The Birds

Remember right after we arrived here when I posted a picture of this bird?

And I talked about how it was the Australian magpie - the national bird of Australia. And they can make 35 different noises including the imitation of a horse or a dog. And how their natural call sounds like beautiful wind chimes out our window. And how Josh calls them the penguin birds and oh how cute.

Well forget everything I ever wrote about them. The only thing that you need to know is that the bird above is the Australian version of Satan reincarnated.

We had read online that the magpies become extremely territorial while they are nesting and the chicks are growing (usually during the early spring months of August - October). Over the past 4 weeks or so, Josh has been getting swooped at and buzzed on the golf course. It has angered him so much that he's thrown golf clubs up in the trees to try to warn them off. We have discovered that they won't bother you if you keep your eyes on them so normally if we are on a hole that we know has a swooping magpie (there are about 3 out of the 18), I try to keep my eyes on them while Josh takes his swing. It has definitely proven to be a stressful way to play golf and I believe that Josh is almost ready to give up until they stop attacking him.

I haven't really been attacked yet since I believe that they go after Josh more since he's male and taller. It has been frustrating to Josh since I didn't really know how scary it was.

So yesterday, I decide that instead of riding my trainer inside, I was going to go for a nice leisurely hour ride out in the sun to enjoy the beautiful day. Nowhere in my mind was the fact that wikipedia had mentioned that bicyclists were particularly at risk from attacking birds (something about the constant movement forward makes them crazy). At least it wasn't until about a mile from home when I heard a 'SWOOSH' behind me and saw the shadow of a crazy bird following me and diving. It scared me so bad. I was yelling and spinning fast and waving my arms trying to get it to stop following me. And it wouldn't. I finally cycled out of its territory.

Only to be attacked by another bird. After the first I figured that I could keep going and just make it back home by a different route. But after the second one started swooping at me, I just decided to give up and make my way slowly back home.

This entailed not going back the way that I came, putting my sunglasses on the back of my helmet (to try to trick them) and getting off my bike every single time that I saw a magpie (regardless of how small it was). It was a slow journey with me walking and then riding when I felt somewhat safe.

Unfortunately I got a little too comfortable as I was making my way on the grass next to the main highway that runs into Dalby (the Warrego Highway) and the next thing I knew I had been bumped in the back of my helmet by yet another bird. You can not believe how scary it is to have a bird get that close to you in an agressive manner. He was by far the worst. I got off my bike and slowly started walking backwards (you know - because they supposedly won't attack if they see eyes). Well, this male had some serious testosterone imbalances because he would come straight at me while I'm staring at him.

So picture this - I'm in my bike clothes and bike shoes on the side of a major highway with cars passing constantly yelling and waving my bike at this bird flying down at me. If only someone had had a video camera on me, I would have become a youtube sensation over night.

It's easy to see the hilarity in it now. Josh pretty much laughed as soon as he heard the story (though he was happy that I was okay). I am actually still a little spooked by it and probably won't be doing much exercising outside until after I'm 100% sure that all the bird craziness has gone away.

Weather Phenomenon

Last week while Atlanta was having its own weather problems, we were going through something a little strange in Australia. Wednesday morning I drove Josh into work and it was a really pretty blue sky at 6 am, but the radio hosts kept warning that a dust haze was going to make its way into the area. Neither Josh nor I knew what a dust haze was, but Josh said 'I bet that we don't even notice it.'

Fast forward 3 hours and this was the scene out the patio door.

It was very War of the Worlds. You could go outside and come in with dirt all in your nostrils and all over your skin.

Josh sent me a few pictures that they took out at the power station. He apparently had to spend a few hours out in this that morning (I stayed inside and worked).

We were under the impression that this was a normal thing to happen, but one of the guys that Josh works with says that he hasn't seen one this bad in over 20 years! I guess that we just got lucky.

It cleared out within the day and we had bright sunny skies again on Thursday and Friday. And then on Saturday, it rolled back in again (though not as bad). Josh climbed to near the top of the power station to watch this one come in. He said that it looked us like a thunderstorm except it was all dust.

Against our better judgment, we went out and played golf Saturday afternoon. You can look directly at the sun without hurting your eyes.

That's me playing golf in the dust. The white shorts. Not such a good plan.

And here's Josh cleaning up after we finished playing 9 holes. We didn't really realize how dirty it was Saturday until we went back out on Sunday (which was clear) and all of our stuff was covered in dust.

Josh also found some pretty cool satellite images of the dust haze that shows how big it really was. This thing stretched from Sydney to Brisbane which is like Atlanta to Michigan.

What we've been up to...

Wow, I've been negligent with the blog. We haven't been anywhere too exciting in the last few weeks. Just day-to-day Dalby.

Last weekend, I did participate in Relay for Life. It was a wonderful experience and I was happy to help raise money to fight cancer here and abroad.

The first picture is of Jonathan. He's one of Josh's best work buddies out at the plant. They cut up way too much and have started putting tire marks all over Jonathan's front yard from their e-brake antics.

Anyway, I just wanted to post his picture to show that it's all guys out at the plant that are as scruffy as Josh. It's not just him.


Also, it was not THAT cold outside. It was probably only in the 50's.

So, since we had a small relay team (8 people) and there was a total of 18 hours of walking, we had to each take pretty big chunks of time. My first portion was from 8 to 10 pm on Saturday. I ended up continuously walking about 2 hours and 5 minutes that night.

Josh's 2 hour period was a little more exciting. He walked the first 10 minutes or so with me until he decided that it was time to go off and find Jonathan. Then Jonathan and he decided to spend 40 minutes talking to the doughnut guy (the local man that fries up fresh doughnuts every other Sunday morning in town and for special events). They were only 50 cents per doughnut, but I think that Josh kept it to only 2 that night. Then they decided to walk with me for another 10 minutes. Then they played death frisbee for 20 minutes, chess for 35 minutes and finally finished up walking the last 5 minutes with me.

I was happy to have him there though.

I ended up also walking on Sunday morning from 6:30 to about 9:00 (with a short 20 minute break to buy some yummy coffee).

It was a wonderful experience and gets 2 thumbs up from me.

Not real sure why I'm looking jaundiced in that picture. I'm hoping that it's the lighting.

The day prior to Relay for Life, we had gone shopping in town. This usually takes up a good portion of the day since Josh never gets to go shopping and did I mention that the Big W has 3 aisles of candy?

However, that day we found a gem in the men's clothing section. Over here, all of the guys that work on the road or lawn care or even sometimes in construction wear the same bright yellow shirts that Josh wear, but they pair it with shorts. Short shorts.

And the men over here are big, burly guys with big thick tree-trunk legs stuck into itty-bitty 80's shorts. It's amusing.

Josh decided he needed a pair of them.

I'm not exactly sure where he plans on wearing them. He calls them his relaxing shorts.

Those are his normal shorts next to his new, blue Aussie shorts.

They are scandously short. I'm hoping to talk him into wearing them out in public.