Winter wonders and woes! in Majimaze Musing!

Hello Readers!
                                  How are you all?Once again I have fallen down on my resolve to note you all.I apologise and will try again.I am still not  comfortable with the Prosebox format and we won't discuss settings!I must endeavour to save enough money to get a mouse as I have difficulty using the right click on the pad.Nothing happens.
                             It has been an eventful fortnight,fraught with floods and families!Ha ha!Not really.

The floods are a direct result of two very very wet storms.Packing BIG north-easterly winds and torrents of rain.I live in a unit at the end of a tack room and garage at the bottom of a driveway.Several years ago,I had a major flood which swamped my entire unit.It was in summer which helped tremendously with drying out.This time it is different.Since the big flood I have always taken precautions and been lucky. However, these last 2 weeks have been rather different.The water focussed on drenching my bathroom and dressing room.The reason I have a dressing room is because I have a cupboard sized bedroom .No room for dressing table,chest of drawers or anywhere to hang clothes!So I have this rather nice room which is small however,lots of shelves and a rack for hanging clothes.I also store stuff on the floor,like shoes and bags etc.And the vacuum cleaner. This little room has a connecting door to the garage and another into my unit.The garage and the tackroom are separated with an internal wall and the tackroom is at the end of the building with an exteral wall. The reason I am telling you all this is that both storms wreaked havoc in the dressing room.This in spite of two horse covers,2 double duvets,doonas to Aussies,and 2 big bathtowels packed in the garage against the connecting door and wall. Now, I don't like winter at all.In fact I just endure it!My bones ache I get cold all the time and I yearn for summer.Mud water everywhere and just not my scene.Imagine first thing in the morning,freezing cold,entering my dressing room and finding it soaked with water!Aaar-rrgh!Cold horrible water.I didn't mention that my unit isn't insulated and has a concrete pad with carpet tiles so is cold anyway!I was so horrified,however,grabbed my clotthes dressed and took Taitai for his walk then came back and it took all week to dry out that room,the stuff on the floor and my shoes!My Toastmaster ack,a few clothes and yes,it always smells ghastly afterwards! However, I thought as I dragged drenched horsecovers and duvets outside and washed bathtowels,'must have been a one off!'So I didn't ring the landlord or anything.just battled on. Well, a week later, another big windy wet storm!!Once again,I took all possible recautions: this time tucking horse covers along the wall of my bathroom as well as that had flooded.Same routine! Same result!!!Freezing morning,wet cold feet and soaked dressing room!It was almost too much for me!I took Taitai for his walk in the driving rain,got me sopping wet and him,came back and wept!Luckily, I had removed all my shoes and the vacuum cleaner and barricaded against my bags etc.I was devastated. and depressed.I went over to Pennys and she came back after delivering the kids to school and helped me squeejee the water out to a degree and drag stuff out!Then she said,'OK.Thats enough heroics!You contact Joanne,the landlords secretary (he is over in Australia for 3 months),and let her know and send photos!' Which I did.I have had enough!The property bloke,Rodney and a digger driver Gene arrived,cracked a few bad jokes,(I couldn't see the humour then) and found that the exteral wall was bulging into the tackroom with soaked dirt about1 and a half metres high and squeezing the earth under the bulging wall which then poured through and under the internal wall and was still strong enough to push over and under the all the barricades!So, they are going to dig down to the bottom of the wall,remove all the dirt,build a retaining wall then replace the external wall!Ye Gods! They haven't started it yet as the weather has been cold and wet again,however, the wind direction has been sou' westerly and doesn't seem to flood it!So I wait with bated breath!Thats the woes anyway!I despise winter even more! Some of the wonders! I am constantly delighted by the fact that usually with one or two NOTABLE exceptions that when I take Taitai out in the dark early mornings,(around 6.30am) get ,I can USUALLYaround the whole circuit with out getting rained on or extrememly cold!I know why it is scientifically.The period of an hour before dawn is calm and it is the diurnal gap between weather systems.So, if a winter front goes through overnight, it stops before dawn then at dawn when the sun rises,another system starts! All this information was imparted by my late beloved sailing hubby on one of my many sailing trips with him,when I asked why we always left an anchorage before dawn.Amazing!There have been excetions tho.Once Taitai and i were hit by a violent hailstorm and thunderstorm!Terrifying and we were without shelter and it was still dark!The hailstones hurt our faces and Taitai has been petrified of thunder since!Another time,I had to take him to our nearest paddock as it was torrential rain. However, it usually works.Also, we can go out in the dusk and it is not so cold even with a frost, yet come back and within the hour,the temperature has dropped as much as 2-3 degrees!Great eh!Also, I always wake up in winter with aches and pains,yet,by the time we have come back,they are gone.Now that says a lot to me.Like ,Keep WALKING!! Yesterday, we took off for a quick stroll down the paddocks in the late afternoon and there was a big black cloud ,which, decided it was going to come in witha squall and heavy rain and wind!The big shed down below is slowly breaking up, so didn't want to go there.However, there is a little shed by the gate where the truck drivers sign their dockets.It is solid and wood with a corrugated iron roof.So,we ducked in there.No trucks coming in and gate locked.It was IDEAL!Warm,dry and facing away from the wind!We stayed there for 20 mins.Then made our escape in a brief fine peirod and got home absolutely dry!YAY!! Families are fine.All the kids on holidays now and have got great reports from last term.Even young grandson Jimmy who has been so ill with Crohns Disease.He has missed a lot of school and has been doing half days for the las t two weeks.At the parent interview Janet and Bill present,Jimmys teacher read them out a piece of writing that Jimmy had done in his writing book.He is 9 years old.It went like this:

'Stress is purple and smells like burnt sausage, Sadness is the salty tears of a little boy when he has Crohns disease, And when he hears his mother crying. Happiness is when he sees his Mother smiling!'

Just wonderful!It brought Janet and Bill and the teacher and the rest of us to tears, and it also brought all of us to understanding a little boy's mind.He and the family have gone for a holiday down to the snow for a week.What a great idea!He has been so brave and the family so distressed that they need a break!Jimmy also has to start 6 weeks of a special liquid diet to rest his bowel.No solid food. Last Thursday he told his class that he would be doing this crazy diet and why.Clever boy as they would all notice at school at lunchtime.An examle to us all of courage and resourceful ness in the face of adversity.I am so proud of him! Anyway,must finish now and get on with the day which is looking fine and cold! Be kind to each other and don't let the world get you down! Jimmy doesn't!! Lots of love and God Bless! Majimazexxxxxxxxx