Is It Hot Enough For Ya?

It's Australia Day, and Mother Nature is slapping us in the face, with the best reminder possible that we live in this vast land down under, by hitting us with a whopping 40c+ day today. 10 minutes ago (at 7pm) I went outside and checked our thermometer, and it was still 38 degrees Celsius. Mother Nature likes to remind us who is the boss occasionally. And especially this January.

CP and I have just taken the kids out for a swim in our 'pool'. This is our pool.

If it looks like a gravel pit, that's because it is a gravel pit. It's not too bad actually. It's semi-clear (not so much now that we have been swimming in it). It's a fantastic temperature. And since it was originally used solely as a pit where gravel was extracted, the bottom of it (gravel) is significantly more 'safe' to me than a dam. Generally speaking, I like my 'pool gravel' to be cemented together, and the water to be filtered. But beggars can't be choosers. Especially when Mother Nature throws a curve ball at you like she did today.

Pools are an aspect of our lives that CP and I differ greatly on. I am a firm believer in putting one in now, so that we can gain maximum usage out of it now, while the kids are little. I think this comes from having grown up with a pool. CP on the other hand is not a pool fan. He calls them mosquito breeders. He sees dollar signs, time being eaten up, and more jobs for him (and he is probably right), but I still see far more positives. CP could happily spend the rest of his life not ever stepping foot in water other than to bathe. I just can't fathom that...

This is CP doing his best David Hasselhof impersonation. There's no reason for putting it on here, except that it makes me smile.

The real irony of today's heat wave, is that we are in the midst of the worst flood in recorded history (for this district anyway). We are literally cut off from any of the three surrounding towns, by water so deep that it is not safe to drive a 4 wheel drive through. It is slow moving water, and because the rivers around us have been taking it in turns with their peaks and drops, this has left us isolated for almost four weeks, with another three to go. At least. There has been the odd day where we've made a break when the water is low enough to restock our supplies, but for the most part we have been stuck.

This is actually taken in last year's flood. But there is water (exactly the same) there again. This also isn't us driving. We aren't crazy enough to do that, but this pic shows the kind of water cutting us off. The water is deep like this for kilometres.

The crazy thing about this flood is that it's almost drought weather. One of my friends laughed about how she was watering her garden using the flood water that was metres from her back fence, because it was so dry wherever the water hadn't reached. If that isn't irony, I don't know what is. This is what happens when you don't get the rain that causes a flood, but rather, you get the floodwaters that start up north and meander down a river system that will ultimately affect you. Slow moving water. And it's just that.
Sss... llllll..................ooooooowwwwwww.......

So here I am, in the air conditioned comfort of my bedroom. I'm lamenting the death of my lounge room air conditioner.And how it will be weeks before anyone will be able to make it to our house to fix it. Thank goodness we had the common sense to put air conditioning in every room. I'm sure that many hardened country locals would think I am 'soft'. I like to think I am a true believer in putting modern technology to use. It's there. I use it. Easy. I'm not going to sit around talking about 'the old days' when it's currently 'the new days'... I am thinking about how grateful I am not to have my butt sticking to the leather of a chair and giving me third degree burns. Or how lovely it is in my room not breathing in that THICK hot air that clogs your throat. You can only imagine how horrid it feels if you have experienced it first hand. Or if you've ever stepped off a plane from Europe in the winter, into an Australian summer. It's like a big hot smack to the head.

It's hot, dry, and if I didn't know better, only a few months away from even more droughty weather. You'd never know it flying overhead though. A massive sea of inland water.

I guess if you choose to live out here, it's part of the package. I don't mind it so much anymore. As long as my survival technology keeps working. (Ie: fridges, air con and internet). And actually, with the exception of yesterday and today, Mother Nature has been considerably kind with the summer temperatures. We have had a glorious summer. If you don't count all the flood water. But nothing like Mother Nature to bring everything home and remind you of how tiny you are in the grand scheme of things.

Here's to fantastic weather for the rest of 2011. Whatever that may be...