Battening down for Cyclone Hamish

Hamish - I always liked that name!
All weekend the Central Coast region of Queensland has been on high alert as Cyclone Hamish hurtled down parallel to the coastline. Although we are 30 kilometres off the coast and protected by mountains, we can still expect gale force winds and plenty of rain. The danger has not yet passed though the cyclone has been downgraded from 5 (highest) to 4 and slowly moving south east (seaward). All the coastal towns and the islands are battening down in preparation. This is a regular occurrence from December through to March. Mostly it is wind and rain but every few years a big one will devastate a town, like Larry wiped out Innisfail a couple of years ago. With the big ones also comes flooding.
2009 is only into the third month and we have already had a good share of disasters. Flood, fire and now cyclone. I was telling the children how fortunate we are not to live in an earthquake, volcano or tsunami region!

In other news:

My Father-in-law is recovering "as well as can be expected". He had an emergency gall stone operation last week and ended up in ICU after post op complications. After two days in an induced coma he is now conscious and all seems to be going well. Hubby hopes to travel down to see him soon. He'd have gone straight away if it looked like things were life threatening but now would prefer to visit when he is home recuperating.

I woke on Sunday morning with tummy pains and decided I couldn't trust myself to get through church. I had been running to the toilet since early morning. So, it was a quiet day. The boys had to fill me in on the next Beatitude - Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. I can get a DVD of the sermons from yesterday so I will try to do that before the next one. When you are really gleaning a lot from the messages in a series it is a shame to miss one in the middle.

Preparing for a regular, busy week otherwise!

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