Real Life Stuff - Floods March 2022... Part 2

[Original Draft 2022-03-11]

Yeah, it would have been nice if it all wound down after that.

Rewind back to the 8th...

7pm or there abouts and looking down toward the 'problem end'. The water has reached the road gutter in front of our place.

Looking the other way there is a low spot and drains toward the 'safe end' which is potentially problematic if you want to drive out (and escape). Here it hasn't quite met up in the middle.

The power has been cut off since about midday I guess. Gas is still on, water is still on. So I can still make coffee.

As expected, the neighbours and I had a nervous night waiting to see what the water does, sleepless for some of them.  I'd been awake most of the previous night so I crashed and got a few 3 hr blocks of zzzz's in.

Skip ahead 2022-03-09 (next day)...

At around 1:30am I woke, really didn't feel like moving but I hauled my ass of the couch. Looked through the window in the darkness and saw that the road in front of the house was just reflecting silver. The road was now covered.  So this, but dark.

I grabbed my keys and moved the car up from the road onto the driveway.  The prior evening had still been humid enough, but out there in the dark is was cold. The water was cold, the air was cold.

I normally leave the car on the road as the driveway has an angle to it and a mechanic has told me that parking on a weird angle can make the computers miscalculate when it starts up... or something. 

So here we have a panorama shot.

And looking (wistfully) down at the 'safe end'.

This was (thankfully, and more or less) the highest that the water rose. It might have gone a tiny bit higher between 8-11am but it was pretty much down from there. We were marking the driveways with rocks to check.  High science.

As well as the temperature change, the sky was notably 'lighter' (cloud cover) and it just didn't 'feel like rain'.

Just a side note: the safe end...  with the water at this height it was possible to drive through to dry road.  The dry road started just around the corner (out of sight of these pics) and many people had parked around there just to avoid this issue.  The main concern driving through the water at this level was spreading a wake onto the property yards and up onto houses.  The water came up to roughly 'mid-tyre'  so it wasn't reaching the bottom of the door on 'modern utes'.

it was a toss up whether to park around the corner or stay.  And at my place there was another meter of dry before it reached the top of the drive/garage.  We really are (again, thankfully) at the high point of the street, road and terrain.  The water would have been half way up the bottom storey of the house before it got to the car engine.  A gamble, but a safe (enough) one.

An aside: many people chose to stay and wait it out. Most families with kids shipped them off but by majority all the houses around me had people waiting it out. Just seemed the thing to do.

Even if we had to retreat up on the top storey, water getting up to that level would have been proverbially biblical.   Again, a relatively safe gamble against that happening.  And being transient, especially with pets, carries its own complications.

Checking things out...

Feeling hopefully that we'd seen the worst of it, we were collectively a little happier once light arrived.

I took out a kayak and checked out the 'safe end' first, this was before someone actually drove out for smokes or whatever.  Was about the height of a kayak oar at the deepest.  And the road has a substantial hump in the middle, so just avoid the curb.

I made two little kayaking expeditions out.

Recalling this pic from the prior days, the water was up to approximately the dotted line on the tree (right side of pic).

The street entrance was choked with cloying water weed and it had floated down that street (we're perpendicular and it doesn't come up our way) pushed by tide and wind.

I was cautious for snakes and other critters but there were mainly just insects and birds on top of the vegetation.

It was a slow crawl through the stuff but I have many hours on a kayak and it was just a matter of adjust and persevere. Felt like running through water but wasn't excessively draining.

Here (below) you can see a street sign and bus sign to get a sense of height. the street sign is just standard height, i.e. as high as you'd expect it to be on your street.

This is looking directly out just after the water weed. It doesn't look like much here but on a small boat such an atypical body of water feels unsettling.

So I traversed the weed then around to the left (or port as we call it in the water trade) on clear water again.  That light pole is the 'problem' one, and you can just see the street sign there.

 

This is the street corner in regular times. The dotted line is approximately the water height here.

To the right of centre there are a couple of speed signs a little ways down the road (also with dotted lines)  and these were just poking out of the water.

Btw, the road is just a 90o corner, this shows it "panorama'd".

So I paddled all the way down the 'edge road' of the suburb. Another street sign for reference - note this one for the final picture in this article.

This is looking up that street with the water penetrating up into the suburb. It seems that the terrain within the suburb is not particular uniform. Here the water only really went in about... 40 metres, but I think a side road off this one actually projected quite a bit further. Again, note this street for comparison at the end.

Back to the park, note the water level on the change room building.

Here I parked at one of the tall field light poles and look back toward the suburb. The water really only sat at the front doorstep of a lot of the houses on this street. i.e. it was lousy, but it could have been worse.  A lot of houses have garages a foot lower than the bottom floor and there seemed to be more water in garages by comparison.  Fortunate by comparison, but not what you'd wish on folk.

On my second outing I scooted over to the bmx track where the canopy was just poking out of the water.

The road in this picture goes down to a flat 'carpark' area that extends to the bmx track. Change rooms on the right obviously (approx water level marked). 

So in the bmx building you can see the door height (standard), note also the chainlink wire fence on the field (maybe 5 meters tall - just a guess)  and the canopy of the bmx track.   Hard to show the height given different depth of field of the objects in the shot. The bmx canopy is 2-3 storey high...

Ok, logically 1/2 way up the bmx canopy is the same as the water level on the changeroom. So there you go.

Credentials: When I was growing up we had floods in our area (coastal). Our house wasn't in danger and there were lots of swamps around next to the major river in the area. I took a surf ski out onto the swamps then with a mate - a couple of times I think.  So I've been doing this for a long time (30+ years) and if I felt it was too dangerous I wouldn't have gone.

As for anyone bleating about having to rescue me and endangering official resources; No thanks I don't want or need your rescue and intrusion - I know my capabilities, you don't - so mind your own damn business.

I didn't see any snakes during my two outings. If I did I would have been the fastest boat ever recorded in the suburb. Someone mentioned to me that they had been out during last year's flood event and had seen several... brrrrrrr.

On my second trip out, closer to 10am I guess, the wind had picked up substantially coming from the south-east across the lake toward the suburb. There was a lot of chop and tiny whitecaps. It wasn't particularly rough, and didn't even impede speed noticeably, just noisier and more spray.

Btw, I wasn't the only person out there as well.

And closing off...

Think I had a nap once I was done with that. I popped out again around 2pm and the water had receded a bit. Scientifically proving we're at the highest point in the street, the return of this little island was a welcome sight.  At its highest the water was about 4-6 inches over this point - still wadable with gumboots.

Blue skies! Yes please!

6pm the island was growing but the 'safe end' was still covered.

2022-03-10

730am and the only sign of the event is a bit of mud and some pooling at the drain.  The 'danger end' still has some water about 3 houses from the final corner, and some at the culdesac.

I went for a drive around 9am finding somewhere with power so I could work. Was able to get to Windsor over big overpass with only small detours around and the 'wet points' were now just mud puddles. Then all the way to Rouse Hill and while there was water in the creeks the drive was unhindered.

I noticed one of the emergency signs saying 'avoid emergency at mcgraths hill' (paraphrase) for traffic pointing away from there anyway [shakes head], and now with the water well on its way down (i.e. reporting after the fact).  Whomever is in charge... really needs to not be - this place is run by imbeciles.

Interestingly and again, very welcome, power was restored around 12:30.   This was unexpected but the rise and subsequent fall of the water seemed very rapid this time around.  Took days last time.  I'm not sure if that's based on the electricity company's experience from last time or the equipment being improved or what - i suspect there are actually two circuits, one for the far corner and one for 'our block' and they were treated independently this time.  Anyway we were very grateful.

Last years event seemed to really drag on and on, but perhaps that was due to it being such an unknown, and we also had a long build up to 'the rise' this time around. Fortunately 'the fall' was extremely rapid too.

Anyway, we went for a walk, noticing some large graders clearing up at the end of our road. And then found people piling up the water weed on the next road.  Some air force personnel and equipment was in the area helping too; thank you.

And finally, this is the road I showed earlier.  24 hours before the dotted line was the street sign (just over head height), and you can just see a faint water line on the fence (which I rested against when I took the earlier photo).

Where I'm taking this photo from I would have been about chest high in water, now just muddy puddles.

2022-03-11

We haven't had anymore rain, which is pleasing though there's plenty of cloud around. The weather report suggests showers between midday and in the evening but who knows.  Regardless it's obviously not just the rain falling here that causes the problem, seeing it makes it feel worse.

I haven't been out since that last walk and am hoping the water continues to dropping on the fields. Again, I'm kind of over it all and hoping that that's all we see of floods for the year. And if I can put my order in now, we can do without a repeat next year please.

As I mentioned earlier the water reached, 'just up to that point' for many houses where it was almost at the front door.   There were also houses not so lucky that did get water on the ground floor. More so than last year.

Unlike the media's braying implications, we were not all washed away.  There was damage, but I think the majority of those with water on the street probably came through relatively unscathed, and a good 6/7th of the suburb was entirely unaffected.

As it was last year, it ended up being something of a bonding experience for those remaining, so something positive to be spun from it I guess.

And thank you to those people thinking of us. Sorry, the media scared you... again.

Okay...

We just went for a brief walk down the road. The low corner is being hosed off by a mix of cleaners, firemen and air force. Slimy, muddy, a bit of cow manure thrown into the mix. Smells of the sea, but inland. Over all effect = not that great.

Lots of sandbags on the curb presumably awaiting pick up.  A number of houses with piles of water affected stuff awaiting the garbage truck.  Overheard that the 'worst corner' (the water weed area) just got power back a couple of hours ago.  Which confirms that our circuit and theirs are separate.

 

Walked just to the corner (the panorama one) and this is the view over to the fields. The water is two metres down from the road. So we're back to having a little safety buffer there.

And that will do for part 2. Hopefully there will not be a part 3.  Or a repeat next year, fingers crossed. 

Until next time (with something not flood related)...

Australian Media - Enforcing Mind Control - A Case Study

I'm going to put this out before I review it, right now, cos I often sit on articles to contemplate them and then never release it.  I'll look for grammar, spelling and even logic 'soon' - but I think the main points are all there.  This is an opinion piece through and through....

The australian media - Conditioning Correctthink

Like apparently most/all affluent, 'western' countries the australian mainstream/legacy media (msm) has, over the last two years, marched forward in its overt mission of conditioning the undiscerning public into authorized correctthink.

Covid obviously brought this propagandist propensity into clear focus; which then makes one dubious of the integrity of their prior offerings, and ongoing it's hard to take their output seriously at all. 

The project - We'll Think For You

I hate 'the project'. It exemplifies all that is wrong in 'news presentation' in this country and time. It's marketed and intended to be that way.

Apparently presenting facts and information objectively is not cool for modern consumption and needs to be mocked, twisted, and used to engender specific responses from anyone plugged in. In me, the response is invariably rage - to the point when i see 'blue' on the tv screen in passing it triggers a quasi-pavlovian rage response.

There was an advertisement, one of the endless 'watch us' snippets... I can't find the line directly, so I'll paraphrase: "Presenting the new and what it means to you." or it might have been "how it affects you."

So they're overtly saying that they will tell you what the news means, how 'the facts' should be interpreted, and how you should feel about it.

Put another way,  the media/the government are more or less saying that you, the public, are too stupid to make a decision about what information means and how you should feel and react.

I wonder of course if media presentations were ever actually objective... probably not, but now that social media presents some strong alternative to msm there is growing annoyance by those that actually want to make their own minds up to the polished turd that is australian 'reporting'.

That turd is  not just 'the project',  the abc and sbs  are equally brown, equally "reporting" what they're told to.  The project just happens to be extra stinky.

Liz Hazes - "Under Investigation with Liz Hayes"

This rant brought to you by a particular something I noticed in passing recently.

"Under Investigation with Liz Hayes"  ...on Ukraine, aka   "Why you should think Putin is a C&#7"

I wouldn't suggest you waste your time on it, but youtube link current at time of writing.

An aside - Personal Opinion:  The Ukraine Invasion is disgraceful, regardless of motivation. As it continues to unfold the apparent targeting of civilians and non-military infrastructure is obviously abhorrent. And let's leave it at that.

Anyway the program was presenting an authorised position for the public, the correctthink for the drones.

On the program they had various 'experts', of note...

Robert Horvath - "Russia Specialist La Trobe University"

Tony Kevin - "Former Australian Diplomat"

A brief opinion piece:

The la trobe 'russian specialist'  was a typical academic, self-righteous, overbearing, interrupting, intrusive , 'leftist', and shrill.  Like many 'lecturers' they're primarily interested in talking as much as possible about why their opinion is right and why you simply must accept it. or you're a racist.  I don't suggest that he's wrong, but clearly he was a specifically employed, symbolic caricature.

The former diplomat  was clearly brought on as an 'alternative opinion', and he didn't seem to want to be on there.

So basically they had three or four anti-putin characters vs this one token pro-putin guy, and a lot of the 'interaction' was just bashing on this one guy, whenever he tried putting out any opinion.  The la trobe guy constantly interrupted and shouting him down before the diplomat presented an opinion many times.

It was just farcical.

Personally, I didn't support the diplomat's position, but the program demonstrated a few things;

i) The token inclusion of allegedly 'alternate views', done to show that the program/media is "looking at things objectively from all sides, perspective and opinions,"  when clearly this is anything but the case.     It's like when 'the media' does an interview then edits the content to present an opinion diametrically opposite what the interviewee was saying.

ii) That the media wants to demonstrate that alternative opinions are wrong and are to be shouted down and or dismissed as wrongthink by a majority or righteous outspoken heroes.  You want to think correctly don't you?  Otherwise you're a conspiracy theorist  and possibly a racist too.

This has been used overtly and repetitively over the last couple of years for Covid (which I will not get into), and now it's Ukraine's turn.

Again, I'm not suggesting that the Former Diplomat's position is correct, but  a) if he's brought on then he should be able to present his case without being harangued before making his case,  b) we should be able to make up our own minds,  c) the media should be presenting all the information in an unbiased format if that is their stated mission.

The program did itself no favours bringing in a defenceless punching bag to 'prove' their point. 

If something is 'incorrect' then it should be fairly obvious to a mind that is actually trained and conditioned to think - aka without having to goad and guide the population into submission with this kind of circus act.

My position - Making Up My Own Mind

The media should be presenting facts, not opinions. Not telling us "what it means to you."

It is logical that msm has an underlying agenda, and that agenda is not the edification or interests of the population.  More likely, it is an agenda of control, but let's not get into that either. 

Like many, I think the msm and their messages should generally be ignored or shunned. If you actually want to know what's going on in this shitty world then look anywhere but the TV, radio or newspapers.

Although not everyone's taste in 'entertainment', I've watched a number of articles by Russell Brand.  His thing is looking at (usually publicly available)  documents or articles about topics, presenting them, and i.e.  suggesting that the media might be reporting for a purpose, or in a biased way, not based on the document's content.

In my opinion RB has demonstrated a turn around from a drug-addled, waste of space, to a contemplative, deep thinker.  If nothing else a case study that people can come good.

His channel's position might be summed up as "Here's some information, think about it and discuss amongst yourselves."

Here's a sample from today, which happens to also cover some similar points as above. 

Australians - Basic and the Common Denominator

But it appears that most australians are happy enough to believe the shit they're force fed on msm. Makes me sad and concerned - perhaps this disillusion is a common feature of old(er) age - I certainly don't understand young people, and the world makes less and less sense.

As those closer to me know, I've felt obliged to undertake some email campaigns, dropping links to interesting, usually controversial articles, articles usually in opposition to the opinions forced down the throat of the population.  

Anyway, rant ends.

Until next time...

Epic - Black Templars - Blitz Objective

I blithered in a prior post (possibly two) about the idea of using one of the new 28mm plastic BT champions as a blitz marker.

I got one at Cancon and it ended up in a Kill Team squad, but I got another one online...

It's been sitting, like many new projects do, in a drawer in a box, awaiting. Awaiting inspiration.

Anyway, last night I looked at the drawer contents with the notion of starting something up. The draw closed again and I wandered upstairs and spread a tiny bit of paint around. I then wandered downstairs as though possessed, pulled the champion out and cut the shrink-wrap.

Within a couple of hours it was desprued, glued, awaiting the next phase.  and this phase had been the difficult phase... dealing with fiddly shiz - which seems to be my bugbear at the moment.

So this morning i was going to print a plinth for the model and discovered my printing laptop was no longer charging (always something) and after looking at the Imperial Fists diorama I made I decided to see if I could making something from bitz instead.

This is what i came up with. A couple of different size and shaped bases, a bottle cap and some aquilas from the bitz box.  I have a bottle cap piece on the diorama and really like it - it uses some foliage which looks great and i may do something similar here - like a vine climbing up the statue.

I did sculpt the model a tiny bit, removing a couple of widgets I didn't like - the chest shield, the 'lantern' thingime, the ribbons off of the backpack. Just simplifying it a little.

It's currently on the paint desk waiting for the undercoat to dry, might need two as the acrylic disc doesn't hold paint as well as 'regular' plastic. 

Am looking forward to working on the statue painting and seeing how it turns out. Kind of exciting. 

On Inspiration

I was contemplating hobby inspiration before. I think it's important or helpful to realize when you're uninspired vs when you're being lazy.

There's nothing specifically wrong with either state but they are different.

Sometimes if you're being lazy and manage to haul your buttocks off the couch and picking up a brush you can paint for 2 hours and achieve something worthwhile. It feels good to have achieved something.

If you're actually uninspired then you can spend 2 hours painting and not enjoy it at all. For some stuff like base coating you don't really neeeeed inspiration, probably similar with assembly - maybe it's worth doing anyway but hobby is largely about fun, it doesn't matter if you do it or not to anyone except yourself.

I guess the main point is that if you're not inspired then it not worth feeling bad for not picking up a brush - but if you want to and what's holding you back is laziness then consider dragging yourself to the paint bench.... 5 minutes here and there...

Anyway, I've enjoyed having some inspiration and motivation over the last few weeks after being over hobby for so long. The final sentence of the previous section demonstrates - "Am looking forward to..."

A little later...

Undercoat dried sufficiently. Now the base coat, plain, light grey. 

Once this dries I'll be up to the 'creative' part (hence the blurb on inspiration, wasn't completely random).

The model and aquilas will be this base colour with washes over, probably null oil and blue, for kind of a marble effect, then dry brush the high points with white.

For the column i'm thinking... probably a lightly textured astrogranite (lightly sandy, more than rubble) dry brushed up to a lighter grey. maybe some heavier rubble on top of the plinth and around the column... unsure, all of this kind of flows out when doing it, so you kind of have to be in the mood.

2022-03-18

This turned out as well as I'd hoped for. Maybe even better because i was worried i might stuff it up and it would come out sub-par. Nope, it's as good as I'd hoped.

Wont walk through the various painting that was done but dry brushing was the hero for this model.

Speaking of heroes...

"St. Nattan Balez - Hero of Aerenu Primaris

During the Infernum Centralis campaign Nattan Balez, chosen Champion of the Emperor, proved pivotal in the defeat of the Ork forces assailing the planet Aerenu Primaris.

While his efforts were duly commended by his brother marines, the population of Aerenu were left spiritually humbled by this stern warrior striding valiantly against the swarming green skins, smiting them with violent fervour.

The accounts provided by rare surviving eye-witnesses tell of the warrior cutting his way through several of the ferocious Ork Nobz before slaying a huge mechanised Ork Walker single handedly.

Such was the populations' adulation for their adopted Champion that a statue celebrating his deeds was erected during the rebuilding of the planet."

For context...

This is intended to be the Blitz (back line) Objective for my Epic Black Templars. I'm sure it will spike me in the gizzards as I lean of the table. Superglue and swearing forthcoming...

Another project down.

Until next time...

Necromunda - Freelancer

My local hobby cohorts would by now be sick of me saying 5 minutes here and there adds up...

...but it does.

Just finished Kal Jericho, a freelance bounty hunter. Not a spectacular job but good enough and he's been on the desk for months (same time as those recent Orlocks).

I still haven't worked out taking good pictures but I think he looks a bit better in real life. 

Just used the standard box art as the colour palette.

Anyway, another model done. No, I'm not doing his buddy, don't like the model, and I doubt they'll get much table time anyway.

Until next time...

Engineering - Stirling Engine

Not hobby related at all - engineering or science related.

A spur of the moment purchase...

A version of a Stirling Engine - there are a couple of different configurations.

I've been fascinated by these for... years.  In general the temperature difference between the top metal plate and the bottom metal plate (and the expansion and contraction of air caused by those) causes mechanical movement. For this to run you place it on a cup/mug with hot water in it which heats up the bottom plate (not shown).

That it harnesses heat to perform work (and electricity if you were to add a coil and magnet) to me is fascinating and the simplicity is incredibly elegant.

Never been into steam engines, or petrol/internal combustion, though I know how they work.  But Stirlings... you can generate power from the sun in a very direct way (as opposed to photovoltaic cells). Somewhat primitive yet it gets the job done.

BTW the concept behind this is used in some spacecraft for long term missions where they use a plutonium pellet as the heat source. That's one of the other configurations/layouts but still using the hot/cold to generate power. Clearly the concept has merit even if it's not the most efficient equipment. And if it's good enough for NASA it's good enough for me.

Until next time.

Game Stuff - Accessories

A while ago i bought a game table periscope in an order from battlefield accessories.

As much to pad the order and not look like a complete dorp ordering one set of fences or something similar. 

Anyway I assembled it a while back but i wasn't enthralled with it, partly because it's a fad item, partly because i thought it was a bit bulky - mainly too wide.

So with nothing pressing on the agenda i took it apart and modified the box - stanley knife and sandpaper, making a narrower item. There's a peep hole with a mirror at the top (left), and a second mirror at table/model height (right).

the general idea is of course, that if you have models hiding behind terrain and you want a 'model-eye' perspective that the periscope gives you an option for checking it (in case leaning down and looking is too difficult... ... ... yep... maybe if you've got lots of spikey terrain on the table and you're at risk of loosing an eye.... I don't see myself using it very often.)

Anyway, it does work, it now a one-eye device, rather than a two-eye device which is fine by me.  It is really difficult getting the camera to focus in a meaningful way with the light sensors but... it works and it works ok. Being a bit thinner (slightly less than half the original width), I'd be more inclined to throw it in a terrain box and take it.

I could possibly do to replace the mirrors with ones that aren't scratched and smudgy. These are just reflective plastic, not entirely unlike the 'live side' of a cd. I'd probably want to use actual glass so it doesn't scratch so easily.

It might also benefit from an LED or torch mounted near the bottom opening to help illuminate the model-level view.

Again, more work for a project that's likely never going to be used.

Until next time...

Real Life Stuff - Floods March 2022

[Original Draft 2022-03-03]

Ok, we have (so far) a replay of environmental events from last year.

This time around there appears to be flooding in a far wider area, so lots of bleating from the other compass points around Sydney compared to last year.   Lismore copped it again poor blighters.

The waters were rising on the sports fields again yesterday when i did a late afternoon drive by, and I was informed that the waters had reached the bottom of our street this evening.

So far we still have power.

Unless things rise really quick we may still be ok, but there is a street light right on the corner near the fields that causes a couple of blocks to be taken off grid. So wait and see.

I think we might be without power for a day or two, just as a gut feel. I doubt the waters will rise further than they did last year,  i.e. I have no intention of leaving any time soon.

It doesn't feel like there was a much rain as last year. More specifically, last year it feel like day after day of heavy rain. This time, not so much.  But the results speak for themselves.

Haven't bothered with photos, the novelty of it wore thin last year, and now it's just another in a series of shitty events.

At least it's stopped everyone obsessing about the plague, and has even diverted some attention from the new war.

Trying times, but we're personally grateful to be high, dry, warm and not being bombed.

[Update 2022-03-04]

Went for a short walk this morning just to check things out. Was little rain overnight, brief showers this morning.

So there's blue sky beneath the thin remaining cloud, aka the cloud isn't very thick everywhere. Note, sandbags, optimistic for the water to go that high but everyone seems to be going all out this time around. *

So some of the roads around the suburb are cut off, though the water would probably be about knee high here. Enough to warrant not driving through it for the sake of it.

A quick mud map.  We still have, power so the water hasn't risen up to the problematic streetlight yet.

Will it?   [shrug] wait and see.

More rain might come, there's probably plenty of run-off to raise it higher before it recedes.

Again, not as high as last year, and there are lower areas in the region affected far more than we are here.  Haven't bothered stowing anything upstairs even.

* Last year (2021) the floods were an unknown for pretty much everyone here, given many/most residences have changed owners since any kind of equivalent historical event. It was more suspenseful last year.

There seems to be a lot more legacy media coverage this year and they're clearly throwing in all the fiery panic language they can fit into their relentless sound bytes.   We get that the situation is potentially dangerous, but rather than having the population shit themselves in fear, how about posting statements like "keep your eyes open and remain calm," or "if you see a dangerous situation then react cautiously, don't be reckless,"  rather than "if the 'news' whips you into a frenzy start evacuating immediately."

Yes, there are areas that are affected and that are flooded. But if there's no immediate danger than carry on as normally rather than adding to the strain on roads and resources by immediately fleeing like there's a tsunami chasing you.    It feels like everyone just bunkered down as soon as the rain started in response to a situation that might happen (again)... i believe because of the panic being propagated by the media.  Even reports like "Camden is being evacuated"... what? all of camden? it's a big area, is all of the suburb and surrounding being evacuated? no. a few streets might be. The word, 'disinformation' seems to apply so readily to the media - but this is nothing new.

Getting political, but if everyone just treated the situation calmly and clearly then shit works out that much better, no.  Or is common sense and the ability to make logical, informed, responsible, adult decisions too much to ask of people now days?  The government has a lot to answer for moulding the population in docile puppets that can't make their own choices.

end rant

[Update 2022-03-05]

Rumour has is that 'that corner' is now dry again, so cars can drive through, and the streetlight is safe. There haven't been any showers locally this morning or, i think, last night, though storms are predicted for this evening.

bottom line: for now things are still stable, and were no where near as fraught as last year.

[Update 2022-03-07]

lots of rain over last couple of nights, including 2 nights ago a fairly strong storm that went for hours.

Banged together 3 pics from this morning. So water at the top of the fields. More rain since then.

Am sick of reporting the weather, and I'm sure you'd be sick of hearing about it. There are still people panicking about it, but you get that for everything now days. 

Unless we're actually floating away this conversation is over.

Until next time...

Necromunda - Enforcers - Additional Units

I appear to be really riding the painting motivation wave while it lasts. Picked out a couple of base coated models not entirely at random.

The Enforcer Investigator and doggo companion are special 'character' units. In this particular case carried back by a hobby mate in luggage during the covid shenanigans so added story there.

Above: Base colours all done and most of the details added.

Below: In situ with the rest of the force. Managed to get the colour scheme pretty close, so am happy with the result.

Until next time...