The Cyclone You Have When You're Not Having A Cyclone!

The garden hadn't been watered for several days and the pool water level was as low as it's been since the pool's installation. 

Everything was buckled down, the Waeco brought inside and the sun blinds rolled up.  All was ready for the possible cyclone, strong winds and indications of around 150mls of rain daily for several days.

So we should be midway through the 'cyclone' now.  We've had strong winds, the sea is a virtual washing machine and we've had a whole 4mls of rain!  The sun blinds are back down, the pool has been topped up from the garden hose and the Waeco is back outside again!

What a fizzer!

This morning I topped the pool up and it was extremely calm outside at 6:30am, good enough for a bike ride even!  There is a heap of debris in the pool though.

So the lawn and garden will remain dry and everything will be back to normal.  As the photo above shows it is another beautiful (but a bit windy) day on the Sunshine Coast!

But we sure need some rain!

Cyclonic Conditions to Hit the Coast

The weather bureau seems to be hedging its bets on what is going to happen with Cyclone Oma as it comes close to us on Queensland's SE Coast.  One thing for sure is it seems the prolonged dry spell will be coming to a close.

 It was easy to spot the weeds in the front lawn a week or two ago, they were the only green bits.  However a couple of new weeds which missed the weed spray a fortnight ago showed their heads yesterday.  So I went to dig them out.  The weeds roots broke off as I tried to pull them out.  A few centimetres down the soil is like concrete.  So a heap of rain won't go astray.

Our little house is one a a minority of homes on the Sunshine Coast which is above the 100 year flood mark.  Our street is also designed as a water escape route and as a result we have steep driveways so any flood waters can get away easily.

The wet weather is expected to arrive from tomorrow on into mid next week and the amount we get will depend on the unpredictable route of cyclone Oma.  But we have been assured it will be wet and could be extremely windy. The photo shows the sky to the south where the cyclonic conditions will come from.  Right now it looks pretty good doesn't it?

So the sun blinds along the back of the house will be wound up and the Waeco fridge will be brought inside.  The sun umbrella has already been packed away.

In the mean time it has been hot and humid.  Despite the cyclone being 1,000k's away, the sea swell from the cyclone has been buffeting the coast.  I suggest most Sunshine Coast beaches will be closed later today or into tomorrow.  Erosion of the coastline is the other major concern.  Both here and the Gold Coast depend quite a bit on tourism so restocking eroded sand to the beaches will be a high Council priority when the wind subsides and the weather returns to normal.

Even just checking the weather forecast it seems the amount of rain we may get has been cutback considerably.  What was 6" a day on yesterday's forecast is back to around 2" on today's forecast.

So with wet weather forecast I have bottle washed today and the new brew will go on tomorrow.  I have done almost 70ks in bike rides this week and have cut the daily ride back by a few k's daily.

The car goes in for its annual service next week getting it in shape for the drive to Melbourne coming up.  We expect to hit Melbourne on Friday March 15th and hopefully spend the night with Chris and Wendy before onto Kate's the next day.

We are expecting to catch up with friends we may have missed during our quick trip over Christmas.  It seems we will head home via Omeo arriving back on the coast around Thursday April 3rd.

New glasses will be collected next week with eye tests indicating my eyesight is deteriorating faster in one eye than the other.  That's what happens when you turn 73 I suppose.

Blowing a Gale!

Extremely hot days here on the Sunshine Coast are not that dissimilar to what we used get back in Melbourne.  95% of the days we get a north-easterly sea breeze around midday which puts a cap on how high the temperature will go that day.  The sea breeze manages to temper the top temps and keeps hot days warm but not always hot.

But when the wind blows from the north west so strongly it prevents the S/E breeze coming in, then we know it will be unpleasantly hot.  And so it was for a couple of days earlier this week.  Overnight Wednesday into Thursday we had a wind change from north westerly to a gusty south easterly.  And a strong wind change it was too and it is still blowing a gale outside now as I type well over 24 hours later.

It was much too blustery and extremely uncomfortable to bike ride this morning.  Even yesterday when the wind wasn't quite as strong I had second thoughts about heading out on the bike.  With the pool temp nudging 30° and the strong wind not only is the pool a mess with twigs, bits of bark and palm leaves, but the evaporation rate has increased markedly.

I manged to draw the short straw and was conned into helping out with printing 2,500 copies of the newsletter at the local MP's Office on Wednesday.  But on the plus side, the office was air conditioned so it wasn't quite the chore it could have been.

Things have been moving along slowly.  A bike ride in the morning, check out the latest downloads from the internet, a couple of swims in the pool across the day followed by a few home made beers after 4pm.

That is about the normal sort of day.  Maybe do some tidying up around the house, have a go at fixing this and tidying up that manages to fill the day in.  But then there is put a brew on, bottle wash and then bottle the stuff as well!

The PC did a huge update the other day and took around 5 goes before the update was successfully installed.  I was a bit nerve wracking watching the update get to 80% and then the PC would freeze.  Power off and then power on again (not recommended PC procedure) and then download, verify and install again ..... and get to 80% and freeze.  Power off, power on and so on and so on.

It was great to eventually see the update click over from 80% to 82% I can tell you!  Then it took another good hour or so to install the update and restart.  That Windows 10 Welcome Screen was a sight for sore eyes I can tell you.

So as you can see, not much has changed here on the Sunshine Coast.  Life sails along easily and enjoyably.  I hope yours does too!

Testing 1,2,3!

Yes we are still alive, well and kicking.

At last we've had a few mls of rain, around 30mls in total I guess with the heaviest being 11mls overnight last week.  The lawn, the gardens and the pool all got a top up and a water.  But there hasn't been any showers to mention for 3 or 4 days now and the grass is beginning to yellow off again!

It has been low 30's almost every day over January with just the odd day dipping below 30 in February.  By the time I am finishing my bike ride at around 7:30 am, it is nudging 27° and it's pretty sticky! 

I don't think this summer has been as hot as some others we have had up here.  There was only one day we turned the lounge room air conditioner on so far and that was yesterday!  Not that it was a hot stinker of a day, it was that we put together a flat pack computer desk for Trish and we needed something to keep tempers cool!

But the two of us together sorted it out.  It is only a cheap thing, something where Trish can spread herself out a little bit when doing her sewing or Secretary role work for the Arts Centre Association.  Now she can easily access the fan controls and get more value from the ceiling fan as well. It is an Aldi Special.  The most difficult part was putting the drawer runners in the correct way.

But the illustrations from the Instruction Booklet helped a little bit along with some calculated trial and error.

We tossed out an older 32" TV, a small computer table on wheels and the table which held the TV.  The TV went to the tip but the other two items were collected by a neighbour this morning off our front lawn.

I'm still doing my Presidential chores for the Community Association, keeping the website up to date and getting the first Newsletter for 2019 ready to print.  We've had our first Management Committee meeting for the year and the follow up onto the website has occurred.  We are dropping from 8 newsletters per year to 6 and that just takes some of the pressure off.

Most days are around 33° in our small hot backyard, the pool got up to 32° one day and I continue to bike ride most days.  There is a brew on (as usual) and I will be bottling on Wednesday.

Our NBN internet connection continues to fly along and we always have too many TV series to watch.  There are some good movies in there as well.  We especially enjoyed "Bohemian Rhapsody" so get along and see that one if you get the chance.  BBC in England has been busy with new episodes of Vera, Silent Witness, Call The Midwife and Endeavour which has kept me busy downloading.

And there is heaps more downloads that I grab on the way past as well.

Trish is out and about a fair bit during the week with here CACA stuff.  School holidays are now well and truly over so it is safe to drive into Caloundra again.  Just so you can compare, Caloundra over Christmas is a bit like a poor man's Rosebud down in Victoria.  It is crowded and very very busy.

Travel plans for the year have been put on hold a bit while we get over our trip to Manila and the associated bad tummies we picked up.  It took till around mid January before we were totally over it.

We are driving to Melbourne for the first two rounds of the footy which is all we have thought about at this stage.

But we are both well pretty busy and enjoying ourselves here on the Sunshine Coast!