The Things We Take For Granted...
If you plan to make yourself a cup of coffee or tea this morning, you pretty much don't think twice as you make it.
Hell, the stuff to prepare it is readily at-hand for you, and you sort of "go through the motions" as you sleepily get your morning cup, right?
I mean, you could set yourself on "auto-pilot" and still have that morning brew in your hand, hmm?
The folks in a good part of the top third of the main island in Japan aren't so fortunate this morning.
The simple task of making a cup of tea (or coffee) is beyond their ability today.
And to have something SO fundamental to most of our "daily routines" missing, is something that backed me up a few steps this morning.
I know I get up every day, get Wifey ready to head out, feed the cats, make myself a cup of java and mentally plan my schedule as I read the paper.
And that happens with amazing regularity around here...don't even think about it...it just occurs.
Then, I see the devastation the Japanese are enduring...an entire village gone.
Neighborhoods all but washed out to sea, and I have to admit to being a bit selfish and thanking my God that it wasn't US.





I honestly don't know how I would handle such an event.
I'd LIKE to think I would be AS prepared as I could hope to be, but there are those times when no matter how well you DO prepare...it simply is not enough.
This is one of those cases where the amount of preparedness Japan hadon hand lessened the amount of destruction, and probably saved more lives than will be lost, but you can never fully plan for every contingency, especially where mother nature rules the nest.
And sometimes, even the most prepared get tossed for a loop.
*** In Soma Japan, the Fukushima nuclear facility has had it's share of problems in the last several days, following the earthquake and tsunami.
Here's a good article on the situation:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/15/japanese-nuclear-panic-rises-agency-says-radiation-leaking-atmosphere/#
The plant in NE Japan is suffering more setbacks, as people there attempt to prevent a situation like Chernobyl.
But let's understand something first.
The plants in japan are NOTHING like the one that exploded in Chernobyl.
In fact, it was General Electric that had a major hand in the game when those plants were constructed.
Now, this IS worse than the TMI situation back in the late 70s, make no mistake about that.
They had SEVERAL reactors that could not properly "scram" themselves offline, averting much of the problems we're seeing.
With such a huge earthquake, it's safe to conclude that necessary water feed lines wee ruptured or otherwise shut down due to the loss of backup power, and the lack of cooling doesn't play all that well with "hot" nuclear fuel rods (actually pellets in long tubes).
The introduction of sea water is both a good and bad thing. While it WILL cool down the system, the salt is corrosive to working parts, and the difference in temperatures might cause a massive burst of steam to blow out the containment.
Add to that when the cooling water boils off, it produces a (high-pressure) "bubble" in the top of the containment...usually fills with HYDROGEN (by-product), and THAT is very explosive. The idea is to vent the hydrogen (and the steam) before a catastrophic rupture and explosion occurs.
That boat already sailed at Fukushima.
Watching the explosions there, I did see chunks falling back to the ground, and I'm hoping it was only a support building, and not the containment itself.
(they are pretty damn well built)
As to the super hot fuel rods...they have probably melted down into a slag pile on the containment floor, and radiation is seeping outward.
Being able to keep the radiation to acceptable levels AND at low exposure amounts across the island and into the atmosphere will be the hard part.
If it rains, that will be a godsend. The particular matter will fall in the ocean and disperse.
Now, through ALL of this, Japan has suspended all car production at it's plants (there) until at least tomorrow, as rolling outages plague the areas not affected by the nuclear issues up north. That's pretty magnanimous to do that, in order to not tax the power grid and provide service for essential services.
But, the bad news does not end there...
As I mentioned briefly yesterday, the ECONOMIC fallout will trump the radioactive fallout.
Japan is sending about 226% of their GDP (ranked #1) every year (not a good thing) trying to pay for stuff they can no longer afford...kinda like here in the USA, where we ONLY spend close to 100% of our GDP (ranked #2) paying for those entitlement programs.
The Nikkei stocks have dropped close to 12%, and Japan will HAVE to sell off some of their U.S. treasury bonds to pay for the cost of the cleanup and rebuilding of the affected areas.
And, as is usually the case, when you see ONE nation do something, another (or more) will soon follow.
There could be stock market speculation leading to a false panic, and we all know where that can wind up.
I'm HOPING such is not the case.
And yet, as I also stated yesterday, through ALL of this stuff that's happened to the Japanese people, they remain a helluva lot CALMER about their plight.
Still NO reports of looting, rioting or rampant vandalism that I can find.
And that is a strong testament to a strong-willed people.
The exact opposite from Katrina, and I wasn't the ONLY one that noticed this.
I heard both Glenn Beck AND Rush Limbaugh on the radio mirroring what I said earlier.
Humankind is very resilient...I said that yesterday in passing...
If we were not, we'd have NEVER made it past the stone age.
We, as the human race, have endured wars, famines, floods, more wars, plagues, pestilence, a few more wars, blizzards, heatwaves, dust storms and Wall St. crashes (and a world war here and there), and yet...we STILL make it through.
Hopefully, we learn something along the way.
If not, we WILL repeat it, until we get it right.
We are a resilient species...we prefer to survive.
And yet, if Mother Nature doesn't like what we're doing to HER planet, she WILL slough us off quick as look at us.
There will be things we CAN control and things we CANNOT control...everything in balance.
We just have to realize that WE can't control it all...and will never be able to do so.
And perhaps THAT is something the Japanese have a little more of...











Not a resignation TO their situation, but rather a certain level of acceptance OF the situation.
And with that acceptance comes the ability to better deal WITH a situation, rather than ignore it, or admit defeat to it.
It's like grief in a way...you never really get OVER it...but your DO learn to live WITH it.
Many times, it's things like this that WILL make us stronger (as long as it doesn't kill us in the process) in the long run.
It makes us better than we were yesterday, and that's something we must NEVER take for granted, because sooner or later, we will ALL use up those tomorrows turning them into forgotten yesterdays.
And sometimes, it only takes a simple cup of tea to make us aware of such things
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.