Another lazy Sunday afternoon

It looked like rain.

I woke up and took the dogs out to do their business and notice the weather. It's windy and gloomy. The sun comes and goes as the clouds shift. Hubs told me it actually sprinkled for a second. It's Taiwan weather. Make both of us want to go back. =(

After high school...we rarely go back to Taiwan in the summer. It's too hot and sticky. Fall and Winter are usually the best time, even though we are face with fierce winds and downpours, anything is better than the hot thick air you could barely breath in. We usually make a yearly trip to visit my sister and the in-laws. One distinct memory was the year my sister got married.

It was the 921 earthquake year. The quake was 7.3 on the Richter scale (Northridge earthquake was 6.7), 2415 people were killed and over 400,000 left homeless. Coming from California, we're use to earthquakes. I wasn't terribly scared when it started...but it last forever and we were up on the 6th floor. Hubs was stranded with me at my sister's since it was only a couple days after the wedding. The aftershocks continue days after. I often use 'old Christmas light' to summarize electricity transmission in Asia ~ one light goes out and so does the rest of the string. We were without power for a couple days, follow by rolling blackout. My parents were down in Taichung with my aunts (much closer to the epicenter). My aunt's home had floor to ceiling glass window that shattered. Everyone ran out with their slippers on and drove out to the baseball field of a nearby school. We also drove out (sis, BIL, hubs, and I) but felt it was safer to stay home since none of the traffic signals were working. It was into the next day when the telecommunication was up and we were able to check with friends and relatives. We ate dumplings by candlelight, took showers when it was our turn with power, and bonded. With no other source of entertainment, we only had each other. Days later as the reports came in; I realize how lucky we were. We had our homes and none of our family members were hurt.

The devastation to the rest of the country was a different story. Buildings collapsed taking hundreds of lives with them. Buildings remaining are crooked. Stories of bodies left on the street because there were not enough body bags. Sections of land were raised as much as 23 feet into the air. Bridges destroyed cutting off traffic for weeks. We were lucky.