Hottest day ever

Right now I am sitting on the couch in only my underwear.  There is sweat dripping down the crack between my boobs, and I’ve added a nice, wet, sweat patch to the back of the couch, even through the towel that I’m sitting on.  Today was the hottest day in Sydney since record keeping began.  A sweltering 45.8 degrees (114.4 F).  The temperature gage peaked even hotter where I live, at 46.5 degrees (115.7 F).  I’m not even joking.  Luckily this is not the U.K., or thousands of people would have died from heat stroke.

After running 5.5 kms at the gym this morning (because obviously I am stupid), I came home to my hot box of an apartment and put the fan on.  Usually that helps some. Not today. I turned the fan on and was met not with delightful cooling air, but with the feeling that I had just opened an oven.  Did I mention that I don’t have an air conditioner? I don’t have an air conditioner (please refer to the before mentioned statement of stupidity).

The minute Daniel woke from his nap, we high tailed it to Grandma’s house to bask in her air conditioning. But, we did have to return home, and now I’m sitting here sweating up a storm.  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to sleep tonight, but I suppose I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Thank goodness it’s only supposed to be 25 tomorrow (77 F).  Pacific Northwesterners are just not cut out for this sort of heat.

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS! Like my blog? ‘Like’ it on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mommy-Adventures/203964682967827?ref=tn_tnmn Pin It You officially have my permission to pin this (as long as it links back to my site).  Just don’t act like you wrote it. Because you didn’t…. Copyright 2013 Sheri Thomson

Freak storm

I could see the dark clouds hanging about in the sky, threatening to dump their contents.

I had about an hour before I needed to pick Hannah up from preschool and then Daniel from daycare. I’d finished all of my housework and blog post drafts, so I decided to leave early and beat the rain. Well, beat the rain to the supermarket. I needed to get something to cook for dinner. Hannah likes to spend some one on one time with me, so I often pick her up an hour before Daniel and take her shopping or something.

As I fastened Hannah into her car seat, the rain started. We pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road. The rain was a little heavy, but nothing too bad. We kept going down the road, enroute to the supermarket. Ting, ting, ting, ting, ting.  The rain turned to thumbnail sized balls of hail. My wipers were on full blast, but still weren’t able to keep up with the crazy hail that appeared to be hitting the car at a 90 degree angle. 

I couldn’t see a foot in front of the windshield. Oh gosh, we’re going to crash. I slowed right down. I must have been going 5 kilometers per hour, desperately searching for somewhere to pull over. Parked cars lined the road, so I had to keep going, all the while hoping that I wasn’t too close to the parked cars or the centreline in the road. I came to a turning lane and pulled in. I planned to stay in the turning lane until the rain/hail eased, which luck would have it, happened straight away.

I turned and went straight in the Aldi parking lot as the rain belted down once again. But at least we were safe, no longer on the road.

The view from my windscreen after I parked. It was far worse earlier.

“Are we going in Mommy?” Hannah asked me.

“No sweetie, we’ll just wait in the car until the rain lets up.”

We watched as people stood at the front of Aldi with their full shopping trolleys, they too waiting for the rain to ease. We saw a man running full speed from his car to the front of Aldi, slipping and nearly falling on his bum on one of the white pedestrian crossing lines as he ran.

When the rain finally eased again, I carried Hannah to the entrance of Aldi. “They’re closed love! The power is out.”

Sigh.

We got back in the car and picked up Daniel. There was no time to go to a different supermarket before I had to pick him up.

“Oh no, don’t tell me this light bulb doesn’t work now.” I said to no one in particular as we walked in to the apartment after picking Daniel up and going to a different supermarket.

None of the other lights would turn on either. Crap. I put the salmon fillets I’d just purchased in the fridge as fast as I could, trying to preserve the cold environment in there as long as possible. Maybe the ice cream and sweet potato fries be ok if the power wasn’t out for long.

Aaron and I ordered Thai delivery for dinner and the kids had honey sandwiches and fruit salad. I was going to make them peanut butter and jelly, but both the peanut butter and the jelly were in the fridge.

After the kids went to bed, Aaron and I played board games by candle light and went to bed at 9pm. From our bedroom window we could see 2 power company trucks and one blinding bright work light. We could hear a chainsaw going.

“Maybe a tree fell on the line.” I said to Aaron. “Well, I guess the electricity will be back on soon. I’ll put my left over thai food in the fridge.” I didn’t want to open the door and let all the cold out before that.

Somehow, I managed to get so sleep even with the chainsaw going and lots of other noise outside.

We tossed and turned all night. Beep beep beep beep beep.  A noisy fire alarm was going off. “Are you sure it’s a fire alarm and not one of the kids’ toys?” Aaron asked me.

“Pretty sure, but I’ll check just in case.” No, it was definitely a fire alarm. And it didn’t stop. All. Night. Long. The trucks worked well into the morning, one right near our window. Other people who couldn’t sleep were milling about outside, talking loudly.

This morning, the power was back on. “I haven’t heard the fridge.” I told Aaron. Surely with my tossing all night, I would have noticed if the fridge was running. A quick check proved it wasn’t. Neither was the kettle. Or the oven, the dryer, the washing machine, or anything else that needed to be plugged in. One of the plugs had black marks on it.

The base of my phone charger was plugged into a power board, but the cord part (that attaches to the base plug bit via usb cable) was blown completely out, the end black as night. The surge protector and double adaptor in the man cave in the living room were black.

An electrician got everything working at about mid day, but by then all the food in the fridge and freezer had to be thrown out. Everything appears to be in working order, except the NAS (which Aaron tells me is network attached storage), which is where we store about 10 years worth of photos. All the photos of the kids are on there. All the photos we’ve ever taken since 2002. All of them.   The NAS is the one thing we were hoping would come out of the power surge (there was a note in our mailbox from the electricity company stating that excess voltage may have occurred) unscathed. Unfortunately, it was one of the only things that didn’t. Apart from my phone charger and that adapter.

We’re hoping that the actual hard drive inside the NAS is ok, and that it’s just the powering bit that is damaged. We’ve ordered another one so we can stick the hard drives it in and retrieve all of our precious photos. That is the hope at least.

Tomorrow I’m headed out for a girls weekend away. No kids. Oh yeah, I can taste the relaxation now….

If you enjoyed reading this, please vote for my blog. All you have to do is click the link below. That’s it… Clicking the link brings you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page. You don’t have to do anything else. Any clicks from my site to theirs is a vote.  THANKS!

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Pin It You officially have my permission to pin this (as long as it links back to my site).  Just don’t act like you wrote it. Because you didn’t….

Copyright 2012 Sheri Thomson

Australia is out to get you

I’m pretty sure Australia is trying to eat us.  Maybe we’re good for the soil.  Maybe it thinks that if it devours us all, the hole in the o-zone layer will close up and it can be lush and green once again.

You’re not safe in the house.  Spiders in Australia are lurking about, hiding in the corner, waiting to bite you.  These aren’t your average spiders either, these spiders can kill you.

Photo courtesy of hubpages.com

In a crazy heatwave like we just had, the power grid can’t cope with all the electricity running all the air conditioners and thousands of houses find themselves in complete black out.  Yeah, the houses are trying to give you heat stroke.

You go outside.  Ugh, it’s like 45 degrees celsius out here.  It’s like stepping into a furnace.  Or a disgustingly hot sauna right after someone has poured a copious amount of water on the rocks.  If you stay out here long enough, you might possibly die, fried right there on the cement like an egg. Ouch!  Oh crap, what was that?  You look down.  The grass seems to have grown little sharp things to assault your feet.

Photo courtesy of Yates Australia

You move a few feet (fine, meters, whatever) away.  OUCH!  There is something stuck in your foot.  It’s really sharp!  It’s even smaller than the bindii.  The grass isn’t finished with you yet.  These little things are like ninjas, you don’t see them coming at all!  Darn you burrs!

A bird dive bombs your head.  It comes back for another go.  Seriously bird?  Really?  Sometimes they get you so hard, they actually draw blood.

Magpie - photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Snakes are lurking in the grass.  They are extremely venomous and enjoy biting you, sending said venom into your blood stream and nervous system.  Sometimes they hide in the toilet.

If you go for a walk in the bush, a wombat could charge you.  They may seem cuddly (ok, not from the photo below), but they’re not.  Seriously, they’re not, don’t try it.

Photo courtesy of Humanimal Kingdom

And what about those black panthers that allegedly roam the Blue Mountains.  There have been sightings, poo findings, tracks….

Watch out for those drop bears, they are particularly ferocious and have the added advantage of attacking from above.

Photo courtesy of aussieschoolbooks.com.au

A cyclone has just demolished entire towns.

Rain is flooding an entire state.

Ok, so dry land is going to eat you.  Maybe you should go for a swim.

Before you even get to the water, OUCH!  What?  You look down.  You’re standing on something long and blue, and rather condom like.  It’s dead, but darn it, it still stings!  They are everywhere!

Blue bottle jellyfish - photo courtesy of dryadmusings.com

Once you get into the water, you’re not safe.  There are more jellyfish.  Box jellyfish, Irikanji jellyfish, wasp jellyfish, more bluebottles, alive ones.

Uh-oh, there are sharks.  Great white sharks, bull sharks, tiger sharks.  Sharks that can leave you severely dismembered, or even dead.  Sharks with big huge teeth just waiting to bite you.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia

But then there are the not-so-scary-but-can-still-kill-you marine wildlife. What about stingrays?  People always forget about stingrays, but if Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter can be killed by one, then it could happen to anyone.

Even the water tries to eat you.  Rips pull you out to sea and watch you struggle, flailing as you desperately try to get the attention of lifeguards.  You could, of course, swim parallel to the shore until you’re out of the rip, but a lot of people, mostly tourists, don’t know that.

Don’t think you’re safe in rivers either.  Sometimes sharks swim up river and wreak havoc along the way.

The water hole looks rather inviting.  It’s a hot day.  The water looks calm and still.  You get in.  Suddenly, you realise you are not alone.  The river is filled with giant crocs, stalking you, waiting for just the right moment.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia

So everything is trying to eat you in Australia, but you know what?  I still love it here.  Maybe I’m crazy.