Rain like this makes SES volunteers very nervous indeed.

It's been raining fairly steadily for what seems like weeks now. The ground is utterly, utterly sodden. Any additional water is just going to skate over the top and rush toward the ocean. The last time I remember it raining this persistently was 1998, and it culminated in a massive, I mean massive, bucketing deluge that wiped out significant portions of Wollongong (see this account by my fellow SES volunteer Steve Cliffe). I wasn't an SES volunteer then, but I am now, and I also spent four years working at SES State Headquarters, where I learned to be so edgy at the onset of heavy rain that I'm still feeling the effects (it always involved days, even weeks of 16-hour shifts and relentless stress and worry and exhaustion — I'm not sorry I had that adventure but I'm glad that part of it's over).

The rain is due to continue for at least the rest of the week. All the cricketers in Houston's cricket club are increasingly glum. It's unwise to ride my horse in the mud, due to his vulnerable foot (which tends to sprain or strain or whatever it does if he happens to slip in just the wrong way). Everything in the house feels (and smells) clammy. The sound of rain on the skylight is like radio static that I can't turn off. And, even though I'm not at State, I'm still an SES volunteer, and there may still be work for me to do if Wollongong gets pasted by another storm like 1998.

It's late. I should try to get some sleep. While I can.