So I was conscious of it being an earthquake immediately…sitting in a metal folding chair at St. Joe’s school. I could feel the earth going up and down, although I didn’t get to see the ground ripple or anything. I figured it was either big or close – turns out neither, but enough of each that it made for an interesting experience. I wouldn’t file it under pant-soiling terror or anything. Maybe if more stuff had been falling down.
Thing is, other people were losing their minds, and I think rightly so – if you’re in the wrong aisle of the grocery store, and suddenly get attacked by a slew of canned goods, that’s kind of trifling. It’s the whole “unexpected could happen anytime” thing about the earthquake that makes them nature’s suicide bombers – you at least get some warning with tornadoes, or fire, or hurricanes. Not much, certainly, and much good it may do you, but at least you get a fighting chance. Earthquake just flips the switch, and pow, fall down go boom. The only thing left is whether you just get shook up or whether a building falls on you.
Between the quake in the north and the fires down south, California is really living up to the promise of becoming the #1 action state in the country. What would you expect when the governor is an Austrian robot from the future?