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October 30, 2007
Five point six.
When the shaking began, I was sprawled across the bed with my laptop, thinking about ordering hot soup from a Thai restaurant.
I had enough time and presence of mind to point Firefox to the USGS earthquake map for Northern CA. Their sensors indicated a seismic event was underway, but they'd yet to fix the epicenter or intensity, offering only the local time, followed by "?"
Once the windows started to rattle, I felt fear and excitement in the pit of my stomach and immediately chastised myself for not submitting the order I'd set up on Safeway.com for our 72-hour kit. I sat up and moved to the bedroom doorway. This thing was taking far too long.
I grew up on Long Island. For me, the word "earthquake" conjures images from 1970s disaster films. The actual tremors I've felt since moving to San Francisco haven't topped out above 4.2, I don't think. I'm no mathelete, but tonight, I viscerally understood the concept of a logarithmic scale.
Things stopped moving, and I slipped on shoes while I called Liz at her parents' house in San Jose. After a few false starts, she called back with a persistent connection. I refreshed the USGS page and read her the specifics: 5.6, with an epicenter within about 8 miles of her current location.
Other than a few broken plates and some tense nerves, everything appears to be okay on their end. Missing her somewhat, I kept her on the line while I checked the gas main and water heater.
When I came back upstairs, the cats were sleeping on the couch.
Posted by Your Protagonist at October 30, 2007 08:39 PM