Life improves

24.3.09 At last we are back on the internet, at least in some form. Dale from Telstra re-connected our second landline yesterday and it runs dial up slowly in much the same way it worked before the fires. There have been other big gains too. Last Wednesday a wonderful company donated old demountable classrooms for homeless people in Steels Creek . We got one delivered and installed next to the site office. This is truly fantastic and I am now having fun planning how I can set it up as our home for the year or so it takes us to rebuild.
At present we have a spiders web of cables trailing across the ground from the builders pole. Our electrician has been over to look and thinks he can put up a better form of temporary power next week. Gary and Andrew have been hard at work knocking down and rebuilding walls at the old house site. The idea is to set up a toilet that taps into the existing septic tank pipes.
The toilet issue has been an increasing problem for me as more and more men turn up each day to work on the property and all hope of a private corner is lost. The big battle last week was to try and get the tennis club to leave the women’s toilet unlocked. This turned out to be a big ask but as the Shire has set them up as our local relief centre they intervened and at present if I drive 4 km down there a toilet is available.
I am now sat down in front of my new apple computer. It is very glossy and a bit over whelming but not so different to the old one in basics. At least I know how to start. I have a printer too but I have not set it up yet. Josh is giving me lessons on the use of memory sticks and plug in card readers. He is so far ahead of me in computer use that I can hardly follow him. The big idea is that now I am able to write a letter to our insurance company who are obviously playing for time and setting themselves up for a fight.
Everyone tells us that the RACV have been wonderful to deal with and have offered money for alternate accommodation up front and even given out checks easily. Our company now has a reputation for being much tougher. A horrible man came down from NSW and tried to tell everyone that their houses were over valued. At least with so many of us affected in the same area we can compare notes and share helpful advise.