A warning from S

Yesterday (Wednesday - this is posted late because I was waiting for the video) S came home with a friendly warning for me from her German teacher.  On the first Wednesday of February at 1:30 Switzerland tests all of its emergency sirens.  The sirens were originally installed for  warnings during WWII. Nowadays they are used rarely for things like flood warnings or warning about contaminated water. S's teacher wanted me to know so I would not be afraid or confused. The testing is announced on the news, in newspapers, etc ahead of time, but she rightly assumed I'd have no idea it was coming. I don't know if I would have been concerned about it. *

If we hear a siren and it is not the first Wednesday of February we are supposed to hurry inside and listen to the radio for instructions. There is a flaw in this plan. From inside the apartment the siren isn't particularly noticeable. Even though I was expecting it, when it started I still thought for a few seconds that it was just the muffled sounds of our neighbor playing his French horn again. It would never wake me up if something happened at night.

In our town the siren ran through what seemed like one one minute cycle then turned off. However, other towns kept theirs going and going for quite a while. I had to run an errand and could hear sirens in at least two neighboring towns still being continuously tested after fifteen or twenty minutes. Our town did a second cycle around that time, but it seemed half-hearted compared to the continuous wailing all around us.

While I write this L and T are playing with legos. T has just come in to show me (and torment me with) his pickle launcher Transformer. It's a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky but we are stuck inside. I have to be here to sign for a computer part for E. But I think we will certainly be out and around this weekend. E was sick enough to stay home from work a couple of days but seems better. The doctor says my pneumonia is pretty much gone. I have a couple of more tests and it will take time to get back to where I was, but I feel well enough. It's been hard spending almost all of January inside and missing all the fun. I want to make up for lost time!

* Anyone who knows my tornado story is probably thinking I'd be very concerned!