St Patrick's Day in Moses Lake

Ron & I made a trip over the mountains to visit family in Moses Lake on March 16th through 18th. Ron's daughter Vicki and her husband Mark came from their home in North West Washington, our Granddaughter Deja and her husband Chris came from Ellensburg, so it brought Ron's side of the family together.

We all converged at Ernie and Diana's home in Moses Lake. I'm sure Diana thought she had been invaded. We all chipped in to buy and cook food for the 20 people who gathered.

Ernie and his sister Vicki are silly "pranksters" like their Dad. I haven't laughed so hard in years. We got to visit with each grandchild personally. We got to watch family members interact with Wii – dancing and playing games.

We did our best to scare the younger family members into planning for a disaster like earthquakes, floods, wind- storms and so on. Since we had all been thinking about it since the events in Japan it was a good time to coordinate our plans so we would all be able to reach one another in the event of a disaster.

When Diana asked the younger group what they planned to do in the event of an emergency – they all said "come to your house". I think she impressed them a bit when she said – if you don't bring your own food and emergency stores to contribute – we are going to EAT YOU!

My son Tim has had his plans in place for some time. Ron & I sort of planned. Now we have all the stuff we need with the exception of the wind up radio and cell phone charger. They seem to be in back order from Japan!

It feels good to get the plan in place, practice the probable response and then forget about it for a while again. Our prayers and concerns go out every day to the people in Japan who are suffering so.

While eating dinner with the whole family – I posed the question "who is for and against Nukes". They looked at me with wide eyes and didn't know what I was talking about. For me, growing up in Idaho and watching the Nuclear Bomb tests done in Nevada on our television when I was in the 5th grade – I have an entirely different perspective. Sheep died from radio active dust in Utah. Military personnel died from exposure even though it was hushed up. My first husband worked at the Nuclear Reactor Testing station in the Idaho desert. At that time – 45 years ago – scientists were trying to find a method to store the highly contaminated waste products. That problem has never been solved.

Imagine – if our decedents 4 or 5 generations from now – who will have discovered much cleaner and efficient energy sources – are still required to commit vast sums of money and energy trying to rid their world of the nuclear waste left by our generations. We owe it to posterity to leave this beautiful planet with all it's wonders without the looming threat of an ancient nuclear disaster.

If you agree with me – join me in writing to your senators and representatives and ask them to stop all future nuclear development until such time that the risk of waste products is eliminated once and for all.

Love to all