Shake Rattle and Roll
Its a beautiful Sunday afternoon, three of us sitting at a bay side restaurant, clear blue sky, warm sunshine pouring in through the open beam ceiling, palm trees gently sway with the fresh ocean breeze , lots of sailboats cruising San Diego bay; it is a "chamber of commerce postcard." Then a rumble and the entire restaurant and deck we are on starts to sway. I turned to Karen and daughter Michelle and together we said, "earthquake." As California people we are used to small quakes now and then, but this one continued longer, and got stronger. Moments later I said go go go - outside now. The patio we were on is on pilings, some 10 to 15 feet over rock and water with wood open beam ceiling and heavy outdoor heaters suspended overhead. The exit from the patio to the parking lot, an open area with no power poles, is just 20 feet from our table at the edge over the water. Most waiters and patrons are looking at each other wondering what to do. A few waiters move to the doorway. There is no panic, no shouting, just a lot of people wondering what to do. We walked very fast to the exit, followed by about 20-30 others. Once in the lot we watch as cars lurched back and forth. As the rocking subsided we jumped in our car and headed out of the lot, turning on the radio as we drove for higher ground. The is a major fault line running off shore San Diego, and if the epicenter was under the ocean nearby, it would likely generate a huge tsunami. Within a minute the radio announced it was a major quake centered inland, near Calexico Ca & Mexicali Mexico. No tsunami, so we returned to the restaurant, went back to our table and our glasses of California Chardonnay. There were three more aftershocks over the next thirty minutes, none big enough to cause another exit, all big enough to be felt by everyone.

Once at home we found one vase broken, and some small items on the floor, but no real damage. Other neighbors had a few broken items as well. The folks in the town of Calexico California near the epicenter fared well considering the quake was larger than the one which struck Haiti. Calexico had major structural damage only to some older downtown buildings which had not been earthquake retrofitted. All the more modern structures held firm. Mexicali, a few feet away across the border, was much harder hit, with many building collapses. Building codes are important. Many commercial structures built to American standards in Mexico remained sound, and it's been reported that several of Mexicali's public buildings sustained major damage. Public buildings there were apparently built to a lesser standard due to cost cutting and corruption according to some reports. Regardless of the reason, as in Haiti, the damage was more severe than it should have been. So far two lives were lost and hundreds injured in those border communities.

The lessons for us; continue to live every day to it's fullest. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wild fires, lightening, all take their toll and are beyond our control. Traffic accidents are more common, and often more deadly. Celebrate living in a country where the standards are higher, the corruption lower, emergency response superior, and most people do care for one another.

It's a beautiful day, with an aftershocks now and then to remind us of the limits to our "control." Is that rumble a truck going by or...