Perfect Storm

A couple of days ago, I would not have thought it.  I would not have even believed it could happen.  Suddenly I need a jumper.  Suddenly I feel cold without one.  A couple of days ago, it was warm.  Today it is cold.  Winter is early.
Yet I think to myself, “I really should not be surprised.”  The bush fires seemed to come upon us so fast.  What had been a prolonged spell of warm dry weather suddenly became a globally reported bushfire season.  It seemed so much of the east coast was burning.  Not just fires but really hot intense fires.  Warnings abounded.  Watch and Act turned to Leave Now so quickly.
Then they were over, and I could breath a sigh of relief.  Not for long though.  In seemingly no time at all I was in lockdown.  At the time of writing, almost 250,000 people have died from Covid19.  Unemployment is expected to hit 10% here.  The government has spent billions, and the world is expected to never be the same again.  I have a Financial Review in front of me.  The headline is “After COVID-19: the new global order.”
With so much happening I ask myself “what’s next?”  Whatever it is, these days few things seem to be a “see it on the horizon” thing.  Everything seems to happen so fast.    The volcano erupting in NZ was sudden (friends of ours were in the group before the eruption).  The four police officers killed after they pulled someone over was a surprise.
It almost seems that suddenly should become the new normal.  Never has it seemed to me that to be taken by surprise is so expected.  Times of respite are becoming shorter and shorter.  I expect something will come at us from left field next.
The term perfect storm comes to mind.  Looking at dictionary definitions it seems apt. “an unusual combination of events or things that produce an unusually bad or powerful result.” (Collins). “a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.” (Merriam-Webster). “an event in which a rare combination of circumstances drastically aggravates the event.” (Wikipedia).
I had only heard of a Tsunami happening in PNG.  Since then there has been the one near Indonesia and the one close to Japan.  Now Tsunami alerts are issued regularly.  Earthquakes are happening all over the place.  Merril has an app on her phone which advises when earthquakes occur.  She has set it to be advised if it is a quake six or above.  She gets regular advice and sometimes we see it on tv.  Glaciers are melting, and while many of these things have occurred before, it seems so much is happening at once.  Makes me think, “it’s all happening.”  Now we have a major virus which has brought most of the world to a standstill.
I have lived long and prospered.  I have known periods of prolonged peace where there was the occasional catastrophe.  Now they seem so commonplace.  I would not like to be in the insurance game.  Payouts are a regular occurrence and seem to be getting bigger.
Merril and I live our lives as normal.  We have just got a new fence on one side, and a shed is going to go up.  It could all be gone in an instant and so could we, but we are ready.