{"id":34395,"date":"2017-12-26T15:25:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T23:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=34395"},"modified":"2017-12-26T15:28:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T23:28:52","slug":"checking-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/26\/checking-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking in"},"content":{"rendered":"

… Because I feel guilty not blogging for two days in a row even though I announced “lite” blogging into next week and have been enjoying totally mundane days.<\/p>\n

I’ve finished hanging all the drywall in and around the new bedroom. Next I begin taping, mudding, and putting up metal corner bead, starting with the darkest corner of the closet. While I won’t enjoy working in the closet, I’ll be glad to have the biggest storage area of the house completed so I can quit tripping over art supplies, chop saws, and spare space heaters. (Well, I’ll still be tripping over the chop saw; I have no idea where construction tools are going to end up living.)<\/p>\n

During breaks from that, I finished a knitting project I undertook 18 months ago and worked on the RebelFire story. I have everything now except the ending; but that’s the hard part.<\/p>\n

Not great blog fodder, any of that. Sure feels good to get it done, though.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I did run across a heartbreaking story of bad decision-making in an emergency. Perhaps you know about this. It’s apparently notorious in Japan, but I’d never heard about it: the tragedy of Okawa Elementary School<\/a>. (And here’s a related article<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

TL;DR: After the March 2011 earthquake, teachers at the school dithered for 50 minutes despite multiple tsunami evacuation warnings. They scolded children who urged them to escape up a nearby hill — then finally acted by leading their charges on the most foolish possible path. <\/p>\n

Hard to imagine such a story coming out of the most earthquake-prepared country on earth. <\/p>\n

It’s one of many tales of loss, rage, and hauntings in the new (and apparently outstanding) book Ghosts of the Tsunami<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Biggest lesson: Think for yourself and don’t wait for authority to act. But then, you knew that. Obedient Japanese schoolkids couldn’t be expected to.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Here’s a much more heartening story about everyone from passersby to emergency rooms<\/a> responding swiftly and helpfully to last week’s Amtrak derailment onto Washington’s I5 freeway. Kudos to the Seattle Times<\/em> for a very well-written piece.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has driven that road during commute hours has got to marvel that the crash, as horrendous as it was, wasn’t much, much more deadly.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I am collecting some newslinks for you and will have them maybe as soon as tomorrow, depending on how deep in drywall mud I get.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, have a dog and a Christmas tree;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… Because I feel guilty not blogging for two days in a row even though I announced “lite” blogging into next week and have been enjoying totally mundane days. I’ve finished hanging all the drywall in and around the new bedroom. Next I begin taping, mudding, and putting up metal corner bead, starting with the darkest corner of the closet. While I won’t enjoy working in the closet, I’ll be glad to have the biggest storage area of the house completed so I can quit tripping over art supplies, chop saws, and spare space heaters. (Well, I’ll still be tripping…<\/p>\n

Continue readingChecking in<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,18,19,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-and-movies","category-dogs-and-cats","category-mind-and-spirit","category-miscellaneous","category-preparedness","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34395"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34401,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34395\/revisions\/34401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}