waiting for the end of the world

[mems]

Aloha, so it is yesterday morning and I am guiding a clinet down at A-bay, when we see all the tourists being shepherded back to the hotel by staff. I ask what is going on and the tell me a missile is headed for Hawaii and we need to shelter in place. I get my client, go check my phone and sure enough there is a nuke headed our way. I call my wife back in Hilo, tell her I love her. It will take 20 minutes for the nuke to hit us and a hour and a 1/2 to drive home, so we are stuck. We talk it over decide to have a beer and go back to fishing. Well nothing happens, false alarm, but what a weird 40 minutes that it ends up being. I am just thinking to myself how can two stupid men with bad haircuts ruin our lives like this. Well it ended up being a dumb employee who pushed the wrong button. The fishing ended up being kinda slow, but we were happy just to be alive.
Mems.

[Tony Buzolich]

Pretty damn scary. Whewww! I hate surprises and not being able to do anything about it. How long did it take for people to come back outside and relax again?

From a practical side of things (not serious) A missile would probably target Oahu with the biggest population and military base. The Big Island is the farthest island AWAY from Oahu, and if the Trade winds are blowing from the east most of the fall-out would blow out to sea.

Hope this makes you feel a little better Don. Tony

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I would sue the state of HI for emotional damages?

I don' think anyone can do anything about North Korea......we just have to 'duck n cover'.

[Larry S]

Don,
Started teaching in San Diego in 1961; at that time they would test the emergency
sirens at different street corners once a month. Same day of month, same time.
Well, one day, off schedules, the siren started wailing. It was my prep period
and I hustled into the office, surprised that no one was reacting. Discovered that
it happened several times a year. What a system! Almost as wacky as the
Colorado wing nuts that are always predicting the end of the earth.
Best to you,
Larry S
Sun Diego

[Darian]

Don,.... Under the circumstances, I think you/your client did the only appropriate thing; get a drink and go back fishing. Too bad the fishing was slow but really good that you're still in the world. Hope to get together and fish before the end come along....

[Mr T]

"uh oh"
"what?"
"world ends in 20 minutes"
"wow- can we get home by then?"
"nope"
"want a beer?"
"sure"


Brilliant.

[mems]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Really a weird feeling, thinking you could be nuked at any moment. I hope we all get to fish together one day, beer is on me, good to still be alive, Mems.

[JasonB]

I can relate to your experience a lot. Many years ago some friends and I were exploring some rivers in Ecuador and we ended up on a “road” that had been completely wiped out by ash and mudflows from a volcano eruption a few years prior. Despite having 4wd, things were so bad that what we thought would be less than a one hour drive took more than three. After being stuck numerous times, and having to re-engineer several “bridges” from sticks and rocks and such I began to get concerned about the short daylight hours remaining, and the fact we had no extra warm clothes or food, or much of anything.

Just before we reached the river we began to notice a HUGE plume of smoke rising from the volcano, and realized that we were likely bearing witness to the start of a significant eruption! The problem was we would most likely be in a very bad position, and attempting to drive back would have taken too long and likely would have put us much more squarely in the danger zone. We really didn’t know if we would live to see the end of the day.

I found it really interesting that we all just sort of accepted that we were in a situation that was beyond control, and we decided to make the best of it. It was one of the greatest moments of clarity ever for me. The choice was so very simple: if these are possibly the last moments I have, how would I like to spend them? We had a pretty amazing afternoon, and I know we all felt more alive than ever for some time afterwards. Quite the reminder of just how potentially fortunate we are every hour of everyday to still be here. It can all end without a moments notice at any time.

JB

[ifsteve]

Aloha, so it is yesterday morning and I am guiding a clinet down at A-bay, when we see all the tourists being shepherded back to the hotel by staff. I ask what is going on and the tell me a missile is headed for Hawaii and we need to shelter in place. I get my client, go check my phone and sure enough there is a nuke headed our way. I call my wife back in Hilo, tell her I love her. It will take 20 minutes for the nuke to hit us and a hour and a 1/2 to drive home, so we are stuck. We talk it over decide to have a beer and go back to fishing. Well nothing happens, false alarm, but what a weird 40 minutes that it ends up being. I am just thinking to myself how can two stupid men with bad haircuts ruin our lives like this. Well it ended up being a dumb employee who pushed the wrong button. The fishing ended up being kinda slow, but we were happy just to be alive.
Mems.

Nothing to do with this false alarm whatsoever. You may not like the POTUS but why does every thing bad get blamed on him. Stupid.

Now beyond the editorial, cool story. Not sure what else there was to do.

[JasonB]

Nothing to do with this false alarm whatsoever. You may not like the POTUS but why does every thing bad get blamed on him. Stupid.

Now beyond the editorial, cool story. Not sure what else there was to do.

I quite agreed with Don’s sentiments regarding just how much we are relying on those two to keep a level head, like it or not. Perhaps the aggressive posturing and rhetoric of two highly insecure and unstable world leaders with access to such potential weapons of mass destruction doesn’t concern you, but it’s certainly unsettling for an awful lot of people right now, and in many nations. In no way did his comment come of as some random unrelated blame to me, nor did his sentiment sound “stupid” in any way.

Now, as a total side note: it would be interesting to see where things might stand if we could get the two of them to go fishing together, maybe weekly? I can’t help but wonder if some tensions might ease up a bit. Who knows maybe they might find some common ground? Share thoughts on hair stylings perhaps? Of course, then again they might argue over who caught the biggest fish? Or maybe they would end up throwing each other overboard? I’d be curious to see, I can just see the makings of a new reality TV show...
JB


JB