Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Typhoon Bolaven- a major dud!

This weekend we prepared and prepared for what was expected to be the worst typhoon in 13 years.  The photos and weather reports looked scary.  A category 4 typhoon the size of Texas headed directly at our tiny little island.  
Big and scary storm huh?  So we prepared as we always do before storms like this.  We secured all of our outdoor furniture, stocked up on water, and bought non perishable foods (which we never do!).  My biggest fear was losing all the freezer meals I've spent the last month on, so we bought extra ice to keep our freezer cold in case we did lose power for a long time.  
As the storm approached, the Military took extra precautions to prepare and protect our families here.  I cannot lie, they do a great job at doing so.  They have certain tropical condition readiness procedures for us all, AKA TCOR's.  From June 1- Nov 1, we are always in TCOR-4, which means that a storm could come in 72 hours.  As a storm approaches, we move up and up, until we reach TCOR-1E, which means there is a strong storm outside and we are not permitted outdoors.  As the storm approached, they moved us along the TCOR's as normal.  
Standard procedure suggests all pregnant women who are above 37 weeks to report to the hospital when we reach TCOR-1C, meaning the storm is very close.  This is to not only protect pregnant women, but also because when storms like this come, the pressure changes can cause a person to go into labor.  I wasn't sure if this would effect me or not, but on Friday afternoon I got the call.  They requested me at the hospital with linens, cash, and anything I may want to entertain myself while we were in emergency status.  I was not to bring anyone with me, and I would be stuck on a cot all day/night.  
Well guess what?  I didn't go.  I live right next to the hospital.  I did not want to be stuck in the hospital for a long period of time.  And if this storm was even close to as bad as they were predicting, I would worry about Dima and Zach the entire time.  I decided that if the time came for this emergency status, I would make the call.  When it came, I felt fine.  No contractions or signs that baby was making his appearance anytime soon.  I opted to stay with my boys instead.  I felt that if got forbid I were to go into labor, I could get down to the hospital in time.  Well the storm came and went, and no signs of labor came.  We still have just under 2 weeks until my scheduled c section, so will spend the next 13 days preparing to be a family of 4.  
As for the scary storm?  Not scary at all.  It barely did anything out there but rained!  Yes, we got some wind, but nothing too crazy.  I think we got a worse storm last May when a Category 1 hit us.  Rather safe then sorry, I'm happy nothing serious happened and there was no damage, but I am sad to have seen a wasted weekend.  Why do typhoons always come on weekends?  On the bright side, as the tail end of the storm hit us Monday, Dima didn't have to go into work.  
We spent our time riding out the storm indoors, watching veggie tails and hanging with our friends.  Saturday night, we decided to cross something off our list for this summer- a drinking game!  Though I can't drink, Dima can, and so can our friend, Jon.  We discussed a beer pong game, or quarters, but settled instead on the family guy drinking game (drink for different things.  Stewie and Brian sing a song- chug a beer).  After the family guy drinking game got old, we played Cranium again, but turned it into a drinking game.  Every time someone rolled, the boys had to drink.  Let's just say they had quite a few.  My recycling bin will make me look like a bad mom this week!  But all in all, we had fun playing, and darn it- the drunken boys beat the girls in the end!  
We rolled the dice.  Time to drink!  
So though the storm was un-eventful, we are happy to have had a nice weekend together!  

Celebrating the end of Jon's Master's degree with scotch.  Neko had to sit half on the couch with the guys!

Stepanoff Summer Sixty Checkoff:

Drinking game

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