Day 87: The rain remains

Day 87 (2 Mar) And another rainy Saturday. Actually, it has hardly stopped all day. I have given away any pretence of carrying an umbrella and unapologetically returned to the Queensland weather of my childhood and just run through the rain to get from point A to point B. 

Not moving, at 6.12am

The rain was around at 6.12am when I hadn't quite made the leap out of bed. The radio was on and I was listening to the news. Today is my clarinet choir rehearsal day (every second Saturday) so I shouldn't really be sleeping in. There's is music to prepare and make sure everything is working properly, including me, so that's a double strength coffee for breakfast. It's never fun carrying the equipment around in the rain. 

It's just rain, at 6.12, at 2.12, at 5.12, at 9.12

There were still chores to do after rehearsal which meant heading to the shops as well. We need to take extra care in the rain. It is really quite amazing the number of drivers who fail to drive to the conditions. The view out of the car window today at lunchtime just spoke volumes about the state of play weather-wise. 

Home and the rest of the day was catching up on the week's news and having a bit of a relax, the week starts again tomorrow. The news seems to be about whether or not we are in campaign mode and questioning the wisdom of the prime minister's decision to nominate 14 September as the election date. 

If Prime Minister Gillard announced it in order to minimise the focus on an unofficial campaign then I'm afraid hanging out in Western Sydney in quasi-campaign mode does belie the intention of nominating the date. And it seemed like quite a good idea at the time. I suppose election campaigns can be like the rain in Queensland at the moment...never-ending. 

Vale 'Peter Harvey, Canberra', at 6.12pm
(via SMH digital site)

At 6.12pm I found myself reading the obituary of one of Australia's finest political journalists, Peter Harvey. I guess it speaks volume for his influence in that although I haven't owned a TV for years, his voice and his gravitas have left a great imprint on me as a politics watcher. Certainly he was one of the giants of political journalism in Australia. Vale Peter Harvey. 

Peter Harvey was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four months ago. It's an insidious cancer and one of my best mates is tackling its ugliness at the moment. He's stuck around for a good while so far since diagnosis, but I hate watching it take a little bit more of the nation's most outstanding orchestral flautists each day. 

I know it's a cliche to say that we should live each day as if it were our last, but really, some days that's just what we should do. 

Never take your mates for granted. That is all.