It didn't just rain last night, it bucketted down! All night! The small fishpond by the house is overflowing; the big pond at the bottom of the property has doubled in size; the scientifically calibrated raingauge, the small dinghy in the river, is full to the gunwales.
To keep out the noise, I listened to the audio recording of Alexander McCall Smith's book "My Italian Bulldozer" which I had picked up months ago at an op-shop. Not that I was particularly interested in that particular story but years ago I had found his books set in Botswana and seen the movie "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", and the scenery had brought back many memories of my time in South-West Africa.
We woke up to grey skies and a water wonderland this morning, but the 6-knot speed sign on the other side of the river, which all the boaties and especially the pesky jetski drivers seem to ignore, is still well above the water even though we have a high tide right now. Not that there has ever been any flood threat in all the thirty-two years I have lived here by the river, but the possibility is always there if the rain continues.
Listening to this morning's news, the situation is Greenland is heating up, with the Danish government dispatching her best Lego soldiers to defend the world's largest island. There is still hope that the situation may be resolved peacefully, with Denmark offering to hand over the island to Trump if he can find it on a map. "We are not unreasonable about it", a government spokesman said, "We'll allow him three tries."
In local news, following the cancellation of Palestinian-Australian writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah's appearance at the Adelaide Writers' Festival and most other writers withdrawing as well, the organisers renamed it the Adelaide Writer's Festival to correctly reflect the numbers still left.
That's about all the news that's fit to print. And, yes, the 6-knot speed sign is still well above the water level. Back to "My Italian Bulldozer".
