Friday, June 06, 2008

The Hills Are Alive

I guess it wasn't just a loopy dream. At some point in the middle of the night, I had a vague, near-waking sense that I was feeling an earthquake. I didn't quite wake up, though.

As it turns out, we had three, the largest of which was 3.5 on the Richter scale, all of them between 1:51 and 2:16 in the morning. The earthquakes are described as 5 miles west of Danville. What the reports don't say is that the quakes were 4 miles from where my head rolled around on my pillow in Moraga. It's been awhile since I have been that close to an earthquake. Li'l bitty ones like this are nothing to worry about, though.

I have long maintained that I would much rather live in an earthquake zone, where the likelihood of a catastrophic quake is limited to once every couple of decades or more, than someplace where widespread disaster is a seasonal certainty (see, e.g., Oklahoma (tornados); Florida (hurricanes)).

I'm sure my Oregon readership would say that they don't have to deal with any of that. Fine. But I like sunshine, too. In particular, I like sunshine in November. And December. And January ...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm.....sunshine in November, December, January..........hmmmm...we get sunshine on lots of days but it has to shine between the raindrops. We choose to see the silver lining!!

Anonymous said...

....aaah, but the rush and exhilaration of a few rays of sunshine in February after the deprivation of the winter months is something you must experience personally to fully appreciate! And the enhanced sensitivity to the full glory of a mite more in March and the reward of a seeming abundance in April can only be valued to its fullest when you are not overdosing on sunshine every month of the year. It's simply the difference between the excitement of a roller coaster ride with its extreme ups and downs and the dizziness of endlessly whirling around in a spinning teacup. At the moment, our roller coaster is doing that slooow grind to the top.

Anonymous said...

I have long maintained that I would much rather live in an earthquake zone, where the likelihood of a catastrophic quake is limited to once every couple of decades or more, than someplace where widespread disaster is a seasonal certainty (see, e.g., Oklahoma (tornados); Florida (hurricanes)).

Interesting logic. Growing up a "space brat", and now a "space rat" myself, I've lived 1/3 of my life in California, and 2/3 in Florida. While the year-round sunny, warm weather was almost identical in both places, I much prefer the five or more days of advance notice of an impending hurricane to the zero minutes warning of an earthquake. By the way, five generations of my family have lived in Florida since the early 1950's and none of us have ever been injured or suffered damage to our homes from hurricanes.

Dave said...

Thanks for dropping by, Mr./Ms. Anonymous. I don't think I've ever had a Florida-based friend agree with me on this point, either. I think there is an element of "the devil you know" in play when people think about natural disasters. I must say that, having lived both places myself, I prefer dry California warmth to humid Florida warmth.

Can we agree, though, that both beat the pants off Oklahoma? :)