The Native Iowan

Saturday morning here in cyclone country. And, no, I dont mean Ames Iowa…

The scary heavy centre of the Cyclone is noticeably “less”, notably lighter, noticeably less menacing. Downgraded to a Tropical Depression, Tropical Cyclone Alfie is no more.

We’ve had weather around us for the whole week. Off shore weather has been blowing and roaring, but we haven’t got more than 15mm/ half inch rainfall, total, all week.

Which is good for us.

South of us, South of Brisbane and into NSW, more than 200,000 homes are without power.

Alfie ran the coast for days as a cyclone, stirred up huge seas and created huge waves and eroded the the shit outta the beaches. The Coast took a real beating.

Obviously the area Brisbane, south to NSW, took a big hit. But not a huge hit. I dont think the many rivers in that area got the rain fall expected/ feared. Nick and Salome tell me that the river at Lismore is up, but not too bad. They did not have to get up on their roof this time.

Most of the damage is from trees falling, power lines coming down.

The lack of rain allows cleanup crews to get to work sooner.

SO, TC Alfie, though an issue for the entire past week, ends up a mini-event on the meter of life.

Speaking of Iowa…

A while back I came across a “letter jacket” from the Iowa Hawkeyes… I had bought a couple of these many years ago while in Iowa. Not sure why, they were cool at the time. And a decade later I end up finding 2 in the closet. They are nice jackets…

So… my favourite coffee/ bakeshop makes the best 7.50 breakfast I know of… a fresh baked bun with an egg and a nice slab of bacon… for 7.50. I drop in when Im on the coast. A while back a gal waiting at the counter commented on my accent. I normally dont engage in such discussion, I normally laugh and tell Aussies, I aint got no accent, you do. But this gal was insistent. Where you from…

When I said Iowa she was excited… turns out she is from the Sunny Coast, and did an exchange student gig in Iowa. We had a quick chat. The next day I gave her one of the jackets. She was inordinately happy.

And life is good.

Smiles all around

More later