Dateline Down Under - February 3, 2008

Dateline Down Under – Perth
February 3, 2008

Sleeping in a new environment, even a very nice one like where we are, causes most of us to have a little sleeplessness for a night or two. We had hit the rack at about 10 p.m. local time (midnight Melbourne time, and who the hell knows in California time at this point).

It is HOT here, even at night with the cooler running! This will take some getting used to after running the wood stoves 24 X 7 in freezing temperatures up in Pollock for the past month or so.

Carol awakens Steve at about 4:18 a.m. and says, “Steven, the phone is ringing!” Well, as we are in a strange house we are having a little trouble remembering where the telephone is physically located…. AH, the kitchen! Steve rumbles through the house naked in the dark (can’t remember where all of the light switches are either – this boy is talented) and snags the phone to be greeted by this Australian voice asking him, “Hey, why aren’t you up yet? You are supposed to be out touring!” – Uhhhh….HUH???

It’s Trevor. Seems that our neighbors Mark and Dorit Buckley picked the Lannin’s up at Sacramento International Airport and ferried them up to Pollock (Thanks a LOT guys!!!), as it is close to NO WHERE, only to find out that in our absence for four days the water pipes have FROZEN SOLID! Here we are kicking it in the sunny weather of the tropics and these poor people don’t even have any drinking or washing water! We both feel like shits!

Now, part of doing serious home exchanges with people from all over the world is leaving VERY clear instructions (we hope) on how to work certain stuff, such as stoves, air conditioners, the T.V. system, autos, etc., etc, because you are exchanging homes with people who may or may not have been exposed to certain stuff at their own home – this is part of the beauty of the home exchange program (usually)…. it is also imperative to have some seriously talented back-up people back at the ranch in case the brown stuff hits the fan (such as having no heat or water in a snow storm). The Sierra has been pounded this winter, after a non-event last winter, so we were very fortunate to enlist the services of Mr. Kris Mickelson, Master Contractor and Plumber to handle this for us!

Steve gets on the horn and calls Kris back in California, who is hosting one of his infamous “Poker Nights” that Steve attends when we are in town. The game is just breaking up, and Kris says, “No worries mate. I’ll get right over there (at 11:30 p.m.) and dig out the offending pipes (which are evidently buried under three or four feet of snow in the dark) and see if we can’t get some water for these fine people….

This leads to the follow-on call, as Kris the Magician has figured out how to solve the problem. He has assessed the damage and there is none (Thank God) except that the pipes are as frozen as can be… solution? Get a couple of heating pads on those puppies and thaw ‘em out! Kris snags one heating pad from his own home (yeh, we owe you a new one!), but it ain’t working, so he and Trevor are calling (at 0400 our time) to see if we might have a spare back at the ranch, which we do. Second pad is applied, and the problem is solved within a few hours! THANK YOU THANK YOU Kris!!

Trevor and Sheena, we hope you BOTH take a LONG, HOT shower on us tonight, and follow it up with a large drink of water!

We rolled out of the rack at 9 a.m. and began our first day at Uncle Stevie’s (in)Famous Boot Camp. We have this problem that some older people share. If we exercise the weight stays right where it needs to be. If we don’t, it don’t! We have been so busy the past month, and the weather has been so nasty, we have been pretty much been relegated to bike riding in our home gym. Now that we are in nice, hot weather, it is time to walk, run, use the Lannin’s home gym, and get some of that excess weight off!

We hit the sunshine afterward and started planning our week in Perth, especially at the ocean. It is hot here and one can burn real easily, so we are slopping on the sun block and taking it easy introducing ourselves to Mr. Sun again. Steve took his shirt off and the resulting glare scared him to death, so ‘nuff said on that subject!

We’re off to (literally) throw some shrimp on the bar-be, so that’s it for today!

Until then, we remain, Steve and Carol, wandering around the world!