Know your danger, mark your exits, . You should always have a getaway.
Yesterday, I took a walk around Dahu Lake, a beautiful body of water with jungle on one side and a wide flat sidewalk next to wide four lane road on the other. Spitting the four lanes to two and two is a raised subway rail line known as Line 1. The sun was hanging low casting a golden coat of paint on the dark concrete of the raised rail line as I walked. I do not know the exact time of day, but it was the magic hour. To choose between walking a think dank jungle or a sunny sidewalk next to a cool lake during magic hour is no choice at all.
Know your danger, be keen to the signs, be vigilant and awake. With me on the sidewalk was an elderly Taiwanese women walking a corgi. Thirty yards ahead a man clad to the teeth in under armor was jogging with his chihuahua. Both of them were enjoying limited success. The corgi, although part of a notoriously lazy breed, was jumping all up and down and all around it’s owner. The little chihuahua was like an orbiting satellite swirling around the man’s in quick circles making it very hard for him to run. Maybe the corgi was trying to steal the old ladies purse and the chihuahua was trying to take out the jogger for the insurance money? Maybe, but probably not. It was mind wearyingly odd behavior indeed.
Know you danger, listen to instinct. There is another explanation. Maybe these two members of the same species were freaking out because some impending doom triggered their K-9 equivalent to a Spidey-Sense? Maybe the dark moon was nigh? If it was nigh the only thing that would make those two dogs freak out like that would be an earth quake. Bitches don’t love earthquakes, neither do I.
Mark your exits, be quick to the draw. For the rest of that day I stayed vigilant, I stayed vigilant for the rest of the night as well. I did not sleep. Like phantom pain I felt phantom earthquakes all around me, a little shake here, a little shake there. In the bathroom, at my desk, in the gym. Was that an earthquake? No, it was just some asshole running at 15 mph on shitty treadmill. But I held true to my words and marked my exits and was very quick to the draw, although they were false alarms.
Know your exits, be ready for the show. Like I said, I did not sleep, at around 10 AM, the morning after I saw those two deranged puppies, I was sitting at my desk watching Breaking Bad. In the case of a hypothetical earthquake I was to grab my keys, passport, cellphone, and laptop and jump out of my third story bedroom window into the safe branches of the tree close outside. It was a good plan, and God was laughing at it.
11 AM the earthquake struck, 5.6 in magnitude, 10 km below water off the coast of Yilan county, which is a short 45 minute bus ride from my apartment. At 11:01 AM my plan flew out the window.
I was right and the world started to shake, I opened the window looking to jump into mother natures branches but I thought better of it. I needed a smoke. I grabbed only my keys, lighter, and Marlboros and ran down the stairwell to the shaking would outside. It was far less exciting on the ground. After my smoke I needed to shit, so did the peaceful dog walking its owner to my right. It is absolute supposition but it gives me such peace. Mark your exits, know your danger. Always have a getaway.