ten minutes after the quake I wrote my blog entry for tonight:
http://www.grrl.com/blog.html

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Let me make one thing clear: I HATE EARTHQUAKES! Having my house shake until we all run out the front door screaming into the darkness is not my idea of a fun time. But that's exactly what I got to do tonight, courtesy of a 5.3 earthquake in Gilroy, way too damn close to where I live.

I'm no stranger to natural disasters. I grew up in the middle of tornado country in Western Kansas. I was raised to properly fear Mother Nature. Unlike earthquakes, you know when a tornado is on its way. It rains, hails, then gets very still and quiet. Your pets freak out and then BAM it hits. But you can see tornados approach by looking at the sky and staring at cloud formations. Tornados are dangerous, and yet it's comforting to know that at least you have some sort of warning.

Earthquakes don't work that way. One minute you're watching Trading Spaces wondering if Doug will talk boring homeowners into painting their equally dull neighbor's fireplace purple and then the next minute you feel like you're trapped inside
a huge bag of Shake'N'Bake.

Since moving to Northern California, I've been through four mild earthquakes. I felt my first quake while I was simultaneously watching "Melrose Place" and chatting on the phone with a pal. I saw people run into the street and start screaming "Quake! Quake!"

I didn't know if I should join them on the sidewalk, or stand in an archway or hide under a desk. I opted to stay on the phone and hope my apartment didn't collapse.

All the other times I either slept through them thinking it was someone opening a garage door underneath my studio, or I was walking down the street and didn't seem to notice.

Well, tonight I noticed, and I was still just as unprepared. It's like that question everyone asks you at slumber parties when you were a kid. "If your house was on fire, what three
things would you take with you?"

The proper answer to that question for me tonight would have been:

  1. The dog
  2. car keys
  3. shoes

But instead I searched desperately with my eyes around the room as it was shaking, grabbed some tissues, my soda and a seed packet -- with the dog barking and running after me as I leaped out the front door.

A seed packet? What the hell was I thinking? I had no shoes on, no jacket. And I don't even know where my car keys happen to be. But if I was thristy or needed cry, I was set. Sheesh.

My boyfriend looked at me like I was the last doofus out of the building during a fire drill. I don't blame him. I was being a doofus. Even while I was outside I was thinking,
"Dammit, I left my new issue of Giant Robot on the bed, and I haven't read it yet." With a chaser thought of "If the house collapses how am I going to watch the season finale of Six Feet Under?"

As you can tell, my priorities are a bit screwed up during a crisis.

-Bonnie Burton
Grrl.com

Under California Law, you are not allowed to howl like a little girl unless the quake is over 6.0 on the Richter Scale.

5.2 Richter, 22:00:29, 3 mi. SW of Gilroy

Thus far, I've kind of enjoyed earthquakes (wasn't here for '89.) Biking up San Pablo during rush hour tonight was scarier.

Reminds me of the Seattle quake last year.

I had an office in an historic (read: brick, poorly-reinforced, not-recently-inspected) building. The first tremor was a rolling one, followed by a series of continuous jarring snaps, which I watched from the doorframe (not actually safe, I know...) first crack the plaster above my head, then pry the plaster into two hanging slabs. "Sweet jumpin' Jehosavat," I remember thinking, "this fucking building's about to fall down."

I think I may have whimpered, like a puppy, but just a little bit.

I feel for you, Mr. Cory. I've lived here for 4 years and have never expirenced the joy of the terra firma deciding that it isn't so firma. Even though I'm inclined to agree that life is more fun when I'm not completely inert, this was too many shades of un-grooviness. Yeeearghh.

There is something fundementally nauesating about the earth
turning into a thick ocean of quivering jelly. I've been
through a dozen California quakes large enough to hold my
attention. I've never gotten used to them though.

It's not like I get motion sick or anything like that.
I do fine in heavy weather at sea. Of course, you expect
the ocean to act the way it does. But the earth is supposed
to stay put, dammit!

Edited by author 05-14-2002 05:26 AM
Glad to hear you're okay.

Here in Scotland, the nearest volcano has been extinct for 400 Myears and the only earthquakes are caused by ancient tin mines subsiding -- but when they do that a hundred yards down the road you get a very local Richter 3-4 quake. (Unless you're the poor sod in the house on top of it, in which case you get a 7.)

(The worst I've been through was a 4.0 in Bradford about a decade ago. Yes, England gets earthquakes too -- just not very many and not very severe.)

This was a nice swaying quake. The ones that creep me out are the short sharp snaps that sound like thunder.

And what's with the second mini-epicenter centered around Mountain View? It didn't show up on the other map.

maybe it's because i'm an ignorant transplant from back east but i rather enjoyed the quake.

it was my first one also, that i've noticed, and swayed & jiggled the house nicely. this place has been through more quakes than most so i had confidence in it.

yay earthquake!

Remember in Crocodile Dundee when Hogan's in the the subway and some guy pulls a knife on him? Hogan: "That's not a knife. This is a knife." That 5.2 was the first knife.

I'm one of those people that missed it somehow. I'm used to the occasional big truck rolling by; maybe I wrote it off as that.

"My urine is still in the sofa."

JUST urine? Must have been a small quake.

If you're worried about detecting earthquakes, I suggest a koi pond. Seriously.

Back in 1998, I was in Tokyo for a working group meeting.
One evening, three of us were admiring the garden and pond
behind the hotel (the Takanawa Prince, for the record). The
pond was fairly full of large koi - up to about 18 inches.

Suddenly - EVERY FISH IN THE POND LEAPED OUT OF THE WATER!
This was followed closely by three startled humans leaping
into the air! THAT was followed closely by the sudden sound
of everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - rattling, and the
ground swinging back and forth under our feet.

I estimate it lasted about 10 seconds, and something big
and metallic kept banging away for several seconds after
that. Given that nothing big seemed to be falling in or
down, we went back in the hotel. Several employees were
rushing about in an almost panic stricken state, worried
that customer service and elevators might be disrupted.
(They were no longer worried about the quake, just its
consequences...)

Anyway - I recommend the garden and koi pond. Relaxing
most of the time, and an earthquake warning when you
really need it.

I guess I'm in the minority, but I enjoy earthquakes. Only once, on the top floor of an office building, was it mildy worrisome, as the building swished back and forth.

I don't care if 5.2 is considered small potatoes.
I was freaked out.

our house is on freakin stilts and I'm not about to hang out and go "cool an earthquake."

nosireebob.

I sincerely hope that couch wasn't stuffed with millions of dollars of cocaine, or laser-etched cutlets.

He might consider the male version of The Keeper called The Peeper.

Cocaine is typically wrapped in plastic in 1 kilo packages. Even if it were exposed to a bit of human urine, it would hardly comprimise the purity of quality product. Or so I've heard.

I'm just glad to be alive, along with the laser cutlet meme.

I haven't been exposed to the laser cutlet meme. Is it worth getting infected?

i guess i can't relate to how scary an earthquake must be...your post had me chuckling all day. that. was. so. wrong. heh.

Aging in California: When I was young and caught in an earthquake, my first reaction was, "Damn, I gotta stop drinking so much." Now I'm older, in the same situation I say "Damn, I'm having a heart attack!". So it goes.......

PS. Caught your talk at the OReilly thing. Loved it.