Cyclone Christmas

I had grand plans to get to bed early last night and actually get a full night's sleep before my 5:30 am morning shift, and actually managed to fall asleep by about 9.  At 9:30 I heard this strange staccato rhythm in my head and remember thinking that I must be dreaming.  I opened my eyes in the darkened room and realized that the sound was coming from heavy rain beating on the tin roof.  "Big ol' fat rain" to be exact.  I opened my blinds and saw one of the most spectacular thunder storms I have ever seen.  The air was heavy and hot like I was in a greenhouse and I could barely open my door because the wind direction blew the fat droplets right into my room.  I hurriedly pulled on a t-shirt and pants and ran outside and danced around in it for a bit.  I think there are a couple people here that may now think I am a little nuts, but it was totally worth it.  It's hard to explain how wonderful the rain felt- it is so dry here all the time that you begin to forget what proper rain feels like (and I have only been here two weeks!)

Cyclone Billy, inching up to Category 3, looks like it won't actually make landfall which is good, but there should be some serious wind along the coast- hopefully nothing too damaging.  Being 260 km inland we just get the wonderful benefit of moisture.  Best Christmas present I could have hoped for.  Now if I can just survive the heat in January, I'll be smiling!  I get Christmas day off so I think I will spend Christmas Eve having a nice glass of wine and relaxing in the blessed humidity.  

Maybe two glasses of wine :)

-A.