So, this is night shift number four and "I am done like a dinner".. just as my Nan would say she had experienced a long hard day. First night I worked in the busy Short Stay Unit, second night in the Emergency Dept (no comments on how busy it was there) and these two last nights I am here on the Cardio-Thoracic Unit. It is still school break time, and the kids return to school for term 1 in two weeks time. I am not looking forward to them going back.. I love it when we sleep in of a morning and have no real structure to the day.
Of course, my readers from abroad would be aware of the disastrous floods that we are experiencing in Australia right now. Our years of drought have come to an end. It is wonderful to see communities band together to help each other in these trying times. I would wish that it could stay the same forever more.. but, as it happens, people get back to their pre- disaster selves mostly, and they forget what happened for a time.
The first night I worked a young nurse who was standing beside me had an SMS come through. She opens up her phone and it was a warning SMS to get out of her home town of Wycheproof... floods approaching. Well, she was right beside me here at work, so she calls her Mum and Dad.. her Mum answers and says "It is okay love, we are madly sand bagging the house, and next we will go on and help our neighbours... don't worry". Frightening I say! The next night I see the same young nurse, ask her about her Mum and Dad, the sandbagging worked for the time being she said. and more importantly, her parents are safe.
A few years back we went to Dimboola for a look-see.. and we were actually looking at blocks of land. They were "going for a song". We spoke to some locals, including the local constabulary, about the town and its history. The river that runs through Dimboola was dry as a bone! Today, Dimboola was on flood alert and the local IGA manageress was on the radio saying they were sand bagging the shops and the houses and using kitty litter inside the sand bags too. She said that the upper catchment area had a wall that was failing to contain the flow of the umpteen litres of water headed Dimboola's way... scary stuff these floods. One good thing about all this water going through this area is that the river will flow again and people will be able to use the water for their Olive farms and their cattle. And.. the rowing club could return to its former self too.
My fingers and toes are crossed for each town that will be affected by these floods, and hope that there will be no loss of life. Houses can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be replaced.