I went on one of those 'out & back' rydes earlier today (it's just gone 13:00 here now tho, & I'm back home & inside, where the A/C is keeping things bearable!) Heading out, it was wonderful for about an hour or so, largely had the roads to myself as I headed East in the growing morning light, just before the sun really came up; not a cloud in the sky, just the bushfire & dust haze that's common this time of year, and there was a bit of dew glistening on the grass & bushes, birds quietly warbling to themselves in the trees, not too hot, not too cold, no wind to speak of, and all the animals were slowly meandering around looking for a cool spot where there'd be shade later on....
hyea:
Then pretty much as soon as the sun started painting the sky that bright orange, 'just before sunrise' colour it gets, especially when it's tinged a bit darker & hazy with all the dust & smoke from fires pretty much all around us (but so far, well away from us - touch wood!
) suspended in the air, I turned around and headed for home - but it was just as if someone had flicked a switch & changed the scenery! Gone was all the fresh beauty, instead everything suddenly took on a harsher, drier colour... The animals all stopped moving & settled in wherever they were, blending almost invisibly into their surroundings, with just the twitch of an ear or a lazy wave to brush away the flies to give their positions away; the birds just suddenly all stopped making any noises; the dew disappeared, burnt off in the moments after sunrise; and the air took on that really smokey, burnt, harshly dry taste & feel we get around here on hot days when there's fires out there!! The humidity had been about 20% earlier, but that disappeared off the display, replaced with a non-comital 'your guess is as good as mine' blank line - still, I didn't sweat any, or if I did, it evaporated off immediately, and even the asphalt started to look burnt! The radio said the outside temperature hit 39°C (102°F) by about 10:00, but the dash was telling me it was pushing 50°C (122°F) on/in the bike, and I can tell you I was bloody glad when I got home not too long after 10:30! Riding the bike into the shade inside the shed was like walking into a cool room, but then walking back out & shutting the door was like stepping back into a furnace, even with the quick sprint into the cool of the A/c inside the house!! :shocked:
I'd put shade cloth over all of the vege's & fruit trees earlier; I'd 'deep soaked' the lawns & trees etc a few times over the last week; the car's out but covered; the bike's away (it's
MY bike, the car's the wife's!
) and I reckon I'm settled inside for most of the day now! I'll hafta go out to pick up the Child Bride & some meds this arvo after 16:00, so not really looking forward to that! But this is our welcome to Autumn here - the BushFire Brigades are all on stand-by as we've got tonnes of dry leaf litter/undergrowth on the ground, and the next week is forecast to be hot & dry, with temps in high 30's/low 40's °C (100-110°F) until maybe Thursday, when they expect some monsoonal type rain to get pushed South far enough to take the edge off the heat for a few days... But I'm not counting on it - all my riding will be in the early morning for the foreseeable future... At least until winter truly sets in...
IF we get one this year!
Aaaand, I'd better go check the alerts; I'm not rostered on today, but I just heard all three of our local Fire-Fighting Air-Tractors fly over pretty low, followed by a couple of helicopters that sounded like they were already lugging water... So maybe it's
already hit the fan out there?! ... :yikes:
....Greetings to you from Indiana. Yes, another month has passed on and now we will enjoy the Merry days of March. 
