First, let me say that I hope those of you who went through yesterday's typhoon are all right.  I hope your families and homes are safe.

There's a description used for someone with no common sense: "S/he doesn't have the sense to come in out of the rain."  Well, ladies and gentlemen, that would be me.

It's almost a law of nature that, when classes are called off, no rain falls, no wind blows. Having heard our officials cry wolf many times over, my family and I decided to take time off, hit the malls, go shopping, and catch a movie. The mall we chose was not the mall closest to us--nah, that would be a sissy decision!  We went all the way to Makati, about 20 kilometers from our home.

When we got to the mall, it was pretty much shut down with the exception of a few restaurants.  By the time we finished lunch and decided to scrap the movie and shopping portions of the program, the wind was howling and the rain was horizontal.  When we exited the parking lot, GI sheet nearly grazed the nose of our car--terrifying, to say the least.

Driving from Makati back home was the sort of surreal adventure you would expect from a disaster flick.  We had to avoid fallen branches, in some cases driving against the traffic because our side of the road was blocked.  We drove under scaffolding that was threatening to collapse at any moment.  We drove past a giant billboard that had fallen on a passenger bus--that was horrific. 

By the time we got home, our house was intact but the garden was a calamity area.  Milenyo uprooted four trees and snapped the tops off three more.  And then of course, there was a variety of debris scattered just about everywhere. Just to give you an idea of the damage: