clycone gonu

i looked up the name (thanks to etimology websites)... apparently its a Greek (?) word (also Latin "genu") literally to mean, "knee" in English. no idea how they picked it up as a possible cyclone name...makes one wonder.

it's been a horrific past few days around here. particularly, last wednesday/thursday were the roughest days. literally had rain coming into the house, had to regularly wipe the floors to keep the water from flooding the inside of the house. had some electrical, phone line and satellite tv outages but wasn't too long a period. i believe i was lucky enough...I've heard more tragic stories from neighbors and colleagues from other areas. my employer's office will be closed for the next days because of this. several areas where badly hit by strong winds and floods (coming down from the mountains) making major and minor roads seem like river beds.

i have to confess though...tuesday, when all of the hype and hoopla about the impending storm was at its peak, everything seemed normal... sun was out, no rains what so ever. one could feel something in the air that was brewing but, growing up in a tropical country where storm-lashing comes as naturally as breathing in air, I felt the storm couldn't possibly be any worse compared to Manila storms. It put me into false sense of complacency...which I quickly snapped out of by early wednesday. I guess...the storms strength coupled with the Muscat environment, exponentially increases the disastrous effects.

work was cancelled for wednesday and saturday...it was a bit fortunate for my case as it gave me the opportunity to make up for lost time on studies. been getting nudged by one of the bosses to finish a couple of Cisco exams soonest possible time. so yes, I spent the past four days or so studying...and sweeping the water of the house. went to the exam center a while ago but was closed (probably coz of the storm). the other part of my studies requires me to be online for it...without dsl at home and with the office closed, it will be a challenge.

here's to quicker recovery times...