damn, it's been hot...

we didn't get the predicted high heat and winds on Saturday, but we got it yesterday. When I woke up at 6, it was already 30 degrees C (86F) and it climbed steadily to a high of 42 C (107 F). Our hottest December day for something like 50 years. So of course, the heat made the hellish job of fighting all the fires that much harder, even without the winds (which came later anyway). Australia is a tinder dry country at the best of times, but with a drought that has stretched for years, and Government green-based policies that restrict any sort of clearing, the miles and miles of bush has been a firehazard waiting to happen. Don't get me wrong--I'm all for green policy and conservation, but I'm also a believer that we have to strike a balance between what is good for the earth and the animals, and what is good for the people. Whether the greenies like it or not, people aren't just going to up and go away. We're here to stay. So, when greeny-believing governments enforce stupid rules like not allowing residents in high-danger bushfire country to clear their properties of potentially dangerous material, therefore putting the trees before lives and property, then something is seriously wrong with our decision makers. Of course, these are the same people who decided (under greenie urging) to flush millions of litres of water down the rivers so that the fish could have fresh water--while we humans are ever more restricted in what we can use water for, and many of the State's dams are empty or near empty. Madness.

Anyway, enough of that. I had a really good day of writing yesterday. I'm still worried that these scenes are dragging a little, but I am getting into the action now that I'm nearing the end, so I'm hoping it'll make up for the slightly slower pace of the previous chapters. Time will tell, I guess. I've hit 357 pages completed, with 12 pages done yesterday. I still don't think this book will hit my target of 400 pages, but I'm hoping it'll go close. But the planned ending has changed slightly (thanks to what I wrote yesterday--sometimes it's really frustrating to have a muse that works as she goes), which means the first chapter ending I'd planned for the second book has to change too. That's what I get for getting ahead of myself.