BAD NEWS FRIDAY: Japanese Tsunami, Danish Hostages, Dad

Given the name of this blog I would be remiss if I failed to mention the massive tsunami that trashed northeastern Japan today. You can watch an absolutely horrifying video of the big waters sweeping through the city of Sendai here.

In other unrelated bad news, the Danish Cruising Family Johansen (including three children and a crew of two others), who are currently being held hostage by pirates in Somalia, were NOT rescued yesterday by a mysterious indigenous armed force that launched a raid on the pirate stronghold in the mountains of Puntland. The news today is that the Johansens have now been moved aboard a ship somewhere on the coast and the pirates are threatening to put caps in their heads if any more rescue attempts are made.

The Puntland Army, or whatever the hell they are, reportedly fell into an ambush and suffered five or six fatal casualties during their abortive raid. This suggests, obviously, that the pirates were tipped off somehow. In that Somalian authorities, such as they are, have never before attempted to forcefully free hostages held by the pirate gangs, it would seem something unique is going on here. I could offer several creative explanations, but will restrain myself.

Closer to home, I should also explain why I've been a bit remiss lately in putting up posts here on WaveTrain. My dad suffered a very sudden mental collapse recently, and I've been running around like the Proverbial Headless Chicken trying to get him out of the hospital and into a nursing home somewhere close by where I can keep an eye on him.

So bear with me.

Empathic readers will recall that the same sort of thing happened almost exactly a year ago, when my mom up and croaked.

So this has been my mantra lately: Thank GOD I have (or had) only two parents. (Because I'd sure hate to have go thru this every year.)

Appropriately, I've lately been watching the animated movie Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas with the Lunacy sisters. It's a great sailing flick, actually, and I highly recommend it.

The key character (other than Sinbad, of course, and the obligatory human love interest) is Eris, the Goddess of Chaos, Discord, and Confusion. A timely reminder for us mere mortals: the only reliable constant in this turbulent universe we live in is CHANGE.

You can watch a short clip of Eris and Sinbad mixing it up here.