September 4, 2003
Oh
That's what that was.
I was lying down on the couch watching TV when this thing happened. Now I'm not one to relate earthquake stories simply because they happen too often to keep track of, and this isn't an earthquake blog. But, because I hurt myself as a result of this quake, I thought I'd share. Now, knowing me, this can't possibly be a short story, so go on 'bout your business if you have to.
About six years ago, I was at Laguna Creek Beach north of Santa Cruz. My car was parked like a half mile away, there was no one around, and there was a fairly intense trail to navigate to get from the road to the beach. Whatever. The tide was out. I'm walking on what I thought were dry rocks. There was moss on the rocks that was wet from the last wave. I slipped and fell on the wet moss. I would have hit the rocks with my head, but my left arm flew out to break the fall. It hurt like a mother fucker. I was winded. I was alone on the beach. I thought I broke the damn thing, but because I could move it, I knew it wasn't broken. Instead, I hurt the muscle bad enough to cause a bruise from under my arm down to my elbow. It was narly...as in ugly narly, not rad narly. Since then, my left arm has always been my weak arm. It doesn't hurt all the time, but if I lift wrong, it does. A pleasant reminder that I still have no health benefits.
So, this afternoon, I'm dozing on the couch, and I hear this rumble. It was loud and the whole place shook. I thought that one of my (larger) neighbors fell down or something. That's what it felt like. That or a car running into the wall of the building. In the process of jumping up from the couch to figure out what happened, I pushed one way, my torso went another way, and I re-injured my left shoulder as I did six years ago. I literally screamed in pain, at the same time cursing my neighbors for being negligent. (I'm sorry folks.) I had no idea there had been an earthquake until two hours later when I read this link. My apartment is like two blocks away from Piedmont. In fact, some of my mail comes addressed to Piedmont instead of Oakland. Oh my god, I'm so making a big deal out of this. I'm sorry folks. It's California, but in thirteen years, this is like the third quake that I've even felt. No big deal.
OK. Story's over. Only that it was on the Hayward fault which, as I learned in Geology 110, is potentially more dangerous than the much touted San Andreas fault. I can't remember the details on whether it was because of the size of the fault itself or because of the population density along the faultline. In any case, one of these days it could go really big. Yeah yeah, just like Southern California will fall into the ocean. (No big loss. Just kidding.) And just like one of these days the levels of the world's oceans will rise so high that Florida will be consumed and drowned. Now that's really no big loss.
So now my arm is sore, and I'm freezing cold. I was sitting in the setting sun coming through the window and I was shivering, I was so cold. Now I'm just tired. Gotta go to bed soon.
On another note, I applied for eighteen (18) jobs today. I counted. Let's see what happens.
Bye.
