part of a cyclone

Hello to all!

I was going to continue what I started doing, but decided to share my experiences of the last few days instead.

You see, we had a 'small' cyclone move down our coastline. Well, sort of, with a few deviations this way and that. Being a 'small' cyclone, no one worried particularly about it. Mistake Number One. It would only give us the minimum of rain, which was needed anyway. Mistake Number Two. The ground was so dry, it could do with a thorough drenching. Mistake Number Three.

When you look at it, it was going to be easy-peasy. Nothing much but a small rainstorm, really. Nothing at all to worry about.

That was, until it actually got here. You see all these news videos of other towns who have been visited, but, until you have been through even a part of it yourself, you have absolutely NO idea. that goes for everything - war, famine, drought, anything.

The rain started. No real dark clouds, no real noise, no really anything. Just the beginnings of a simple rain storm. I have no idea when it dawned on me this was not just an ordinary storm. Maybe it was when leaves started flying past the window. Or the washing from the line. Or my dog, howling from her perch on the steps.(A German Shepherd, she is too big to have inside, especially with my daughter's cats, but, since she was a tiny pup she has claimed that particular stair as hers exclusively, even though she was allowed in then), or my horses, suddenly running for the shed.

We had been overrun in the house by ants for weeks. Now, there wasn't an ant in sight. Who says insects are stupid?

Like an idiot, I opened a door, thankfully one on the other side to where I thought the rain was coming from. I got soaked within five seconds. The rain was running horizontal, something I  had never seen before in my life.

Then the wind came. And it came fast and hard. The rain was still sheeting horizontally, but now the wind pushed it through every hole it could find. It didn't rip anything off, apart from a few large branches in the yard, but, for the first time in fifty years of standing, the ceiling leaked, great blisters of water that didn't burst.  We could no longer see the dog, although she was only a metre away, determined not to go down the shed or under the house, or on the patio.

The power went. And it stayed went for 36 hours. And that was the most worrying, annoying part of the whole thing, all 48 hours worth of it. No power. Not for the television, although that drove my husband mad. No Internet, although that drove my daughter stir-crazy. That and not being able to go anywhere.

No. None of that. The thing that annoyed me the most? Not being able to make a cup of tea when I wanted one. The storm had gone, leaving bits of mess to clean up. And no cup of tea.

Isn't it funny how the smallest things can suddenly mean so much?