Friday, Jul. 02, 2004 - 8:45 p.m.

Oh yeah, the typhoon has hit. Typhoon Minduelle is its name. Down Typhoon M, down boy. Right now there is a HUGE discrepency between what the news/weather media is saying is its path and what people who live in areas all over the island are saying they are experiencing.

I am in Tainan, in south-western Taiwan, and we have been drowning in rain all day. High winds, thunder and lightning too. On the way home from school tonight (we were open, but closed early), I saw WAY too many tree branches (and whole trees in some areas), scooter and scooter parts and other lightning damages and wind blown debris everywhere, esp in the middle of the road.

I also saw loads of ambulances and enough people walking their scooter, or pulled over on the side of the road.

The rain was hard, I could hardly see while I was driving. The darkness of the evening made it hard too see big puddles too, of which there were many! The big puddles not only can cause you to swerve and soak your entire leg, but can stop your scooter engine too. I was about 1 foot into one before I knew it and had to maneuever fast before anything happened.

My scooter actually wouldnt start today, so I had to walk it to the mechanics in this mess. Luckily hes only 5 min walking distance. I was in my silly but waterproof happy yellow rain poncho.It only covers to right below the knee, so I wore rubber banded pink garbage bags on my calfs. What a sight I was. I dont know what was wrong with the scooter, but it only took him about 1/2 hour and it runs better than it has in months. And it wasnt even running bad!

What I have heard so far about the Typhoon is as follows:
It is raining in TP, but nothing crazy yet. Taoyuan has nothing, Hualien is drenched, Kenting was hit early on and is now ok. The media said that the main thrust of the storm is Taipei. Nope, not yet anyway. This storm is weird cause it has changed paths so many times already. First it was headed for the south-west coast (thats me!), then the north-west and the most recent prediction is the north east. Oh, how I wish they would stop predicting and just tell us what was happening as its happening.

I have a feeling its not a good idea to be online while this storm is going on, so off I go for another TV fest. No books right now so its either that or staring at the wall.