Sometimes I don't know where to start! It's a blessing to be satisfyingly busy, spiced with unpredictability. In between my weed genocide blitz on the front yard, building fence sections and making sure Gary isn't living on crackers and tinned tuna, there are callouts, emergency shifts at the hostel and general mayhem.
Just for some excitement yesterday, I popped in on Gaz at the work sheds and watched him fitting 100 kg tyres to the graders. I will never complain about changing a car tyre again! He just keeps springing these amazing skills on me; it also turns out he is a black belt or something in karate and ju-jitsu, and knows how to make a proper caravan gas stove with a regulator and everything (I went blank during the details). As I said to him the other day, I suspected early on that out of all the blustering macho guys at Paddy's and the pub, he'd be the one I'd pick to keep me alive on a deserted island. I could tell he was extremely pleased to hear this.
I had two WEIRD OR WHAT psychic-type flashes in the past week! First one was when Gary was driving to Geraldton for his course - I suddenly had this nagging thought at work of "I hope he's okay on the road" and a really strong urge to call him, but didn't as I was busy with the oldies. He rang me later and said that he'd nearly been hit by a machine part falling off a road train, about the same time as I'd had the urge to call him.
Then, last night while we were driving back from picking up the caravan, I thought "The next call-out is going to be a road crash and it's going to be in the next 24 hours." Sure enough, we got the alert this morning - a rollover out at Kumarina Roadhouse. I got to the brigade station thirty seconds too late, dammit, but locked up as the boys sped away in the heavy rescue truck. Kumarina is two hundred and fifty kilometres north up the highway - that's how big our rescue service coverage is. A woman had been rolled in her car by her caravan going out of control, and had spinal injuries - the volunteer ambulance (also from Meeka) brought her back to the RFDS base and the flying doctor will take her out to Perth this afternoon. God knows how fast the guys were going in the HSR, but they were back before lunch - I went up to the station and restocked the truck drinks fridge while getting the gossip.
Henrietta, my red hen, isn't looking well and I think today might be "sleepy time" day for her - I think she's got egg-break syndrome, a risk when they get old, and it's nasty. The poor thing is crying and in pain, lying down next to her food and generally looking very sad. Ethel sits with her. I gave her bum a wash and had a look; she's definitely got an infection. There's no vet here, so I think that after lunch I will have to get the axe out. Poor Henrietta!
OK back to making sandwiches, landscaping and washing our fifty-seven different uniforms. I'll tell you about the trip to Doolgunna to get the caravan later.
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