starshadow_rivaulx (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
starshadow_rivaulx) wrote2010-07-14 11:33 pm
starshadow_rivaulx) wrote2010-07-14 11:33 pm
Just to let people know...
Me and my house managed to weather the typhoon/tropical storm
Conson/Basyang quite well, thank you. Never was I more grateful to
have done the laundry than I was yesterday, knowing that all the clean
washing had come off the lines the day before.
Power went out at 11pm. Ramon and I, after making the rounds of the
windows, sat down on the front porch with Darklette-cat to keep us
company, and watched the storm roll in. Ramon went back inside after
several minutes, since the mosquitoes decided he was the perfect
nommage for them. I stayed up for an hour and then some, watching the
gusting winds bend the trees. There's something about storm-watching
that blows all the cobwebs in my mind away; the more I watched, the
more relaxed I became. Of course, storm-watching from the comfort of
a secure home and all people safe and accounted for, is a unique
situation.
In any case, it was easy enough to tell when the heart of the storm
was over our house. The sky got visibly darker - the kind of pitch
black that shows up lightning really well. An ordinary rainy night
sky has a kind of grayness where you can see the clouds scudding
across the sky. When the heart of the typhoon is close, the gray
fades, and the wind keens, and you can hear tree branches snapping and
someone's galvanized iron creaking. You can barely see the car across
the street stripped of its protective covering as the wind whips
round.
The storm didn't drop its payload of rain over the house until about
1.30am. Despite the fact that the power had gone out at eleven, I made
the call not to turn on the genset until the last moment - no one was
about to open the fridges or the freezer if they were all asleep, thus
conserving the cold needed to keep everything frozen or edible. Went
inside to see if I could fall asleep, which I did quite easily, and
thus paid off more of my sleep debt than at any time since the summer
began. Turned the genset on when I woke at around four in the
morning, and kept it running till the power came back at around 2.30pm
this afternoon.
Oh, the mess of it all! Tree branches everywhere, but thankfully no
trees down. Opened windows, checked around the house, made sure the
maids were about their business, had breakfast and a shower, then went
back to bed at around seven. Didn't wake up until around ten, after
the best sleep of my life to date. :)
Checked the genset, and Ramon and I decided to make a run to the gas
station to refill the reserve jerricans. After letting Mama know we
were going out, the run to the bank and the gas station acquired a
side trip to the grocery, and then to Andok's for roasted stuff for
lunch.
May have to go out tomorrow to get cat food, though - today's grocery
run was focused on essentials, and of course there was the gas station
to take into consideration.
So all's well that ends. :) Life goes on, and hopefully the damage
won't be too bad in the provincial areas.
Conson/Basyang quite well, thank you. Never was I more grateful to
have done the laundry than I was yesterday, knowing that all the clean
washing had come off the lines the day before.
Power went out at 11pm. Ramon and I, after making the rounds of the
windows, sat down on the front porch with Darklette-cat to keep us
company, and watched the storm roll in. Ramon went back inside after
several minutes, since the mosquitoes decided he was the perfect
nommage for them. I stayed up for an hour and then some, watching the
gusting winds bend the trees. There's something about storm-watching
that blows all the cobwebs in my mind away; the more I watched, the
more relaxed I became. Of course, storm-watching from the comfort of
a secure home and all people safe and accounted for, is a unique
situation.
In any case, it was easy enough to tell when the heart of the storm
was over our house. The sky got visibly darker - the kind of pitch
black that shows up lightning really well. An ordinary rainy night
sky has a kind of grayness where you can see the clouds scudding
across the sky. When the heart of the typhoon is close, the gray
fades, and the wind keens, and you can hear tree branches snapping and
someone's galvanized iron creaking. You can barely see the car across
the street stripped of its protective covering as the wind whips
round.
The storm didn't drop its payload of rain over the house until about
1.30am. Despite the fact that the power had gone out at eleven, I made
the call not to turn on the genset until the last moment - no one was
about to open the fridges or the freezer if they were all asleep, thus
conserving the cold needed to keep everything frozen or edible. Went
inside to see if I could fall asleep, which I did quite easily, and
thus paid off more of my sleep debt than at any time since the summer
began. Turned the genset on when I woke at around four in the
morning, and kept it running till the power came back at around 2.30pm
this afternoon.
Oh, the mess of it all! Tree branches everywhere, but thankfully no
trees down. Opened windows, checked around the house, made sure the
maids were about their business, had breakfast and a shower, then went
back to bed at around seven. Didn't wake up until around ten, after
the best sleep of my life to date. :)
Checked the genset, and Ramon and I decided to make a run to the gas
station to refill the reserve jerricans. After letting Mama know we
were going out, the run to the bank and the gas station acquired a
side trip to the grocery, and then to Andok's for roasted stuff for
lunch.
May have to go out tomorrow to get cat food, though - today's grocery
run was focused on essentials, and of course there was the gas station
to take into consideration.
So all's well that ends. :) Life goes on, and hopefully the damage
won't be too bad in the provincial areas.