Wild Wednesday weather

Last night I kept waking up to the sound of my house's foundations being tested. It was gale-force windy, and wanting everyone to hear about it. I kept an ear open for radio reports of the highway being closed, but it hadn't happened by 8pm so reluctantly I set off for work. All the way to work in the car, I listened to more radio reports; mentally I chanted the mantra "State Highway 2 will be closed". But despite all the wind, the torrential rain and the surface flooding, I heard no excuse to turn around and come back home.

Luck was on my side, however. At 2pm, while I was sitting in the Mobile Library reading Janet Frame's To the Is-Land, one of the team leaders suddenly appeared through the doorway and announced she would take over my bus-driving duties so that I could leave early for home. It was something about problems on the motorway about half-way along - I wasn't really listening after the bit about my going home early.

And funnily enough, it was a breeze getting home. I could see that the river was high and brown; later, the sea was all churned up and a similar colour of weak coffee. But no Hawaii Five-Oh-type waves dumped on my car, as I'd seen happening to the South-bound traffic this morning. There was a bit of wind, but it seemed a mere shadow of its early morning self.

Not that I'm complaining - I'm home with a couple hours of leisure time to spare before my library class, and because I'll be doing this one from home I'm spared the post-class exercise of putting the laptop and various cables away afterwards.