The title to today’s entry might sound a bit ominous, but read on an prepare to be relieved. Sorry I’m leaving this unedited, but I’m off to the hospital to be with my mother. Her operation is this morning. Wish her luck!
Me: One of the blog members has heard that the reactor number four in Japan’s nuclear plant might blow, and one lady—I think she’s a scientist—thinks the radiation will be so severe that she advises everyone in that area should move. So, basically she wants to know if that’s something we should worry about.
Erik: Even if that reactor didn’t blow, I would still tell everybody to move.
Me: Oh, really?
Erik: The land is going to have thirty years to heal, but people are moving back into it because visually it looks fine.
Me: Are you talking about just the west coast?
Erik: The east coast. Not the whole island.
Me: Oh, you’re talking about Japan! She’s talking about the west coast of the United States. Should they move east? I didn’t explain that well. Sorry.
Erik: Yes, but having to move out of, um—
Jamie: He’s waffling.
Erik:–the west coast—
(Long pause)
Jamie (to Erik): Erik, just say it!
Jamie and I giggle.
Jamie: He gives me this face like “Ah, people are so fucked up,” and he kind of throws himself back into the couch.
Me: You mean the lady scientist?
Erik: Yeah.
Jamie (to Erik): Your hair looks very messy today, by the way.
Erik: I’m going on a “No comb it” strike.
Me: Oh, no! That’s not unusual, I’m just sayin’.
Jamie: It’s not?
Me: He would go weeks without combing his hair.
Jamie: So funny!
Me: Wait a minute. I don’t think he’s ever combed his hair to tell you the truth.
Erik (chucking): That’s bullshit! I have! I’m not going to comb of cut it until the wedding.
Me: Oh, okay.
Jamie (to Erik): Oh, so you’re going to look nice?
Erik: I’m going to shave—
Jamie (to Erik): Whatever, Erik.
Erik: I could grow a goatee.
Jamie (to Erik): No you couldn’t.
Erik laughs.
Erik: So, people on the California coast don’t need to move. The level of radiation that they’re going to get is going to be so spotty that, you know, 80 to 85% of the people aren’t even going to be touched, and the spots that are going to show up are going to be so minimal and the amount of air that is absorbing the radiation, that the moisture across the ocean—
Me: Uh huh.
Erik: —that’s the best filter we could ever ask for. Now, if it was going to cross land, you can just fucking forget it, because it’s definitely not going to help too much. So no, you don’t have to move. I’m just saying in Japan, people are already moving back to that place, you know, rebuilding and all this shit. I wouldn’t go back to that area for another thirty years.
Me: Oh, wow.
Erik: And yes, reactor four is unstable. It doesn’t have to blow. They can shut everything down. They’re trying to repair because they want to salvage what’s there. I think that’s the stupidest thing they could ever do. And this woman who’s talking up a storm about people in America relocating is a fucking (unintelligible). You know, better yet, why don’t you tell her to go buy all of the iodine and start taking it so she feels like she’s a survivor. She needs to get use to this, because there’s going to be a lot more hellish things. Weather is going to create a lot more damage than what this reactor is doing.
Me: Exactly.
Jamie (to Erik): What is that song?
(Pause)
Jamie: Is that a song, “People, get ready”?
Me: I don’t know. I’ll have to look that one up.
Jamie: Iodine. Isn’t that what you take for radiation?
Me: Maybe. You know, I just don’t know. I think so. I think there are iodine pills for people who have been exposed. I think you can also put it in water to help sterilize it. Now, do you think you could get Richard Jeni to interview, Erik? Last time we asked he wouldn’t come.
Jamie: Richard Geni.
Me: It’s Jeni. J-e-n-i. He was so funny!
Erik: He’s not going to be up to par. He said he could come, but he just wouldn’t feel like himself.
Me: Can you ask Richard if he wants us to just scratch him off the list?
Erik: He says no.
Me: Okay. We’ll just keep trying then.
Erik: He says thank you.
