It's all about Him

 

 

I am moving to a new space now ... it is so bad in terms of rendering pics and it even lost my draft when I tried to add photos ...

Can anyone imagine when there is no electricy in Seattle? No heat, no hot water, no frigde, no ... with temperature dropping to 38ish F at night ... and no gas for my car. Worst of it - the estimate for fixing the power cables/facilities was about 48 to 72 hours!! Well that is ok if one is prepared ... However what happened to me is ...

 

So the winter storm came ...

 

12/15 morning -

At 8:20am, I woke up (with a great desire to sleep more) and called up the medical centre. I was supposed to have an annual physical check up in Redmond town centre. The first sign of something is seriously wrong is - nobody picked up the phone. So I droved to there. "The building is closed due to power outage", ok, I guess I will have to go to office and start my Friday work earlier ...

 

Another sign of something really went wrong is - traffic lights along the road were all broken. Ok, back to office - What!!??? light out. Only emergency light is on. Ok, I grabbed a book and sat down in Cafe 34 - starting reading - hoping the power will be back shortly ...

 

12/15 morning -

At 11:xx am, one of my coworkers called me and finally found me in the Cafe - " hey what are you doing here? The power is going to be out for couple days" - with my jaw dropped, he showed me his emergency plan and what to do with lunch, dinner etc. With little gas in my car I decided to follow him ... On the way to whole food (a super market that carries hot food) I know it is going to be really nasty ... it took almost 40 mins to get to there (noramlly 15 mins) and not surprisingly there is already lines of cars and people fighting for spaces and food ... That area is one of the very few places that still had power. And the only gas station that was opened in Bellevue is across the stsreet. I couldn't imagine why so many ppl were pushing their cars until knowing the fact that they were stucked there for hours trying to get the gas until their cars actually ran out of gas ... couple police cars block the entrance and trying to control the growing crowds of cars ... the line of cars extended from NE 8th st to 7 th st ... We quickly got some food and and it was already 2:xx after getting back to Office.

 

By trials and errors, we discovered some emergency power from the hallway - being so excited, suddenly there were many cell phones lying on the hallway ... and people start sitting around the hallway to get their computer, cell phones charged ... ppl were gathering here because we don't want to drive too much to save gas ... we continued to discuss emergency plans and what if the power outage lasts for more than 2, 3 days ...

 

Around 4pm, no more sunlight ... so we start to think about eat ... yes all these survival plan is around eating, sleeping, how to spend time in darkness ... i started to appreciate ppl in the ancient times when there is no electricty. What did they do at night??? How to sleep in such cold and windy weather??? Well I have some answers until I saw my housemate taking a walk in the dark and cold just to watch the clear sky with stars ... while all the electricty is out. Yeah, we can seldom recognize the fact that the sky is so beautiful without all the lights from city ... is our life full of those "important" survival things that we never realize there are lots of beauties hiding? Only when all these lights are out can we see the great creation ...  

 

Around 6pm, my coworker took the microwave from the kitchen and started using it - on the floor to heat up his lunch box. I should really take a pic - all the ppl lying on the floor, eating, talking on phones, typing on the laptop ... and listening to the radios for the latest updates on the power outage ... and eating energy bars, fruits ... etc.

 

Finally we were able to get in touch with more people who were also suffering from the cold, darkness ... and we decided to do sth without elecitricity - HOT POT!!!! Thank God we still have gas in one of the sister's place so with some "doll noodles", susages (in hot pot??) we managed to make a decent hot pot dinner - in the dark (well with some light from lighting up some candles).

 

At 11:XXpm, I went back to office - again? just to check out if there is any chance the power is back ... WOW, the cafe is back to normal!!! With this exciting discovery, I drove back home and expect to enjoy some hot water and light ... very close, not until 1am in the morning that the power was finally back!!!!

 

At the time I am writing this, there are still many homes without electricity, living in darkness, no showers, no electricty, BBQing indoor, inhaling too much carbon dioxide ... and accidentally starting fires with candles ...

 

After all these I really appreciate everyday with power/electricity/gas. Like the movie "CastAway" - every simple action using electricity is so blessed and so precious - thinking back on about all the emergency plan (stocking up cookies, energy bars, heating up food on the floor, sleeping in conference rooms ...) the first thing I want to thank God for 2006 - that i have been living in warmth and comfortability all along the year ...

 

My prayers go to all those who are still fighting for living in this cold winter without electricity ...

 

事習記者 好難忍 seattle 報道

To help combating my memory leak problem I finally got photos of those summer activities and trips (thanks Anthony!!) Looking at them, I miss my hair!!! (you must view my blog about cutting my hair first ...)

 

"This hike is long, arduous and potentially hazardous if the weather turns nasty." - www.nps.gov

End of Septmember. 40F. Cloudy. Foggy. Windy ... this is nasty to me ... in addition to forgetting to bring my gloves ... my hand was freezing ...

This is one of the toughest hiking I had in North America - besides the one in Grand Canyon. There were many times I want to top and turn back ... but finally we did return without arriving camp muir   ... I think we did make a good call because by the time we arrived the information center it was already around 6pm and it took 3 hours to drive back ... good for us bcoz the next day is Sunday.

 

 Too much to tell ... all in all - God is great!!! Actually this park is very "tourist" - very good road network, nice information, a lot of asians/tourist!!! However I only have photos for Part I - there are more nice photos from another camera - already worried about if my space can handle this ...

 

 

 

 

wooow ... finally I dare to cut my own hair!!! My first time!!! It is a 2 hours painful experience indeed ... I'd never envisioned it is so hard to cut ... there are basically two problems:

 

1. You can't see clearly in the mirror. Someone should invent a 360 degree mirror or a cheap enough all degrees camera (with real time playback ability) ... There are too many blind spots ... and the lighting in my bathroom is not professional at all. I can see why Eve was made ... otherwise who is going to cut Adam's hair? And suddenly I am so impressed by not being able to see myself completely even with the help of mirrors ... my life is as poorly viewed by my self as my hair ... brothers/sisters/friends, please help me to have a better pic of myself again!!!

 

2. There are parts you can't reach with scissors or trimmers. I have tried different angles even twisted my head but how can I layered cut the hair at the back (close to the central part) when both my left hand had to hold the mirror? I can't outline the hair at the back either ... suddenly you find yourself so helpless!!! Again I praise God for creating a helper for Adam ...

 

So it is not that horrible if you don't ask for too much about hair style. But I decided to put a hat on for about a week  . And after this I am convinced it is not a bad idea to pay for a hair cut. Also I am very confident in cutting hairs for others  absolutely free ...

 

I should take a pic of myself ... but after looking at myself in the mirror for a while, I decided to wait for the next time