I must have been sleeping like a rock

4.1 Earthquake northern S.D. County

When we first moved to California in the summer of 1970 I found it hard to adjust to the different seasons.

I had always lived back east where there were 4 distinct seasons, but here in Southern California that all changes.  We have: Drought, fire, monsoon, mudslide, and earthquake..  Fire is far the most frightening, as you can be taken unawares and lose everything in minutes.   Last year a co-worker of mine's neighborhood was evacuated middle of gthe night with almost zero notice with reverse 911 calls.  [This is a relatively new system where the emergency service calls *you* to tell you to get out if a bad fire breaks out.)  

 About 2 months afer coming to California there was a bad fire that broke out not too far from Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley where we lived then.  I missed it, the family being in Las Vegas for a bottler's convention my dad went to.  I missed all the "drama" - but you could smell smoke for days.  Then in following Feb. there was a huge 6.1 about 6 miles from where we lived.  Hospital wing collapsed.  Once again I "missed it" we being in Vegas again for another convention.  We drove home that day, expecting to find some damage to our house.  Nada.  About a foot of water spashed from the pool, an overturned water cooler in the kitchen, and a top row of books from one of my bookcases which was tightly packed "jumped" onto the floor, in a neat row. That was it.  I was secretly disappointed I missed the "big one" that all my new friends at school eperienced.  My parents were somewhat amused that I had slept through a few fairly good aftershock for 4 and up that night.  For a week or two afterwards, however, I was introduced to a new sport common in souther California called "quess the magnitude."  What you do is wait until it's over and then say "4.5" and someone else says: "no way, 4.7 and no less."  Then you wait 10 minutes for CalTech to get its act together and say "SEE I TOLD you...."

Truth be told I'm kinda bummed I "missed" the quake this morning!  Those in the 4 point ranger are "Hey theres"  Same sensation you feel just before the first drop on a rollercoaster.  Giddy anticipation.

If you want to avoid all this, apparently the deal is:  Live in Vegas.  You can only lose your shirt.

Out for a Drive

Digihairshirt reminded me her hubby was an Escondido boy, and by extension Archangel's Pulpit (her brother in law) ... and I was out on the Del Dios Highway the other day taking the scenic route,.This vid's especially for them. But you can watch too. :-D





[Hang the Arabs and their high gas prices.] This video is shot from the northern reaches of Rancho $anta Fe to just south of Escondido. There's a busy Interstate 15 a few miles to the east of where this is shot, and Del Dios is a little inland from I-5 and the ocean on the west. You can see a little bit of the effects of the huge fires we had last October. Given that the fires had jumped 10 lanes of I-15 and the emergency lanes to boot, it's amazing both sides of this road weren't more damaged than they were. Portions of the highway took a big hit. The "shelter in place" program REALLY helped the communities I passed through, a lot of land was impacted, but the houses were saved. If you saw footage of helos lifting water during the fires, chances are it was from this lake called Lake Hodges.