The Pacific Rim of Fire has been active lately with earthquakes in Christ Church, New Zealand just a few weeks before my scheduled vacation there. Now my vacation has been canceled but not due to the earthquakes. I'm staying in the US this week so I will be available to stay with Mom during her broken neck/head injury rehab period. So instead of scenic NZ starting tomorrow I will be in Oklahoma next week.
More recently there has been a very strong (magnitude 8.9) earthquake in Japan with enormous tsunami impacts to the islands. At least one Japanese nuclear plant is in the process of overheating because of cooling water delivery disruption. The picture below of the tsunami that helped me to understand the actual height (and scale) of the wall of water that swamped Japan since a dog agility field with its A-frame easy to spot is located near the center of the photo below:
The above photo is from MSNBC news. A fellow LCCOC member brought it to our attention when the photo was with the lead story on the website of the local BTR newspaper. There are interesting facts about the Japanese Quake on the Taj MuttHall Dog Diary. The Japanese economy is struggling. There continues to be riots in the Middle East and shipping pirates in Somali. At this time motor vehicle gasoline prices at the local pump are ~$3.50/gallon. I wonder where they will be next year at this time....~$5.00/gallon? I think the economy may be in for a shock following the Middle East riots and the Japanese quake.
While all this strife whirls around the world I'm staying focused on my mantra for 2011 - Healthy, Happy, and Whole. Photos of the backyard at SWM and veggie garden in the planning to be posted soon.
