"Haitang, the worst typhoon to approach Taiwan in five years"

That's what the Taipei Times calls it. The TEALIT typhoon alert site says, "From around 6am Monday July 18th the storm stalled over its position and began making a looping motion. This process went on for some 6 hours. Weather officials have not seen this stall/loop behavior since 1992."

Last night the wind started howling, and it was raining pretty good at times, and I closed up all my windows. Went to bed around 1:00 a.m. with the fan blowing on me because it was so hot. Not sure what time I woke up, drenched with sweat because the power had gone out and I no longer had the fan. Tried to go back to sleep, was miserable, so I opened my bedroom windows, which helped a little. Sometime later I was awakened by the feel of cool air from the fan. Ah, power for morning coffee! I made sure I ground enough beans this morning to last a couple days. I can always boil water on the gas stove if we lose power again.

Right now the sun is shining a bit, but that's because my little area of Taiwan just happens to be underneath an open spot in the typhoon that is completely obliterating the tiny island on the satellite picture. I think the center is heading directly for me, and I have no idea what sort of weather that will bring. "Currently winds are 114 miles per hour at the center." Sounds like fun, huh?

Today has actually been pretty mild, with some periods of heavy rain and some wind gusts, but really nothing any worse than the winter storms in northern California. People have been outside, some of them riding their scooters, and while the street outside is littered with some plants and other things (someone is missing a bra), it's not total devastation, and there haven't been any floods here (and since I'm on the fourth floor, even if it floods, I'm OK). The cicadas are in full swing in the little forest, and the temperature is steadily rising (dang it). I have all the windows open, and when I'm lucky enough to catch a good breeze, I'm happy for it.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, don't know if school will be closed again or not. The train service was suspended nationwide today, and if it's not running tomorrow, I can't get to Taipei anyway.

Keeping fingers crossed for continued power for playing online and watching movies ;)