I live in California where the threat of a massive earthquake lurks around every corner or behind the next click of the clock. We have family on the East Coast (Jimmy) that refuses to step foot on western soil for fear that the earth will quiver, rock, and then open up and sending us flailing into the ocean. I’ve always lived here, so I’ve never been fearful. I was in Santa Cruz during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, and I happened to be visiting friends in Santa Barbara during the Northridge earthquake. During both, I found myself just bracing for the possibility of the roof caving in. I got lucky.
Now that I have children I am not as blasé about the ground starting to shake. What would I do? What if one of the girls is sleeping and the other is playing in the living room? How would I get to both of them? We have an emergency plan. We know what to do if something happens and Khary is at work, Jocelyn is in daycare, and I’m home with Aja. But the what-if’s are endless. I think about how fate intervened back in 1989, when my mom, my brother and I all happened to be home. On any other day we would have been in three different places. Life happens like that sometimes.
Last night’s gas line explosion across the bay in San Bruno shook me up a bit. Families were possibly sitting down for dinner, some may have just arrived home from work, and children were hugging their parents and telling them about their day at school. And then suddenly the sky lit up in a huge fireball.
Hug your kids, husbands, wives, significant others, family members (even the crazy ones), and friends a little tighter tonight. We’re grateful to be able to sit down for another dinner tonight. And tonight we’ll enjoy our typical dinnertime fun: Aja will fight to crawl out of the high chair, and Jocelyn will ask to “cheers” five times before throwing her food on the floor (she’s thankfully grown out of mashing it in her hair).
All that being said, we love it here Jimmy and we don’t plan on moving. I may never see a white Christmas outside my door but I love me some California.
Now that I have children I am not as blasé about the ground starting to shake. What would I do? What if one of the girls is sleeping and the other is playing in the living room? How would I get to both of them? We have an emergency plan. We know what to do if something happens and Khary is at work, Jocelyn is in daycare, and I’m home with Aja. But the what-if’s are endless. I think about how fate intervened back in 1989, when my mom, my brother and I all happened to be home. On any other day we would have been in three different places. Life happens like that sometimes.
Last night’s gas line explosion across the bay in San Bruno shook me up a bit. Families were possibly sitting down for dinner, some may have just arrived home from work, and children were hugging their parents and telling them about their day at school. And then suddenly the sky lit up in a huge fireball.
Hug your kids, husbands, wives, significant others, family members (even the crazy ones), and friends a little tighter tonight. We’re grateful to be able to sit down for another dinner tonight. And tonight we’ll enjoy our typical dinnertime fun: Aja will fight to crawl out of the high chair, and Jocelyn will ask to “cheers” five times before throwing her food on the floor (she’s thankfully grown out of mashing it in her hair).
All that being said, we love it here Jimmy and we don’t plan on moving. I may never see a white Christmas outside my door but I love me some California.
Here's a list of information regarding shelters, donations, counseling, etc, for San Bruno residents.
