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Wind Storm
Absence lessens the minor passions and increases the great ones, as the wind douses a candle and kindles a fire.
-- La Rochefoucauld
Wednesday, October 27, 1999
The big news today: windstorm! Seattle seems to get one of these a year and it's always big news. The strongest gusts were about forty five miles an hour. We didn't feel them, up on the twenty third floor, but there was a strong breeze in the gap between the elevator and the main part of the building, which one felt as one crossed from one to the other. Kat, my coworker, called us into her office. "Leaves! they are blowing by my window!" she cried, since this isn't what you expect to see at our height.
The wind seemed to give the elevators some problems, since we had building engineers standing in as elevator operators when we went to the downstairs deli to pick up lunch. The other bad effect - the power blinked off three or four times this afternoon. I didn't lose much work, but the suprise of the PC powering down with a pop startled me each time. Rebooting takes a long time, too, since the computer wants to scan the hard drive after the irregular shut-down.
I was able to do my production work (the third part of our Dow Theory article, edited and formatted, and an "In Focus" stock article) but I made no progress on Java. Chip's suite of scripts were able to fail gracefully even when the power went out, so the site got updated at the regular time, which I found impressive!
Traffic was bad in all directions, so I went over to the Bellvue Square Mall and wandered around. I have a regular tour when I'm doing this sort of idling. I go through the womens' clothing, looking for items suitable to wear out dancing: short skirts, dresses that would be fun. Most things are too long, or don't give freedom of movement. Then I scan the earrings, and hair doo-dads. I did this at the Bon Marche, and at Nordstroms, but managed to escape without buying anything! Then I looked for something to eat, which is always a problem at this mall. They do have restarants and fast food places, but there's no food court, as such. All the establishments are scattered around the mall, so unless I go to a directory sign and look up what all is there, I usually just end up at McDonalds because I can find it easily.
Tonight, after buying some thigh-high stockings (one pair blue glitter, one pair black and white stripes, and I must remember not to buy anymore -- I don't like the fit), I stopped to eat at My Favorite Pirogy. This place has good food, but not a good location in the mall. It's in the closest thing to a cul-de-sac, where the mall itself turns into part of Nordstroms, and there was no one else eating there at all! The bacon, cheese, and green onion pirogy was tasty, though, and I read one of my stock market books while eating.
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Gus has still got it! "I found I'd received the latest copy of the bimonthy Utne Reader. A bimonthly magazine is such an infrequent treat that the receipt of an issue confers an almost holiday quality on the day all by itself." But do those who start with him now, and don't go back and read The Big Fun Glossary and Musings of the Gus, really appreciate him?
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