I’m guessing the satellite dish was blown into a flooded waterway by one of those huge gusts of wind we got hit with. 

Someone probably had to fish the equipment out of a bloated creek and repair it before reinstallation.

But that’s just my imagination talking, because I had so much spare intellectual time to think up all sorts of interesting scenarios while my link to making sense of reality was missing in action. 

I clearly haven’t appreciated how much that drip feed of inspirational music, chit chat and intelligent discussion impacts my life and coping abilities. 

Although the untrained eye might see only me, my pantry and the three lunchboxes I’m stuffing in the kitchen each morning, I am also engaging in the day’s news, presented by people who share my worldview about creation, existence and eternity. 

What I missed most of all was my current affairs magazine program, during the mid-morning and early afternoon. Focusing on the family, along with cultural and political issues, it illuminates me about the landscape of unfolding events, while I’m folding endless baskets of washing. 

While cleaning out the fireplace, I can also be fuming that our Australian military are now authorised to appear in full uniform at any event of their personal preference, at the whim of an unnamed bureaucrat. 

Washing the floor becomes a journey into a story of hope, as I listen to an interview with a woman who was conceived through rape, who is now raising three beautiful children of her own. 

Cooking up a storm can also include learning about a new range of children’s story books that are based on Australian outdoor play. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a bit of monotonous brain-dead work – heck, pulling weeds and mowing are my complete gardening repertoire.

But I do need a little brain food to make it through the tedious, repetitive manual labour involved in keeping everyone in the family fed, clothed and comfortably clean and tidy.  

Can’t believe I didn’t just go out for a very long coffee until the station came back online. 

Yolande Grosser