the great flood of 2008
It stormed yesterday morning, it stormed worse last night, it flooded today. Yay. People got flooded out and I got called into work. Yay, yea it's pretty much a good thing. I've got a ten hour shift doing supervision, which means that I get to close the store myself. I've done enough closes to be able to know roughly how to close the shop, but there's probably some finer details that I don't know. I just hope it's not raining at 10pm, or else Mark will just have to come and get me. I haven't closed in so long, but it should be good.
Mark also got called in to work today, so I went for a walk up to the corner because we could see all the traffic around, so I seen that the bridge was flooded and there was water everywhere. So I raced home, got my umbrella and my camera, well Mark's camera - I didn't want to take mine cause I didn't want to carry it - and headed off. I crossed the road, walked along the other side of the bridge, walked up to the next intersection over the bridge, crossed all the other roads just to get to the other side of the road (there was too much diverted traffic), along into the park, down to the foot bridge that crosses to the touch footy fields, then along the pathway that goes all the way behind the park, then onto the bridge on this side again and across it and back home. I didn't walk through too much water, which is good because that water was freezing! The river was raging, and everywhere that was low enough was flooded.
I remember the last flood, but it was really long ago. Maybe seven or eight years. Maybe even longer. I remember being a kid and going and looking at the netball courts under water, the rings just a foot above the water. It was like that this time, with the speed signs for the road under the bridge only just above the water. One sign down in the river said it was at 5.9m, which is pretty considerable. Apparently the industrial district is quite flooded out too, which stands to reason because it is quite low. They did start to build a levy there, but I'm not sure if it's finished (it's only taken like two years) but I'm guessing it didn't work anyway. Hannah's husband has some photos of that flood on his Facebook.
So I got called in to work, just after Mark did. I'm looking forward to the shift. Andie said she'd give me a crash course in what I didn't know, and someone will probably be there until about 7pm, and then there'll be the manager on duty. Andie said she was desperate because of the flooding, which is probably true. I'm guessing those who could work don't want to because the Christmas party is on, but that's if anyone will go! And all the supervisors except a few relief ones all do 38 hour weeks anyway. Andie said it would be a good day to learn cause it's a fucked up day anyway. I rekon it'll be real quiet tonight, even though it'll probably be crazy busy this afternoon. It should be good though. I'm more excited than nervous really. I'll just be scared when the time comes to be left alone.
I seen the store manager down near the flood waters. He was going to move his car because when he got to work they weren't letting people drive through. He knew I was working supervision tonight. He seemed happy about it, but I guess they must have had no one else. At least he knows that so if something goes wrong it's not really my fault. I'm trying to hope that nothing will go wrong!
I'm uploading flood photos on to Facebook now. I think I'll do a photo blog tomorrow, because I don't think I'll have time to put them on here before I go to work (in like an hour and a half).
TAFE yesterday was good. I walked up there in the rain, which was fun, but stupid. I took some photos in the park while it was raining. It was fun, but my shoes got so soaked. I walked around TAFE barefoot after that. My shoes gave me blisters, and I'm now sporting two stylish bandaids on my ankles. You've got it bad when your comfortable shoes give you blisters. I spent most of the day in the darkroom, after talking with the teacher for like an hour about nothing. He liked my apple muffins, and so did everyone else. Precious was there, but she spent most of the day on the computer doing her flash animation. One of the girls came in that doesn't come in often. She's adorable, and pregnant, and she's got the coolest little belly. Lexi only just made it in to hand in her work cause she got rained out. The eldest lady in the class, which no one really likes but I think secretly every one does like her a little bit, was worried about me from when I had my Facebook status set to "wants to fall apart". She said she was really worried about me, but I managed to convince her that I was ok.
I did a fair few prints. I did some of family that I'm going to send to Poppy for Christmas. There's one of Mum, Bub and Jayden, and one of Louise, her boyfriend and Bub, and just one of me. I never got a photo of Mark which is definately weird. I did a few that I'm going to put in frames around the flat too.
TAFE ended on a good note, but I'll miss it heaps. Developing is so much fun, I really want my own darkroom now. Maybe once Lexi makes hers I'll go and use it! I'll have to buy my own chemicals and paper though, which shouldn't be too bad. Maybe we can go halves or something. The pregnant girl dropped me home, which was cool. We have each other on Facebook, and she comes shopping frequently so I'll still see her. Precious is moving to the next town in a few weeks. It's the one that my uni is in, and it's only like an hour away. Her pop is sick, so they're going to be with him. I'm sure she'll come back though, and I'll still see her cause it's not that far to the next town. I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself on a Friday morning now! At least I'll have every second Friday completely off.
I was planning on doing some hardcore cleaning today but that'll have to wait until tomorrow now. Charlotte and I were going to go to lunch as well, but now I have to work, and I doubt she can get in to town at the moment. I will do the cleaning tomorrow, and on Tuesday and Wednesday. Mark is only working five hours today (because then he's done the 38 hours) so maybe I'll be able to get him to do something for me this afternoon. I already did the washing up this morning. He'll probably play WoW all afternoon, but if I can get him to do one thing that'll be fine.
There's still traffic going all the way up the streets around here. I just heard like the millionth siren this morning. A fire engine. There were a few last night too while it was storming bad. It looks like the sky is clearing now though, although that really is no indication. And then I'll be inside for ten hours with no idea what's going on. It should be a good day though, a long one, after this week, but a good one I'm hoping.
Melissa was just talking to me on Facebook, which was odd. My status says "ended up with a ten hour supervision shift tonight" and she said "congrats, that's almost a promotion" and then we got talking. Her little boy got appendicitis, and she had glandular fever, and she's going crazy living with her mother because she can't invite randoms over for sex, but she can't buy a house because she gets means tested for the kids and there's too much of something or rather and a whole lot of government shit really. I didn't tell her much about my side of life. I was toying with the idea of letting her in and saying that I was depressed seriously and that things have been hard, but I didn't. Then we got talking about the flood, cause I just put some photos on to Facebook, and then she had to leave and go shopping. She said "nice chatting to you" and I'm thinking "yea next time don't ignore me for six months straight and I might actually be happy to talk to you again". Hmm, let's see if she talks to me again soon.