FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Hopefully, not being too much of a downer here, but this is beyond imagining...

As the high winds set in, the fire lit up the night and threatened the outer suburbs of Melbourne:

  

A couple hours north of the city in the country, Marysville was destroyed almost to a building and in a flash, while panicked residents had accidents as they tried to run and were over taken by the fires:

  

I'm hesitant to see what the news is when I wake in the morning.  Needless to say, we're praying for those in the country.

EDIT:  Last comment on the fires (if you want more info, visit http://www.heraldsun.com.au).  It was just mentioned on the news that the high winds were blowing embers over 20k (about 12 or 13 miles) causing the fires to leap and bound unpredictably.

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Oz,

I just saw the report on Yahoo News.  I hope you, and all you know, are safe.  What a horrific event...

[tmerton]

Stay safe, Oz.  How about your wife's family?

[tmerton]

Ole wants a job, but the foreman won't hire him until he passes a little math test. 

Here is your first question, the foreman said. 'Without using numbers, represent the number 9.' 

'Without numbers?' Ole says, 'Dat's easy.' and proceeds to draw three trees. 



'What's this?' the boss asks.

'Vot! you got no brain? Tree and tree and tree make nine,' says Ole... 

'Fair enough,' says the boss. 'Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.' 

Ole stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. 'Dar ya go.' 



The boss scratches his head and says, 'How on earth do you get that to represent 99?' 

'Each of da trees is dirty now. So, it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Dat is 99.'

The boss is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire this Norwegian, so he says, 'All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100.' 

Ole stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, 'Dar ya go. Von hundred.' 



The boss looks at the attempt. 'You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!' 

Ole leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, 'A little dog come along and pooped by each tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, vich makes von hundred.'
'So, ven do I start?

[bennie]

BTW: Where is bennie? 

I have been kinda MIA. January was a tough month, one of my co-workers committed suicide so we are all still recovering/regrouping from that. February started with me getting my very own sinus infection complete with a prescription for antibiotics. I have spent most of the week sounding like a cat with a hairball. Thank goodness the medication is starting to kick in! It has taught me that my sinuses must take up about 70% of the space in my skull. That is the only way to explain the volume of....stuff. I have been able to rally enough to watch some hockey. I saw 57's bud Claude last night while watching the Shark/Blue Jacket game. How about those ugly Habs uniforms? They damn near blinded me!

[OzJohnnie]

February started with me getting my very own sinus infection complete with a prescription for antibiotics.

Well, on the bright side, it could have been worse.  You could have needed to share a sinus infection.  (makes a guy's stomach turn just to contemplate)

On the fire front, I have no relatives or close friends in the bush.  Relatives of friends are out there so we'll see what's what over the next couple weeks.

Now I'm off to drop the oldest kid as swimming squad practice.  Swimming squad is one of those double edged swords.  You're all happy that the kid has made the team, but then you realize that you'll be stuck with o-dark-thirty drop offs for the next how many years?

[bennie]

Now I'm off to drop the oldest kid as swimming squad practice.  Swimming squad is one of those double edged swords.  You're all happy that the kid has made the team, but then you realize that you'll be stuck with o-dark-thirty drop offs for the next how many years?

Just think, your daughter could become the next (female version) Micheal Phelps! Hopefully without the bong!

[stanbob]

Keep safe Oz, maybe this will get your wife to view the benefits of a wonderful Minnesota winter.

[OzJohnnie]

Keep safe Oz, maybe this will get your wife to view the benefits of a wonderful Minnesota winter.

Ha!  Little chance of that.

For a further update, here is an article that you can't stop once you start:

"Marysville wiped from the map as inferno shows no mercy"

Chris Isbister lost his home and almost his life, being forced to hide under wet hessian blankets with his father and two mates as they watched the fire destroy his home.

"We thought this was it," he said. "The four of us were sitting in the paddock and a bit of burning paper came out and hit my dad in the chest. And he said, 'Well, would you bloody look at that, it's the book of Moses'. It was a piece of the Bible."

[tmerton]

Heaven and Hell

Heaven is Where:
The Police are British,
The Chefs are Italian,
The Mechanics are German,
The Lovers are French
     and
It's all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is Where:
The Police are German,
The Chefs are British,
The Mechanics are French,
The Lovers are Swiss
     and
It's all organized by the Italians.

(Hell might also be the burning outback in Oz-land )

[snoop dawg]

Tmerton......I saw the heaven and hell saying on a waiters tee shirt the other night in an Italian restaurant.  Pretty funny.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I, too, have seen that listing before, though in my (remembered) sighting, heaven had the French and Italians reversed.  I could live with either.

[repete]

tmert,

Version I'd seen had bankers instead of organizers, but it is right on. swiss are absolutely obnoxious. in 2006, I spent a month working in italy with a 5-day ski break in switzerland -- ran  into more soulless jerks in those five days than the whole month down south.

Bill Bryson lights them up pretty good ...

"Question: What do you call a group of boring people in Switzerland?

Answer: Zurich. "

[OzJohnnie]

Keeping up with the fire story coverage you'll only find on the MIACPP, right where it belongs... (someone just stay stop if you want me to quit at this)

The panic on the roads must have been unimaginable:



But not all is bad.  How did this house survive?

[OzJohnnie]

Well, as I go to bed tonight the grim task of going into communities and looking to see what happened started today.  About 135 are confirmed dead and at least another 70-100 are expected to be found as there are a large number of missing and unaccounted for people.



Fires are still raging, but cooler temperatures and predictable winds mean that although about 12 of the 40 or so fires in the state are still classified as out of control, country fire brigades have managed to keep them away from towns and such during the day.

EDIT: And although it is a bit morbid, this Google map listing where the deaths have occurred is interesting since so many of these fires happened in some small towns with the best names.  Some of my favorites: Mudgegonga and Narbethong.  There are a lot of "G" sounds in the local Aboriginal languages.