SHADOW REVISITED

POST # 94

Sometime around 4am this morning I heard voices, but then I drifted back to sleep. My sleep was interrupted around 6:30am to the sound of "Meeeeoooowwwww". It was Shadow the big black cat letting me know that it was time for breakfast, don't ya know. "Chill out Shadow, it's way too early for that." Thankfully he took my advice and allowed me to enjoy a couple more hours of beauty rest prior to getting up this morning.

After an extended vacation in Hawaii, I am now back to "work" taking care of another pet. This is round two with Shadow, having been here exactly a year ago, and it should be a very easy house sit. I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks, while the owners relax in Mexico for their annual holiday.

Wow, another entire year has gone by. They sure do pass quickly these days. Last year I was hobbling around with a cane, and this year I'm down to a pronounced limp, so I'm thankful for that.

Try as I might, I am finding it difficult to get Fukushima off of my mind these days. The latest news, is that TEPCO has decided to delay the removal of the fuel rods from reactor number 4. For how long, I'm not sure. Either way though, the situation looks rather precarious. Removing them is going to be dicey, and leaving them where they are isn't much better. In the past week, even David Suzuki put in his two cents worth, when speaking to an audience at the University of Alberta in Edmonton at the end of October. See below.

David Suzuki at the University of Alberta, October 30, 2013 (At 2:45 in): Fukushima is the most terrifying situation I can imagine. You ask, what can we do? First of all you have got a government that is in total collusion with Tepco, they’re lying through their teeth. […] The fourth one has been so badly damaged that the fear is if there’s another quake of a 7 or above that that building will go, and then all hell breaks loose. And the probability of a 7 or above quake in the next 3 years is over 95%. […] They don’t know what to do. We need to get a group of international experts to go in with complete freedom to do what they suggest. Right now the Japanese government has too much pride to admit that. I’ve seen a paper which says that if in fact the fourth plant goes under an earthquake and those rods are exposed, it’s bye-bye Japan, and everybody on the West Coast of North America should evacuate. Now if that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is.

Any way you slice it, things are getting very "iffy" over there in Japan, and so I prefer to keep up to date with what's going on. All of a sudden, Vancouver isn't looking like the best place to live after all. Events will continue to unfold and decisions will need to be made accordingly.

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy my time with Shadow. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just be a cat.


Happy Trails,

Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer