Thu, 03 May 2007
One derailment, and it all turns to muck! // at 23:59
An exciting morning, first we woke to the very unusual sounds of
thunder, hail and rain on the roof — all very welcome in the drought
and with Melbourne's water storage dipping below 30% of capacity for
the first time in 40 years. Next, Jo went out to pick up the
newspaper and came back in with the news that a train had derailed
itself just out of Oakleigh station, right outside our front door.
Connex sent out their SMS warnings that no trains were running between Springvale and Caulfield, and with thoughts of how hellish the replacemenet buses would become I offered to drive her the 5km to Caulfield.... Its a very long time since I've driven anywhere in morning peak traffic and yet again I'm reminded why, creeping and crawling along, fifteen minutes stuck in a log-jam on Murrumbeena road, people hooting, people swearing, people pushing in. One of the major annoyances was sitting in that logjam while the boom-gates on the level crossing were down and watching three trains full of people go past from Oakleigh to Caulfield — these were the trains that Connex had told us didn't exist!
Finally got Jo to Caulfield, then re-entered the maelstrom and crawled my way back to Oakleigh, ran inside to get the bike and tried to refresh myself on a routine ride to work. An hour to drive the 5km to Caulfield and back, then fifteen minutes for me to ride the bike the same distance to Clayton!
Fri, 19 Jan 2007
Rain! // at 23:59
It was still hot and humid when we woke this morning, but for the first time this year there was the sound of rain on the roof. Measurable rain too, all 3mm of it! I rode out to work in the rain, happily getting soaking wet, wondering how many other people across Melbourne and the rest of Victoria were doing much the same.
Fish'n'chips for dinner from the Oakleigh fish shop, I'm not sure why
but it seemed a fish'n'chips day. Across the road to the shop and
something exciting must have happened on the streets between the pub
and the station, there was police crime-scene tape wrapped around all
the poles and trees and three car-loads of coppers interviewing,
measuring and analysing. Eye-droppers of chemicals onto strange spots
on the tiles, is it drugs or blood? I guess we'll either see a big
article about it in the papers or we'll never hear a peep.
Sun, 07 Jan 2007
2006 Rainfall // at 12:32
Manually recorded rainfall from the rain gauge in our back garden.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | 6.5 | — | 6.5 | 3.5 | — | — | 3.0 | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | 5.0 | 1.5 | — | — | — | — | 2.0 | — | — | — | 20.5 | — |
| 3 | — | — | — | — | 3.0 | — | — | 3.5 | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | — | — | — | 9.0 | 6.5 | — | — | 1.0 | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | — | — | — | — | 1.0 | — | 6.0 | — | 4.5 | — | — | — |
| 7 | — | — | — | — | 10.25 | — | — | — | 0.5 | — | — | — |
| 8 | — | — | — | 1.0 | — | — | 1.0 | — | 1.0 | — | — | — |
| 9 | — | 27.0 | — | — | 12.5 | — | — | 2.0 | 0.25 | — | — | — |
| 10 | — | 1.5 | — | — | 0.5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 11 | 11.5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12 | — | — | — | — | — | 5.5 | 1.5 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 13 | — | — | 21.0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2.0 | — |
| 14 | — | — | — | 4.5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 11.0 | — | — | — | 3.0 | 1.5 |
| 16 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.5 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 17 | — | — | — | 24.0 | — | — | — | 2.5 | — | — | — | — |
| 18 | — | — | — | — | 0.25 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 19 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 20 | 2.5 | — | — | 10.5 | — | — | — | — | 1.5 | 0.5 | — | — |
| 21 | — | — | — | 11.0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 22 | — | — | — | 0.5 | 4.0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 23 | 1.0 | — | — | — | — | 4.5 | 4.5 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 24 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.5 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 25 | — | 53.0 | — | — | — | 3.0 | — | — | 6.5 | — | — | — |
| 26 | — | 6.0 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 23.0 |
| 27 | 4.5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 28 | 18.5 | — | — | — | 3.5 | — | — | — | — | 4.5 | — | — |
| 29 | — | — | 2.5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 30 | 6.5 | — | 6.5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 31 | — | — | — | — | 21.0 | — | — | |||||
| Tot. | 49.5 | 95.5 | 21.0 | 76.0 | 45.0 | 13.0 | 7.5 | 33.0 | 14.25 | 5.0 | 25.5 | 24.5 |
| YtD | 49.5 | 145.0 | 166.0 | 242.0 | 287.0 | 300.0 | 307.5 | 340.5 | 354.75 | 359.75 | 385.25 | 409.75 |
Mon, 23 Apr 2001
Rain, more rain // at 23:59
More rain, lots more rain! It must be one of the laws of motorcycling that the time to dry out your shoes is proportional to the time until you next need to wear them. Today they were just down to “damp” by the time I had to put them on and come home again.
Melbourne's motorists did their best this morning to convince me that they have an expected life span measured in months, especially the semi-trailers doing 110km/hr in low visibility and high water along the freeway.
At least I felt something was accomplished at work. Finally had time to put some work into the MRTG monitoring of the NetWare servers. It's not complete (nothing ever is), but it seems to work.
MLP
