Blowing one's stack!

As my readers will know, I am legally blind, and , unfortunately that seems to make people think I and interlectually challenged also, and not entitled to any consideration or courtesy. For over a year now, I have been receiving Home Help with the house work , as I have chronic back pain and two bung knees. This year I was, unbeknowst to me, allocated an extra privelidge, namely getting the outside of my windows washed. I was visited by a woman who had been given the job of allocating the funds, and was never told whether I had been sucessful in gaining this extra.
This morning, my friend Sue came to pick me up as usual for our Tuesday morning coffee at one of the local cafes. Just as she got to the door, I heard someone else call out, "Hey, Sue. Are you home?" Why she could not ring the bell, is beyond me. I am NOT some animal that needs to be summoned in this way. I opened the door and said,"Who have we here?" As soon as I opened the door I recognised her, and she said she had come from Handy Help and was going to wash my windows.
The job of window washing, pruning etc, had been subcontracted to Handy Help. I knew this from some weeks ago. My reaction, or over reaction to this news stunned even me. I went right off the beam, and said it was not good enough that I had not been, a. informed that they were going to do the windows, or, b. when. I let her know that I was not happy about the total lack of efficiency etc, either. Of course, it was not the poor unfortunate woman's fault, and I have probably 'cut my nose off to spite my face' and will not be surprised if they don't do them now. I was not about to go out and leave strangers here with the place unattended.Not that I think for a nanosecond this woman is in the least dishonest. I wonder what would have happened if Sue had not been late?!
I have had to deal with the patronising, condescending attitude of people all my life. They either talk loudly and slowly, because they think I am deaf and slow witted, or they treat me with utter disdain .
I am a perfectly normal woman, not brilliant, but not dumb either, who happens to have bugger all eyesight. I have run a home, and worked on farms, and raised two well adjusted wonderful kids. I can sew, kint and many other things. I can also use a computer. The thing that is scary is, it struck me I am turning into my mother. Some may say that I always was, but not those who have known me all my life.

Blackout.

I was reading the paper this morning at about 7.35, when the power was interupted. As it is winter here, it was still quite dark at that time, and for someone with very limited eyesight, it was very difficult for me to continue to read, but continue I did. At about 7.50, I rang the power company on my mobile phone, to report the power failure, to be told that they were already aware of it, and were trying to discover the whereabouts of the failure, and it's cause. I was also told of the extent of the failure. As this is Australia, we have some very strange, to some, district manes. These originate from the Aboriginal tribes of this country. They are very hard to pronounce at times. For instance, a couple of the areas that were affected were, Geegeela, and Pooganagoric. The recorded voice ronounced them thus, Gee-gee-la with a hard emphasis on the G. It is in fact Jeejeela. Pooganagoric, is Poojanagoric, but was pronounced Poog-an-a-goric. Again, a hard emphasis on the G. Many years ago, I was listening to the local news on the radio, and Kybybolite, was mentioned. It was pronounced Ky-by-bow-lite. I was it stitches! It is in fact, Kyby-bow-lite. The power was restored at 8.25. Thankfully,this meant I did not have to reset my programmes on my video recorder, as the power had been off less than an hour.
Yes, it has been a slow couple of weeks newswise.