oh, california...
with all the wildfires that happened in recent weeks in southern california, a question arose regarding home insurance. it turns out most insurance companies consider california to be "disaster prone". in my head, i have this image of a person with bad balance, horrible eyesight, and has a tendency to bump into things. apparently that's the state i live in. we have wildfires, floods, landslides, mudslides, etc. the biggest one on the list: earthquakes. unlike tornadoes and hurricanes, you can't predict when an earthquake will happen. there is no earthquake season or earthquake "alley". i'm sure living between two fault lines does make the bay area KINDA like an alley, but no.
last night was the first earthquake we've had in a long while. i'm not a fan of earthquakes. my sister isn't phased by them at all, but i get shaken up (literally). what was scary was being next to an exterior wall when the building started to shake. it was like standing next to a piece of tissue paper in a strong wind. plus, we've got 4 giant skylights and i know one strong shake and those will pop out. we were sitting watching tv and everything started to shake. it came on strong and then tapered off a bit towards the end. it was definitely surprising, as most earthquakes tend to be. remembering our earthquake drills in school, i immediately dove for the floor. marshall kept trying to stand me up, but i know the best place was to be on the floor. unfortunately, there was nothing in my immediate area that would work as cover. i was going to crawl to the dining room table, but marshall picked me up and we stood next to an interior wall until the shaking stopped. my eyes never left our fish tank. from beginning to end, i was watching that thing, waiting for something to happen. luckily, even with the higher-than-normal water level, it didn't splash out the top. it was kinda creepy to see the plants still swaying even when the physical shaking ceased. we stood in the kitchen like true californians, waiting for an aftershock. none came, so that was good. we took up our previous positions and turned on the tv again.
we immediately got a call from marshall's mom, who had just gotten a call from her sister (marshall's aunt). his aunt lives in ben lomond and KNOWS what earthquakes are like. not sure if she was here for the loma prieta earthquake, whose epicenter was only a few miles away from ben lomond. in any case, we got a call and for a moment i thought "wow, did pat feel this all the way in l.a.!?" of course, not. anyway, after he told her we were alright, i called my mom. she answered the phone and immediately replied "we're fine, everything's okay". apparently her next door neighbor, who has a handful of cats, said all of them immediately rolled into little balls as soon as it started shaking. my imagination saw little balls of fluff rolling around the floor like little pill bugs.
i'm still in a kind of braced mentality right now. one of my coworkers said that because of the unusually hot weather this october he had a feeling we'd be getting another earthquake. the warm october led up to the loma prieta. my mom's mentioned something like "earthquake weather" whenever it's gets funky around here. but i'm sorta waiting for the next one. in my mind i'm seeing last night's earthquake as a sort of preamble to a big one that's coming up. geologists everywhere are saying we're due for another big one. the only question is when...
p.s. i dressed up as alice from alice in wonderland today for work. i've been shocked at the questions i've been getting. "who are you?" "are you snow white?" umm, i'm alice. i seriously would've thought the blue dress, white pinafore, and white tights would've been obvious. i even have a black ribbon in my hair! i think i need to have a serious blonde job done. i miss being a true blonde. coincidentally, i found someone in the other building dressed as the queen of hearts. i sure hope there isn't another alice!
anyway - happy halloween, everyone!
last night was the first earthquake we've had in a long while. i'm not a fan of earthquakes. my sister isn't phased by them at all, but i get shaken up (literally). what was scary was being next to an exterior wall when the building started to shake. it was like standing next to a piece of tissue paper in a strong wind. plus, we've got 4 giant skylights and i know one strong shake and those will pop out. we were sitting watching tv and everything started to shake. it came on strong and then tapered off a bit towards the end. it was definitely surprising, as most earthquakes tend to be. remembering our earthquake drills in school, i immediately dove for the floor. marshall kept trying to stand me up, but i know the best place was to be on the floor. unfortunately, there was nothing in my immediate area that would work as cover. i was going to crawl to the dining room table, but marshall picked me up and we stood next to an interior wall until the shaking stopped. my eyes never left our fish tank. from beginning to end, i was watching that thing, waiting for something to happen. luckily, even with the higher-than-normal water level, it didn't splash out the top. it was kinda creepy to see the plants still swaying even when the physical shaking ceased. we stood in the kitchen like true californians, waiting for an aftershock. none came, so that was good. we took up our previous positions and turned on the tv again.
we immediately got a call from marshall's mom, who had just gotten a call from her sister (marshall's aunt). his aunt lives in ben lomond and KNOWS what earthquakes are like. not sure if she was here for the loma prieta earthquake, whose epicenter was only a few miles away from ben lomond. in any case, we got a call and for a moment i thought "wow, did pat feel this all the way in l.a.!?" of course, not. anyway, after he told her we were alright, i called my mom. she answered the phone and immediately replied "we're fine, everything's okay". apparently her next door neighbor, who has a handful of cats, said all of them immediately rolled into little balls as soon as it started shaking. my imagination saw little balls of fluff rolling around the floor like little pill bugs.
i'm still in a kind of braced mentality right now. one of my coworkers said that because of the unusually hot weather this october he had a feeling we'd be getting another earthquake. the warm october led up to the loma prieta. my mom's mentioned something like "earthquake weather" whenever it's gets funky around here. but i'm sorta waiting for the next one. in my mind i'm seeing last night's earthquake as a sort of preamble to a big one that's coming up. geologists everywhere are saying we're due for another big one. the only question is when...
p.s. i dressed up as alice from alice in wonderland today for work. i've been shocked at the questions i've been getting. "who are you?" "are you snow white?" umm, i'm alice. i seriously would've thought the blue dress, white pinafore, and white tights would've been obvious. i even have a black ribbon in my hair! i think i need to have a serious blonde job done. i miss being a true blonde. coincidentally, i found someone in the other building dressed as the queen of hearts. i sure hope there isn't another alice!
anyway - happy halloween, everyone!