Monday, November 9, 2009

Well, Crap! Who Punched The Big Red Summer Button?

I had a window of opportunity this morning from roughly 0800 to 1200. In that time, the boys were off to school, and Natalie was here to keep the Mau-Mau under control. Therefore, I brought out the old reliable Honda mower, and started it up.

I really don't understand the prejudice against your simple, four-stroke push-along lawnmower. Sure, I'm hardly going to use it to clear the paddocks. But for the back yard and the orchard, I really don't need a big, expensive ride-on job. And it would take a hell of a ride-on to handle the remaining thirty or so acres that need to be slashed regularly, so I've got a small but enthusiastic tractor for that job.

Anyhow. I fueled up the Honda, checked the oil and the air filter, yanked the cord a couple of times, and it purred nicely. Great! Time to bring the yard back under control...

... but what the fuck happened to my nice, cool morning? By ten o'clock this morning, it was 24C in the shade -- and there was precious little shade on my damned back yard.

At this point, every mainlander who reads this is thinking something rude. To which I must reply: get stuffed. 24 is unseasonably hot, and the direct sun in Tasmania lacks a lot of useful ozone filtration that most of you are used to. I really didn't enjoy hauling that mower around the place at all.

Through the day, the temperature crept upward. By 1430 it peaked at 29C, which isn't just unseasonable, but unacceptable, thanks. I loaded the kids up on ice treats once they got home from school, and we kept our lilywhite asses indoors for the remainder of the nasty, hot, bright afternoon.

Things are better now. It's about 15C outside, which is pretty much the perfect temperature so far as I'm concerned. Next time I tackle that goddam yard, I'll be mowing at night.

It's due to be another warm one tomorrow, apparently, with the faint possibility of thundery showers -- and a 75% chance of Dave Sag sometime after 1500, if all goes to plan.

I haven't seen Dave in quite some time. This should be entertaining.

9 comments:

  1. Oh jeez... 15 degrees? I'm freezing just thinking about it...

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  2. 15 degrees is fine as far as I'm concerned, so long as the sun's out. Jeans and (two) T-shirt weather.

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  3. Shorts and t-shirt. Fifteen degrees is very fine.

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  4. Hey remember is always a cool and comfortable 22oC at the Townsville mall.

    I'm with you Summer can go an Frackofski smartish for my liking.

    Last I saw the Sag mister he was fleeing creditors for a collapsed green carbon trading scheme based in New Guinea.

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  5. Dirk you whinge like a Pom 'it's too hot" "it's too cold"!

    Seriously though I know you hate the heat and Tassie is meant to be milder.

    Met Dave at the meal at Longrain when JB was down in Melb, seemed a cool guy.

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  6. ...I'm sure I don't recall complaining about 'too cold'. Else there would have been glaciers rolling over the hills here. "Too cold" for me is roughly the point where the CO2 precipitates out of my breath.

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  7. Dirk, thought you had once. oh well I'll admit I might be wrong...

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  8. Chaz... my wife still likes to tell people the story of how I once called her outside to see snow falling at 0800 in the morning. Snow falls very rarely where we live. I've seen it maybe three times in the last nine years - we're just not high enough up the mountainside.

    The thing is, the reason she likes to tell the story is because I saw the snowfall from where I lay in bed, got up and trotted outside quick-smart to catch the snow before it vanished. And when I called to Natalie... well... yeah. I hadn't actually bothered to get dressed. At all.

    It's not like we've got neighbours. And after all, as anyone who knows about snow can tell you, snow falls at about 1 or 2 degrees C. So it's not all that cold, really. If it had been really cold, there would have been no snowfall. Knowing that, I wasn't too worried for the old brass monkey, and indeed, it was quite pleasant to be outside in the gentle snow for a bit.

    ...so I suspect that if you DID see me complaining about cold, my tongue was probably in somebody's cheek.

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