Angry Soaking Rabbit

3.27am local time, Typhoon Signal No. 8, 26°C (78°F), pissing down

WE’RE in the middle of a tropical storm. It’s Force 8 gale outside. Everyone’s supposed to have spent the last 24 hours shatting their pants off. We didn’t. But since the telly’s showing “The Ice Pirates” from 1984, maybe that’s excuse enough to do just that.

Tropical superstorm Usagi (ウサギ ‘rabbit’) around the Taiwan Strait

(Image by NOAA via Time Out Hong Kong)

A piss … ahem, piece … of heaven

5.50am local time, 28°C (82°F), preliminary typhoon downpours

RIGHT now, it’s Typhoon Signal No. 3 here in Hong Kong. Freak weather continues in Europe. Earthquake in Italy. Flooding in the Himalayas. Radioactive fallout still spewing from the Fukushima plant in Japan. But it’s good ole’ “No Panty Day” today in the USA.

There be dragons

3.50am local time, 14°C (57°F), with one or two rain patches

What’s on telly: “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

WOULDN’T you know it, temperature just fell three degrees centigrade in the past hour.

I’m actually comforted by that, with only 24 hours to go before Chinese New Year (‘CNY’) comes. It’s always suddenly cold EVERY Chinese New Year. It means things are ‘nominal‘ — that very useful NASA word for ‘being according to plan.’ This sudden turn in weather is a good omen. Things are looking up. Despite my being accidentally jabbed in the ribs by a couple of over-imaginative but under-promiscuous chicks in the streets during afternoon rush hour.

On an unrelated note (and you know I’m always like this), you know on those antique maps and charts where it says “Here Be Dragons” to mean unknown, unexplored or unmapped places?

I now think we’ve got the mapmakers wrong. I think the fine gents of the cartography department actually meant the words literally.

Here’s why—

Dragon-shaped cloud over the Monument Rocks (or Chalk Pyramids)
in Kansas, USA

The mapmakers and mariners were describing what they saw, man.

I think we’re in serious need of an eye specialist if we’re seeing a cloud here.

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No, my friend, that’s not really a dragon-shaped cloud. That’s what flying dragons are actually made of. That’s why they can POOF! come and POOF! go!

“Puff, the Magic Dragon,” remember?

Regular, G.I. dragons of enlisted rank look like this—

Otherwise known as the Eastern Mud Salamander

Awww, dragon all the same.

They’re no fly boys, but great helping out the plant life.

Please don’t step on these small guys. Or the big ones above will come looking for you.

True fact that.

*

Alright, just consider both of them as snakes with legs, okay?

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(hat tip to Johnny for the dragon photo)

Salamander photo via Pennsylvania Herp Identification

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© The Naked Listener’s Weblog, 2013. Images as stated. (B13046)