Day 51: The bucket overfloweth

Day 51 (25 Jan) Weather...it's a funny topic of conversation. Icebreaker, misery-maker, highly-anticipated, hot, cold, dry, wet, humid...all sorts of ways we respond. 

The overflow, Clancy, at 6.12am

Summer, in Queensland, is inevitably about the the wet and the dry. The wet has been on its way for a few days and overnight it finally arrived in time to coincide with the Australia Day long weekend (and the kerbside clean-up in my suburb...). I DO like to wake up to the sound of falling rain; I DON'T particularly like driving too far in it. Inevitably, as the rain falls, the first task of the morning is to go out and check the rain, where it has accumulated, was there any damage. The tank overflow bucket I checked at 6.12am this morning was empty yesterday, full to overflowing this morning. That's quite a bit of constant rain in the last 24 hours.

The preliminary lori huddle, also at 6.12am

The other indicator is to look at what the loris are doing...huddling, also at 6.12am. At this moment, they were still in the trees, later in the day they huddled under the eaves of the back deck. The lorikeet rainfall huddle has reached 18 birds at its height, it is quite a sight. 

So, a work day at home mostly, with a couple a meetings to attend later in the afternoon. The rain has increased over the day. While one likes to be positive and optimistic about the rain, when it rains all day like this, there is the spectre of flooding, as we did two years ago...it's always there; news that the government planned to open the flood gates on the dam at some point, ostensibly to prevent the overflow of a couple of years ago. There's just a touch of nervous anxiety. 

Today's paper today,
at 6.12pm

Friday night is beer and pizza night, as we know from earlier posts. It happens, rain, hail or snow (OK, the latter is highly unlikely here, maybe). Ordered at 6.10 and waiting to pick up at 6.12pm. With time on my hands I got to read today's papers...today! What a rare occurrence (as we now know from the 50 day assessment in the last post). I really shouldn't waste the opportunity. 

It will be a weekend or so of a wet Queensland weekend. Still, there's work to do, and this year, my (work) cup shall runneth over too, in that good positive way (I tell myself).