Taiwan Emergency Procedure Drill

It started with a loud wailing siren that went through the whole city. All traffic must come to a stop and pull off of the road, and all people stand in place. Civil Police poured out of office buildings and stood on every street corner in military uniforms. I was told by a local that this is done by the army as practice for defense in the event of an invasion by China!

So for one half hour the city stood still. I shot this video with my camera just as the "All Clear" siren started up.

Street Vendor

This lady is selling flower bulbs? Quite the getup for a hot and humid day in Taipei, Taiwan.

Emergency Procedure Drill?

Found this on my hotel room desk today.

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you that an "Emergency Procedure Drill" will be held in northern Taiwan from 14:00 to 14:30 on Friday, September 9th, 2005.

If you hear the emergency alarms going off during this period of time, Please stay indoors until the drill is completed. If you are driving, please pull over to the side of the road and stay in the car.

I will keep you posted on this also.

More Typhoon Khanun Information

[Typhoon Infotmation] KHANUN

[typhoon Infotmation] KHANUN Should be pretty interesting getting out of Taiwan in the morning! Starting to clould over here, (around noon right now) and get very humid. I will of course keep you posted.

Greeting From Taiwan!

Friday morning here in Taiwan! Long flight was made longer by plane troubles in PORTLAND. We left about two hours late and that caused us to miss the connecting flight in Narita, Japan. I am getting ready to head out to the first of many appointments. Sleep came in one hour chunks last night so I think tonight will be the big hard crash!

The Night Before...

Mystery Bulge in Oregon Still Growing

Mystery Bulge in Oregon Still Growing: "A recent survey of a bulge that covers about 100 square miles near the South Sister indicates the area is still growing, suggesting it could be another volcano in the making or a major shift of molten rock under the center of the Cascade Range."

I Leave For The Far East On Wednesday...

Starting to pack for the big trip September 7th through the 27th. It all has to go into one carry-on and a backpack. I can do it!

A Day Of Fun?

The Shed: Started out the morning by crawling under the shed and adding floor and foundation supports. It went well, with just a little dirt, bugs and crazy on my back positioning until about the third post. I just needed to get the post under the floor board, maybe if I put my shoulder under it and push... POP! I have heard this sound three times prior in my life and each time I do it the same damn way! Tore my rib from the cartilage. I must just have a crappy rib cage! So I crawl out from under the shed and press on my chest and 'yup' that's what I did. We will see how bad I did it in the morning when I get out of the bed.

The Smell: After the rib thing I took two advil while standing in the garage, that is when Deb and I noticed "The Smell." It was not the garbage smell, or the cat box smell, or a gas smell, it was something DEAD smell. I started following my nose and crawling around on my hands and knees in the garage the whole time thinking... Dead mouse. So I narrow it down to somewhere around the cat door, I get right next to the cat door and whew, that's it! Shit, a friggen mouse has crawled into the crack between the cat door and the sheetrock and died in the wall! I then think, what if the DeCon I put under the house 2 weeks ago has killed so many mice that this smell is coming from under the house! I quickly head over to a couple of foundation vents and sniff... No stink. I prepare to remove the cat door by making some room... moving some shelving racks next to the soon to be work area. There it was, dead, stinky, mouse... But not in the wall!! I gladly clean it up, spray Fabreze and let the garage air out.

The Gutters: We head to Home Depot for some screws and come home with gutters! I figure with the shed on a hill as it is, I need to do what I can to prevent water from going under it and washing out the supports holding the thing up. For about $100 bucks we have everything we need and we can channel the water away from the footing blocks. Today we mounted one side and we will finish the other tomorrow.

The Transfer: In the end we moved a ton of stuff into the shed. Here is Deb working her magic on the roto tiller.

My Gutter Fetish Continues!

We only finished one side today but it sure turned out nice. Home Depot vinyl gutter system so simple even I can do it. We will see if tomorrow brings a quicker install on the other side.

The Downspout...

You'd almost think I knew what I was doing by the slick way this turned out!

Some Completed Supports...

I left the shims hanging out for any future adjustments. Since the dirt is pretty torn up from the shed being drug over it, I expect some settling to occur. As you can see the floor is pretty well built and after these supports it is quite solid feeling inside the shed. If I jump and the floor does not move, it can hold a mower and a wheelbarrow just fine.

Fun Under The Shed!

Decided to get it over with and head under the shed. I added 8 more supports for a total of 12 points of contact for the foundation of our newly leveled out-building. Can you say spider webs? Can you say cramped laying on your back in the dirt? Glad to have this chore done!

Leaning Tree...

Here is a mosaic of the 'Leaning Tree". Thought the photo turned out pretty well, but there is just no way to crop it.