Tasmanian Bush Fires and Air Conditioning
Without Prejudice
Tasmania is devastated by bush fires and it seems so ironic as it happens to be the coldest place in all of Australia, except for perhaps Ballarat, even in the Summer. Tiny little Island that it is, Tassie, in comparison to the rest of Australia which is so vast. My Sis in Law is safe for the time being at Nugent. It's been a tense 24 hours. Dunalley went up like a rocket and people had to flee to the water. The fire coming right down to the waters edge.
One lady and her 11 month old baby immersed in the water, faces half under the waves, sheltering with about 50 others. The shock and grief of the people is hard to watch. And the stories of how fast the bush fire could travel and it's roaring like a jet plane, ash and cinders, darkness and smoke. I can't imagine their terror. I turn off the T.V. News, sometimes is an overwhelming thing, gang rape in India, an autistic boy murdered. Skyhooks were right, it's a Horror Movie at times.
I offer up a small prayer for my darling Kerry Cue and her feller, Nathan and their animals.
I can't sleep (as ever) and toss and turn restlessly. Picking up a book in the end, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and read of the heros plight in temperatures of minus 21 degrees. I love it, me in my hot counter pain of a bed and he miserable with cold he has never ever experienced before. I like his resolutness.
I sleep in of course and am due to pick up my air conditioning unit from Frankston, a bayside suburb. The news is good from my Sister in Law, the breezes are coming in and there are no fresh outbreaks near them. I breathe a sigh of relief, I could not bear for anything to happen to them nor Dozer, their bull mastiff, their sheep. Kerry and I have been friends for umpteen years. Before she married my brother and ever after they divorced.
I am supposed to be supported by a male personage today as the ebay seller warns me the Air Con unit is heavy. And, naturally, there are none available. All the older boys are away, Yvette wants her fiance to help but he wants to stay to at his Mothers. I contemplate asking the grumpy man next door and decide against it. But I have another Sis In Law, also ironically once married to one of my Brothers.She lives in Frankston and her hubby will be home.
She answers the phone and no hubby is not home but she volunteers her services. I figure two women should be able to put an air conditioning unit in my Corolla hatch. I can lie the back seats down. I asked Yvette for the Tarago van as she is driving a four wheel drive now. No, the Tarago is "dodgy" as the battery terminals are dicey. I knew this would happen, it would be my car and my job and I am prepared for it.
I know my car and I know me, it will happen.
Do it yourself the article on the newsstand states as I drive by, ain't it the truth ....
I decide to make it fun and fast as the weather is heating up quickly. The seller has gone out and has left the unit at the end of his driveway and I am leave to the money in the meter box. I pick up my Sis In Law around the corner from where the unit is to be. She guides me as I have an innate ability to get lost wherever I go and no matter how well I have prepared. It's just one of those things and I accept it.
Sis in law guides me around the maze of unknown streets that is Frankston. It's been named best bayside beach and literally hundreds of people are streaming to the beach today. Making the roads busy and drivers agitated. I'm going slow as a snail looking, of course but we eventually arrive at the house without one wrong turn, lots of beeping horns however.
The unit is a monster. Karin and I look at each other and take a deep breath. I put the money in an envelope and place it in the meter box as instructed. No one home as expected. A handy male would have been wonderful, right about now, but it's not to be and we gird our loins.
We realise we can back the car back as far as we can and do and then we can roll the unit, upend it, to the lip of the boot. I run over the road and ask a young girl who is house sitting for her Brother. She's holding a divine King Cavalier Spaniel called Harry. Her brother isn't home (Where are all the Men , Today ???) but she puts the dog away and calmly volunteers her services.
The three of us nut out the problem and decide to slide it in using a spare car seat cover. Bethea, as that is her name calmly lifts up one side and Karin and I stare a little goggle eyed at her.
"Just back from the gym" she states as we murmur our admiration. And with a shove and a roll its in and she lopes off as we thank her. We've done it and we drive off elated. The ebay seller messages to ask how we are going and I answer back, its done. Strange how he had to go out right on the time we were coming but he sounds young and flirts with me. I have already told him I am a Nana but he must be like my oldest Grandsons age and thinks everyone fancies him.
Kyle would flirt with a dead dog if it was still warm. Ha Ha he'll learn, so full of themselves at that glorious age. I drop Karin back all sweaty and hot and so am I so I refuse her offer of a cuppa and race home. No one is home and I have all afternoon to think about how I am going to get that huge air con out of the car. I am thinking rope, chains, a pulley. I leave it up to the powers that be as Kerry goes on Facebook and the winds have changed. Freak, But she is till saying the fires are far away.
"Mum, Mum", I hear shouted at the door. (Does Yvette always have to yell ,like I am two miles away ? )
"Alena has written a suicide note and Zach and Jai are home, do you want to get that "Thing" out off the car, and Tiana and Tegan are here too.!!!!"
Ignore the suicide note for a moment, my life !!!!!!!
So we back up the car and the boys, 18 and 15 and the girls stare in at the Air Con.
"God, its huge" states Jai.
"Its old" states Zach.
"How the fuck are we going to get it out?" asks Yvette.
But then she has the brilliant idea of getting the big rubber wheelbarrow and suddenly everyone is shouting and yelling as we lock up the Husky in my unit. Put Tiana in charge of the little boys as the gates have to be opened and they and the Husky have a habit of bolting off as soon as they are.
I clear a path down the shaded side of my unit and the kids come with the wheel barrow and the air con balanced on its side and we are sorted. We leave it there ready to be put in place at the window, still in its wheelbarrow. The dog appears at the window of my unit and we all laugh. She's on my bed ! Great. So we run inside and let her out and then there are kids and the dog and even the grumpy cat in my place and I hand out candy canes and thank them all.
I go to hook it uo and realise it needs one of those HD plugs, curses and I have taken the fly screen out but no big deal. Yvette and Peter gave me a Bunnings voucher for Christmas. And I will need a frame underneath it but I will sort that out. Its here and its mine, suffer heat wave you are not getting me down this summer.
I realise that if the aircon topples off the wheelbarrow one of the little boys will be killed. And of course one is already around the side inspecting it. I'm glad I have these inbuilt fear antennae. I drag the old dog kennel over and block off the side of the unit and explain gently to Acer if he or Cruz go down the side thet will get squashed, die and there will be blood everywhere. He nods and understands as Yvette tells all her boys the same about the road and cars. I know it sounds awful but boys don't listen.
So I am off to Bunnings first thing in the A.M. to get my plug and decide what to do about a supporting frame, seeing as I am a helpless Female and all. The fires are under control a bit now and :Elvis" the helicopter water carrier is flying over Kerry's house in Tassie. Got to go. I'll save the suicide note for another day. Alena's very Alpha Male husband, Dean does not want us to interfere in his wife's depression. He alone has decided to take her off her antidepressants. She doesn't eat but is drinking a little ice water and I am wishing him good luck with that one. Well, he said he can handle it and I said I am concentrating on my life now and he can go and get.......
I think of my counseling and breathe, just breathe
And the Grumpy Man next door is sweet talking another female as he's being nice. Must be Horny ha ha I bet if I go over there and ask him for a hand he'll disappear.
Just another day.
Love Janette
Tasmania is devastated by bush fires and it seems so ironic as it happens to be the coldest place in all of Australia, except for perhaps Ballarat, even in the Summer. Tiny little Island that it is, Tassie, in comparison to the rest of Australia which is so vast. My Sis in Law is safe for the time being at Nugent. It's been a tense 24 hours. Dunalley went up like a rocket and people had to flee to the water. The fire coming right down to the waters edge.
One lady and her 11 month old baby immersed in the water, faces half under the waves, sheltering with about 50 others. The shock and grief of the people is hard to watch. And the stories of how fast the bush fire could travel and it's roaring like a jet plane, ash and cinders, darkness and smoke. I can't imagine their terror. I turn off the T.V. News, sometimes is an overwhelming thing, gang rape in India, an autistic boy murdered. Skyhooks were right, it's a Horror Movie at times.
I offer up a small prayer for my darling Kerry Cue and her feller, Nathan and their animals.
I can't sleep (as ever) and toss and turn restlessly. Picking up a book in the end, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and read of the heros plight in temperatures of minus 21 degrees. I love it, me in my hot counter pain of a bed and he miserable with cold he has never ever experienced before. I like his resolutness.
I sleep in of course and am due to pick up my air conditioning unit from Frankston, a bayside suburb. The news is good from my Sister in Law, the breezes are coming in and there are no fresh outbreaks near them. I breathe a sigh of relief, I could not bear for anything to happen to them nor Dozer, their bull mastiff, their sheep. Kerry and I have been friends for umpteen years. Before she married my brother and ever after they divorced.
I am supposed to be supported by a male personage today as the ebay seller warns me the Air Con unit is heavy. And, naturally, there are none available. All the older boys are away, Yvette wants her fiance to help but he wants to stay to at his Mothers. I contemplate asking the grumpy man next door and decide against it. But I have another Sis In Law, also ironically once married to one of my Brothers.She lives in Frankston and her hubby will be home.
She answers the phone and no hubby is not home but she volunteers her services. I figure two women should be able to put an air conditioning unit in my Corolla hatch. I can lie the back seats down. I asked Yvette for the Tarago van as she is driving a four wheel drive now. No, the Tarago is "dodgy" as the battery terminals are dicey. I knew this would happen, it would be my car and my job and I am prepared for it.
I know my car and I know me, it will happen.
Do it yourself the article on the newsstand states as I drive by, ain't it the truth ....
I decide to make it fun and fast as the weather is heating up quickly. The seller has gone out and has left the unit at the end of his driveway and I am leave to the money in the meter box. I pick up my Sis In Law around the corner from where the unit is to be. She guides me as I have an innate ability to get lost wherever I go and no matter how well I have prepared. It's just one of those things and I accept it.
Sis in law guides me around the maze of unknown streets that is Frankston. It's been named best bayside beach and literally hundreds of people are streaming to the beach today. Making the roads busy and drivers agitated. I'm going slow as a snail looking, of course but we eventually arrive at the house without one wrong turn, lots of beeping horns however.
The unit is a monster. Karin and I look at each other and take a deep breath. I put the money in an envelope and place it in the meter box as instructed. No one home as expected. A handy male would have been wonderful, right about now, but it's not to be and we gird our loins.
We realise we can back the car back as far as we can and do and then we can roll the unit, upend it, to the lip of the boot. I run over the road and ask a young girl who is house sitting for her Brother. She's holding a divine King Cavalier Spaniel called Harry. Her brother isn't home (Where are all the Men , Today ???) but she puts the dog away and calmly volunteers her services.
The three of us nut out the problem and decide to slide it in using a spare car seat cover. Bethea, as that is her name calmly lifts up one side and Karin and I stare a little goggle eyed at her.
"Just back from the gym" she states as we murmur our admiration. And with a shove and a roll its in and she lopes off as we thank her. We've done it and we drive off elated. The ebay seller messages to ask how we are going and I answer back, its done. Strange how he had to go out right on the time we were coming but he sounds young and flirts with me. I have already told him I am a Nana but he must be like my oldest Grandsons age and thinks everyone fancies him.
Kyle would flirt with a dead dog if it was still warm. Ha Ha he'll learn, so full of themselves at that glorious age. I drop Karin back all sweaty and hot and so am I so I refuse her offer of a cuppa and race home. No one is home and I have all afternoon to think about how I am going to get that huge air con out of the car. I am thinking rope, chains, a pulley. I leave it up to the powers that be as Kerry goes on Facebook and the winds have changed. Freak, But she is till saying the fires are far away.
"Mum, Mum", I hear shouted at the door. (Does Yvette always have to yell ,like I am two miles away ? )
"Alena has written a suicide note and Zach and Jai are home, do you want to get that "Thing" out off the car, and Tiana and Tegan are here too.!!!!"
Ignore the suicide note for a moment, my life !!!!!!!
So we back up the car and the boys, 18 and 15 and the girls stare in at the Air Con.
"God, its huge" states Jai.
"Its old" states Zach.
"How the fuck are we going to get it out?" asks Yvette.
But then she has the brilliant idea of getting the big rubber wheelbarrow and suddenly everyone is shouting and yelling as we lock up the Husky in my unit. Put Tiana in charge of the little boys as the gates have to be opened and they and the Husky have a habit of bolting off as soon as they are.
I clear a path down the shaded side of my unit and the kids come with the wheel barrow and the air con balanced on its side and we are sorted. We leave it there ready to be put in place at the window, still in its wheelbarrow. The dog appears at the window of my unit and we all laugh. She's on my bed ! Great. So we run inside and let her out and then there are kids and the dog and even the grumpy cat in my place and I hand out candy canes and thank them all.
I go to hook it uo and realise it needs one of those HD plugs, curses and I have taken the fly screen out but no big deal. Yvette and Peter gave me a Bunnings voucher for Christmas. And I will need a frame underneath it but I will sort that out. Its here and its mine, suffer heat wave you are not getting me down this summer.
I realise that if the aircon topples off the wheelbarrow one of the little boys will be killed. And of course one is already around the side inspecting it. I'm glad I have these inbuilt fear antennae. I drag the old dog kennel over and block off the side of the unit and explain gently to Acer if he or Cruz go down the side thet will get squashed, die and there will be blood everywhere. He nods and understands as Yvette tells all her boys the same about the road and cars. I know it sounds awful but boys don't listen.
So I am off to Bunnings first thing in the A.M. to get my plug and decide what to do about a supporting frame, seeing as I am a helpless Female and all. The fires are under control a bit now and :Elvis" the helicopter water carrier is flying over Kerry's house in Tassie. Got to go. I'll save the suicide note for another day. Alena's very Alpha Male husband, Dean does not want us to interfere in his wife's depression. He alone has decided to take her off her antidepressants. She doesn't eat but is drinking a little ice water and I am wishing him good luck with that one. Well, he said he can handle it and I said I am concentrating on my life now and he can go and get.......
I think of my counseling and breathe, just breathe
And the Grumpy Man next door is sweet talking another female as he's being nice. Must be Horny ha ha I bet if I go over there and ask him for a hand he'll disappear.
Just another day.
Love Janette
