Rain, rain, rain

Wow. When La Nina wants to play, she really plays!

Yesterday it bucketed with rain, as in 156mm worth, or six inches. Me? I was stuck in traffic. A twenty minute drive - in dry weather - took ninety and as I'm crawling along the highway, I watched the under-road drains be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water, the frantic pulse of the windshield wipers try to keep visibility and listened to the local DJs tell everyone that it was raining, there was flooding and to stay at home.

Local farm dams overflowed, water washed across the roads, streets and parks flooded and... cars inevitably broke down. It was a amazing and I regretted not taking the camera with me. I was, after all, heading into town to get the car fixed. One of the brake cylinders is leaking - not much, but enough to fail the registration check.

It's been a good coupla decades since this type of weather has descended and it was fun, rather than scary. Though, once in town and watching the rain, unease crept in. For nearly an hour, I kept an eye on the rain. If it was like this at home, de house, she be flooding and my elderly parent would not be able to cope. My neighbour is a part of the local emergency services, but he, like so many others, was out rescuing and sandbagging. He wasn't home.

So, I went back to the mechanics - because I was late, they worked on another car - got the keys, made another appointment and headed home.

The rain eased off and by the time I got back to the Bay, had all but stopped. When I checked there was only fifteen millimetres in the rain gauge. No wrath of La Nina.

Today is sparkly. The sun is shining, the sky is painfully blue and the roads are dry. Gotta love a country of extremes. As the New Zealanders say, "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing."

Still, I got plenty of work done. Cut six thousand words with more to follow, so I'm on track for 120k. All it took was reducing a character to a bit player.