Clueless!

Saturday was sunny and clear. We took a short walk in the morning and drove up to Bandon for lunch.  We sat and ate our crab enchilada and chicken cesar salad, drank Pinot Grigio and Long Island Ice Tea, and watched these pelicans on the rocks the entire time, as we enjoyed our meal in comfort at Lord Bennett's Restaurant.

We didn't know that a tsunami warning had been issued for the Pacific Coast as a result of the enormous earthquake in Chile.

After lunch, we decided to take our long walk of the day as we digested our meal.  The tide was still high, and walking had to occurr on the bluffs above the surf line, 30+ feet on solid land. We were halfway through our walk, when some tourist mentioned a tsunami arrival in his greeting. We cut our walk short and  got back to the car and the radio, at the time that the tsunami was about to hit Hawaii. 

We thought about our cottage on the lake and its possible destruction, the aggregated history in boxes and on the computer. Everything would be gone.  Our car, where I used to keep backpacks of emergency supplies when we first came up from California, is empty except for rain gear and baseball caps.  We had no food, no meds, no blankets.

I thought about Cloudia at Comfort Spiral and Pseudonym High School Teacher, two bloggers from Hawaii. 

I thought about the rest of my family in Southern California, in low land.

By the time we got back home, I had totally forgotten about the need to have emergency supplies in the car.

Why is it that we think these things won't happen to us?

These events should shake us up.