Thursday, January 18, 2007
Today was supposed to be a busy day with a Chinese New Year's party, the girl's first day of swimming lessons, and my much-stressed-about USA night for the IWC.
But, in the middle of baking the "world's ugliest fortune cookies" with a group of sixth graders, we got the announcement that we needed to hurry because the school was closing early. Then my cell phone rang telling me to pick Luci up by noon. Then I got a half dozen other calls from people.
The entire base was shutting down by order of the General.
I celebrated a rushed Chinese New Year with Tiara's sixth grade class eating fried rice, crab Rangoon, Chinese chicken salad, pot stickers, and a couple other nameless items under the sea of red paper lamps the kids made the day before.
I picked up Luci and tried to contact the club about tonight. Mr. Snackers wasn't there. So I tried to run a couple errands on base, but all the offices were closing. I couldn't even get the mail.
At home it was a barrage of phone calls trying to figure it all out. We ended up getting the word out to all the IWC members that our dinner was postponed until next week. It's a bit of a logistical nightmare, but I think we'll make it work with just a few glitches. I'm glad we have the weekend to tweak things a bit.
Anyway, the wind has picked up. Aachen declared a state of emergency and shut the city down bracing for the storm. The Deutsche Bahn train company stopped all trains across Germany. Police started closing off some roads in Geilenkirchen and telling people to stay home and indoors. The only people on the roads were going home.
Tinny had brought in all the toys and put a tarp over the metal grate leading to our basement with bricks stacked over it. I closed all our rolladn protecting our windows from flying debris.
One German news report called it Kyrill, naming this system that's bringing 105MPH winds - hurricane force winds - all across Northern Europe from England to the Czech Republic. So far there have been over 20 fatalities.
Kirk paced earlier worrying about this storm. He understands it enough to worry. Everyone is taking this seriously - with the exception of a couple Canadians that I talked to. They are so nonchalant about the weather.
The wind is gusting loudly outside shaking the rolladn fiercely. It's a wonder that anyone in the house is asleep.
But, in the middle of baking the "world's ugliest fortune cookies" with a group of sixth graders, we got the announcement that we needed to hurry because the school was closing early. Then my cell phone rang telling me to pick Luci up by noon. Then I got a half dozen other calls from people.
The entire base was shutting down by order of the General.
I celebrated a rushed Chinese New Year with Tiara's sixth grade class eating fried rice, crab Rangoon, Chinese chicken salad, pot stickers, and a couple other nameless items under the sea of red paper lamps the kids made the day before.
I picked up Luci and tried to contact the club about tonight. Mr. Snackers wasn't there. So I tried to run a couple errands on base, but all the offices were closing. I couldn't even get the mail.
At home it was a barrage of phone calls trying to figure it all out. We ended up getting the word out to all the IWC members that our dinner was postponed until next week. It's a bit of a logistical nightmare, but I think we'll make it work with just a few glitches. I'm glad we have the weekend to tweak things a bit.
Anyway, the wind has picked up. Aachen declared a state of emergency and shut the city down bracing for the storm. The Deutsche Bahn train company stopped all trains across Germany. Police started closing off some roads in Geilenkirchen and telling people to stay home and indoors. The only people on the roads were going home.
Tinny had brought in all the toys and put a tarp over the metal grate leading to our basement with bricks stacked over it. I closed all our rolladn protecting our windows from flying debris.
One German news report called it Kyrill, naming this system that's bringing 105MPH winds - hurricane force winds - all across Northern Europe from England to the Czech Republic. So far there have been over 20 fatalities.
Kirk paced earlier worrying about this storm. He understands it enough to worry. Everyone is taking this seriously - with the exception of a couple Canadians that I talked to. They are so nonchalant about the weather.
The wind is gusting loudly outside shaking the rolladn fiercely. It's a wonder that anyone in the house is asleep.
Labels:
Life In Germany
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I LOVE MOO! Creative.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
0 comments: