Soaking Wet

Wow, my first typhoon in Taiwan in recent years, and I'm learning lots already.

- When riding in the typhoon, crosswinds can move you sideways one or two scooter widths, so it's important to not cut in front of taxis.
- Rain plus strong winds make for little bullets of water shooting at you and your scooter passenger.
- People will, against their better judgement, still try to fight the winds with their $3 umbrellas ... the inevitable result of which is one very wet person and one broken umbrella.
- The winds and rains come in cycles, and the quiet cycle usually after you've decided to stop into a restaurant to wait it out.
- The umbrella business is unusually good around this time. Only morons like me will still refuse to buy one, preferring to wait and find "a better one" another day when I feel like umbrella shopping.
- Instant noodles sell off the shelves at the local supermarket. And tofu sells out too.
- Umbrella or no, your shoes will get soaked to the bone. And you can too, in under 10 seconds.
- Cockroaches come out to escape drowning in the depths of the streets and sewers where they normally hide. This often brings about screams and shivers from pedestrians. (I am one such pedestrian.)
- A power outage puts you in the dark, and though you can light candles throughout the place, you still end up with no Internet connection at home. 20 minutes of this can drive you nuts, but thank goodness for mobile phones and battery power.
- The thin yellow plastic bags that are disposable raincoats are certainly insufficient against these elements.
- It's a good idea to buy some bottled water regardless of the water filters you have in your house, because the water quality will go to craps pretty fast.
- The winds against your apartment window can be loud and scary, and can wake you up at 3:30 in the morning. (Hence this post right now.)
- Some people will still insist on going out to the movies or KTV in this weather.

So Monday is a typhoon holiday announced by the government, but I still have to work. Will try to work from home, and then see what happens with the weather.