Monday, March 5, 2012

Old Age Day by Day March 5, 2012

We were awakened at 5:30 am by an earthquake.  It must have been centered nearby, as it was quite a shake, though brief.  It startled the dogs, and they had to be let outside to bark at mother nature.  Amazingly, I went back to sleep.  With earthquakes, there isn't much to do.  They are usually over before you can get downstairs and out the door or under a table.  Just another reminder that I am not in control of anything, and my life can change in an instant.  I already knew that, but it never hurts to have a reality check.  I'm in the majority of of people here who know a big one is coming, but are not ready for preemptive measures.  We like where we live too much.  When I was in my early twenties, and living up north, there occurred three big earthquakes in the space of eight hours.  Some of our new friends, who had relocated from Rapid Falls, South Dakota, because their company and had moved, were deeply frightened by the quakes.  They had deposits on houses and had picked the colors of their appliances and were adjusting, but after the quakes, many of the couples moved back to South Dakota, sans jobs.  The next year a devastating flood hit Rapid City and pretty much wiped out the town.

So I'm not sure there is a guaranteed island of safety, where nature does not raise it's head and rattle a few inhabitants of it's domain.  That time I took the baby and stayed with my parents for a few days until the aftershocks calmed down.  I've never forgotten the feel of that night, rushing to the baby's crib and my husband pulling him out by his feet, huddling with many others in the apartment complex by the pool until a second quake sloshed the pool like a plastic tub, then, exhausted in early morning, venturing back inside to have a third quake hit and the tv, bookshelves and pictures fall over again.  Some buildings crumbled, some people died, and a lot of stuff broke.  And that is when you realize stuff is stuff, and if you're alive and unharmed, you're damned lucky.  Not smart, not well planned out, just lucky.

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