I’m sitting here, exhausted, staring at the computer screen and waiting for water to filter.

We’re about 2 and a half hours from a tsunami coming, but I live above the inundation zone (i.e. more than 100 feet above sea level) and so do not have to evacuate. Our biggest issue is that we might lose power for a good chunk of time.

So here I sit, waiting on the water, the bathtub already filled and my kitchen counter covered in most of my candle collection. My candle collection is a little embarrassing in size, except in the case of emergencies, in which case I have about five candles per room and most of them smell like pumpkin spice. The rest smell like Christmas trees. I can’t decide if this says anything bad about me or not. Hm.

This is the second tsunami warning we’ve had since moving to Hawaii, and there have been a couple of “severe storm” warnings as well, so really I have my emergency routine pretty much down pat. First J gets recalled to the ship. Every. Single. Time. All of the ships in the harbor get underway. After dropping him off at the pier, I swing by the gas station to make sure I have a full tank. Even if I don’t go anywhere, turning on the car means the ability to charge a cell phone.

The next stop is Target to get a couple of flats of water and some power bars. I always keep an extra jar of peanut butter in the pantry and two loaves of bread in the freezer, so I’m golden in terms of food. Once home I pack a bag and put it, along with two spare bags of cat food and a litter box into the trunk of my car, and then comes the waiting.

The news is repetitive but riveting and the neighbors all come out into their driveways and we watch together in the few garages that have outdoor TVs and it’s a sort of strange bonding experience.We all discuss where we’ll go, “in case,” and make sure we’ve got each others’ cell phone numbers again, “in case,” and figure out where all of our various pets will be welcome. That’s the tough one. I’m lucky I have friends on high ground who don’t mind kitties.

Anyway, it’s almost one in the morning now and I really need to take a nap for an hour (since I can’t do anything else right now anyway), so I’m going to end this here. I will tell you that I am safe, the kitties are upstairs, and we’re ready for a good week or more without power if need be. I hope it need not be, though.

If anything changes, I will get a message to someone, and try to post an update somewhere… but really, we’re not in a danger zone.

Ahh, the adventure that is Hawaii.

[update]
I still haven’t slept. It’s 4:30 in the morning. Everything is still fine and we lost no power. My phone is going to sleep for a while, too, so I can actually rest, but you’ll be able to reach me later in the day, I’m sure.