The Rainy Season

I see my posts have fallen off quite a bit. It comes from just really needing a good, refreshing vacation, and not really having too much extra energy right now. Unfortunately, in Victoria, work holidays tend to all clump together during one half of the year, and the other half is fairly barren. The good half starts with the Melbourne Cup in November and goes until the Queen’s Birthday in June. After that, you slog away, hoping you get sick enough to take off work, but not sick enough that you can’t enjoy it. Unfortunately, it never seems to work that way. During winter, anything you catch is likely to keep you firmly tucked away under the covers, hoping for enough unconscious moments to recover your health.

Along with winter comes the “rainy season.” They really do have one here in Victoria, but apparently they haven’t had a really good one in while. This year is different. We are wondering if it is due to Dad’s visit, but it has rained (almost) every single day for the three weeks he was here. On the Sunday he arrived, we even had snow. While the higher elevations get snow (hence the ski resorts), in most areas it is so unusual that the last time they had snow was 20 years ago. Here in Park Orchards we experienced some of the wet, heavy, almost-melting flakes – for about 10 minutes. Dad says this has happened to him before while visiting snow-deprived regions.

Granted, it isn’t as much fun for Dad to have a rain-filled holiday, but those of us who live here hope it continues. If we get enough rain – in the catchment areas – we could see a turn-around in the drought. Maybe we can convince Dad to vacation here more often.