Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Earthquake

I do live in earthquake country. Most of the time, the epicenter is too far away and the quakes are small, that I don't even know there was one. The last one was pretty big and we felt it at work. Usually it is so fast that all we can do is stop in our tracks, not knowing what to do. In spite of all the earthquake drills, everything goes out the window, we just stop in our tracks and wait to see if we need to run, dash for cover or what. The one on Friday (Jan 23) was no different except the epicenter of this one was just 2 miles away. You can say I was at the epicenter. I had just stepped into the front door, just closed the door when it happened. The house didn't shake but I did a loud sound and wasn't sure what it was. As usual I just stood there not knowing if I should run out the door or what. It was so sudden and short. I thought maybe it is the big tree in the back that has fallen so I ran to the back, the tree was still there. I later learned it was a 3.5 and centered a mile outside of Santa Monica. If it were any bigger, it might have triggered a Tsunami and my house could be under water and I could be drowned. At least it happened when I was still dressed and able to run if I needed to. What if it happened when we are not in a state of dress to bolt. It happened to me before, I was doing my business on the potty when the house shook and all I could think of was, 'please let me finish my business.'
This is no laughing matter because I'm not earthquake ready. I had to dismantle my earthquake kit a few years ago and I've not put it back together. I better start putting another one together.

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