Cooked Kitty

If I name the post appropriately, every weirdo and his BFF will be here so I went for the opposite-ish. 

A few weeks back I watched a video which was actually just a still photo of an older man at an airport. There was music and a caption which I'll paraphrase as:

Grandpa "raw dogging it" from (let's say) Atlanta to New York. Three hours on a plane: no phone, no book, no music. Just him and his thoughts.

I had never seen the term "raw dogging it" but I understood from the context.

When i looked at comments, the very first one said "Good on Grandpa but did you have to use the term raw dogging?" And I just knew there was a story in that comment.

Well, a quick google taught me that raw dogging is unprotected sex. 

A week or so later I saw another video talking about raw dogging on a commute. I took it to mean media free rather than condom-less.

Then Caitlin came home from work and told me that a patient had made a long, entertainment free walk to the clinic and before she could think she said "That's a long way to raw dog it"

Then her conservative middle aged Muslim patient wanted an explanation and Caitlin was laughing and he said he'd go home and ask his teenaged children. Caitlin finally explained to save the teenagers. The girl is all public service.

Never in my life did I imagine there would be a slang name for an entertainment free trip.

Never, ever did I imagine the slang name would refer to sex.

Never, ever, ever did I imagine that I would go from a complete raw dogging innocent to full immersion in the space of a month.

Fungi

A few days after the big storm I saw these mushrooms in the front yard. I was rushing off to work and so I asked Caitlin to take some photos, sure they were too delicate to last the day.

So she took thm and it's a good thing she did: she has a great eye and they wilted almost as she watched.

I'm grateful for the timing.

 

The Forgotten people of Warrawong

 I've spent a couple of days giving out financial assistance for storm and flood affected people in Warrawong, which is a depressed area of Wollongong, an hour or so south of where I live.

A storm came through about 9 days ago and the Wollongong area was hard hit. 

The people coming for assistance were different to other groups I've seen. The majority of people seeking help live in old public housing which has not been maintained. Their faces show the marks of not just a bad weather event but lifetimes of hardship. Some of them have very obviously given up.

There was flooding which came from the huge volumes of water rising into homes but there was also a great deal of storm damage where roofs leaked, guttering overflowed into the roof or water made it's way through a poorly sealed window or wall.

At least two women told me that they had recently been homeless and were looking forward to being settled in a home they could invite children or grandchildren to. Now those hopes have to be put on hold while they wait for the housing authority to put in new flooring or repairs and for the women themselves to  replace furniture, clothes and bedding.

One man who had lost his wallet sat down and while we tried to figure out a way to confirm his ID. I commented on the scar on his head. I meant the large scar on the back of his head (it came from somebody hitting him with a post) but he thought I meant the one along his hairline. Somebody drove over his head like it was a speed hump and his face had to be peeled back so his eye sockets could be reconstructed. The guy left home at 17 when his stepfather tried to kill him.

I think I have some understanding of poverty and disadvantage until I meet people like this. It's hard to see so many people who are injured, traumatised, toothless and strung out. 

The system assesses people based on their level of loss but in this kind of community, they don't have much to lose so they don't qualify for a lot of help. I'm not sure how to design the system better. I don't think the answer is in changing the disaster grants, I think it's in looking after people better over the long term.

Most people receive a grant that is enough money to assist with a replacement fridge or a cheap mattress. My partner told me a total loss qualifies for a larger payment so when a homeless man came in and said all his possessions were stored under a house and got washed away I thought he qualified for the larger amount. I hesitated to approve the amount, knowing he'll probably do something self destructive with the money but I also thought it's not up to me to determine the outcome. I later found out the larger grant is not for "total loss" but for people whose home is condemned. The devil is in the detail, right?

I'll feel pretty silly about that for a long time.

If it hasn't hit your favourite news outlet, Molly the Magpie is going to be returned to his home. I think there are some hoops for his guardians to jump through first but he will get there.