The Native Iowan

And I be very tired. Almost exhausted. I just slept over 12 hours…

This past week we saw around over 500mm/ almost 2 foot of rain fall. My carpenters showed up Monday, did a shit load of work, then the rains came and the roads closed and they have not managed to get a day’s work in. This morn is dry. And Sunny. They’ll be back in the morn. 

Rebuilding two bathrooms in this old monstrosity of a house. One would think that indoor work is ok in this weather, but the guys cant get here. The roads all aorund us are closed/ compromised. 

Weather for next week is rain… it’s way wet. But today is kinda nice. 

So on Thursday I get a message that the 16yrold in boarding school is sick. The whole school is sick. Sick kids have to stay in their dorm room. Shitty food brought to them from the cafeteria. Hard to get better, me thinks. The school asks parents to come get their kids. 

It’s raining/ storming all around. The school is a bit less than 300ks/ 200 miles away. Roads between here and there are all out, flooded, dangerous. Roads close and reopen daily/ on and off, its hard to know what is open and what is not. 

So I get up and hit the road at 530am, Friday. Drive south a short ways to find my shortest route to the highway closed. Drive north and east an hour and get to the main highway. Drive through rain and water for 2 hours only to get turned around about half hour away from my destination. Bridge on main road flooded. All side roads closed. Turn around.

The kids is disappointed. Sick, wants out of the prison the dorms is. 

Yesterday I was up and on the road by 630 or so. My shortest route to the Hiway still closed but another one has reopened so I’m pretty good. Get to the point where I turned around in a couple hours. I know by listening to reports that a back road around this spot is open, navigable. So I run back a bit, head south and north, around the blocked bridge. I’m driving my 4×4 truck. I drive through a few unmanned “road closed” signs. Get to the kid about 10. 

He’s not well, but better than he was a day ago. Fever has gone down. Sick and no one to care for you is rough. He’s a big baby in ways. Used to having family around. Tho I am an unsympathetic prick when it comes to being sick. I can treat you with essential oils, fill steaming baths, fix good food, without being sympathetic. 

The very act of coming to get him made him feel better. That was sympathy enough. 

The bridge that was closed was open for our return trip. We drive and talk. Its bucketing down. We’re both happy/ relieved that we’re on a homeward trajectory.

Driving in such conditions can be quite taxing. I consider myself a high level driver. Before covid I would do 10s of thousands of miles of road-time annually. Fly to LA, hire a car, and drive the US for 6 weeks/ 15,000 miles. England, Europe, japan… here in Aus I loved heading “out-back” for a couple weeks of touring. QLD, NSW, SouthA, Victoria… bikes or cars. I enjoy and am capable of heaps of time on the road.

But these conditions are tough. Visibility, road conditions, other traffic… it all adds up. Concentration and 360 awareness is on a razor’s edge.

Home by about 1-2pm yesterday. We’d stopped and bought what the kid wanted… sirloin steak, asparagus, and broccoli. (He is a strange guy) so I cook some rice, prepare his meal as he steams in a hot tub of Ttree oil. 

I keep a wide selection of essential oils around. Ive been treating most ailments in my life with oils for decades. So a steaming bath tub with a liberal dose of Ttree… soak for as long as you can stand it… its gotta make you better, no matter what your ailment may be.

Of course, after the hot-tub, he hit his bed and passed out. I call it “doing the noodle”. Get out of the hot-tub, limp and wobbly, wrap up in a blanket to sweat it all out. 

It really, really works. 

After a few days of illness, not keeping much down, his stomach is shrunk and sensitive. Some beast n veggies, a few chocolate cookies, a cup of tea is all he can manage. 

As soon as I got home, after the road trip in the shitty weather, I popped an adult beverage and started sedating myself. As I cook and cater to the kid, as I heat my 3day old pot of beans, as I do what needs to be done, I drink. I want to get comfortably sedated. I want a big night of sleep.

Its rugby season here in Aus. Saturday night, mid season, has some great games on TV. Games start about 5pm and go on until 10. I didnt make it through to the end.

By 9pm I’m nodding off. I dont like sleeping in the chair, so I head to bed. The sedatives worked, I slept through and woke at 6. There is UFC on all day today so I left my bed, wrapped up in a blanket and dozed for  another few hours. Great, dreamy semi conscience dozing with vivid dreams. 

Its 1130am now. I’m having coffee, the sun is out, the rains are absent, not gone, just absent. The UFC has been good. Great bouts of violence and blood. Just what I needed.

Ill watch a couple hours of bloodsports and then go deal my dogs n chickens. They’ve all been suffering in this weather. My place is the bottom of a valley and its basically a mud puddle. Glad I sold-off my cattle. 

And the beat goes on… 

More later…