... is a world I can't imagine and wouldn't want to live in. Even though I spend most of my work day reading newspapers and websites, I want - no, need - to spend at least a few minutes (if not more) reading for pleasure.
I get so much from reading books - they feed my imagination, and they make me think, laugh and/or cry. They also cause envy sometimes (over the talent of such amazing writers whom I would love to be like but I don't see myself coming up with the tales they do). All that from something that comes in one pretty package. One of the good things about Bruce being so busy in recent weeks is that I've had plenty of time to read in the car while waiting for him to finish work. I don't go anywhere without a book these days.
I've managed to make my way through quite a few books in the last few months, and will slowly be building a list in case anyone is interested. I've started with a "Currently Reading" list that I'll update as I move down the pile of books beside my bed, and am also going to create a "Recommended Reading" section. Let me know if you have any books you want to add to that list - I am always on the lookout for books to read. Perhaps I'll also add a "Just Finished This, Stay Away!" list if I happen to come across something bad (although that's doubtful, because it has only rarely happened in the past and I'm becoming choosy about what I buy these days).
A couple of books I read in France in July made their way to Singapore, thanks to a certain niece of mine, so if I forget the titles, I hope she'll nudge my memory by leaving them in the comments section.
As far as possible, I'll try to link the titles to either a review of the book or some sort of summary/background, as I have done for the two in my "Currently Reading" list. One of the marvels of the computer age that I intend to make the most of, since I either won't have time to write a review myself or have found someone who can do a much better job.
I will try to get back to borrowing books from the library instead of always buying them, where possible, but buying books has long been my weakness (I buy books the way some people buy shoes). The reason for that is two-fold - I want to have my own little library in my house, filled with my favourites that I can return to at any time, and I want to support the writers I love by purchasing their books instead of only borrowing a copy from a library. I am a huge fan of libraries and don't ever want the world to be without them, but I want to have my own. Even if I borrow a book from a library, I'll probably end up buying a copy for myself if I like it enough.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Great Flood
September 21st, 2009 was the day of the Great Flood in Georgia.
When we left the house for work that morning, I had no idea how bad things would get by the end of the day. The fact that there was a traffic jam on the highway just a few miles from our house that early in the morning should have been an indication. There was a mudslide on the highway, with only one lane open at that time, and those giving traffic updates on the radio and TV were saying to stay at home and try getting to work later, when the sun was up. So that's what Bruce and I did - turned around and went back home.
I started working from home and decided to just stay at home and work that day, after speaking with my boss, because more and more often, the traffic and weather people were saying to do that. Bruce couldn't, because of the project they were working on in his office, but by the end of the day, he was wishing he had. It took him an hour and a half to get to work that morning, and four-and-a-half-hours to get home. He had tried to stay off the highways because there were quite a few traffic accidents and bad traffic jams, but going on the back roads turned out to be a bad idea as it rained quite heavily several times on Monday and caused floods on so many of those roads that he had to keep turning around or taking detours. At one point, he was only about seven miles from home, I think, but the road he was on goes over the Yellow River at the bottom of a hill and was no longer passable as a result of the heavy rainfall. He finally ended up on the highways he had tried to avoid and got home at about 8:30 that night.
The floods were so bad that some people could not even return to their homes that night - the houses were inaccessible. My intern wasn't able to get to work that morning because the area she lived in was completely cut off by the floods - she was only able to get out on Thursday. There was almost non-stop news coverage on TV that night and the next morning about the damage wrought by the floods - some houses were almost completely covered by flood water. Ironically, in the middle of all that water, one lone house was on fire - it had apparently been struck by lightning. Lots of people had flooded basements, at the very least, if not more - lots of damage to furniture and appliances. I can't even begin to imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to lose so much at one go.
The worst of it is that most houses in Georgia are not covered by flood insurance, because they were not built in flood plains. One man said that he had tried several times to purchase flood insurance but was told he couldn't because it wasn't allowed, as he wasn't in a flood plain. That is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a while, and I hope it changes soon. (I'm sure insurance agencies would be fighting that, though, because they would have had to make huge payouts after this flood, if enough affected people had bought flood insurance beforehand.) People should be allowed to buy whatever insurance they want, if they want it and are willing to pay the premium. There is so much nonsensical bureaucracy in this world.
We, thankfully, had no damage. We had a bit of a lake in the backyard at one point that afternoon, but that soon disappeared into the ground.
October is supposed to be a dry month but we've already had more rainy than sunny days in the last two-and-a-half-weeks, I think, and lots of people are now paranoid every time it rains. The sun seems like a stranger these days. Even today, when it was supposed to be sunny, we've only seen clouds and some rain The one good thing about all this rain is that the lakes are now back to full pool, as they call it, after two or more years of drought.
When we left the house for work that morning, I had no idea how bad things would get by the end of the day. The fact that there was a traffic jam on the highway just a few miles from our house that early in the morning should have been an indication. There was a mudslide on the highway, with only one lane open at that time, and those giving traffic updates on the radio and TV were saying to stay at home and try getting to work later, when the sun was up. So that's what Bruce and I did - turned around and went back home.
I started working from home and decided to just stay at home and work that day, after speaking with my boss, because more and more often, the traffic and weather people were saying to do that. Bruce couldn't, because of the project they were working on in his office, but by the end of the day, he was wishing he had. It took him an hour and a half to get to work that morning, and four-and-a-half-hours to get home. He had tried to stay off the highways because there were quite a few traffic accidents and bad traffic jams, but going on the back roads turned out to be a bad idea as it rained quite heavily several times on Monday and caused floods on so many of those roads that he had to keep turning around or taking detours. At one point, he was only about seven miles from home, I think, but the road he was on goes over the Yellow River at the bottom of a hill and was no longer passable as a result of the heavy rainfall. He finally ended up on the highways he had tried to avoid and got home at about 8:30 that night.
The floods were so bad that some people could not even return to their homes that night - the houses were inaccessible. My intern wasn't able to get to work that morning because the area she lived in was completely cut off by the floods - she was only able to get out on Thursday. There was almost non-stop news coverage on TV that night and the next morning about the damage wrought by the floods - some houses were almost completely covered by flood water. Ironically, in the middle of all that water, one lone house was on fire - it had apparently been struck by lightning. Lots of people had flooded basements, at the very least, if not more - lots of damage to furniture and appliances. I can't even begin to imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to lose so much at one go.
The worst of it is that most houses in Georgia are not covered by flood insurance, because they were not built in flood plains. One man said that he had tried several times to purchase flood insurance but was told he couldn't because it wasn't allowed, as he wasn't in a flood plain. That is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a while, and I hope it changes soon. (I'm sure insurance agencies would be fighting that, though, because they would have had to make huge payouts after this flood, if enough affected people had bought flood insurance beforehand.) People should be allowed to buy whatever insurance they want, if they want it and are willing to pay the premium. There is so much nonsensical bureaucracy in this world.
We, thankfully, had no damage. We had a bit of a lake in the backyard at one point that afternoon, but that soon disappeared into the ground.
October is supposed to be a dry month but we've already had more rainy than sunny days in the last two-and-a-half-weeks, I think, and lots of people are now paranoid every time it rains. The sun seems like a stranger these days. Even today, when it was supposed to be sunny, we've only seen clouds and some rain The one good thing about all this rain is that the lakes are now back to full pool, as they call it, after two or more years of drought.
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