Less-ons & More-ons
Sat 2 Dec 2023 a "camping day" with Katrina
We didn't go camping Friday night, because rain was forecast to come during the night (& it did). So we we drove the car with pop-up trailer behind it, up by the side of the house under the carport-pagola, and slept in our own bed at home. Coming together slowly in the morning, things didn't get going for camping till around 11:30am, and we were off. Then Saturday morning we drove off to Ophir, with lunch and some water bottles,to have a look, & see about camping the night (in our pop-up camper trailer) and buying a pub meal for dinner.
On the way, we needed to fill up with fuel (we were about ¼ ful). We did, at the 7/11 store. i read out-loud "bowser 4" as we drove in to make sure I remembered when I paid at the counter. We had a fuel-price locked in by phone app at ~$1.77, instead of ~$1.92 as displayed on bowser. How good was that.
Then we drove to Ophir. On the way Katrina mentioned that the government was about to throw money at schools to help teachers to train students in the disciplines of human life…
I reacted … thinking about the structures of government being less than human, and this inhuman response of throwing money at very complex human problems (as has happened with "the aboriginal issue", the nation has just voted on). That being true, I was forgetting that God has put salt & light in there, and today was an amazing example of this point…) Katrina said something about my one sided response & I saw it for what it was. Flabbergasted that I had overlooked EMANUEL - GOD being WITH US. Thank you God, for this woman.
Then we drove through the first stock gate at Ophir and came to a camping sign… in checking my phone map I found the 7/11 app open, but unused (it changes its background colour when scanned at the counter). Then I realized that back at the 7/11 fuel stop I'd looked at the bowser price, & jumped in the car and off we drove. I hadn't paid for my fuel fill-up. I thought it was around $93.
I tried to ring the 7/11 shop. Coverage was iffy. It rang … but went to a message bank voice mail. I explained that I'd be back tomorrow, & all my details.
We had a lovely day eating our luncheon sandwiches, doing walk one with a good water bottle, sitting on the shore. Trying some of walk 2, during which I got stuck on a log crossing a creek. Then driving along track 3.
While trying to drive out we got stuck in our 4wd, our 4 wheels spinning on the very steep dirt track while towing our camper trailer out (of track 3)…
While trying to back the trailer up the hill, off the side of the road…
Patrick, who was gold panning at the bottom, heard and climbed up the hill, saw what had happened, & offered to tow our pop-up camper-trailer up with his bigger (& loaded) 4W-D. Thanks Patrick. I didn't think to go with him, nor to clarify if we should drive behind him on the very steep, bumpy, sharply turning, dirt track. We hadn't worked out how far up the track he would drop the trailer. The steepest bit was about 100-200 m up the track (yet out of sight), but there were a few other quite steep bits. I didn't want to cause problems now, with me going up when he was coming down. We had no phone coverage to make up for it. We waited at the bottom. I was feeling very silly. Wondering if I'd ever see the trailer again. Katrina had walked up the creek a bit before he drove to hitch the trailer on, and now told me he had a partner down in the creek. He probably would be back then. After ~12 min he did return.
It worked - & ~ 30 min from realizing that we were stuck, we were out.
we drove back, though the 2cm of run over water on the causeway, to Orange, &
We went back to pay our 7/11 bill, & met (as the attendant) the husband of the lady who had a baby and only a week or two before, had brought us a bunch of sweets, commemorating the healthy birth. And finally…after quite a while, … not being able to find it on the video, or in the bills (hard-copy or soft-copy), and at his suggestion, checking my digital wallet that it had not been paid (we had guessed that we had filled up 11:20-11:40am, because our phone message back to the voice mail was about 12:12pm, and Google maps said it was around 35min from home to the camping ground). After many apologies for much extra work given to our acquaintance, & between other customers at a busy shop.. .. it turned out to be around 11:47am that we were "in"; and it wasn't $92, but ~$87, so none of his quick searches had found it. It got done. (though I started to put my phone away after he scanned my phone for the fuel discount, & he had to suggest, with a smile, that I would need to now pay for it.
At home We listened to Cytonic, had an early wine & dessert, cooked dinner, ate it watching the sunset until it started spitting rain and the wind picked up.
I wanted to work on doing something creative with words for Xmas presents for our family and community, so worked on understanding creative words.
The next morning
God got me out of 3 big mistakes this day. He made it an adventure, instead of a disaster. Wow! It really was a partnership, but in this one I am inexperienced, over focussed (tunnel visioned), & forgetful; and he has make it all work with heaps of fun! And my dear wife stuck with me, held my hand, let herself be stuck in problems of my making, and didn't once complain, grumble, have a hissy fit.. do anything other than really help me grow up, and to deal with my immaturities, and difficulties. It was her helping push a trailer up a hill and chocking it, on & off a steep dirt track.
I'm IN. This is amazing. I wanted to thank him & her very much, hence I wrote down all above this section before I fell asleep. This morning I have edited it,and added this section but what to do now? God, please help me to see.
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