I was about to post how I drove 15 minutes to Lowe’s for paint, left the card with the paint name on it at home, texted my wife (who’s out of town) to confirm what I thought was the right one, got no response, so I drove 15 minutes back home, found the card, confirmed that I was correct, drove 15 minutes back into town, and as I was walking through the doors into Lowe’s…she texted me that yes, that was indeed the right paint.
But I won’t post that now.
Let's just put it this way, anything I've forgotten, we'll have to manage without. The trip to the cinema has been postponed and I'm hoping that come Monday the road will be open again (this is a drive 9km each way to find out exercise) because I have to take hubby into Canberra and I've got an eye test in Canberra at 9am. Tuesday I've a doctor's appointment that will be murder to get to avoiding flooding. I'm actually not sure I can get there if the place itself still has flooding (see here
View: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=425740569590551&id=100064638356032
for a video clip. Straight ahead half way through the video clip is the direction I need to approach from. The alternative is over 100km extra each way. I need to collect the medication within 2 days before I run out and to make life fun it's a restricted drug (S8)... I can't go to my closest part-time pharmacy, the road is also closed due to flooding... and I have to collect hubby from somewhere off the coach on Tuesday. Usually it is at the local village but I can't get there... (the road is often shut for extended periods during flooding because it's on a flood plain)
I also have you be back there on Wednesday for physio (Hubby and I both have appointments. ) Closing the local road is difficult but not impossible to get around, close more than 1 and life becomes impossible to get around. There simply are no alternatives. The number of roads I met yesterday that were closed made life exceptionally difficult to navigate. And to make life fun, when I got to the back of the closed road yesterday there was an unmarked patrol 4x4 in a gate way just 100m passed the road closed sign. Their game? To stop and question vehicles driving around the road closed sign and to do so at a point where it was obvious their intention rather than stand at the sign and turn people away.
We've discussed (putting it tactfully) putting problem with them in the past when we've not had the road closed sign up and we've driven through the flood water and approached the back of the road closed sign. Telling them you live inside the closed area doesn't help or get you anywhere. The only thing on your side at that point is the fact they can't send you back through the flood water, but they won't allow you to drive through it to get home. They just expect you to drive the 80km detour instead of the 9km to your home the direct way. There's also no guarantee that you'll actually be able to complete the alternative route either and these roads don't get recorded closed anywhere, so you can't actually establish if it is closed before you set out. That's the really frustrating part. You're just expected to know. Yesterday our landlady came out to check in the sheep, or tried to. Having negotiated her way through the maze of closed roads in South Canberra, driven over 100km to get to the junction, they were turned away. Their choice, another 80km to go around with no guarantee the road was open (it was if you needed to turn left off the highway, but not if you needed to to right) or to turn around and drive home. Plus the only way back was also closed because the highway was closed in 1 direction across another flood plain due to flooding!
It really does become a case of local knowledge and guesswork. If this road is closed here at this depth, then that road(s) will also be closed. Ironically my escape route is a minor single track dirt road that gets washed away frequently but it runs along the ridge rather than the flood plain so they don't close it. You've got to do 20km along it to find out if you can drive through the flooding at the other end (sometimes you can, sometimes you can't, it depends on how long ago life started draining and if the storm surge has passed through that village)...
I've reached the conclusion that if it rains, your best option is not to plan to go anywhere for a couple of days. Hubby would not have made it into work yesterday in pre covid days.
