Australian storm

Victoria 510 new cases!

New South Wales 1248 new cases!

Queensland no new cases!

Sweet! The trees stood tall and did not blow breeze this afternoon; to me, they do that when expecting rain. I love walking along a dirt bush path in stillness of something like a grove. I wondered, as I looked at the sky? There was a a white wadding of clouds on the horizon, broken by the many rigid tree trunks, but nothing too drastic! The tinder ground exposed a single file of marching ants to Jimmy's foraging nose. Some of them got stuck in his invasive nostrils and scrambled over his coat. Others attacked, biting viciously to protect their brothers in arms. Jimmy threw himself on his back, twirling and itching in a feverish excitement of a battle he was sure to win. I sighed, he had too much energy again! I twirled him back to stand on all fours and brush his avengers off.

I knew his eagerness indicated I would have to use the diversion track to wear off his insatiable energy. Part of me was exhausted! Yet, I imagined driving with this bouncing bundle of nerves and joy; a one year old Jack Russell Terrier in the car home. My brain coyly added- me entering the front door of my apartment and Jimmy cocking his leg on the lounge and later gnawing out foam from the defenseless sofa. My tired eyes widened at that picture to make an executive decision., "Longer walk" Jimmy seem good at reading my body language, he wagged his tail with good cheer, lifting my mood. He jumped a little too.. I got it! Yes, the extended walk had to be!.

My irritation was short lived, as my legs started moving forward, my feet stepped moving forward too. As an self-encourager, I counted my steps One- Two- Three- Four etc ..... Nine- Ten. I started to feel a second wind. "Not so bad', I thought, to myself, or maybe I said it out loud! Who cares? I was at a Reserve. Like most people, I wandered around in a meditative state sometimes oblivious of others and everything.

I would be a very meditative, very oblivious today! Interrupted, from behind I heard, a familiar voice, 'Hi Jimmy'. I shuffled my mask off my wrist, onto my face. Turning around, I saw the blond, "Hi Libby" Her owner repositioned her mask from her chin to over her mouth. Like most dog carers we did not know each other's names or make any real effort of knowing either! As a friendly gesture I always place my hand under Libby's nose and the usual chawauwa would shake and do a cautious hand sniff, followed by a one soft, weak lick. I touch her head with two fingers and tapped a few times; she always liked that!

Jimmy was embarrassingly sniffing Libby again; more than what most dogs do. I tried to pull him back but he whined and strain the lead, sniffing, sniffing, sniffing! People these days have less non-verbals to deal with when wearing masks, the lower part of face is covered and the eye movement and emotions obvious. Libby's owner asked, "You can't get him Desexed?" We both paused, as we untangled the dog leads. Learning the art and etiquette of lead detangling, whilst dog walkers conversed took over four weeks to learn.

I answered snorting, "I will have to ask him?"

Next, the her eye rolling question, "He's not back yet?"

I complained and looked to the ground, "No, he's got a courier job there and doesn't want to quarantine two weeks- says he can't afford it!"

Her eyes moved to the left, "Heaps of jobs for couriers, more internet buying these days down in New South Wales-"

"Yer-", the thought of continuous dog carer hurt my head.

Sensing my paused answer she answered "Cosy with the new girlfriend down there huh?"

"Yer- Real cosy!", I moaned.

"So whens he getting the dog?"

I did the usual Australian confused looking upwards, around and no eye contact translating 'Another one of those long Covid stories!'

"When there's a border bubble I guess?", I answered.

Jimmy started howling and back kicking dirt. He was boisterous at times and liked to show off to the ladies.

"Hmm, a no show for Jimi Hendrix huh?"

I muffled a laugh for that was Jimmy's full name!

"Yer, you mean Robbo - nothing surprises me about Robbo!" Australian men usually put as 'o' on the end of their name to sound more masculine... Robbo, Gordo, Tommo, as opposed to boyishness of 'y' ending of Robby, Gordy, Tommy!

"You need to chose your friends more wisely love?" She did compassionately.

I nodded as Jimmy dragged me sideways to his favourite watering tree! I waved over my shoulder. "See ya!"

We were almost near the diversion trail when

Missy toddled along! An old white curly haired dog and matching owner. The owner never wore a mask. I did not mind as I had a mask on and kept the 1.5 metre distance. The deeper bush canopy had an filtered sun and rich grounding earth aroma gave a relaxed ambience; it alleviated my stress. "Hey Jimmy, Jimmy boy. How are you little mate?" I loosened my grip on the lead and Jimmy frantically wagging his tail ran like a torpedo aimed and fired at the old man who managed to give him a slow, low, bent pat. He looked up at me with a squinted eye, "Ahh the weather bureau said rain later this week- I don't know..." He straightened himself, "... got no sleep last nite- it's the air pressure you know, the moisture in the air! I can feel it a days before we get rain! Ey, the more rain the more pain. Bones won't stop aching for an old man!" Missy interrupted by snapping at Jimmy. The old man did his usual apology and pulled a treat out of his pocket. Throwing it to the ground near Missy and her greedily chomping it up, "She's stiff too! She'll be thirteen this November" Jimmy barked, "Oh you want one too mate" He threw another treat towards Jimmy.

While the two dogs were silent and content eating, my mind had started drift to the earlier statement of rain "later this week". This man was similar to my father, sort of a hypnotic salt of the earth. He always had an opinion on everything and the three conversations - religion politics and I can't remember the third we are supposed to avoid- were his delightful playground! The end of the week meant spelling f-r-e-e-d-o-m for me. Spelling f-r-e-e-d-o-m is the same as spelling park and walk around Jimmy if we need to stay home. I tried to stay conscious in the conversation nodding , raising my eye brows, using hand gestures- anything really- to be polite and alert. Yet, I had relentlessly slipped into the world of daydreams about 'the end of the week'.

The details resurfaced again:

I have a project due on Friday;

I was almost FINISHED!;

I only needed an appraisal from the manager;

I had consulted all the way with team members then manager;

I felt pretty confident I might only have a quick redo;

And one more sleep I would have new morning eyes at the opening the attachment and be done by Friday!!!! Yes!!!!

Jimmy yelp, the temporary food truce had ended! I fell back to Wednesday! "...And don't you think those submarines are a lot? Those guys in parliament some of them got big egos. I

That Charlie Muldrow - his crew - those new ones- I'm gonna watch!" I added a pleasant "Ah ha", which took me away from being cruelly eyeballed. Missy gnarled her teeth. Jimmy howled. That was our usual cue to abruptly end another chin wag and go off in opposite directions.

The extended walk, which I have been doing very often had the usual bump into Ella, Minty and Bear; this had not occurred! Suspiciously, I felt the humid, oppressive heat stick to me. In Queensland, the humidity lathers over our bodies, sweat won't evaporate and a build up of oil and dirt add to the discomfort. Put simply, It was too hot for this area of deep bush, at this time of day! The tree tops too had caught a swirling wind who went nowhere. As I looked at what I could see of sky there seemed to be a dark pervasive cloud, with a film of black electrical ether. It was a thingy commonly known as a harbinger to bad storm coming out of nowhere.

A rumble from a not too distant point on my left confirmed my observations. The noise made Jimmy crouch and cower on the path. I had never seen this vulnerable Jimmy before! I realised this was his first real storm after all, he was born in drought. My paternal part scooped up Jimmy and sheltered him under my loose tank top. With one arm supporting the puppy and the other hand holding phone, I managed to Google the weather BOM with my thumb. Large red and orange doomsday clouds amassed and were in stealth about 10 minutes from our location. I had to get back to the car! It said there would be large hail and damaging winds too!

A gust of cold air, not a good sign, hit me between the shoulder blades. A lightning bolt sent Jimmy crazy huddling and me scared. Shivers like someone had walked on my grave ran all over my body and my hairs on my arms and legs stood up too. It was dangerous! I had to make quick decisions! I knew of a tin shanty further along. If I ran we would make it! Hopefully it's still there! Locals say a homeless kid lives there. I often saw smoke rising from a fireplace if we had an early morning walk; sometimes Jimmy's energy required two walks per day! Anyway it's the safest option! Run!

Breathing heavy with dog trembling I push my way thru grass and vines till I came to an area that had an overwhelmingly natural concentrated odour of Australian grass, herb and berries; it was like an oasis! A khaki sleeping bag on raised stilts with animal skin and covers was shelter by an old partially rusty galvanised roof; it was the sort you see in the old days. The campfire was charcoal and wet. What looked like an occupant was a young man, sleeping. I yelled, drenched, "Can I come in? I have a dog too?" He motioned with his hand and I crawled under. Trying not to get his bedding wet I squeezed into the corner of the shelter. "You white fella stupid! I can use a dryer at laundromat!" I laughed as he sat up, patting a tired licking Jimmy. He introduced himself as AJ.

Hail as big as tennis balls threw down from a green raging sky. AJ said, "Don't worry it will pass over and move to Boondall. The storm split at Cunningham's gap!" All local people would understand what he said, as there were various storm paths where a storm is split over the Gap in the last of the ranges near Queensland. I breathed a sigh of relief. I commented as I was curious of why the intense natural smell? He chortled, " You white fella finally listen to us Black fella! You stupid back burning!"

Over the conversation, the storm was lost from my attention. I learnt AJ was not homeless and a very intelligent young man. He working for the government on some sort of trial for bushfire control burning. "I do what you call 'cold burning- I speak to the land spirits and in the cool of early morning light small branch with fire and burn away dry grass and stuff..." A bang of thunder made us look up. AJ continued, "...cold burning, or our ways... got rid of imported grasses and weeds from settler days. Our ways- burning let's native australian herbs to grow and native seeds to sprout. Our ways appeased angry spirits especially the fire spirit. The dry undergrowth is removed." After more explanation I was sold, "Yer- the infernos we suffer as a Nation would be greatly reduced and smells so good here too. We need that everywhere!"

My phone melodied. I look at the notifications bar, it was Robbo! I opened the text to have a gif of a dog driving a car with saucer eyes flashing infrared and purple lights and smoking a joint. AJ leaned over and shook his head, "Crazy" I did a slow nod, "Yah- The dog's owner!" AJ admitted he had seen me many times at a distance and wondered about my story. With relief, I patted the breathing doona lump and explained my story to a new listener.

The storm, as predicted, had died down and became grey sky. There was only camera flashes of sheet lightning and no wind. "It would be fairly safe to travel again by foot back to the car?", I asked, many times storms like these would double back within hours. Looking far over his roof AJ shooed me off, "No you'll be right to go mate" I dragged Jimmy sleeping from warm covers and plonked him into my Akubra hat, "it's waterproof mate, don't worry! I told AJ I would return soon.

After about 30 minutes of walking. I was standing drenched in the space between a light shower and probably the next downfall of rain. I could see a rainbow formed nearby my car ahead and finally I was able to put the grateful, sluggish adventurer, Jimmy, onto my back seat. Standing in the rain and sheltering my phone with I texted back, "James and I are doing well Robbo!!!!"

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