It was simply horrible…

8:04 PM, I’m at my computer working on my class for this weekend and I hear a sound like an oncoming train.  Suddenly, “wham!” something hits my house and sends it rocking.  I soon realize that it’s an earthquake.  ‘Though I’m being vaulted left and right in my chair, I manage to get up and head towards the family room.  My dog is about as low to the ground as he can get and he’s whimpering.  Thoughts flash through my head.  Do I have enough water?  Where’s my earthquake kit?  Will the house fall off its foundation?  Will the chimney come crashing through the roof? I must remember to turn off the gas, and the water, and drain the water heater.  Shouldn’t I be at a doorjamb, in the bathtub or under a table?  I hope my family is OK at church (gee, should have thought of that earlier).  It’s alright; they are insured and they know Jesus.  Lights are swaying, and I soon realize that my front and back door jambs are directly inline with the P-waves and S-waves emanating from the epicenter of the quake.  They are really moving and pressing against the doors.  Will I ever be able to open my doors again?  Will I be able to escape?

Thirty seconds later, it was over.  Thank God, I still had power.  I could not smell gas.  Good.  I turned on the TV to see the early casualty reports.  I’m thinking it was a 5.5.  I search through all the local TV stations and… nothing.  Perhaps they were down and couldn’t relay the much needed data.  On the web, the USGS confirmed that it was 5.6 — so much greater than I had thought.  Gasp.  Time to assess the damage:  All the curios were still in place; thanks to dusty build-up.  No — one had fallen over; but it was unbroken; and not really my favorite anyway.  Its main function was to provide symmetry.  My TV was still in place.  I would live.  In the bedroom, the VCR had fallen off the stand.  Well, I thought, it’s an ancient technology.  If it broke, I could… still watch videos in three other rooms.  Man, I’ve got a lot of ancient technology.  But it worked.  At 9PM, almost an hour later, the reports came out on Fox, and interrupted the opening of House.  Now I’ll never know how the injured guy of the week got into the hospital.

The news of the quake was horrible:  Olive jars had been sacrificed at a local shopping center; ceiling tiles had fallen; books had fallen off their shelf at the SJSU library (my thesis — on the ground!); the airport souvenir shop had lost a crystal vase; another local airport lost all the windows of its conning tower; all trains were forced to drive at 20mph for the remainder of the evening.

My family made it home alive that night; they were safe.  Courtney, my daughter, had noticed that one of her fifty stuffed animals had fallen on the floor.  What if it had been her?  We slept in fear.

Next morning, I was anxious to get to my fifth-floor office.  Would I still have a window?  Had the building collapsed?  No such luck, but I did notice that… a binder had fallen over.  The USGS guy said that three different faults were 20 years overdue for a quake, and that the Calaveras fault, which had slipped last night, had already sent over 100 aftershocks coursing through the terra-not-so-firma while I had slept.  There was a 2% chance that another “moderate” earthquake could happen again in the next few days.  With odds like that, I was really jumpy.

It makes you think: with life so fragile, and doom right around the corner, could I even think about football.  Sure, I made three player moves today, and almost took a three player trade (from this week’s opponent no less — I must check that schedule before I consider a trade).  Indianapolis and New England are playing this weekend.  I won’t miss that — provided that I make it to the weekend alive! Anyway, be safe tonight at Halloween.

Co-missioner,
Brian