Let's Try This Again

Well, this blog started out as a good idea, I guess. But if you’ll note in my profile the “recovering workaholic” part, you might not be surprised that I got busy at work and never really got going here. But walking in to work today I started putting together a post in my head (that’s what I used to do that made me think I could keep a blog in the first place). So here’s what I was thinking, as best I can capture it now.

Weather in Seattle has been particularly weird this fall, and last night was the capper (at least for me – folks in outlying areas whose houses washed away a few weeks ago probably have a different perspective). We had a windstorm whip through here with 90 mph gusts on the coast and 65-70 mph gusts here in the city. I swear to god(s), last night my apartment building was moving like we were having a small earthquake.

Then this morning, my power was out, like half of Seattle and 2/3’s of the surrounding counties. I know some folks who work for Starbucks, and I really need to let them know what a successful “third place” my neighborhood Starbucks turns out to be when most of us don’t have power. I’ve never seen so many folks in there; I think everyone wanted some light and heat and music as much as they wanted coffee. I spent a good few minutes glaring at one guy who’d finished his coffee but wasn’t giving up his table. Especially when I realized he was online reading the Drudge Report.

I’m at work now, and getting here was an adventure. My bus couldn’t get on to campus because a big tree had blown over into the road. It also knocked down part of a bus shelter. I’ve really got to get a camera phone or start carrying my digital camera around, because right now a picture of that massive root ball would save me about a thousand words. I have to admit, it looked pretty cool though it would have been much better had the tree hit the building next door, home of the university’s Forestry department. Did that tree have no sense of irony?

I should start a pool with my coworkers, though, on how long it’ll be before the bus shelter gets fixed. My money would be on about mid-May.

And there are tree branches scattered all over campus. My favorite (again, wish I had a picture!) was about three feet long, standing straight up with the broken end speared into the ground. Makes me glad I stayed inside last night. I guess I’m morbid (or I’ve watched too much CSI), because I couldn’t help but imagine that thing speared right through a person.

More reinforcement that I’m morbid comes from a grad student who just walked past my office door and noted how sad the cartoon on my door is. Finally, something I can show you a picture of!