Well, I just saw a sign that the Israeli army has released…it seems I’ve lost a minute and a half and I have to tell you, I’m not happy about that. I really needed that minute and a half. It’s the difference between panic and concern and, God forbid, for someone, it could be the difference between life and death.
The last map showed that my home was in the 3 minute zone. My knee has been bothering me…yeah, I’m getting old. It cracks sometimes when I get up and it needs a few steps to sort of get unstuck when I’ve been sitting too long at the puzzle on the table.
I’m sure it’s temporary and my knees will come back to normal…but at my age…it might be something else. I’m luckier than many…my bomb shelter is not that far away – just down the hall, and because of where my home was built, the lower part is very protected because the original owners had to dig down into the bedrock to chisel away room for the building.
But a minute and a half? What if the kids are upstairs with earphones on and they don’t hear a siren and I have to run upstairs?
What if…
What if…
And the silly, absurd part is that’s me, way on the right center of the map in the light green, not even the lime green, or yellow, or orange, or red, or worst of all the dark maroon.
Dark maroon has the ominous title “immediately” – but they don’t mean immediately get up and go to the bomb shelter, they mean, be in it NOW. You have no time at all…it’s like what happened to one family living near there – a family with three children…only now they have two because the two parents each grabbed one of the youngest children, one just a baby…and called to the four year old to run.
And usually he was the first one there…he knew already at the young age of four that he had to run as soon as he heard the siren…only that time, he didn’t make it.
Red – well, they have 15 seconds…I have several friends in that area…but one just had a heart attack…she shouldn’t be running!
Orange is 30 seconds…still too short. Impossible. What do they want from us?
So I can’t complain that I’ve got a minute and a half…even though it’s a minute and a half less than I had before.
How much time is my life worth…your life…the lives of your children and everyone you love? It’s right there on the map…not because that’s what it’s worth…just because that’s all they’re going to give us.