Staying home

I was happily planning my gardening when I got mail from Ansje. Apparently she had tried to call – but at work, I simply do not hear when my phone rings. I called her back and she told me that they had heard on the news that the N4 is closed as well as the old road! There is no route open for me to go home!

Yikes! I went and checked online, and found that both roads had indeed been closed at the time she called (I only saw the mail about an hour later), but fortunately the N4 had been re-opened!

I had no choice but to take the chance, though I was somewhat apprehensive. I got lucky! I could get home without any trouble nor any delays; but I saw plenty of signs of flooding. The Apies river runs under the highway at one point and, although the bridge is quite high – it didn’t look so high now! Along the banks of the river, instead of a veldt, it looked more like a rice field! Water was pooling everywhere until it looked like a scene from the Miami swamps – just missing the actor on the powerboat coming along!

The traffic news confirmed that the old road was closed – it runs along the Bon Accord Dam, so that’s no surprise.

During a dry spell, I ventured to look around the garden – mippies in tow! I looked by the bench and Mewthos happily jumped onto the tree and started sharpening his claws on it … when water came down on him! Disgusted, he jumped to another branch – same result! He turned and stalked off highly offended! The branches are so thin, that he literally shook the water off the leaves … onto himself!

I considered taking Tuesday off, to avoid the risk of getting stuck at work – but decided against it. I got home fine on Monday, so why use up what little leave we get.

At was not at work on Monday; his place was flooded, poor soul!

When I got up Tuesday morning, though, I saw that it had rained almost non-stop throughout the night; the water had pooled right up to my front door – fortunately there is a step, so it couldn’t seep inside. Remembering just how bad the road from the highway to our driveway had been last night – and the N4 had been closed for a couple of hours as well … I decided not to take the chance, after all.  Better to be stuck at home than at work!

The internet wasn’t working for some reason, so I couldn’t check the traffic or weather reports – still, better safe than sorry!

Without access to the internet, I started writing in my old word document again. Midway through that, the power went out! That was around 7:30 in the morning!

It was raining almost non-stop, so I decided to get busy inside. I wasn’t in the mood for any major tasks, so I just cleared small spaces here and there. I cleaned up the surface where the monitor & keyboard are, then the shelf next to me, where I keep my pens, tissues and such. And last I cleared some of the shelves by the wall – one by one, so that I could quit anytime I felt like it. It looks a lot better now, though.

Mippies are not happy. They venture outside but come back quickly to dry! They’re restless and just bored … so mommy must make lots of time for cuddles and play! Sigh.

With no electricity either, and – ironically – no water, I wrote in my gardening journal. Tynx came to investigate and stood on the book sniffing the ink!

Around noon the rain stopped for a while, giving me a chance to sow some seeds – as I had planned Monday afternoon. I sowed Peppermint and Comfrey, added more seeds around the mustard bed and sowed some mustard in a row in front of the carrots.

I tried taking a walk around the garden – and nearly lost a shoe! The ground is very soft in some patches – worst, of course, where I’ve turned it, but also in some unexpected patches. Lady Jane came running at top speed and sank nearly to her tail in the mud! Her beautiful white socks are totally brown now – she’s not impressed!

I was hoping I could maybe mix more compost into the first bed I created – but there’s no way I can get near the far end, where I’ve already started the second bed! Maybe, if I had gumboots – but I don’t, so I can’t.

I did managed to add the last Alyssum seeds to the hanging pot, though. There are some sprouts coming up, but not nearly anything like even a quarter of the seeds seem to have germinated! I sort of expected that, since I sowed the coloured variety – the white ones are easy, but the others tend not to come up. Well, I’ve added white Alyssum to the mix now, so hopefully I’ll have some success.

When the rain started up again, mippies took to cuddling each other on the sleeper couch! It was so sweet seeing all four of them cuddling nearly together – Lady Jane is still keeping her distance from Tynx, I’m afraid. But Mewthos has quite taken to her and started washing her when I sat down with them. I got up and took some photos of that, and Ziva filled my spot and even gave Tynx a few licks! She then settled down, happily cuddled up to Tynx and Mewthos! More photos!

I had a message from At. Poor guy! His home is a mess, everything is wet, not even dry clothes! I just hope he doesn’t get sick, as well! That’s the last thing he needs now!

I spent most of the afternoon reading! It was still raining on and off, I had ventured outside during dry spells – and saw that some of the flower pots were drowning! I took the small fork and poked some holes into the surface – and the water readily drained. That potting soil turns to a smooth surface with watering – whether by myself or nature – making it difficult for seedlings to break through, while at the same time almost sealing the surface so water doesn’t go through. Strange, but there it is. I plunged the fork into several of my pots and turned the soil somewhat to avoid drowned seeds.

As I went looking for books to read, I discovered the Mewthos had sprayed some of my books! Urgh! I put some cardboard over them – hopefully that will put a stop to it! Seriously, what’s his issue?

I wasn’t in the mood for fiction, so I ended up looking at several of my mum’s tour-guide books. I read one about Gauteng – sadly, that’s the first book I’ve read this year! And also studied some of the flora, fauna and bird books I have. As a result, I am now positive that those birds which chased Mewthos are definitely crowned plovers! And the bright red birds are red bishops! And the one’s I always think of as woodpeckers (probably because they look like the cartoon Woody) are definitely Hoopoe.

The power came back on some time after four … but my PC would not! It would start up, then power down, that start up only to power down again … on and on. So I turned off the UPS (cutting the power supply), opened it up and hoped that it was the dust in the fan which caused this! I removed as much of the dust as I could and tried again … same effect. With all this rain, it was also quite humid here, so I took a chance guessing that the static electricity would dry anything that was a little damp on the motherboard and that THAT was the cause of the on-off effect. I let it cycle through some up-down-up-downs and to my great relief, it worked! After a few false starts, the PC finally came back on!

Big relief! Last time this happened, I ended up without my PC for over a month!

And then the power went off again around six! I wished I had taken more advantage of having power, while I did! At least, I should have flushed the toilet! Sigh – no use hitting myself now. Power is out … no clue when it may come back again.

I sat outside for a while, when it got too dark to read by sunlight, brought my mippies in, fed them, made myself a steak – which was a little on the large side, even with plenty of help from my mippies!

Then I read by my LED light and went to bed quite early.

I decided that, even though it seemed like the rain was coming to an end, I’d rather not risk getting stuck at work on Wednesday. Better take another day off. In for a penny, in for a pound!

The power came back on around half past ten, waking me up with all the alarms going off everywhere, so I got up, put on the PC, loaded my audiobook and went back to sleep.

The power went out again some time during the night.

Did you know: The ‘e’ in South Africa stands for ‘electricity’?