Bornfamous

I’m feeling a bit skittish this morning, after the fourth rather significant California earthquake in a week. Turns out I’m not the only one:

The series of earthquakes was enough to revive anxious chatter Thursday of the coming Big One, a massive quake along the San Andreas fault. [E]xperts said they can understand the concern.

“I can empathize why people feel that,” added Lucy Jones, the scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Southern California office. “We don’t handle randomness well. We like to make patterns. The chances are we expect two ‘fives’ in a week once every 10 years. It’s been very quiet. During the ’80s, we had earthquakes every day from 1987 to 1994. People are out of habit. They’ve been lulled down.”

Every DAY? I don’t remember that. Oh, wait. I didn’t live here then.

Folks here in San Diego tend to assume that we’re safe from the Big One because we’ve never had a damaging quake here, at least not in recorded history. But I certainly felt the Anza quake last Sunday morning, a long shaking and then a BUMP strong enough to make me jump out of my chair and prepare to yell to the sleeping kids to WAKE UP AND GET OUT! But then the shaking stopped, although my pounding heart took a little longer to calm down. That BUMP was not something we’re used to feeling in this part of the state.

I don’t mean to be a nervous Nellie but our apartment is standing basically on stilts over a carport. If those stilts crumble, we’re in trouble. And we won’t even have a vehicle to escape to, since I park my car below us. Suddenly that nice shady spot, such a coveted item in Southern California, doesn’t seem so desirable. I mean, if we need to spend a few days or weeks in the Volvo because of aftershocks, like my sister did in hers for two weeks after the Northridge quake in ‘95, I prefer that it not be squashed in the rubble or under a shaky edifice. Still, I’m not ready to trade my plum parking spot for one in the sun. I’d rather take my chances. Shows you where my priorities are.

When we moved here from my sister’s [slightly cracked] house in Van Nuys nine years ago, I dutifully stocked up on water, canned food and batteries — but what with being lulled into complacency and all, that’s all gone. I suspect that a lot of folks are thinking the same thing and that bottled water may be hard to come by later today, so I think I’ll just go and stock up while it’s early. And pick up lots of canned food while I’m at it. Oh yes, and batteries for the flashlight, and a battery-powered radio…