It’s 8:30pm on a Saturday night.

The kids are tucked up all snug in their beds.  Like this, possibly including the books and the towel, but not on the couch:

I’m zonked, too, having been pregnant all day and having laid down for a “nap” at 4pm.  John is thinking, “I guess she’s really going to sleep all night,” though he isn’t surprised at all by the thought.

And then the siren goes off.

It sounds like one of those old-time air-raid sirens.  Winds up to the high-pitched wail where it sits for a few minutes (though it seems like more) and then winds down.

Boy, nothing wakes you up like that tsunami siren going off, let me tell you! I’ve heard it at noon on the first weekday of every month for the last year+, but this was the first time it’s actually gone off for reals since we moved here.

WOW!

What an adrenaline rush. Whew. There is none of the sleepy-eyed waking up feeling. DING! Good morning! Time to get to work!

These are some things I’ve learned.

1. In the event of a bigger wave coming, authorities may shut the water off. I think it’s done in order to conserve the water in the water towers or something.  Filling bathtubs or water bottles is all well and good (and I was until I heard the announcement that they were asking people to quit it.  Bathtubs hold a TON of water!  What a great idea!)…

… But it may not be an option in a major crisis.  Having water already stored is an even better idea.

When the crisis has come, the time for preparation is past.

2. Speaking of bathtubs, two of our three were super grungy. I now have a more compelling reason to keep our tubs clean. Or maybe just buy one of these for $20 on Amazon, which I didn’t know existed until I searched for “water storage comic” on google.  No comic, sadly, but this is pretty cool:

What I want for Christmas.  Alas, it doesn’t come with the beautifully tiled, clean bathtub.

Sure, it doesn’t bother me when the littles regularly drink their bath water -well, it bugs me, yes, it does quite a bit- but If *I* may need to drink out of it too, I want it sparkling.  None of this blue soap-scum tint to the water as it fills up.  Water should not be grey or blue or any other color if you’re going to have to drink it.

(not my actual bathtub but it kinda could be)

I contemplated scrubbing them while we were making other preparations until my hubby wisely said,

“When the crisis has come, the time for scrubbing bathtubs is past.”

He was right.  And I’m getting a WaterBob so I can sleep better at night.  Maybe even before Christmas.

3. I bet the members of the Married Student Stake were grateful for the Emergency Preparedness activities held just a week ago. A week!  What kind of awesome timing is that?!  They had a Tsumani Evacuation Run, a 72-hr-kit Competition, a speaker, and a booth set up by a Red Cross volunteer with information about hurricane/tsunami stuff. Great timing! And those who took counsel seriously and got their homes in order were blessed tremendously with peace of mind this weekend, I’m sure.

Thank you for the giggle http://www.mormoncartoonist.com/

4. Counting blessings.  I’m glad we moved our bookshelves upstairs a few months ago.

I stole that picture from this blogpost, which was actually a nice little post. 

 I’m especially glad we live out of the danger zone. 3 of our 5 slept right through it, blaring sirens notwithstanding, since we could “evacuate” just to our upstairs and leave them sleeping. There were those near us who left anyway and headed for higher ground, but we prayerfully chose not to be among them.

5. I feel like a mega-loser.  Yeah, our 72-hours kits could be in better shape.  I need to update clothes for C and add a few more water bottles.  Yeah, my house upstairs looks like a disaster has already struck and my downstairs strives daily to look similarly.  That’s not it, though.

No, it’s much worse than that.  Not once in all that tsunami-stuff did I think about calling the sisters I visit teach. Not once!  OH, the slackerness of me!  I cared more about potentially having to drink out of my bath tub than I did for the safety the sisters under my care, all of whom live very close to the ocean and even downhill from it!  Can you believe I’m even publicly admitting to that kind of selfishness?  I’d delete it but I really really REALLY want to be better if there is a next time.  A little public humiliation will do me good, so please feel free to bag on me in the comments below.

As it turned out,

…there wasn’t any tsunami here to speak of. At all. They were thinking 3-7 ft waves, which would have done some major flooding ’round here, but it ended up being a solitary one foot wave, I think, which would have been hardly discernibly different from the normal ones.  I think C & E (the two who were awake) were pretty disappointed. John and I are not. We’re tremendously grateful.

Combined with the hurricane on the East coast and the lesson in Sunday School the following day (which wasn’t about tsunamis, but about studying scriptures, actually), I had a powerful epiphany about signs of the times.  Too bad I’m already at my 5 things, huh.  I guess it’ll have to wait for another post.  And I need to stick to just 5 because, after all,

This is a blog hop!

My first ever, um, this year!  Thanks, Women in the Scriptures blog.

Tagged as: tsunami