stealing kilauea's thunder


[click image]


...

Or, at least for now, anyway....

Odd how much I love volcanic places. They're darn dangerous. But I can hear the hum... sort of like in big thunderstorms and earthquakes....

I go unaccountably serene in these emergencies. Two times, not so much: [1] when I realized there was a large plate glass window directly behind me many stories up in the building where I worked — had to bolt to get on the other side of my desk and down; and [2] when lightning struck a skyscraper right next to me as I was walking down the street — it was SO loud I couldn't tell it from a nuke or a broken sky or God or anything... just momentary mayhem on the street.

Anyway, long dormant, but still active volcanoes hum like mad and it makes my nerves take a goddam rest and a half. Same deal with thunder and lightning if I'm someplace out of the rain. Same deal with earthquakes. I think I've been through about five really darn large ones and countless little ones. The really insufferably-frequent tiny ones in Oklahoma did get on my nerves very badly, but that was because the house was close to blowing up from gas leaks, and they're not the natural earth doing them.

Maybe I'm just darn lucky I have yet to live the sight of a lava flow coming down the hillside into my bedroom, as I dreamed a few times when I was a little girl, but I'm beginning to think that if it does happen, I'm not going to be afraid of it as I was in the dreams. I think I might Zen out so hard you will be happy for me.

I hope the Guatemalans who have been taken from us felt that way.


pipe up any time....