8 years old...

A typhoon is coming to Taiwan. It was making good time, but now it's stalled up by the northern tip. The counties up north have already cancelled work and classes for tomorrow. I'm sitting and watching TV, waiting to read those magic words: No school tomorrow for Taichung County. Of course, it's all in Chinese, which makes it a bit difficult, but for this, I'll persevere.

Outside it's windy and rainy. It reminds me of those days long ago watching the snow fall in the evening, and then sitting by the radio in the morning before school praying for the day off. Rain isn't as pretty as snow (and not much fun to play in), and when you get a foot of rain in 24 hours, it tends to cause a lot of hell, but I don't care. Wish me luck.

Newsflash: School cancelled! Hurray! Time to open another beer. I never imagined I would live in a place that doesn't have "snow days," but "typhoon days."

Oh, and as an added bonus, Tim and I will get to keep an eye on our dog, who just got fixed. The worst part of it all was that the Chinese-speaking vet only knew the word "castration." Ouch. He is wearing the cone on his head at the moment, poor guy. He's bumping in to all the furniture and his cone scrapes the ground when he tries to sniff things. But he may yet get the last laugh. The vet told us he only had one testicle. I think maybe he kept the other one inside in case of just such an emergency.