Hi everyone,
A chance now for me to recap the last few days. It's been a good weekend for sure (well, from my perspective at least).
Friday I spent the morning taking Mum to and from her physiotherapy appointment in town, and got in to work about 1pm. It as worthwhile though, and I had enough work to get me through the afternoon. I'd been running the last two evenings so I decided to spare the vigourous exercise and instead just take the dog for a walk instead. The evening turned on a stunning sunset I have to say.
Saturday morning I was woken by my pager going off to advise of a road accident and a possible person trapped. That's a Priority One job, which meant I threw on my overalls and boots over a singlet and boxers and bolted for the door. The accident's location meant it was easier for me to go directly there instead of to the headquarters at Tatura. While I (and the rest of the Tatura SES Unit) were in transit, the Ambulance officers had extricated the casualty from the car and just as I pulled up the message went out to stand us down. I decided to make an appearance anyway, partly because sometimes there is something you can do to be helpful and also to say hi to the members of the Murchison SES unit who were also on scene. It's always good to see people you otherwise often only see when you're on courses together.
I drove back through Murchison because I needed fuel. One of that town's claims to fame is the famous Murchison Meteorite of 1969. This was the first time that I'd noticed that they named a hamburger after it. At some point, I need to go and pre-emptively burn a mountain of calories on the rail trail there and then have a go at that burger: It. Sounds. Awesome.
I drove home after the exhilarating orange-clad start to the day. There's been a decent belt of rain the night before, and it was pleasing to note that we'd had a solid 9mm of rain. Not enough to fill dams at all, but certainly enough to make me grateful that the triticale had been rolled up rather than left lying in windrows
While I'd been in town yesterday I bought an El Cheapo puncture repair kit to see if I could salvage the bicycle tyre that blew out last Weekend. I enjoyed the chance to get my hands greasy, and having some Kenny Chesney playing in the background was good. The verdict is that the tube is irreparably dead and the tyre is probably kaput too. However, replacing them is fairly inexpensive, and I know a lot more now about how the derailleur and rear wheel assembly work than I did before. I took the time to wash the coating of oil and dust off the gears and chain with turpentine and before I put the bike back on the road I'll put fresh oil and spray on it.
I had a skype date lined up with the girls around 11pm (Shepparton time), but when I messaged the ex she explained that they'd been up till 11pm the night before and were still sound asleep. As they had another day of Halloween festivities lined up I said it'd be better for them to get their rest, so I was able to turn in earlier than expected. Shame to miss out on skype, but I should be able to sneak some time off from work this week to do it then.
The weather bureau kept prognosticating storms overnight, none of which materialised. I was not unhappy about this as it meant I didn't have to go leaping out of bed through the night to go and assist people. In the morning the dog and I made another longish walk of the fences - about 4.5 kms. By about 2pm the weather began to come in very dark and threatening, and about 2:30 the rain started.
I can tell you my pager started going off every 30 seconds with trees down on roads and building damage. We ultimately got about 14mm of rain here, and some fierce winds, but the city of Shepparton got a belting. It was agreed that Tatura SES and Shepparton Search & Rescue Squad (SSARS) would collaborate to work through the jobs. I'm not going to lie: even for storm damage jobs, I never feel so alive as I do on the way to a callout.
Because of the logistics involved, Tom (another Tatura SES member) and I went out with a SSARS crew to their jobs. It was a fascinating experience to see how a different agency does things. Our first job was a roof repair, which had me getting a bit more experience working on rooves and doing repairs at height. The second was dealing with a carport that collapsed in the wind. Again, really good to see how a different crew tackles things.
By about 6pm the bulk of the work had been cleared or passed to other agencies and we were sent home. I'm looking forward to a shave and a proper shower tonight. This week will be a little disrupted - work tomorrow, a public holiday Tuesday, and then back to work. The Bureau of Meteorology is still forecasting rain this week, so I suspect I'll be pulling on the overalls again soon enough!
No more for now. Hope all your weekends are going well!
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