Things I’ve learned:
- When you have one of those cough medicines that says it gets rid of stubborn coughs by thinning secretions or whatever (or in Dutch, something about “tough slime”), do not take it at bedtime. It seems to work well while I’m vertical, but I was coughing almost literally all Monday night and got very little sleep. Last night I went back to Nyquil, which works well for me. The only thing about that is that I sleep much more deeply than usual and sometimes have to remember where I am when I wake up, even when I wake before the alarm clock.
- Grief doesn’t come in an intense phase and then fade awy to a pleasant memory; instead it just recedes to where it’s not always in the foreground and then comes up and whacks you in the head when you’re not expecting it. We’re going to Venice for a long weekend in a few weeks, and normally (“normally” = “before October 2009”) I’d start by asking my uncle what to do there, because he’d be my best source. I’m not lacking in resources here; my plan B and plan C are two friends who love Venice. But I do miss having my Uncle Larry as my first recourse for travel information. It didn’t help that last night I saw hte mention of a book that normally (again with that word!) I’d make a mental note of, as an excellent present for his next birthday.
- I’m still coughing today, and now my throat is more sore. I do feel a bit more mentally present, but I think I’ll go home early again. I’m not used to anyone even noticing when I leave, but now I have a new boss who actually called me yesterday afternoon (after I’d gone home). However, I have plenty of casual overtime that I’ll lose at the end of this month, and it doesn’t benefit anyone for me to be here but useless. Still, I think this time I’ll let him know I’ll be leaving early!
- I’ve been watching the news on the reactor in Japan closely, especially now with Ted “next door” in Taiwan. So far it seems to be mostly in the local area; the most current article I’ve seen says danger for 20 miles, the largest number I saw says radiation could potentially be an issue for 100 miles. They’re comparing it to Three Mile Island, not Chernobyl. Ted’s staying in Taipei, which is something like 1300 miles from Tokyo (the plant is actually north of that.) For perspective I’ve been looking at a few other distances. Almost everyone I work with here was about a thousand miles from Chernobyl, which released far, far more radiation. More than that, in 1979, I was only about 100 miles from Three Mile Island myself; I remember that night well. I was 12. Then I unpacked that memory a bit. One of the scary things about that night that we spent glued to the TV news was that my friend Karen was sleeping over. If the absolute worst happened (which I don’t think was ever likely) and the whole region went up in flames, she’d be with us and not with her own parents. She stayed because the danger didn’t seem that high, but it was a point we considered, whether to take her home. The thing is, Karen’s dead now. The seeds of her death were already in her; she died from cystic fibrosis, and she and her parents must have known about it then, though none of her friends did. I’m not sure what that teaches; I think it’s something about not panicking about dnager that is unlikely to happen, and paying attention to the days you have.
Even for people directly affected by the tsunami and earthquake that’s true; it was unlikely to happen, but it did, and all we can be glad of is that people were well prepared for it. They were. In any country *without* Japan’s strict building codes, the death toll would have been far, far higher. the major thing I keep noticing, in all those photos of tsunami waves rolling past bridges, is that the bridges are still standing. Furthermore, one article about the tsunami featured an expert referring to 2004 as “a different time”, when the tsunami warnings couldn’t have gone out so fast – that saved lives in Japan and around the world. I do hope the US budgeters are rethinking those cuts to the warning system!