Waiting For The Missile

I had been through the 1971 scare that all radio and TV stations broadcast, so I knew it *might* be a mistake. Back then it was a Saturday morning when we expected a test to come down the wires, instead, it was a warning.

In this case, it might be a mistake, however we have already been testing air raid sirens because of North Korea. I really don’t think N. Korea would be crazy enough to attack because I feel they would be wiped off the map.

Still… So I tried to gather the dogs but they knew something was up. The more I tried to sternly tell them to come to me, they wouldn’t. I had to open the gate to get them out of the pen and into the basement room but they thought it was time to run up the property for their morning run. Finally I got them into the enclosed room and tried checking news outlets via cellphone.

The local station was talking about trash collecting, but I could not tell if there was a text scroll on the screen or not. I tried CNN and Reuters but was having troubles with the dogs jumping around and trying to see the tiny screen.

I called a neighbor who didn’t answer the phone and texted him. I called a friend on the mainland and got no answer. I left a message that we *might* be under attack but that it also could be a mistake. I called my younger sister, could not get her and sent a text. About this time I thought that if we were under attack, I might still have time to get dog food and my medicine, but opted to stay put.

The wind blows from my island towards Honolulu and thus generally if a bomb goes off pretty much anywhere in the islands, fallout would be headed away from me. I would be able to make a run upstairs later. I comforted the dogs and waited. It had been more than 15 minutes which is the amount of warning they think we would have. Certainly we would have fired rockets to intercept and we have a missile base in the islands and we have been expecting a possible strike, so we would have been ready.

When the all clear message came out, I let the dogs loose in their run and went inside to watch the news on the big screen. I will set up some supplies downstairs soon, although I still don’t think they will be needed, however we also get hurricanes in the islands and so on, so I still will be better prepared.

Even though I was reasonably sure it was a mistake, I was still nervous for hours. I had been loaded up on caffeine and my blood pressure meds had not kicked in yet to slow me down a bit (they make me tired), so the adrenaline was going full steam for quite some time.

Over the past few years I have had two major operations (one being a quadruple bypass) and flipped a truck over. I think they all rated about the same for excitement.