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 …