General Discussion Thread

[Róisín]

Letting folks know that we are okay so far. While several of the lightning-started fires are near us, the sleety rain is heavy enough to keep things under control. We have had a few bad hailstorms this afternoon/evening, but while there is some damage to garden and sheds the house seems still to be okay. There have been a few short power outages, and the mobile phone system is out, but land lines and, weirdly enough, facetime seem still to work. Let’s hope email keeps going. Our old cat Agatha is safely inside out of the weather, and I am about to light the fire in case I need to use it to cook dinner. Still a lot of wind, thunder, bursts of hail and lightning out there, but things are okay so far. Weather, huh. This is meant to be late Spring.

[Keep Looking]

Glad to hear that you are okay. The weather over east sounds absolutely insane right now - I've been seeing it on the news. Hope you folks get through okay.

[thorny]

Thanks for telling us, Róisín; indoors by fire in stove with warm safe cat indeed seems to be the way to go.

Odd to have to be grateful for sleet! but you're right, it's much better than being on fire!

[dmeck7755]

Róisín,
Take care...Being inside by a nice fire is nice when the weather is all hell.  Hopefully everything will be ok..

[Jitter]

Hey, Australia! Give them a break, will you?

[thegreyarea]

Hey, Australia! Give them a break, will you?

Yes! It has been one after another and another... Lots of strenght and health to you, Róisin!

(Australia is deffinitively a special place... Maybe in the Future a large part (if not the whole) of it will be a kind of natural park with very limited access to humans... Humm, I feel a story here...)

[Róisín]

 Don’t think I would mind all that much.

[Róisín]

We are doing okay despite flooding - at least the water hasn’t yet come right into the house. Doing better than some of our friends who have had houses and shops flooded. And way better than one friend who has had her cactus nursery flooded out, and has been frantically racing around the area trying to retrieve large pots of spiky plants as they float away down the street. Looks as if she may have lost a lot of her ‘Living Stones’ cacti, which are rare and expensive here. I hope that whoever finds them looks after them.

Here we have had a number of brief power outages -no really long ones yet at least, unlike the storms a few years back when the power was off for days at a time. And the roof seems still to be intact. May it continue so! Apparently the state has had a record number of lightning strikes,(423,000 recorded lightning strikes, with winds up to 106 kph) and lots of lightning-started fires. Way too many trees down, often bringing electric wires down with them. I hope things ease soon.

[thorny]

Very glad you're still OK, and indeed hoping the weather will soon give you (and everyone else in the area) a break!

[angsttronaut]

Stay safe! Hopefully the weather where you are calms down soon!

[JoB]

... saaay, what if there is a real-world inspiration for Skinny Bear ... ?

[dreki]

... saaay, what if there is a real-world inspiration for Skinny Bear ... ?

Oh the poor sweethearts.    From the link - "The bears - named Dolores, Bianca, and Lolita - are suffering from itchiness as well, so animal keepers apply ointments to soothe their skin."

[angsttronaut]

... saaay, what if there is a real-world inspiration for Skinny Bear ... ?

Awwww, someone needs to knit them a jumper.

[Róisín]

We are having the weird weather again with days in the high thirties C, nights that can get down to just above freezing, a bit of rain here today, but the way the rain moths are emerging and frantically mating I expect a lot more rain very soon (and plenty of witjuti grubs next year). Half an hour drive east of here there are floods as the Murray breaks its banks. Lots of evacuations in the Murraylands and the Riverland.

The same distance away , about 30kilometres northwest of here there are lots of small fires, many started by lightning, others by people being careless with harvesting equipment.

And we have had enough wind that trees are down all over, along with a few power lines down. A bad storm would not surprise me at all. Ah, Australian weather. At least I have good stocks of food, tank water as well as mains, and enough firewood to get us through a long power outage.

I hope that despite the weather everyone has a good Solstice tomorrow, and keeps safe and well.

[JoB]

Why am I suddenly under the impression that the first successful human exoplanet colonization mission will likely have an all-Aussie crew?

But all the wishes for a saner (not-so-)micro-climate aside ...

lots of small fires, many started by lightning, others by people being careless with harvesting equipment.

... how does that even happen? I know that some cars had their catalytic converters installed in such a way that parking it on suitably scorched grassland could start a fire, but harvesters ought to be designed with the presence of flammable plant material in mind, shouldn't they?

(Or are we talking about some ground level fold-out barbie pit that you can get installed on your combine only at Glaikit George's Garage+Tuning?)

I hope that despite the weather everyone has a good Solstice tomorrow

(I doubt that I need to tell anyone observing it, but just in case: If you're not quite as far East WRT the date line as Róisín, the solstice is today.)