Sept2014_SO WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?
by Ryle Winn
Did you know that a fortnight without rain is bordering on drought in England and a thirty day period is an absolute drought? I looked it up. The poms get it too easy. In Queensland if we get 5ml of rain we race down to the pub to celebrate. Anyway we haven’t had even a drop for a long while now so I decided to pay the asking price of $250 to vacuum out the floor of our 50,000 litre underground tank. There was only about 40mm of water left in the bottom that the foot valve couldn’t pick up. Once it was cleaned out, I planned to transfer another 10,000 litres from another tank.
‘Bloody hell,’ the vacuum man said, peering into the open lid, ‘I’m not going down in there. It’s dark and God knows what’s down there. I’ve under-quoted here by about $750.’ I stood there, disbelieving, while he took off like a flock of fligeons … the useless bugger.
‘OK’ I said to myself, ‘I’ll clean it out. In times gone by I always used to.’
Karyn said, ‘You are not getting in there.’
Dan said, ’You are not getting in there.’
Kylie said the same.
Eleven-year-old Tom, too.
And seven-year-old Becky said, ‘I‘ll help you Pa.’
I was somewhat peeved that, because I have some minor heath problems, they thought I wasn’t capable of the job.
‘You can all do it then,’ I said testily.
Armed with brooms and buckets they did. I was given the job of grabbing the bucket handle and emptying the bucket.
Even so I was still a little put out. I was more so when they all agreed that it wasn’t anything to do with health it was the fact that I was too fat and even if I could squeeze down the manhole they’d never push me up and out again.
I had only one other ally. Heidi, Dan’s wife, wouldn’t go down into the tank either. Probably couldn’t really blame her. By the time this goes to print she will have a brand new baby.
PS Please drop your used books at the Scouts Den as usual. (blue box at front door). The annual Scouts book fair is at the end of October. Everybody is so good about this. Thanks.
Phone 3425 1247
