Days of August

August, was to me, one of the coldest that I have ever experienced. Overall, the Bureau of Meteorology reports:

The 2017 winter was the hottest since 1910 when national records began, according to Bureau of Meteorology figures released today.

The average maximum daily temperature recorded across all Australian recording locations for June, July and August 2017 was 23.7C.

That is a whopping 1.9C degrees above the baseline 1961 to 1990 average of 21.8C and smashes the previous record of 23.4C set in 2009.

However, the BOM, did report that “nights were still cold” and “NSW had its coldest average winter nights since 1997.”

The result in part of these circumstances, combined with my failure to protect myself against the cold was that I got the flu. I have never experienced being as sick in my life. It was very disconcerting. I was so congested it was as if someone was talking. I called an ambulance at night. They did something clever. They firstly had me interviewed by a nurse and then a doctor, who then referred me to my local medical practice the next morning. I duly went along, picked up the antibiotics and bought a small bottle of beer – a no no. When you a running a temperature, often you are not thinking as clearly as you might.

Hannah is now not asking me when I am going to be taking them out each day. She and Dexter have gotten over the disappointment of no going out. I don’t think that I would have been strong enough to take them. One of the precipitating problems is that I exposed my back to cold air.

So they are both grounded. All we have are photo memories, which as Huma Huma observe are like clouds:

“When walking through life, many of us are guided by our dreams.” Dexter and Hannah have a sense appreciation and I have a sense of obligation to them – which for the moment I am not discharging. The clarity of Joanne Shenandoh’s singing is striking: