I survived the Seattle windstorm

Everyone at work is relating how they lost power in their homes. I feel almost deprived, as my only real inconvenience was the hour-long drive home last night (short by comparison with other people's horror stories -- but at least I made better time than the buses).

At one point my cable service died for about 3 minutes. And the lights flickered a little bit.

But the worst part of the evening for me came after I went to bed. The winds were so strong they shook the repeatedly building. Now, tall buildings are built to sway a little in the wind. Even taller buildings have internal mechanisms to help shift the energy from wind so that the buildings don't break.

But I couldn't help wondering what tolerances the Seattle building codes specify for wind stress. It didn't feel like my building was built for this kind of windstorm. And this morning someone told me they don't have wind-storms like this.

Maybe a few Balrogs blew into town as a tempest of fire or something.

So, anyway, despite the debris-littered streets, the fact that people who rely on public transportation are getting into work late, and the fact that I was without cable for about 3 minutes (3 minutes of silence gives you time to say to yourself, "Huh?"), I don't really have anything to report.

Shame. Would have made an interesting blog post.