May 6th: The day dawned beautifully following the wet and windy nighttime hours.
We were just lazing around, doing as little as possible while drinking the mid-morning brunch smoothies Holland whipped up for us … Holland was chuckling at some YouTube videos, and I was watching a pay-for-view Barbra Streisand movie, while finishing up the body work of the project I am designing.
After I finished my delicious smoothie, I went upstairs to lay down for a half hour-45 minutes: I had been up since 4 A.M., coughing, and hadn't want to wake Holland with all the tossing and turning - so, I got up to grab a cup of coffee, and just stayed up. Now breathing easier, I needed a quick power-nap ;-)
Holland's tasty 'Green Smoothie': ginger, garlic, tomato, carrot, spinach, & celery ;-)
I was just settling in and getting my body comfortably situated, when piercing weird music tore through the air outside and roughly brought my sleepy thoughts out of the drowsy cobwebs.
What on earth?
Cutting through the tweaked 'good humor wagon' music, came a verbal message. I instantly sat up when an uncomfortable thought ran through my mind - 'Wake your senses all the way up, Val! This weirdness is the Long Beach-WA Tsunami Warning system - weird, but true …' I stumbled to the foot of the bed, and groggily said, "Holland …" And he answered, "I hear it too, and I'm listening".
We listened for a few minutes; we stilled our breathing and waited for some indication of an approaching monstrous wave - the birds were still trilling, the ground was not quivering, and there was no hemispheric roaring … doomsday silence was absent, Independence remained standing on a firm sandy foundation, and there was no atmospheric disturbance happening.
It seemed to us, to be a normal day at the beach.
Curious, we drove down the Ocean Park Approach to see if we could visually see an approaching danger riding on the waves.
Nothing unusual.
The waves were a bit choppy - but nothing out of the ordinary. This is the Pacific Ocean; the waves are always in rebellious mode, here.
The sky was encouraging; seagulls lazed about on the warmed beach sand.
People and dogs trolled the beach; neither seemed unduly concerned about getting their feet wet in the beaching waves.
Holland and I exchanged 'I don't get it' looks, before Holland pulled out his phone to see if he could find out what the warning had been about.
All he could find was a tornado warning: you read that right.
I just shrugged my shoulders. Tornadoes don't come off the water … hurricanes, do; but at this point (with craziness erupting in all corners of the planet) in Life on Earth, nothing would surprise me.
Holland checked his phone for alerts, and got this instead of a tsunami warning …
The ocean looks 'normal'.
We watched the waves for a little bit - it was apparent there was no tsunami approaching … up, or down, the long beach ;-)
When we got back home, I went on line to see what I could find about nearby global disturbances that would have triggered the warning siren we hear earlier.
I also checked to see if I could find anything about an incoming tornado riding the local waves.
Nothing.
But what I did find was more disturbing: if a tsunami ever did strike this region, the State has decided the ocean can claim our lives!
Chinook-WA, Ilwaco-WA, Long Beach-WA, Klipsan-WA, Ocean Park-WA, and Oysterville-WA are all right in line with the beach line. The only high points, that might be considered safe havens, are Fort Columbia & Cape Disappointment … and those hillsides would be choked immediately with traffic jams of fleeing people; these sites would also immediately be filled to capacity as the hillsides can only contain a fraction of the population - they are steep hills with limited parking area, steeply dropping off on all sides to the raging ocean below.
It angers me that the State would not allow people the opportunity to risk waves leaving the peninsula, as opposed to hopelessly facing a monstrous wave wall of an incoming tsunami.
I am pretty sure Holland and I would be rebels, and break through the barriers. If we are going to die a watery death … we get to chose how we go down. We are not going to allow the State to chose our death for us.
On another note: the only warning I came across at all, concerning the waves in our immediate vicinity, was a warning to small ocean vessels about choppy waters.
WTH - the State cannot trap people on a spit surrounded by water!
So, we got on with out lives in the moment.
Holland cooked the meal he had been planning.
I watched movies and worked on my crochet project.
We banked on Love to securely hold us - Elohim's love; and our love :-)
Holland's pork stir-fry … Holland's 'Pork Stir-fry': seasoned/marinated pork bits, spinach, tomato, celery, garlic chunks - it smells wonderful. Slow cooking makes everything tender :-)
Crystal Gayle - 'You Never Gave Up on Me Lyrics': (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewSpqahsQM)