Very Surreal

Update May 20, 2009 . . . the very same nephew sent this photo to me, just today. There appears to be visible steam in the photo. I stand by my original impression; very surreal.


I had the most surreal phone call yesterday morning. It went a lot like this. . .
"Hello?"
"Aunt Debbi? This is your nephew. Do you have Grandma's cell phone number?"
"I'll have to look it up. So, how are you?"
"I'm fine. The thing is, uh. . .our volcano erupted last night, and I want to call Grandma and tell her I'm okay."
"WHAT?!"

So my nephew is fine, he lives about 35 miles from the Mt. Redoubt Volcano in Alaska. They shut the power plant down "because of ash", and his house doesn't have a fireplace, so he'll be moving someplace warmer pretty soon. Probably by now. Must be a lot of cold people in Alaska right now. I pray they're all safe.

As I called family members to pass on the news, it felt so odd, practically prehistoric, you know? "Hi. The volcano erupted. Everyone's fine."
How strange.