A frightening and insane number of bushfires rolling through the regional area. Power throughout most of the state cut-off. Traffic lights out in half the city. 42 degree heat melting everyone's skin. Pregnant ladies stuck in lifts with the hot sun beaming through the glass windows. Distraught callers phoning in distressed about how the folks in the nursing homes might die. Angry callers wondering why we weren't given prior warning. All we need now is a plague, or a giant asteroid, or a mushroom cloud. Sitting around the radio eating dinner with Mum two days ago during the blackout listening to 774, the feeling you get from it was that it was difficult to decide which was more of an emergency here - the fires themselves or the blackouts. At least it was relatively short lived and things are back to normal - we have electricity back, and the fires continue to roll through the bush like a bad case of cooties. Winter will eventually come, and with it the respite from the fires. But kids, we're in trouble. I'm sorry, but we really are. Continue at this rate and by the summer of 2015 we'll be having days of 1500 degree heat and will be suffering from oxygen deprivation because the trees have all been burnt down. Smoke will become the new air and being a fireman will become the new highest-paying job.
I hate to say it. I really do. I feel so dirty about saying this it makes me want to soak my tongue in concentrated hydrochloric acid for 24 hours...
The hippies are right about this one.
