Nuclear disaster

Two nights ago, I had a horrible dream about some sort of nuclear disaster coming to West Raleigh. Interestingly, even though I live in West Raleigh, I had plenty of time to watch the news tell me how long it would take to get to me and decide whether or not I wanted to flee or stay with my cat. Don't ask why I couldn't take the cat with me, or why my grandparents, rather than Andy, played a significant role in my decision to duct tape my windows. Maybe because when I told Andy (after I woke up) about the window duct taping, he said "well, that wouldn't work" - I guess my subconscious knew that Andy wouldn't recommend an action like that.

It took me a little while to get past this dream, and then I started wondering where on earth it all came from. I believe it's a combination of these 3 factors:

1, we're going on Vacation in August, and I'll have to leave my PJ at home. This worries me tremendously, since she loves people.

2, I recently finished reading Nevil Shute's On the Beach about the last survivors of a nuclear war that occurred in the Northern Hemisphere. It's a good read, although it's quite depressing, and there's also a movie. It was even the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question that I used to beat Andy :)

3, On top of the nuclear war book, I also finished Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror the day I had the nightmare. If you're not already scared of terrorist attacks, you will be once you read this book. Other than that, I really enjoyed it, especially learning about the history of events that happened when I was a kid. I vaguely remember things like PanAm 103 (I think that's the right number), but now I actually know what happened. I don't care what your politics are - if you want to skip the last few "anti-Bush" chapters, be my guest - read this book for the history. It's told from a first person point of view that makes it much more readable than most. By the way, I don't know why the Bush Administration made such a big deal about this book - yeah, there are some definite criticisms, but it's nothing like what I expected after hearing them all talk about it like it was full of lies. Even though it scared the crap out of me and made me think that the next person I see might be a terrorist, go ahead and read the book. You probably won't have nightmares, as long as you don't combine it with On the Beach :)