Earthquake!!!
I've been here for less than a day and this has already made it worth the trip. Somewhere around 8 weeks now I'd been out here this year, and I still hadn't experienced that stereotypical San Francisco earthquake. I think tonight's was better than most. I was in the hotel room watching a few minutes of the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special when it hit. It lasted somewhere between 10 and 12 seconds and was a magnitude 5.6 from the first reports. Here are my actions/thoughts:
0 - 3 seconds: Lying on bed watching TV. Whoever was having a loud conversation in the room next door has now decided to either move furniture around, vacuum the carpet, or is testing out their jackhammer for their job tomorrow.
3 - 5 seconds: Yeah, the building is shaking too much for this to be just the guy next door. This is an earthquake! I stand up next to the bed and spread my arms and legs out like I'm a basketball player guarding an opposing team player.
5 - 12 seconds: Whee! This is fun. Feels like being on a subway train bouncing on the tracks.
Then it stopped. Only after that did I wonder about how subways are designed to withstand this kind of shock, and that buildings that I am on the third floor of maybe aren't. So, I never thought about leaving the room or anything to make my situation safer. There probably wasn't much I could do in that period of time if the building was going to collapse anyway.
In case there were aftershocks, I wanted to be someplace more interesting, so I went out for a run, and ended up gettin' some wings. That turned out to be pretty exciting too. See next entry!
0 - 3 seconds: Lying on bed watching TV. Whoever was having a loud conversation in the room next door has now decided to either move furniture around, vacuum the carpet, or is testing out their jackhammer for their job tomorrow.
3 - 5 seconds: Yeah, the building is shaking too much for this to be just the guy next door. This is an earthquake! I stand up next to the bed and spread my arms and legs out like I'm a basketball player guarding an opposing team player.
5 - 12 seconds: Whee! This is fun. Feels like being on a subway train bouncing on the tracks.
Then it stopped. Only after that did I wonder about how subways are designed to withstand this kind of shock, and that buildings that I am on the third floor of maybe aren't. So, I never thought about leaving the room or anything to make my situation safer. There probably wasn't much I could do in that period of time if the building was going to collapse anyway.
In case there were aftershocks, I wanted to be someplace more interesting, so I went out for a run, and ended up gettin' some wings. That turned out to be pretty exciting too. See next entry!
Labels: travel
posted by PlaysByEar at 1:12 AM
2 Comments:
Stand in a doorway! Even the kids in CA know what to do in an earthquake. You midwesterners are not prepared. I experienced my first earthquake drunk off my ass. I was laying in bed thinking "make the bed stop spinning" and then realized it wasn't really spinning and the dog was freaking out and I know he wasn't drunk. Damn, it's an earthquake!
Joking aside. Be careful. The aftershocks can be just as bad if not worse. Remember, stay in a doorway.
I'll never forget the first time there was a fire drill in CO and I crawled under my desk and covered my head. Like I hadn't enough on my side to make me a wierdo......
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