actually read my local version of the Messenger in its entirety. I was looking for a particular article which had been published to show someone over Christmas and I had recycled my paper. I went to the Messenger site and found they offered the whole versions of each paper.  I shall use it now. The sooner we do away with paper the better. It'll make for a cleaner, greener, tidier world  and we just need to convert ourselves to electronic alternatives.I have always read and valued the Messenger because it brings truly local news and events. It is important to have a sense of belonging when you live somewhere and the Messenger has always broguht that sense of connectedness because it deals with local issues and often will use its position to help promote good causes that the community feels need to be addressed. The fact we can now access it online needs to be more widely publicised and then perhaps we can do away with the paper version and move on into the 21st Century.