Paul’s Blog: Not All About Rabbits

Its been a while since I have put here any news about my rabbits.
Late last year, Stychrome, the wild one, died. He has really old. I was sad about it at the time but it is a sad fact of life in this world that things die all the time.
We buried him in the garden and put a big brick on top, and some flowers on that.
Photo: Stychrome at his prime. Click for Video in new window.
Katrina the (boy) rabbit was upset. You could tell he knew. Stychrome’s house was still there but he was empty and it made me feel a bit empty too looking at it. It is really strange to see something alive one minute and then dead. Physically its the same but it has no life. Is this the reverse of what happened when God breathed life into Adam? (Genesis 2:7)

Just as death is horrible, it is wonderful that God creates life, and even allows us to continue living. And there is another kind of life called Spiritual life. Because life made out of flesh, as I have just been talking about, will always decay and die, if we are to live forever (as Jesus promised for those who believed in him) then we have to be reborn of the Spirit. Living things on earth can only recreate the same type of life, which eventually dies, but God gives true life.(See John 3)

Back to the rabbits: Katrina was very depressed so I borrowed my brother’s wife’s rabbit which is a big fat lop eared blob compared to Katrina. We put her in Stychrome’s old house after we cleaned it. That cheered them both up a bit. Then near the end of December Katrina got very sick and was collapsed - which is the the technical term for when their legs cant hold them up and they cant even move to go to the toilet. I thought he was going to drop dead as well but I took him to the Vet and the Animal Hospital which ended up costing heaps but a few days later he was back home. They said to keep him in a cool place so I had an excuse to put the air conditioner on.It was 40 Degrees C outside. He was still sick as anything and for some reason would only eat carrots so I was dipping the carrot in other things to try to get him to eat it!.

Photo: Katrina at the vet, much better than he was. Click for full size.

After another few days he was ready and eager to go back outside so I let him out. At first he was still weak and just sat in his house but he started to get more and more adventurous and go into the yard. I would say hes back to normal now except he likes to sit still a lot. Hes an old man rabbit now. The lop-ears has gone somewhere else much to Katrina’s disappointment.

Photo: Katrina next to Belinda, feeling a bit better but tired. Click for full size.

Paul

Work

For the past month i have been working 2 jobs. One full time and physical and the other part time and more brain work (computer programming). Because of this I’ve been tired pretty much all the time and haven’t had much free time.
Tomorrow is the last day of the full time job so from next week I will be working from home and sleeping in…and maybe I will be able to relax for once and do something other than work eat and sleep.
I pray to god each night when i sleep and ask him to bless my sleep and give me proper rest, even though i am getting way less sleep than I should. I think it helps otherwise i would not even be able to get out of bed in the mornings (my alarm is set for 5am). But a few times at work people have said things like “Paul you look really bad” and I think “ok thanks…”. I dont mind that though. Its satisfying to do work whether its moving boxes or programming. The only things that break my routine and annoy me is when someone talks at me without saying hello or good morning first. Or when my boss critcises my work all day and doesnt give a single compliment. I think he has learnt now that i work much better if he gives good and bad feedback though. Yeah im fussy hehe. But i dont HAVE to work there im only doing it as a favour to someone else so he could go on a holiday. Im definetly not staying there because I think my back would be ruined forever within about 6 months. Its already sore and I had to take 2 days off last week because I couldnt move from the pain.
Maybe god was answering my prayers for rest by forcing me to slow down a bit.
Everything else is fine at work, Except yesterday some smart person decided to jam my finger in a door and its gone purple now…

Rabbits
The poor bunnies are getting a bit neglected because I am so busy but I try to be nice to them and look after them. Well they are only neglected compared to what they are used to I guess. I bring one of them inside last night and he just sat under my chair and glared at me the whole time. I guess he was just reflecting my own mood back at me. Tonight I gave him and the other one each a short run around the backyard at twilight. While they ran i lay down and prayed but then i started feeling very itchy and realised that mosquitos were attacking me. There were heaps of them. I came inside and jumped in the shower because i was itchy all over. I count 9 bits on my back, and i was lying ON my back! and dozens of bits elsewhere. Oh well its alright now…

Prayer Plan
The bible says to be constant in prayer.
I used to try to say one pray each day as a minimum but I missed some days. And I find that if I dont pray often things dont go as well and I dont feel that good. Feeling good is not the main reason I want to pray more often though. I think its good to talk to my heavenly father often. It is just strange not to because god is all around us but somehow I am too stubborn to even say hello sometimes!
So I made a plan a few days ago, To pray at least once an hour, and to keep it simple, on the hour. Of course plans like these dont usually work for long. This one worked for about 48 hours with me only forgetting a couple of times. Now i am used to praying a bit more often and i pray as often as I need to but I dont aim for every hour because i know i cant keep it up and be that consistent.
If you are like me (a procrastinator) Dont put praying off.If you feel like you want to say something to god then just pray it can even be only a couple of words long. But hopefully after those couple of words god will motivate you to say more.

Bible reading plan
I have procrastination problems here too…
This month i am going along with Diana’s and Sharla’s reading of proverbs.Proverbs 1 on 1 feb, 2 on 2 feb etc.

Junk
Here a wrote a post last october talking about thowing out a lot of useless things i have held on to for no particular reason. I think its building up again, and my housemate just moved back into his room, so i have to move all my junk back out of his room into mine. Its going to be squishy…hehe. I want to sell or chuck out a lot of stuff as soon as im not so busy.

Public Transport

Just when they reopen my train line, all the trains get brake problems and service goes down to the level of a 3rd world country here in Melbourne. I am so glad i bought a car at the end of last year. I feel sorry for everyone stuck using the trains though. I used to hate driving and be anxious about it and spend hours getting around every day for what would take 30 mins in a car. Now i love driving. Theres something about having your own car and having everything inside it just how you want and knowing where your wheels are. And of course not having the fear of crashing the parents’ car.
So yep public transport is officially a nightmare situation for lots of people and I feel very relieved to have a car.
Maybe this is the new phase of government in Australia. If it had a slogan it would be ‘Dont count on us for nothing look after yourselves - but pay us tax and tax on tax’
yep. Cant really complain though just a whinge.

-Paul