Departure

It's Tuesday, March 22nd, and we're still here.....But now, at least, it seems we're really going!

Got a call at 9 last night that I was on something that sounded like "chalk 1" which I took to mean the first flight. And that I was to final process at 10am. A check to the right facebook page revealed it was actually "no later than 10am", and so I went straight to bed to get up for an early start (final processing actually started at 7am). So we made it out the door on time and went through all the right lines, and then were handed a "ticket" and told to go home -- that the plane was late. So now we're having lunch in the comfort of our own home, doing a few last minute things (like this) and then we'll head back at the door. They still haven't told us when our actual departure time is but one rumor I heard while processing was around 8pm. Which is fine for sleeping (if that happens!)

Update on the nuclear power plants: The last I heard the Japanese government is saying things seem to be stablizing but that work's far from over. The big news to us came this morning from the base commander who addressed us by radio to tell us that the Dept. of Defense is now distributing iodine tablets (distributing, not having people take them) to all DoD/Americans within a 200 mile radius of the plant. Misawa is 232 miles -- so they are not distributing to us. Small comfort for people staying behind maybe. Even less comfort is the fact that they slowly and carefully measured us, and all our luggage, for radiation levels, prior to letting us in the processing line. The fact I'd had 2 Cat scans and 3 X-rays in the last few months (cat scans only 2 weeks ago) worried me a bit, but apparently I did not set the thing off, so we're good!! (From what I've read, the amount of radiation they're currently finding in the water /produce/milk from the region is so miniscule that you'd have to supposedly drink 1 glass of radiation-contaminated milk a day to get the same amount of radiation in just one cat scan. So I should be well stocked for awhile!)

So that's where we're standing on things. We're getting out today, and then we'll just wait and see. Thanks so much for all your notes and thoughts. I'll try and update once we're stateside.

Take care, Mary
P.S. Stillllllllll shakin'................