I’m no expert, but as near as I can figure the tsunami was pretty much a non-event in Birch Bay. Not knowing about such things, we stayed out of the tsunami zone during the hours of the watch even though we know that the tsunami zone is based on a much closer event and much bigger waves than were predicted following yesterday’s eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga. Later, in the afternoon, we walked along the berm near the beach and could see no signs of particularly high water. The king tide of a week earlier left all kinds of debris on streets and water entered quite a number of beach homes. There were places where the tide washed over roads and flooded low-lying streets. It backed up Terrell Creek where it enters the bay and caused flooding alongside the river. In one place there was water over a bridge. Yesterday’s tsunami apparently was expressed in a series of waves that were smaller than recent high tides.

The bay was calm as we walked along the shore. It was a gray day, with the clouds meeting the sea on the horizon. We couldn’t see the sun through the clouds and it simply got gradually darker as the sun began to set. It was a peaceful time and there were lots of people walking along the path and others down on the beach next to the water.

All of the NOAA sources, weather application, and news sources I consulted warned people not to go down to the water to observe the tsunami. They all noted that tsunami waves are very difficult to predict.

It is an amazing phenomenon that an earthquake can be so violent that it sends waves flowing thousands of miles. It is more than 5,800 miles from Tonga to the coast of Washington, and the waves made the trip in less than 12 hours from the eruption. Apparently there were some observable waves out beyond the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Inside the Salish Sea all that was observed were slightly rougher waves than normal. No evacuations were ordered, simply a warning that dangerous conditions might exist. Even with waves that are not much higher than usual, currents were different from the usual due to the tsunami.

Let’s see, record heat, wildfires, floods, mudslides, record snowfall, high winds, record low temperatures, and now a tsunami. All in all, it has been quite an introduction to our new home. Through it all we have not suffered and have remained safe from all of those major events.

Meanwhile, it was a quiet day in our neighborhood. We had a crew working in the craw space under our home. One of the things we knew about the house from a pre-purchase inspection is that there had been a rodent problem in the crawl space. Although the rodents were gone and the space had been properly sealed, there was damage to the vapor barrier and insulation. We decided that it would be a wise move to have all the old insulation and vapor barrier removed and new materials installed. The cost was about the same as the deposit we had made on our rental home, and the work carries a 10-year guarantee, so it seemed like a good investment. The workers were efficient and cleaned up after themselves. It took a little more than five hours for the work to be completed.

Workers under the floor was quite unnerving for the dog. He felt compelled to bark, and when we ordered him to be quiet, he paced nervously. We ended up taking him to the farm for most of the time the workers were completing the job.

Out on the street there was a man walking the neighborhood campaigning for the upcoming vote on a new library for our community. He didn’t need to convince us. We are completely convinced that a library will be a good investment for Birch Bay. Of course, being parents of a librarian, we are biased. We are also biased because we are big users of library services. We have library cards for two different libraries and often have books checked out from both places at the same time.

The proposed library for our community will be located on land that has already been purchased by the county library district. It is right across the street from the beach and includes a section of formerly private beach, now made public by the library. If the proposed library receives enough votes in a couple of weeks, it will be within walking distance of our home. Furthermore, it will have a feature that we have not seen in any other library before. The new library will have beach toys to borrow. There is something about the idea of a library that loans beach toys that is specially appealing to me. We know we live in a unique place with unique features. A unique library seems to be just the right thing.

The same ballot will be used for another proposed property tax increase, this one to support area schools. We’re inclined to be in favor of that proposal as well. The two measures combined would affect our taxes by less than $100 per year and we feel that such an amount is an excellent investment in our home’s value. Homes in communities with good schools and a good library are worth more than those more distant from such community services. The school bond vote includes a proposed new elementary school for our neighborhood. Families with children will be attracted to our area and that is a good thing.

I guess that being retired carries with it the opportunity to take life at a pace that is just a bit slower than ours used to be. I take more notice of little things like workers in the area and campaigners working the neighborhood. Those things turned out to be more important than the possibility of tsunami waves yesterday. Still, a tsunami watch is not something to ignore. A closer earthquake or volcano might have completely different results.