Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday Final

Wow!
What a day.
We went from imminent disaster to business as usual in the span of about nine hours.
Of course it was much longer for me.
I heard about the quake at around nine last night and I followed the news until about four thirty this morning.
Took a short nap then went right back to monitoring the events.
Following the buoy reports, then the reports from the Marquesas and Tahiti, only served to build the tension.
For a while there, it didn't sound too good.
As it is, all turned out well.
I have to admit though, there was the small disaster monger in me that sort of wanted something to happen.
I mean something did happen, but not the something I thought would happen.
If you grew up here in Hawaii, you know all about the power of the ocean. People die in the water here often enough to make you understand that the shimmering blue that beckons is just a facade for the dangers that lurk if you don't show respect.
The first thing you learn as a child is to never turn your back to the water.
Except for that one dude with the death wish and a couple of surfers, the public showed the ocean the respect that it is due.
It's difficult to imagine that one catastrophe that happened so far away could have caused another in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
It serves notice that we are all tied together in ways we don't often think about.
Even if we don't like it, it's not like we can just get off the planet and leave.
Elton John said that Mars is a pretty cold place.

2 comments:

John Romeo Alpha said...

Glad to hear that The Flat Tire HQ and surrounding area was unscathed. For the next one, you may want to have the bakfiets stocked with canned goods and TP, ready to head to higher ground... :)

limom said...

I was walking through the store last night, and saw that the shelves were cleaned out! I'm thinking of getting a couple of those storage thingys from Sears and buying a couple of pallets of bottled water and Dura Cell batteries.
If a disaster strikes, I can start my own republic.
Or at the very least, my own tribe.