Cyclone Alfred

This picture's a couple of days old, and I've posted it over on my Tumblr before today.

This is what I'm anticipating. The projected path has changed. The storm's slowed down. I've had to alter pre-existing plans and appointments because I expected the storm to be pummeling me by today.

I was told I had two days to storm-proof my house and belongings before today, when the winds and weather was going to come crashing down. That's pretty much what I was doing yesterday, and the day before. Acquiring paper, buying duct tape. Hustling the kids into helping me do things. Dealing with minor misfortunes.

I now know where I can get bulk catering accessories. Cups, plates, cutlery, storage solutions, you name it. I can get that. For this event, I nabbed fifteen kilograms of butcher's paper, not quite sure how much I needed and getting lots.

This, after I got three rolls of Dollar Shop Duct Tape, which was most definitely not enough to tape all our windows. A further side-trip to Bunnings got me four rolls of their duct tape... one roll of which remains intact. It should be enough for a solid while.

Once again, my ability to accurately estimate my needs is attrocious.

I was juggling organising preparations, stabilising things in the yard, getting the kids to do things, acquiring supplies to see us through everything. And the aforementioned taping and papering of windows and doors.

There were quite a few hours in which I was certain I wouldn't make it to Storm Hours.

And of course, now that we're ready for it, the dang storm is doing weird and unpredictable things. We don't know when it will hit, where it will hit, or how hard it will hit.

There's patches of rain, sputters of wind, and occasional vague threats that it's Storm Time(tm). I have intermittent aches in my face that are a direct result of what I call my Cyclone Headache. It doesn't predict anything. It just detects low pressure systems.

And it's so much fun to have a quarter to a half of my entire head hurting because the air pressure dropped.

We are ready for this. And if it's not needed...well. At least we were ready for it all. We might look silly, being ready for something that might not happen. But I'd rather be silly than sorry if it did.