Beat The Heat

Hey! It worked! KEWL!!!! Two (2) days ago I titled a post ADELAIDE HEAT WAVE, and I've had over 100 visitors the last 2 (two) days. Guess there's a trick to getting folks to look at your blog: and that is having a catchy, topical title to each post!  Hey, I can be taught...

Since I've titled this Beat The Heat, then I guess I should get to the pics of moi "beating the heat", otherwise you might sue me for false advertising.

I found out that the picnic table, umbrella, and chairs FLOAT! This means I don't have to wait till the sun swings round to eat in the pool! Notice the chair I'm sitting on...



It was 108 in the shade, and 130 in the sun...





nice of lots shade in the pool now...



The pair of galahs that's been hanging out recently showed up this morning. They had their brekkie with the lorries:




There's 2 or 3 pairs of lorries (rainbow lorikeet) that hang out in one of the gum trees (eucalypt) in the backyard even when they aren't having brekkie or afternoon tea:



I was going to be posting the finish of the canoe story today. It is, however, getting late and hot and I still have to get dinner ready for the clan so y'alls gunna hafta weight till later, cheers!


Update: I forgot to mention that I updated my blogroll with all the Alaskan and cookin' blogs I've found lately. I've also deleted the ones that haven't been updated for a wee bit (and I PROMISE never to be slack in my posting ever ever again!).

If I accidently deleted your blog (or I haven't added you as a new one), then just drop me a nice (or nasty) comment telling me how much you'd love me to blogroll you (or just how little you think of me as a person). Either way, no worries mate!

Adelaide Heat Wave

Now, isn't that tricky of me? Calling a blog post something that could easily be typed in a google search? What a great way to get more hits!

This is now the tenth day (breaks Perth's record!) and it's forecast to continue for at least the next 6 days... That'll be over two weeks with the daily high over 35 C. I know that doesn't sound too hot, but remember that is SHADE temp. I'm going to go look out the window now where my digital temp thingy is sitting on the table next to the pool in the sun. Hang on, be right back.

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I'm back (can you tell?). Temps not too bad, 121 F but it is overcast. That's around 50 C. A lot better than the 140 F I saw a couple of days ago. Still though, I'll be having dinner in the pool again tonight :)

We won't break the all time aussie record held by Marble Bay though... 160 days straight of temps like this! This was back early 1900's and I doubt anyone was living there except for the guy who checked the thermometer.

The good news is that the laundry doesn't take very long to dry out on the line.

A couple of years ago I decided to go on a road bike ride on the hottest day of the summer at the hottest time of day. I know, you are all asking "Why?"

Can I cop out and use Ming's answer of "Why not?"

No, I actually had a reason. See, I used to winter mt bike in the interior of Alaska. Coldest temp I'd ridden at was -58 F (-46 C) with a windchill of -92 F (-70 C). I figured if I went for a ride at +46 C then it would be kinda neat. You know, -46 and +46?

Anyways, I've since found out the +46 C was the shade temp and the temp on the road with no shade or shelter was that +140 F (+60 C).

So NOW I can say (boast) that I've ridden a bicycle for over an hour in a windchill of -92 F AND ridden a bicycle for over an hour with a road temp of +140 F! That's a temp dif of 232 degrees F.

Do I get some sort of prize for this? Or did the Alaska rides freeze my brains and then the Oz rides melted them and they all leaked out?

Do you want to hear about how much fun I had on the road ride when the road temp was 140 F? Well sure you do otherwise you wouldn't have read this far.

All I did was ride from Seacombe Gardens, up South Road hill, around the Happy Valley reservior, back down the hill, and back home. Short ride, I can do it with my eyes closed in less than 40 mins without even breathing hard.

This time it took 1 hour and 15 mins...

I took 3 large water bottles with me, ended up wishing I had 5! As soon as the road tilted upwards it I was breathing fire. Everyone remembers the Balrog scene in LOTR, right? Remember when he was belching fire out? Yeah, that was me going up the hill...

Here's the kicker, the South Road hill is only 4% and it's less than 2 km long! It hurt... I had finished the first water bottle before even getting to the top.

(quick aside: the sun is back out and it's 137.8 F on the white table next to the pool)

On the far side of the reservior there a very short but very steep hill climb, my second bottle was empty before I even got to it. I think this time I was not only breathing fire but actually inside the furnace itself.

The last water bottle I finished up with still 30 mins ahead of me to get home at what was for me a snails pace; I could barely keep up 30 kmh on the flats. When I finally got around the reservior and was done with any hills at all I told myself that it's all downhill from here! Isn't that supposed to the fun part? No traffic (all the smart folk were inside), 3 wide, smooth lanes with nice sweeping curves that are loads of fun! Wee-hoo!

Not this time... not this time...

I had to ride my brakes! Very embarrasing! I wanted to get home as quick as possible, but having 140 degree air shoved into my mouth at 80 kmh didn't sound fun. Besides, when I got going any faster than 60 kmh (38 mph) the hot hot hot air would find it's way around my wrap around sunnies (that's oz for sunglasses) and dry my eyes out so that I couldn't see. Not fun.

When I finally got home, the most wonderful woman in the world (my wife) took one look at me and promptly sat me in front of the a/c and brought me as much luke warm water as I wanted. Apparantly my skin was pale (it was tanned, but not just right then), waxen, my cheeks were sunken and my eye socket were hollow.

The next day I was out for a 2 hour ride, in the early morning before the sun was up! See, I can learn!

All this typing has got me severely heat stressed, so I'm off to the pool, ta.

More heat stuff...

I hope no one minds lots of pics today. I really don't have the energy or brain power to right (write) something humourous. I know I need to finish my Concerning Cilled Canoes and Croutons story, but right now it ain't gonna happen.  As soon as I finish this post I will spend the afternoon in the nice cool pool... it's 90 F in the water, which in infinitely cooler than the air.

First pic is the digital temperate gauge thingy I was telling you about yesterday. Ignore the time as I never bother about the time so it was never set, and ignore the humidity cus I've never calibrated that feature. However... the temp works perfect, it's spot on with other temp readings so I know it's working.

This shot was taken at 3:30 pm yesterday. The sensor was sitting on the white table out by the pool, I didn't cheat and set it on the bricks that had been baking all day.



That's pretty warm... Oh, if you are wondering about the stuff on the table, I was pruning the tomato(e) plants. I stopped counting the tomatoes after we hit 100 tomatoes :)



What does a black cat do when it's this hot out? Well, he flops down on the hot bricks and cooks himself...

I think Bagheera runs on solar power...


What does a cockatoo do? She opens her wings slightly to the breeze to cool off:





There's been a long-billed corella parrot hanging out on the fringes of the cockatoo flock for a while. I've seen him/her a few times now in the last couple of weeks. Things got ugly last week...

The Interloper:



The Guard:



The Showdown:




The Faceoff:




The Attack:




That's all for today folks. Please remember to send cool, cold, frigid weather our way! Thanks for that!  Oh for all you fairbanksans: can someone please get some pics of the ice carvings before they melt? Thanks in advance :)

UPDATE! I almost forgot... what does dave do in this heat? Where does he eat his dinner?

140

Heat update, for those of y'all who's jus' might or mightnotta be int'rest'd...

I happen to have one of those digital temperature doo-hickeys (along with other hickeys!). We normally keep it inside, upstairs. Yesterday, it read 36.1 C which happens to be around 97 F. Yes, the a/c was on... did I mention that was the temp INSIDE?

I just now have put that sucker outside, in the sun, on the table, next to the pool (did I mention I have a pool????). The BOM (Bureau Of Meteorology) says the official temp in the shade hit 40 C (105 F) today. I think I'll find out what the temp in the SUN is... Besides, why should we trust some folks who study meteors to tell us about the weather???

I'll be right back, hang on.

I'm back! Did you miss me???

I've just had a squizz (that's aussie for having a look at something) at my digital temp gauge thingy...

Do you want to know what was displayed on the digital LCD face of if? Well, of course you do! Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this.

59.9 C     that happens to be 140 F

Yes, the temp on the table which is in the sun and is next to the pool is One Hundred Forty Degrees Fahrenheit! That's 140 F.

It's bloody hot out!

If Jill or Geoff or Jillian or Brittany or Ishmael or Dierdre are reading this: LET'S BLOODY-WELL TRADE!!!!!!

HOT

hot... stinky hot... bloody-well hot... fucking hot... worst heat wave in 100 years... isn't our summer supposed to be over???

Now you know why I haven't posted anything for a bit. I've got lots to say, but this computer doesn't run when I'm in my nice, cool, wet, damp pool (which just happens to be where I am most of the time during this).

It started 10 days ago (I think) and the long range forecast is for it to continue for at least that much longer. Tomorrow should be a bit of a break, only 95 F in the shade so that'll be a big relief. After that though it's back up to hot weather.

I'm keeping myself semi-sane by reading about the iditasports, iditarod, ice carvings, and dog mushing; I *think* it's working.

BTW, if any of you think you're cold or that you are tough and macho, then go read this: Jill's subarctic journal.

I'll tell you about the cockatoo singing next time, too bloody hot right now... I'm off to the pool. Which, by the by, is being kept at a nice, cool, friggin cold,  90 F temperature.

Me Being Observant

Alrighty! I think I'm noticing a wee bit of a trend here... When I post some sort of pointless rambling, or attempt to write something witty, I get pretty much no comments! That's ok, I'm not a writer and I don't play one on tv so I wouldn't expect anyone to think I'm a funny writer.

However, back when I was posting funny stories from my youth where I'd hurt myself, I DID get comments! I get even more comments when I post pictures from Oz ('stralia, mate). I've also noticed that I get more comments from folks up in the cold north when I post summertime pics from Oz. Perhaps it's cus seeing pics from a warm place maybe helps you mentally thaw out in the frozen arctic?

Did I mention in my fizzix labs at UAF my lab partners referred to me as "master of the obvious"? I *think* they were being sarcastic cus the TA just always said "read the f*ck*ng manual, dave!"

But for whatever reason I have surmised y'all like funny stories of me hurting myself, and pics from Oz. Funny stories from my youth are many, the only thing is they take some time to write cus my wreck-o-lection ain't what it used to be.

So today you get some pics instead! But I'll put some funny captions on them for you to make up for the lack of storytime.

Here goes:


"Now remember: we are bound to hit him when he walks under the tree if we all crap at the same time!"



"Harriet, if he's trying to impress me, it's not working."
"Quiet Blanche, it's working for me!"



"I wonder what the view is like from way down there?"



"Why am I always the one on guard duty?"



"... and THEN the penguin says to the bartender, 'but I already HAD the fish and there's STILL no olives!' Ha, Ha!! Get it?"
"I don't get it Larry."
"Shmuck."




"I wonder if this looks as attractive to humans as it does to other cockatoos?"



"Not NOW, honey. That weirdo peeping tom with the camera is watching!"



"... swee-eeet home, Alabama!"


For those of you puzzled over the last caption, I'll tell you in 3 days why the bird was singing that song (at least that what it sounded like to me). In the meantime, how's about y'all try to guess? You've got three days...

Oh yeah: I thought of a LOT of funny ones (especially for #3), so put a caption for a pic number in the comments so everyone (or at least my wonderful visitors) can see how witty you are.

It's a rough life...

I know, now you all are gonna fly down here and beat the tar outta me...

A toofer

Hey, you get two today! I just remembered I'd forgotten to keep you posted about the Grate Tomato(e) Count, my pool temps, and various sundries.

So, we are up to 70 tomatoes off the 3 plants (two flower flushes from each so far), and it looks like we'll get at least one more batch of flowers from each plant. The tomatoes have been getting 
smaller as the drought gets worse, so it's not much use weighing them. But boy are they TASTY!!

I decided not to turn on the solar heater for the pool today, that way it won't get any warmer than the 92 F that it's at. It's going to feel really really really good jumping in that sucker in about an hour to cool off from the heat (105 F in the shade, over 125 F in the direct sun).

Ahhhhhhh....... I really do think of you all up in winter at times like this...

Woke up to something cool two days ago. I was walking around the pool (did I mention we have a pool?) early in the morning when the sun was just rising to see which group of cockatoos and parrots had shown up, and I almost walked into a web.

One of the garden spiders that hangs out under the balcony over the pool hadn't pulled her web in that morning! They usually pull the web in well before the sun is up; maybe she was still digesting? I don't mind the spiders as they take care of a boatload of insects.

I noticed that the sun was rising right behind her and shining through her making her look like she is glowing. I swear this photo is NOT doctored at all:


Hee, hee! Let me find someone to bite and transfer my radioactive spider powers to!

A (w)hole buncha stuff

I'm here! I'm hear! And there might be a few more visitors showing up
here as Ishmael has added me to his links. Does that mean that I'll
be going political? Not a chance! This here blog is a place for folks
to go and forget about their worries --Cheers, anyone?

This is going to be a very rambling, disjointed post; mainly cus that's
how my brain normally works when it does happen to work at all.

Oh, there might be a couple more visitors; family friend who was just
visiting us for two weeks, and The Old Fart (me poppa).

Our friend from Alaska (we'll call her Anna cus that's her name) was
down visiting. She's from Anchortown but has travelled all over AK for
her job.

When she left AK they were in the middle of a bit of a cold snap. Minus
15 F in Los Anchorage, minus 40 in Fairbanks; you get the idea: bloody
well COLD. She brought the cold temps with her!We were having beautiful
summer temps down here (like around 100 F in the shade), and the day she
arrived it dropped down to a right royal cold temp of 75 F in the shade.
Unfortunately, their was no rain with the freezing cold snap. But fear
not for us frost-bitten aussies; that only lasted a week and it's back
up to real summertime temps.

The pool actually had the temerity to cool down to 72 F! How, I ask HOW,
can anyone be expected to swim and frolic in such icy cold waters? It's
back up to 92 F water temp, but I tell ya: it was a rough week!

I had also gotten back on my mountain bike a few weeks before she arrived.
I think last post I alluded to a wee bit of a crash... Cracked rib, bruised
knee, sore shoulder. But really, nothing serious. Just enough to keep my
lazy ass off a bike for a bit. I'll be going out tomorrow morning for a
ride for the first time since; it'll be on the road bike so I'm sure I'll
have some great road rash to tell you about soon.

Got some great bird pics and also some good koala shots to show you, but
that'll have to wait till I get a chance to sort them. In the meantime, how's
about a couple of emu pics? An emu is a large, flightless bird native to
the Antipodes (that's a fancy word for New Holland)!






As you can see, they are rather large.

Oh, I got some more injuries: a jammed wrist and a skinned knee. I was
showing Anna how to bowl and bat in the nets at the local playground. The
game is cricket and it's way too complex to tell you about. She did pretty
good with the bowling, and the batting wasn't too bad either. One time I
decided to really let one rip (which she said she didn't even see as it
zoomed past her ankle and into the stumps). My follow through wasn't quite
as good as Brett Lee's... In fact, it sucked! Hence the jammed wrist and
skinned knee as I went cart-wheeling down the concrete pitch.

Did the above paragraph confuse all you folks up north? Well, it was kinda
the idea :)

I got a new set of chess pieces while she was down here: a set of winged
fairy figurines. Now I have the dragons playing against the fairies! They
are on my own chess table that I made, so I guess I'll have to take pics
of it and write a post about how awesomely handy I am. Although I didn't
use duct tape, it still came out pretty darned good so tune in soon for
handyman's corner.

Let's all give Jill a cheer in her upcoming race: winter mtb through 350
miles of Alaskan wilderness. Jill: I'll think of you every time I jump in
the pool.

Gotta run, naps to take and laps to swim.

Galah and Cockatoo

Yeah, yeah, I know. Y'all up there in that other hemisphere (especially those of you in Alaska) are going to hate me for posting these pics in the middle of your winter.

To that I say: Tough! It's my blog and I can post pics of purdy birdies if I want! Does it make you feel any better if I tell you that I'm very envious of the sled doggie pics from Akbushbaby and of the winter biking pics from Jill?

Remember when I used to write all the humourous stories of my youth? Most of them involved me hurting myself somehow. Well, I've got a great bike wreck story that happened only TWO days ago! Complete with pics! So, like, stay tuned!

Anyways, here's a pic of a Galah hanging out in a gum tree (eucalypt) in the back yard, and then there's a pic of a Cockatoo in the same tree a couple of days before. Enjoy!









Now, if'n y'all will 'scuse me; I've got a pool to jump into before I start making dinner for the clan.