Sea Swells and Big Guns

There is a storm in Cape Town at the moment. It arrived on Monday with downpours, near-gale winds, and big sea swells. We live on the top floor of our apartment building and there isn't any insulation or space between us and the corrugated metal roof so it is quite loud when raining hard and it woke me up this morning with the pounding and blowing. Also, since our building isn't sealed so well, the wind comes in through the cracks and around the windows so the curtains sway back and forth.

A benefit of a storm are the big waves in Table Bay. The swells smash up against the Sea Point Promenade and launch up into the air 20 feet or so. Today Jared and I were walking to Sea Point and stopped at the intersection by Standard Bank to look towards the sea a block away and the big waves there. After watching for a minute or so we crossed the street and as we were walking past the bank I saw the guy in blue crouched by the bank wall holding a very big gun. The biggest barrel I've ever seen very close, I don't know guns at all but it looked like some kind of automatic thing. On the other side of the sidewalk was another guy in blue with his hand on the handle of his gun, which was tucked into his bullet proof vest, his eyes darting around. Both guys were very nervous, understandably so since there are a lot of attacks on armored vehicles when they pick up money from banks and stores. That was these guys' jobs. I've never seen anyone so nervous with a gun before, although I don't hang out with guys and guns and haven't encountered them much.

It was a bit of a shock, from looking at the ocean to looking at the barrel of a big gun and then the nervous guy holding it. I saw a lot of security people today. South Africa has a high crime rate and security personnel are everywhere, but today I really noticed them.

The storm is expected to continue through tomorrow and then the sun should come out again.