Bucketing Down Cats'n'Dogs!

Yep, it's raining so much around here, it's not hard to step in a poodle of water; or a river that's streaming down the footpath.  I had to roll up the legs of my old painting jeans and wear thongs/flip-flops to the post office just so that my good pair of sneakers wouldn't get soaked.  And all I wanted to do was post off a parcel to the USA.  On the way there, I found out my umbrella had sprung a leak in the most unlikely place:  right in the top handle piece where it opens out... water was running down it onto my hands.  I felt like a wet duck by the time I got home from the post office and the servo next door (I had to get some milk.  No way was I going out again just for milk today!).

Once home, I kept the house closed up because the rain has been coming from all angles and keeping the gutters and drains filling up.  The rain gauge was showing 61mm before I emptied it at 9:30am; and I'm wondering how much more we'll be getting.  But I'm more concerned about the north of Brisbane; as they're getting well over 100mm and a lot of roads have been closed up near Caboolture, Caloundra and around those areas.  I heard on the news that the Brisbane City Council has offered up free sandbags for people who are worried about their homes being flooded when the Brisbane River hits the high tide mark over the next few days due to the amount of rain we've had.  This is also because Wivenhoe Dam has had its floodgates opened as well and there'll be excess water.  

Flooded Brisbane Streets in 1974

This rain is supposed to stick around until Autumn; and petter out by Winter.  We've had this kind of thing before - just as bad - in 1974 when Brisbane flooded really bad.  However, I don't remember it because I was only a few months old and we didn't live that close to the CBD.  But this weather pattern was around at that time; and it caused all kinds of havoc everywhere; just as it's causing the same kind of havoc now.  

So, if you're on holidays and coming home, please be careful while you're driving our wet roads.  If you've suffered through the floods in Emerald, Rockhampton, Townsville, St. George, Injune, Warwick or anywhere else we haven't heard about yet, I hope you can return your homes back some kind of normal as soon as possible; and celebrate a belated Christmas at least (seeing a lot of you didn't get a chance to do that).  Otherwise, if you're staying put, don't go out unless you absolutely have to... and even then, be careful how you go; even on foot can be disastrous.

For me, the next few days, I'm going to be sticking around the house, reading some mighty fine books from my Mt TBR, playing the piano, listening to music and watching dvds at my leisure.  This is my idea of a good day in out of the rain; but I'd much prefer to read a book outside... such a bummer I can't right now.  Until my next post, take care, stay dry and don't go out unless you absolutely need to.