Storm Season

This time of the year is known as 'storm season' here in SE Queensland.  When the conditions are right, humidity builds across the day and can then erupt into a fierce thunderstorm.  Thunderstorms in this part of the world can be hit and miss, a location 20k's away gets 25mls and you get a few spits of rain.

Last night we received 28mls of rain in around 30 minutes.  It just bucketed down with a wonderful display of flashing lightning and loud thunder.  We survived OK without a hassle but this morning it is sticky and slightly overcast.  It seems the stormy weather maybe hanging about. My phone weather app tells me the humidity is well into the 90's.

And it feels it too.

So what have we been up to?  One of my hearing aids died and is in for repair.  I pay an annual fee to have all repair costs covered so it won't be damaging to my pocket.

Last week was busy as it was 'Newsletter Week'.  I only have one more newsletter to go for 2018.

The new PC goes well but I have had a problem with Microsoft's OneDrive program.  OneDrive is an online storage service from Microsoft but the service began uploading heaps of stuff I didn't want it to such as all my Documents.  You have to be careful because if you then delete Documents from OneDrive, it deletes all your documents from your Documents folder as well, many of which have been collected over years. It wanted to do the same with Pictures as well.

You would turn synchronization of those folders 'off' but if you tried to remove them from OneDrive it just wouldn't do delete those folders.  Then a few days later they would be updated online again.  The Documents synchro process had turned itself back on again.

So OneDrive has now gone (uninstalled) and its job has been overtaken by DropBox.  It is doing the job nicely. I can easily swap files between my devices using DropBox.

Trish continues busy with heaps of projects at the Arts Centre Association  She attends up to four handcraft sessions there across the week as well as being heavily involved with the administration side of things.

Being spring it is cleanup time around the place.  Yesterday I cleaned the pavers all around the pool and removed all the built up mould from them.  I use a mixture of 1 part chlorine to 2 parts water and broom the mixture across the pavers.  A few minutes later the chlorine has killed the mould and I can wash the pavers down with the hose.  The 28mls of rain last night ensured all chlorine had bee removed as well. The photo above shows the pool area after the cleanup.

The front lawn got a mow as  well and I am now waiting for a fine dry day to let the Weed n Feed do its job.

That leads us to our upcoming connection to the NBN which is due for connection in "October".  I had to complete some forms at the local Telstra Shop which I did.  I then expected to be given a FTTC Connection Box, race home, put it all together and bingo I was online.

But no.  The Connecting Device is being sent out by Courier any time from Friday.  Then I kind of think someone from the NBN will connect it all up for us and I suspect this is to happen the following Wednesday.  I will make a call and find out more later today.

But as you can imagine, I find it a bit frustrating.  Fortunately my ADSL service is pretty reasonable so waiting for the fibre access isn't so bad.

I continue to bike ride but I am becoming more selective on what days I ride.  With the overcast skies around today is a wait and see day before riding.

There is now plenty of cricket on the TV for me to watch.  The cricket doesn't excite Trish too much so we go back to watching series I have obtained from online during the evening.  Currently we are wading through an older TV Series called "The Big C" with Laura Linney.  She won awards for her role in this excellent series.

We have seen it before but I came across a high quality version a few weeks back so we have been watching it.  It i a great series.

Some of the Pay TV services such as Amazon, Hulu and the like are replaying some of these older series again which usually means that soon after there will be a great copy available for download and playback.  The Big C is one such series.

I find I am using my VPN service sparingly.  It is handy at times but mainly just to find links from some of those sites which have been blocked to Australians.  There are numerous backdoor sites which allow users to gain access to these blocked sites.  A quick copy/paste of the link you want and it is all go to get the stuff you want to download.

So that's about it.  It is time for another check outside to see if a bike ride is on the cards for today.  Magpie swooping season is all but over which is another reason to jump on the bike.