Bad things happen in eights

This has been an, ahem, interesting past 24 hours or so...

1. Storms with 80+ mph winds blew through the area yesterday morning around 8AM. They took out the electricity at MPOW. When the lights came back on, one of the three transformers that serves the school did not. The transformer is so old that all three need to be replaced. Apparently, the new ones are coming via slow boat from China since it is not predicted that they will be in place until late today.
2. Our main Internet router and e-mail server for the district comes though this building, so no Internet or school e-mail currently district-wide. Dozens of computer training sessions to be rescheduled. No access to our finance system. No cheap or easy solution to moving the backbone to another location.
3. Power was knocked out at home. It was restored last night at about 11PM. No electricity means no water since we are on a well. No electricity means no recharging laptop batteries, no home Internet, no landline telephone, no television, of course.
4. Still no cable service this am.
5. We lost two great big tree branches. The chain saws are electric.
   
6. Took the boat out last night to survey the damage. The oil pump went out on the motor.
   
7. The transmission on my son's car failed yesterday. You'd think after paying $2000 for a '91 Ford Tempo, a guy'd get more than 6 years' worth of use out of it.
8. I have two speaking engagements next week. We have about 2 million relatives coming for my son's graduation party the following weekend. Work is nutty busy.
   

But it is all relative...

1. We all got our offices cleaned at work.
2. School is still out for the summer so nobody is hollering too loud.
3. The local coffee shop is a pleasant place to work.
4. Reading on the porch last night after a supper of grilled chicken, potato salad and fruit couldn't have been nicer. Silva's new book Moscow Rules is pretty good.
   
5. A bath in the lake can be refreshing.
6. The ice cream in the freezer didn't melt.
   
7. Our neighbor lost three entire huge trees in his front yard and his trampoline looks like a goner.
   
8. Lots of places lost roofs or had more serious damage.
9. A plane crashed nearby, killing eight.
10. My relatives will all still have a good time even if the boat isn't running.
    
11. My son is moving to New Zealand in a couple months and I didn't really want to store his car anyway.
12. My credit card company was beginning to worry something might have happened to me.
    

Overall, life is good. We'll see happens tomorrow.

The '91 Tempo (aka the Babe Magnet). Rest in Peace

Comments

[Paul C.]

Then there's 08/08/08. Hopefully it will be an auspicious day with the inauguration of the Olympics. The Chinese consider the date exceptionally lucky with the year of the rat, the day of the dragon, and the month of the monkey. These three are compatible with each other because they are in the same affinity group.

Good luck with the two million relatives coming. A summer family reunion could be fun. Congrats to your son.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Paul,

I didn't think about it, but there is a 9th bad thing as well: I am one for the probably half-dozen straight men in the US who went to see Mamma Mia. A painful two hours!

Interesting info on Chinese and their reverence for the the number 8. How do you remember all that you do???

Doug

[Paul C]

Hi Doug,
Thanks for the heads up about Mamma Mia and hope my wife will see it with the girls. I'll crank up the ABBA tunes when she's gone.
Regarding my memory I'm more a voracious reader of newspapers and articles. I tend to file articles for possible future posts for Quoteflections, and the 08/08/08 of the Olympics was at my fingertips.
Keep up the entertaining summer posts!