Munch and I live in the same neck of the woods.
Right after World War Two, the late Herman Wouk wrote The Caine Mutiny about a ship (The "Caine") during the War. It was a best-seller and was made into a hit movie. When I was about ten (and my cousin Claudia was practicing blowjobs on me) I read the book.
In the book the climax of the story takes place in a huge storm. As the crew are trying desperately to keep the ship in one piece, one of the officers says the immortal line:
"Goddamn Puget Sound weather!"
It was the first time I had read the name of any place I knew in a "famous" book. And it was accurate.
Remember that grainy old black-and-white clip of a suspension bridge bucking and heaving in a storm, and finally collapsing 400 feet into the water? That was the First Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The Tacoma Narrows is a part of Puget Sound.
Well, last night we had another of those storms. They aren't really hurricanes; they aren't really like tornadoes. They form in a few hours off the coast and sweep in with crazy wind going from 40 mph to 100 mph and back in a few seconds, then changing direction to hit from the opposite way at 80 mph, and dropping four or five inches of rain in an hour or two. A local woman who does voice-over for commercials drowned in her basement in South Seattle when she was tidying up and a flash flood hit her house. Her neighbor wasn't bothered.
My office is a few miles south of where Munch lives in the eastern suburbs of Seattle. All the electricity and internet has been **91** since last night, and will be out for a few days. For those of you familiar with the area, the irony is clear: Munch lives up the street from the Microsoft Factory.
Anyway, Munch and Bill will be off-line for a while.
I live in a place called Ballard, where a century ago the place was wired by the Socialist Party hard enough to withstand a direct nuke and still have power.
We wish you well, Munch!!