Earthquakes
Mar. 12th, 2011 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_camera
If you believe one word of what Japanese cabinet officials are telling you about the Fukushima power plant explosion, then I have a bridge, several thousand shares of Enron stock and an autographed photo of Elvis serenading his alien overlords that I would like to unload on you.
It’s very hard to think of anything else but the disturbing images coming out of Japan.
But, of course, It Can’t Happen Here – or at least, not in this part of Here.
One of the reasons I moved to Monterey actually was that on my many trips down there over the years to visit Marybeth I noticed there were an awful lot of early 19th century adobes still standing. From this I deduced – rightly or wrongly -- that Monterey is built on bedrock. In the event of a Loma Prieta repeat, it was unlikely that I would be trapped on a freeway just as it started to buckle.
Not that anything nearly that dramatic happened to me during the Loma Prieta earthquake itself. No, I was in my final year of graduate school, walking up a flight of stairs in the low, wooden Shattuck Avenue building that housed my internship. The stairs began to shake. I didn’t think of an earthquake though. I assumed it was a bus or a truck passing outside. I think I actually went into the office, sat down at my desk and began to work before somebody figured out: That was a big earthquake!
Panicked slightly because Bill and Baby Max were roaming around somewhere on campus. But of course they were all right too.
It was the preponderance of after-the-fact media pictures that really freaked me out. In particular, one stretch of highway I drove nearly every day that had collapsed. I began obsessing: What if I had been on that freeway? Of course, if you live in California, you live with the full knowledge that the Big One could hit at any time. But it’s not like playing poker: I mean, sure, the longer you live there, the more likely you are to get stuck in it but it’s not as though those years are an investment that increase the chances.
Still. When I started having actual nightmares about collapsing freeways, I decided to get out.
In other news, I’ve been charged with drafting Arizona Lawyer Boy’s Call To Action regarding doomed AZ House Bill 2551. ALB confided to me the other day that he is seriously considering a bid for state office – maybe after he turns 35.
“And if I do I’ll want you to move here and be on my staff,” he said.
I doubt that he was serious. But it is what went to graduate school for.
Oh, and RTT placed third in the local Slam Poetry jam. He was the only contestant under the age of 18, so I'd say that's perty dang good.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 04:30 pm (UTC)As you can imagine, like many people around here, my primary task for the day is to check and restocking my earthquake survival kit.
I too am very disturbed by this disaster.
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Date: 2011-03-13 02:08 pm (UTC)Yes, it makes me feel rather like a bug climbing up the wall of a burning building.
Life can change just like... that.
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Date: 2011-03-12 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-13 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-13 11:59 pm (UTC)but then again, i have a very hard time reading poetry too.
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Date: 2011-03-12 09:39 pm (UTC)It kinda feels like the planet is trying to shake us off the way a dog tries to shake off a wet dip or a mess of ticks.
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Date: 2011-03-13 02:12 pm (UTC)But yes, my nightmares only come in two formats -- one of which is a mountainous wave threatening to break on my head.
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Date: 2011-03-12 09:51 pm (UTC)that's awesome. :)
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Date: 2011-03-13 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 03:22 am (UTC)