No Electricity for 1st time !

In the last 4 and half years' stay in US, today was the first time I experienced no electricity in US. It was just for a minute / 2 minutes and so it was no big deal ... especially if you have stayed in Mumbai (India) for more than 20 years of your life .. :)

The bigger concern is that after the flood, heavy snow storm , northwest has been hit by yet another storm this week. The loss of electricity was one of its side effects. The winds are expected to be as fast as 100 mph !! I sure dont want to be on the roads when thats happening ! Heavy rain and gusty winds with flood warnings is whats on the radar ! Lets see how they fight this one ..

Now who wants to debate with me about global warming ? huh ? anyway, that reminds me of a funny conversation I had with another friend of mine. This guy is in California and he was like, well at least you should be happy about global warming ! you always keep whining that its too cold here is seattle ... global warming is helping you guys ;) ... but for us -ppl in California - its getting hotter !! Look how unaware people are of global warming !!

Update : Just after I posted this one, I & the whole of redmond, parts of Bellevue and Bothel, seattle lost power for more than a day !! The day was a hell ... no TV, no comp, no food (since here we have electric heating everywhere), no hot water .. no nothing !! well, no work for the first time wasnt that attractive !! :) The gas stations were closed since they also opearted on electricity ! So every gas station in those parts which had electricity had a huge line of at least 30 cars !! IN the night, five of us went out for dinner around 7.45 and ordered around 8 O clock ... there was so much rush that we got our food at 11 !!! The longest wait ever for food !

Obviously (now that I am writing this post) power is back up online .. but I will never forget this one day without any power - a thick blanket of darkness over redmond & all around over me !

Update 2: Its Monday morning and still more than 250000 ppl dont have power and its not expected for another couple of days either !! Nature's wrath helped by poor city planning is such a pain for thousands of people ! I hope the city learns from its mistakes !!

Snow Storm in Seattle !

Snow covered seattle (http://bobqat.com/Mazama/Seattle/032.jpg)

For Seattle, snow is something that December or even on a few occasions January brings along as a Christmas or new year gift :) ..but this year, it came as an unexpected thanksgiving gift instead ;) .. and as is always, anything unexpected is NOT welcome so easily ... If you stay in seattle, you know exactly what I am talking about .. A big snow storm in seattle !! In fact, Seattle has broken all the previous records of precipitation !!!

Freezing temperatures - well below zero ... heavy snowfall the first day, sunshine the second and again snowfall the third ... this particular combination is the worst as the first day's snow melts by the second day's sunshine but due to cold temperature, freezes and it becomes ice - and believe me ice is worse than snow ... A place like seattle which is normally considered to be guarded from snow by the snoqualmie mountains, is completely covered with snow ... its all white everywhere .. its completely offguard ... the doorkeepers have given up completely ...

you know whats worse ? Some of the places have lost electricity .. such cold weather (I swear to god, at one time yesterday the temperature was 18 degrees Farenheit thats well below zero in celcius) and on top of that no heat !!! man .. thats like the worst nightmare ever ! So many people have just recovered from the recent floods and now this calamity ... its just getting worse by the day ... in fact its snowing as I am writing this blog ... and I dont know in what state am I going to find my little babe Z tomorrow ... its out there alone fighting the snow all by herself ...

Kid with her snowman (http://clappstar.com/mt/past/295_9599snowman.jpg)

While the kids were enjoying their early 'snowman making time' as the schools were closed, some people had to spend nights waiting in the traffic on the roads ... for some people even that was not possible as their cars went out of control and got banged and had to be abandoned only to be towed the next day ! The offices / schools were closed and people who could stay at home stayed at home and worked from there - like me ! I am at home for the last two days working just like I would if I were in office or in fact more than that ... and believe me it sucks ! when you are in office, you want to be at home but now that I am at home, I want to go out ... why ? because there is nothing to do at home other than working ! its like home-imprisonment ! Especially because of the snow/ ice outside !! Well, at least I am thankful that I have electricity !! I dont know what I would do without that ...

Anyway, do you think this is due to the Global warming ... I mean seriously, havent you started hearing about such natural calamities coming at wrong times, seasons becoming erratic in nature, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis a lot lately ? Has it just started happening a lot or has it just started getting noticed a lot these days ? Are we heading towards the apocalypse ? Who has seen the future ? :) .. (how) can we change it ? ;)


more photos : http://www.komotv.com/weather/photos, http://www.kirotv.com/slideshow/weather/10421635/detail.html?qs=;s=4;w=320

White Water Rafting !

After skydiving, it was time to try something different and equally adventurous ! Last visit to falls hadnt allowed us to go close enough to the nature ... so we decided to get into the water and feel it ourselves ... :) ... yes ! We - 9 of us ( 8 guys and 1 brave girl) - thoroughly enjoyed white water rafting yesterday on (Class V) Skykomish river considered the most challenging river in Washington ! This was the right time to go for river rafting ... there was just the right amount of water in the river as a very little snow melts around this time (beginning of summer) ... Basically u cant go for rafting late in summer as there is too much water (then all the rocks will go under the water) nor can u go too early .. (u dont want too less water as well for obvious reasons ..) It was an amazing experience with just one glitch ... heres how it went.

June 18, 2006. Zeus gracefully accepted my requests and gave us a nice bright & sunny day ! Everything was very well planned, thanks to Akshay ! We had driving directions, food (pohe & pav bhaji which swapna had made !) .. We drove for about an hour and reached the rafting place at around 9.35am as we had hoped for. Since this was the first time for most of us, everything was pretty new .. the wet suits, helmets .. but we got past the awkward feeling of the helmet as soon as we reached the river shore ... heart was pounding really fast ... everything felt perfect to start this new adventure ..

We were about 40 - 45 ppl (including trainers) which were divided into 7 groups with maximum of 7 ppl in one group .. 9 of us got divided into 3 separate boats as 2(I was in this group), 6 and 1. They gave us safety instructions ... DOs and DON'Ts .. Then our trainer told us the commands he was going to use to help us maneuver the boat ... 3 on each side of the boat .. Each of us was given a paddle and the motions were simple, foward, back .. and combinations of that - as in "All Foward", "All Backward", "Left F, Right B" and "left B, Right F" depending on the purpose to go in front/ back or for turning in either directions ... I was in the front of the boat and on the left ..
The trainer sat in the back end of the boat and steered the boat in the right direction ...

It was easy stuff to start with .. water was calm in the beginning and there were only class 3 rapids to start with ... It felt great !! soon we were close to the very infamous "Boulder Drop" .. Before we raft thru' the boulder drop, we were taken to scout the drop ... The guide told us exactly how he wanted us to steer the boat thru' the drop and at what point do we have to turn etc .. the water was really fast around that area and there were 3 stages of that drop where water would fall down to a lower level meaning that boat would not remain horizontal !!

We spent about 10 minutes scouting it and then got back on the boat ... as you can see in the pics, it was a tough one ..

Start of the Boulder Drop

Into the Boulder Drop - Stage 1

Almost Vertical Raft !

Done with Stage 1 but now have to keep maneuvering the raft

But due to the flow of the water, raft turned in the wrong direction.
Now we have to turn it back before we get to level 2

Still no luck .. keep pushing hard .. keep working .. times running out ..

Ok. Looks like we are gonna make it .. and yeah thats me ... rightmost in the pic
sincerely paddling :)

Oops !

Oh ! I am rightmost in the snap ! Totally in air & water !! :)

Still in air :)

Back to the water level :) almost done with stage 2 of Boulder drop

Just going thru the motions .. Thrust of water is so much that what can those little paddles do !

Preparing for stage 3

Push Push Push !


Relxing time finally !

We thought we're done .. almost !

But the boat turned the other way ..

well .. nothing can be done now .. we continued to flow backwards ..

End of stage 3 !

There were times when boat was so high in air that my paddle would not reach water !! But it was fun !! Right behind us was the boat with the group of 6 of my friends ... when they went thru; the boulder drop, I think they hit a rock on the way and one of guy "Alyque" was thrown out of the boat into the water and travelled downstream pretty fast ... A single rescue team guy in a kayak and another boat pulled him over but the damage had been done by then .. he had disclocated his left shoulder ... noone knew exactly what had happened but the guess was that he hit a big rock on his way in water ... he was conscious but in lot of pain .. He was transferred to the same boat again and they started rafting first to the destination to get him some medical help ... but it was still about an hour's rafting remaining ... Alyque did a good job to just sit thru the pain during that time ...

Alyque in water ...

Hello ? Anyone there ? Please help !

Help on the way !

Boulder drop was followed by a number of class 4 rapids including Fisherman's hole, MarbleShoot, Lunch Hole etc. which splashed so much water on us that by the end of it we were completely drenched ... Our guide had been rafting for last 20 years and he had a number of stories to share ... Also the river was so scenic .. We could not capture that beauty as none of us had (dared to take ) a camera ... But overall it was great great fun !

We rafted for abour 8+ miles for about 2 - 3 hours ... Once we reached to the shore, we rushed to the nearby hospital and took Alyque to emergency (since it was sunday, no docs were available in general sections !) ... they fixed his shoulder in no time and he was fine after that ... so that was the glitch I talked about ... Hez doing fine now ... I got to know something important during this time .. A patient which needs medical attention esp a surgery etc should not be given anything to eat as that delays the effect of anaesthatia ... The doctor at the emergency section almost shouted at us for giving aluque lott of food to eat ... we thought food will help him get the energy etc .. but :( !

Anyway, so an amazing experience & a must do at least once ! I would have said that even if I were in the place of Alyque ... mishaps can happen anytime ... and I have a big history of mishaps .. so I am not worried about them at all ... If you are afraid then you should try a class 2 or class 3 river which gives you all the fun you need without anything extreme ... But if you wanna be adventurous, then class 4 / 5 is what you need ! Its great fun & pretty cheap .. this thing cost us around 60 - 70 bucks including lunch ! so not bad I say ... right ?

Do let me know your rafting experiences as well !

Skydiving !!

This has been one of those sports I always wanted to try ... you know what skydiving is right ? as the name suggests sky-diving !! To be specific, you get to the 10000 ft and then let yourself loose ... how is that ?

I got my first shot at skydiving a few weeks back ! Six of us went to "Texas Skydiving Center" in Lexington (about 1 hr drive from Austin) ... Here is a list of all the skydiving centeres around Austin http://www.bluebound.com/States/Texas/sky_diving.htm .. A little advice ... you have to call these skydiving centers up to let them know when you will be coming and the size of the group etc .. so anyway, we reached there and the lady made us all sign the papers saying if we die / get hurt its not their responsibility !!! Thats a little scary for the first timer !!

(some of us)

But anyway, I get into the jumping suit and all set to fly .. fly high .. actually till the time I was on the ground, I was very excited .. not even a touch of fear .. I was really happy that I was going to do something I always wanted to do ...

(me getting in(to) the gear !)

For whatever reason, they decided that 2 - 1 - 2 -1 was the best ordering and unfortunately that 1st 1 was me .. and so I was going up there alone ... Well technically speaking, I was not alone .. what we were going to do was "Tandem Jump" which means that a trainer would be tied to our back (or we would be tied to his front) and he would jump with us ... So, the aircraft arrived and I hopped in with my trainer ..

The plane was in such a bad shape ... It was rumbling, creaking, shaking and everything else possible ... There was so much air and noise of the plane that I could hardly hear my trainer talk .. At one point, I looked down from the window and it looked much more than 10000 ft to me ! When I asked the trainer about it, he took out the altimeter (I guess) and told me that its just 4000 ft !!! that was the first time, a touch of fear zoomed past by me ... still it was ok .. After 10 minutes when we were at 10000ft, my trainer tied himself to my back and opened the door of the plane !! I swear to God , that was soooo scary ... For the first time, such very fast gush of wind hits you & you look down and there is nothing u can hold on to ..nothing ... I started counting to three but before I could reach to three, my trainer gave me a push and that was it .. I was in air ...

I could hardly breathe thru' the nose .. you go down soooo fast that you have to keep your mouth open to let some air in !! But after the first second of free fall, I started enjoying it, I let my hands out and enjoyed the only time I could fly as a bird !!! For the first time, I felt I am not heavy at all !!!

(thats me in air !)

After 40 seconds (yep ! 40 seconds for 5000 ft !! that is fast ... try calculating the speed !!) trainer pulled the plug ! relax ... he pulled the parachute plug ... a sudden jerk and I was pulled 90 degrees and became stand-up vertical ... after that it was about 10 - 15 minutes of sightseeing from air ... looking at everything tinier than an ant ... I wish I had a camera man ! the view was just so lovely !!!

I can just go on and on about how I felt and how nice it was .. but it will never be enough .. you have to experience it for yourself !!!

A few tips for those who want to try it :

1. As I said earlier, call the place up and let them know u r coming
2. Go to that skydiving place as early as you can - especially if u r going as a big group
3. You have an option of professional video being taken of the whole fall !! (of course you have to let them know before hand as what that needs is another guy to jump with you with an videocamera)
4. Eat properly before jumping ...
5. Dont be scared .. what is the worst that can happen ? u will die right ? whats the big deal !! :D