Room shake, earthquake, find a way to stay awake
Well, it's a nice Spring morning today, a nice consolation prize for a weekend with an hour bite out of it. This, despite the fact that it had rained earlier this morning and was still drizzling when I hit the road. On the way to work this morning, Mt. Diablo had cloud cover on its top, as if it were under a fuzzy white blanket. Obviously, the mountain did not get the memo about Daylight Savings Time and was sleeping in. It's too bad I couldn't sleep in. I stayed up too late last night, fiddling with my phone. I just upgraded it after the external speaker/ringer stopped working on my old one. I got up early this morning, in anticipation of getting the right front headlight of my car replaced and picking up some cat food, some ketchup, and a couple of other incidentals at the grocery. I didn't take the car to the garage, after all. I figured I'd have to wait for them to get the bulb they needed and still work me into their schedule. I'll call them today and tell them I need a headlight and to acquire air and oil filters and then get the headlight fixed and the oil changed all at the same time tomorrow morning before heading for work.
On the way in, I saw a truck belonging to "Faith Bumper," which is apparently a business that does chrome bumper work. The truck proudly proclaimed that the business had been around since 1956. It's nice to see small family businesses still surviving in this economy. I've got to wonder about that particular business though. If the bulk of their business is bumpers then they have got to be servicing a much smaller market than they had in 1956. Back then, everything on the road had a chrome bumper; now it's mostly only trucks, and not a huge majority of them. I got curious and counted. Between 580-238 junction and work I counted only 53 chrome bumpers. It's definitely a niche market today.
Also on the road this morning, I saw yet another flat-bed semi hauling train wheels. These trucks always seem to be heading west on 580. There must be a rolling stock assembly plant somewhere around here. I wonder where it is. Train wheels always remind me of this guy named Mike, whom Crystal and I met on a plane headed back to Ohio, back in 1996, when we were in the process of moving out here to California. We exchanged e-mail addresses, and corresponded for awhile, but I haven't heard from him in a long time. The reason train wheels remind me of him is that he told us that he worked for a company that made them. You have to wonder how many plants in the U.S. manufacture train wheels. Perhaps those on the truck come from the same plant where Mike works.
Also in the news this morning, I found out in a perusal of the internet news headlines that California experienced an 6.9 Richter Scale earthquake last night. According to the news, it happened at 10:18 PM and was located 48 miles west-northwest of Ferndale and 50 miles west of Eureka, at a depth of 4.3 miles. I didn't feel anything like an earth tremor last night.
On the way in, I saw a truck belonging to "Faith Bumper," which is apparently a business that does chrome bumper work. The truck proudly proclaimed that the business had been around since 1956. It's nice to see small family businesses still surviving in this economy. I've got to wonder about that particular business though. If the bulk of their business is bumpers then they have got to be servicing a much smaller market than they had in 1956. Back then, everything on the road had a chrome bumper; now it's mostly only trucks, and not a huge majority of them. I got curious and counted. Between 580-238 junction and work I counted only 53 chrome bumpers. It's definitely a niche market today.
Also on the road this morning, I saw yet another flat-bed semi hauling train wheels. These trucks always seem to be heading west on 580. There must be a rolling stock assembly plant somewhere around here. I wonder where it is. Train wheels always remind me of this guy named Mike, whom Crystal and I met on a plane headed back to Ohio, back in 1996, when we were in the process of moving out here to California. We exchanged e-mail addresses, and corresponded for awhile, but I haven't heard from him in a long time. The reason train wheels remind me of him is that he told us that he worked for a company that made them. You have to wonder how many plants in the U.S. manufacture train wheels. Perhaps those on the truck come from the same plant where Mike works.
Also in the news this morning, I found out in a perusal of the internet news headlines that California experienced an 6.9 Richter Scale earthquake last night. According to the news, it happened at 10:18 PM and was located 48 miles west-northwest of Ferndale and 50 miles west of Eureka, at a depth of 4.3 miles. I didn't feel anything like an earth tremor last night.