I Want the Clouds Back

I know...I'm picky, picky, picky.  But at least while the storm was here I didn't sweat nearly as much.

On a random note, I had my first island power outage last night.  I made it 32 days.  That just might be a new record for my last 11 years of island life.  (The lights did flicker a few times while I was in Guam, but never went completely out.)

Storm update: It is now a Category IV Typhoon and expected to hit Super Typhoon status.  I'm pretty sure I will have to stay a few extra days now seeing that it should slam into Japan about the time I was planning on going there.  Sigh--a few more days on a tropical beach in paradise.

In other news, I toured a ship today!  I love touring ships.  I had the privilege of touring three subs, three ships, and a replica of Magellan's boat while living in Saipan.  Today I got to tour a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research ship.  Sadly, I took pics with my camera so I can't post them yet.  We took the children from church on a field trip to tour the ship (followed by Happy Meals at McDonald's).   Since I can't post pics of today quite yet, here's a link to an online picture of the vessel I toured. http://pifscblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/sette.jpg

For my one science buff reader (Adam--this is a shout out to you!  Sorry, it's not physics though.), here's the purpose of the ship here on "my" islands.  Everyone else can skip this paragraph.

The vessel is engaged in a 30-day research project in the waters of the Northern Mariana Islands to learn more about the biology and environment of bottomfish resources that support the local fishing economy. On the first leg of its voyage, from June 19 to July 3, scientists on the Sette are studying the near shore and coastal waters of Uracas, Maug, and Asuncion, the Islands Unit of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument. During the second leg of the expedition, July 7 through 21, research will focus on the waters of Pagan, Guguan, Sarigan, and Anatahan. Local fishermen and representatives of Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, Division of Fish and Wildlife, Northern Marianas College, and the Northern Mariana Islands Mayor’s Office are travelling aboard the Sette, which will also be dropping an archaeological team on Alamagan for field studies there.

Well, my time is Saipan is drawing to a close.  Only about 35 hours left--assuming I get a flight back to Guam in the near future.