Ti Point Tork

Day 10: Rural Power

I’d forgotten how amazing New Zealand’s weather is. We’re just a
thin strip of island in a lot of water, close to Antarctica. The
weather’s always shifting: some good stuff, some crap, some good
stuff, some crap. A strip of concentrated crap floated in last night
and dumped a ton of rain on and blew 60 knots. The wind howled in the
trees, the house shook, the rain rattled on the tin roof, the kids
crawled into bed with us, and the pounding continued today.

Dad took the kids in the morning, but only got William. Raley was
still asleep: she’d crawled in with Jenine, scared by the noise. I
had to humbly admit that I too had been rather worried by the force of
the wind. I take consolation that the house has been around for
forty years and hasn’t fallen down yet, so it can probably take
anything the elements throw at it. But no matter what the head knows,
the gut still gets worried …

And with the bad weather comes crappy phone line quality, though
the DSL held up remarkably well. We eventually lost it, though, when
the power went out. Not suddenly out, either, but it gradually
dribbled out. The lights were dim, the fridge light flickered when
the door was open, the TV rolled and fizzed, and eventually everything
just wouldn’t work. I’m a little nervous about working during
wintertime: with Google Mail, I need that web connection!

At the very least I’ll be investing in some UPS boxes for DSL and
laptops. I’d hate to smoke some pricey hardware and be the wrong side
of the earth for replacements …