A Crack in the Windshield

Nearly two years ago on our cross country drive from Utah to Virginia, the very corner of our windshield was hit by a rock. It must have happened somewhere in eastern Utah or Colorado, but it rained through most of the drive that day and so we never noticed the small chip. But when we woke up the next morning to start the next leg of our long, long journey, a small crack had begun to spread up the passenger side of the windshield. 

By the time we got to Virginia, the crack had spread up the passenger side of the windshield in a small arch but it stayed that way for some time. It didn't bother us since it only obscured the passenger side. (I know you can't really see the crack very well from the picture above.)

Not having the money to repair the windshield right away, we left it as it was. A few months later, however, I was driving on a rainy day and a huge splat of rain fell right on the crack on my windshield and immediately caused the crack to spread even further, until it stretched right through the middle of the driver's view. 

It was low enough on the windshield that it didn't completely obscure the view and so we kept driving with a cracked windshield. I forgot it was even there. And even when we did have the money to fix it, I kept putting it off for one reason or another. 

We had earmarked some of our tax return to replace the rear shocks of my car (which were in desperate need of fixing) and I finally inquired about having my windshield replaced at the same time. When I was finally connected to the glass guys at the dealership, they said they'd come to my house, it would take an hour to replace it, and it cost way less than I expected. 

Now I feel a little foolish that I waited so long. I'm so happy to have a crack-free windshield once again. (Just in time to sell my car and buy a mini-van. Oh yay.) 

Crazy Asian Drivers

Most of the time, I just go along and do my thing and totally forget that I live in Korea. I spend most of my time on base, which aside from all the Koreans who work there, is just like being in America. So it's easy to forget that I do actually live someplace that is not America outside the walls of the military base as well. But there are random moments when I'll be walking down the street, snooping around the Korean market like the impostor that I am, or laughing over the gaping mouths of Korean children as they watch me walk past with my pale pale skin and blonde hair and get struck all over again that I do, in fact, live in Korea.

I had one such moment last night.

David and I hung out with friends to eat a little dinner and rock out. [I think I'm about ready to step it up to hard on drums.] We left a little after midnight and if we leave that late we generally just take a taxi home. So we waited on the curb where we know we can generally flag down a taxi. I should have instantly known this ride would be an adventure when David flagged down a speeding taxi cab and the driver hit his brakes so hard and fast that he skidded a little and killed his engine.

Still, we hopped in fast and took off, just happy that we'd managed to get a taxi so quickly. (We generally have to wait a little while to get an open taxi.) My second clue that this would be a hair raising adventure came when David and I realized--with a little bit of horror--that the seatbelts had been cut out of the backseat. I don't know why you'd cut out seatbelts from a car, especially a taxi, but we had no choice but to dig our feet in and hold onto the door handles and each other.

Since only designated cabs are allowed access onto base (and this wasn't one of those cabs), the quickest way to our neighborhood from our friend's house was to go around the base and drive through a convoluted series of twisty streets barely wide enough for two cars, down a mountain. So our speedy cab driver was barrelling down these streets, barely slowing down at the speed bumps or when passing another car and generally driving like a crazy person. Halfway down the mountain, I realized that "I'm not in America anymore" and started to laugh.

We had the cab driver drop us of a few blocks from our house and walked the rest of the way home, laughing over the ridiculousness of the ride we had just endured.

But hey, at least it was the shortest cab ride home ever.

But next time, I want a seatbelt.

Let it Rain!

I woke this morning to the sounds of torrential rain beating down on the roof of our condo and the distant flashes of blue lightning. Now, in a place where there is no prospect of snow and little climate change between summer and winter, rain signifies something resembling what winter should be, which puts me in the mood for Christmas....which until we put up our tree last night, I wasn't really prepared for.

I also woke to the image of my poor husband, bleary-eyed and wet [from a shower, not the rain] putting on his uniform. (Not one of the good ones, either.) My car has been out of commission for the last two weeks because of a leak in the power steering line which means I can't turn the blasted wheel. In any case, I've been waking up early (by my standards) to drive David to work at 6:30 in the morning so that I can have use of his car during the day.

So I stumbled out of bed in time to put on a baggy sweatshirt and slide into my slippers to take the 15 minute drive to David's work. We ran to the car but not before getting soaking wet and set off.

Our first indication that nothing good was going to come of this endeavor should have been the fact that our windshield wipers could not wipe fast enough to let us see out of them. It only went downhill from there.

We got onto Kamehameha Highway [Kam](which isn't so much a highway as a two-lane street that wraps its way around the whole island) and, as we headed down the hill, we were met with a police blockade which forced us to turn down a side street. We had no idea how to get where we needed to go from there, but all the other side streets we went down were fully flooded and we were spraying water all over the place. Cars were backed up and unable to decide where to go and rivers of water were gushing past our car.

We eventually got turned in the right direction and came to an intersection where we could get back onto Kam, this being the only way to get to work other than the actual highway which would require a lot of back-tracking through roads we didn't know to reach. Once we finally inched our way to the intersection, all the cars in front of us started to turn around. We finally realized that they were doing this because the entire intersection was completely flooded and there was a Jeep stuck in the water in the middle of the road. So David and I sat there, trying to decide if our little Pontiac Sunfire could make the right hand turn onto Kam of if we would get stuck like the other car.

By this time, we'd been battling the floods for 20 minutes and we were only a mile from home. The radio was full of people calling in, updating Perry and Price of new road closures, more flooding, bad traffic, blackouts (whenever there's bad weather, half the island is subject to electrical outages) and school closures.

David wasn't ready to admit defeat yet and so he gunned the engine and we made it though! As we drove back up the hill, we had to dodge fallen tree branches and brackish mud. As we reached the ascent of the hill, where it levels off before hitting Wheeler Air Field (still a ways from where David works), we noticed that the lights up ahead had just gone out. Just then, three minutes before David should have been at work, David got a call from his boss saying that the whole area around their building was flooded and that he should stay home. I was quite relieved because the whole time we were attempting to get David to work, I was thinking how much I didn't want to have to drive in such heavy rain or inch my way through flooded roadways.

Luckily, we were close to an on-ramp to get on the highway, so we zipped on home, shed our soaking wet clothes and hopped back into bed to sleep for another two hours (three in David's case).

Also lucky for us, we live in Mililani, which is in the center of the island, on a hill and has much better drainage and less flooding. We also still have electricity, which others do not have right now, and we're safely ensconced in our home, still wearing our pajamas at 11:00am on a Thursday morning.

It's still pouring rain outside but after our adventures this morning, I think I'd rather just stay right where I am. At least I have several good books to read and a husband to annoy. :-)