Wake Up Call

Around 1 am Pacific time Tuesday morning there was a large earthquake in Alaska.  We awoke  to find that there had been a tsunami warning for the whole BC Coast and all of Vancouver Island but that the warning had already been called off by the time we got up.  It was a weird feeling turning on your phone and suddenly seeing all these social media posts about potential disaster, not knowing what was going on.  We turned the TV on and realized any danger to the Island had passed.


Tuesday was a wakeup call for many.  Sure, they talk about "the big one" earthquake here all the time but rarely talk about tsunamis.  In elementary school I remember doing a science project on tsunamis so am pretty familiary with them, especially after what happened to Japan a few years ago.  There are still items from Japan that wash up regularly on the east side of Vancouver Island.  If you go anywhere near the water you regularly see signage showing tsunami zone areas.  For anyone who hasn't been to Vancouver Island many areas of the Island are far above sea level as we have a lot of mountains and hills here.  Even though our house only 1 km away from the water's edge we are 1000 ft above sea level as live on a huge hill behind Comox which I have marked in red on the map. 

What we learned from all this:  Our town does not have a siren because there is very low probability of damage from a tsunami in our area.  We are on the inside passage between the Island and mainland and even then, there are two huge land masses that protect our town's harbour which are not populated by houses (one is owned by the Navy and houses a few military personnel).  Those at most risk are on the outside of Vancouver Island and they do have sirens there and actually evacuated people to higher ground.

It is a reminder that everyone needs to have an emergency plan no matter what.  We have an emergency kit and I need to stock up on more canned goods and make sure there are sufficient supplies in our stash. Yes, it was weird.  Even more horrible and something I can't stop thinking about is what if it hadn't been a false alarm, what if the tsunami came and wiped away many towns on our island.  That is a horrible thought indeed.  When we lived in Alberta we had tornadoes, and they used to hit like clockwork every July.  Hubby has an Aunt and Uncle whose large farm and house was completely wiped out by one but thankfully, no one was injured and they rebuilt.  You never know where a tornado is going to hit usually until it is too late.  With tsunamis there is generally warning time.  It was a great real life practice for many on the island.  A special shout out thank you to Lorraine at Clamco for thinking of me when she saw the tsunami warning much earlier than we did as she lives on the East Coast of the USA.

Other than that we have been busy with life and work.   I have managed a few walks with Buddy this week as there have been a few breaks in the rain. He gets so bored when we don't go for walks so we end up playing ball or laser tag in the house with him.  Thankfully we have a really long hallway for ball and still have carpet in the bedroom for laser tag.  He still hasn't destroyed his Christmas rubber toy which is a miracle as he is a toy killer but maybe he is maturing now at age 3.  He still packs his toy all around the house so I know he likes it. 

I haven't hit the end of our grocery budget yet with only a couple of days left in the month.  As long as I can prevent hubby from going to the grocery store(#grocery budget killer $8 olives anyone?) we should be under budget and yet the fridge and freezer are still quite full.  I hit up dollar days this week and got a whole brocolli head for $1 which is a real deal here and it was actually fresh.  I can't wait until our farm market opens up this Spring as am tired of paying high prices for crappy produce.

I save money on little things to spend money one big things like our Spring trip to Italy and France.  I prepaid our first AirBNB this week in Salerno-we are such hotel people but in this case an apartment just makes more sense, at least in Italy.   I got a great deal on two hotel rooms in Paris at a top rated 3 star hotel which includes breakfast (Astotel Hotel Lorette in Pigalle), a reminder that even in expensive cities there is always the odd bargain to be had if you book early.  Yes, we will be staying in an adult area of the city but our "boys" are fully grown men and part of traveling and seeing the world is seeing the gritty parts of cities too.  We will be within an 8 minute walk to the Moulin Rouge and 15 minutes to Sacre Coeur.  Apparently the seedy part of Paris is now the up and coming hip area with tons of restaurants and lots of nightlife, not just the seedy kind it used to be.

Have a great weekend everyone!