Democracy for Vancouver

Clark County tornado

Was finishing up my first plate of fried Scallops, Pork Chow Mein, Potstickers, Egg Foo Young and Vegetable Lo Mein when all of a sudden I hear a freight train coming. I thought, that’s odd, I don’t remember any trains around here. Well then the train kept getting louder and louder and the building started shaking. I said to C. that it must be a tornado. A ceiling tile came down on the buffet rack and the lights went out briefly.

After the lights came back on, a lady at the front of the restaurant starts yelling “there’s a tornado!” while pointing out the front door of the restaurant. C. starts to fret and says she is going to go out and check on the car and the dog. I hurriedly get up to get another plate of food, knowing that I am going to have to wolf it down and leave as soon as C. gets back. You see, we have in excess of 20 animals at our house near Brush Prairie (including the chickens and the birds) and I knew C. was going to want to get back to check on them ASAP.

Now I am on my second plate of the best Sweet and Sour Chicken, Marfar Chicken, Kung Po Chicken and Vegetable Fried Rice I’ve had in a while and C. comes back in telling me that the tornado took out some major trees all along the back of the parking lot and there were power lines on the ground everywhere. I am thinking, damn, there is just not going to be enough time for that bowl of ice cream I always finish with at the Dragon King.

So I finish up and go outside and freak out over what has actually happened. The back side of the parking lot is filled with downed tree limbs everywhere. A guy with a pickup truck, who parked where I would have were it not for having our dog today, has a hole in his windshield from the storm blast. We have a live power line laying across the back side of our vehicle. Our dog is shaking and panting like he is near stroke or cardiac arrest. If I had parked just two spots over (which I rejected due to the dog), there would be no more car and perhaps no more dog.

We jump in the car to hurry up and drive over the live wire figuring the emergency crews would be there any second and stop us from leaving, so that we can get home to check on our critters. All is OK with the critters and our traveling dog companion is now starting to calm down enough for us to think we can avoid a trip to the vet hospital.

And I am wondering if I went back to the Dragon King if they would still let me have that bowl of ice cream I missed. The experience was also a reminder to treat each moment of life as precious (and to take your dog with you everwhere you can).