Scary days ahead

Well, today was a good one here, but the heat wave around Oz is very scary. Floods I don't mind too much on the whole, but fires are another matter altogether...

Anyway, for a light moment: I went to the tyre centre to have my interesting noise investigated, and the happy man said, 'Yeah, you have flat spots.'

'Flat spots? Is that what you call it when your tyres go square?'

He chuckled. 'Did it go "thunk, thunk, thunk" when you drove?'

I'd have said more like 'flup, flup, flup', but I'm deaf so I agreed with him. He briskly put two new tyres on, and to my relief the matching ones for the car were on special, a third off. So my expensive lesson about not driving off with a hand brake on wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Home again and the news about our weather is all bad. Tassie has been hit by unprecedented bushfires, and now it is New South Wales' turn. On Wednesday it is lined up for us.

 (Sorry about the picture quality, but it was from my webcam - the view from my study window)

I love my bush block, but it has its hazards in fire conditions. The undergrowth will take fire even when green, let alone when we have had little rain for the past year, while eucalypt trees are famous for turning into large torches in fires. 
 
On the news everyone is told to prepare for when/if a fire approaches their neighbourhood. My thinking cap is firmly on! With no nearby beach to run to, as a heap of people did in Tassie, I only have the dog dam - daughter tells me I could cook in it. Oh, well, more thinking to do...