Trembling Alive

Last night I was sitting at my desk, doing some reading, when my keyboard started shaking, then the floor beneath me trembled, and suddenly it donned on me that we were having an earthquake. Being the neurotic that I am, I darted into the doorway, grabbed each side of the frame, squatted, and braced for the worst. Of course nothing further happened, although over the next hour it felt like there were several after-shocks. I checked on Jennifer, my housemate, a few minutes later, thinking she would be freaked out, but I found her lying in bed, half-asleep, and she approached the subject with a bemused smile. She's lived in the city long enough to have experienced far more of these than I have. (Or perhaps the idea of this being "the end" was indeed a welcome escape from her own troubles?) A few minutes later, after thinking for a second that I might have imagined the whole thing, I noticed on sfgate that it was a 4.2 trembler. This comes on the heals of a 3.4 quake last Friday afternoon, which I felt here in the office, although the girls downstairs in the actual gallery didn't notice a thing, and looked at me in a bizarre way when I first broached the subject.

Last year, at about this time (give or take a month or two), I decided to move to SF, and the decision came the day before the 100th anniversary of the big quake in 1906 that destroyed most of the city. I just chuckled when every major network ran stories about how unprepared we are for the next big one. It's not like I'm suddenly living in fear, though. It's just weird to imagine the worst-case scenario, and how helpless we are to do anything about it. I mean, yeah, we have a little kit at the house, and we have plenty of bottled water and canned vegetables handy, but in the long run, what's 3-4 days of supplies going to do if the city gets wiped out?

I guess we just have to be a little lucky, as my grandfather used to say.

On such a pleasant note, let me just say, have a great weekend, my dear little friends out there. I'm either going to crash the Dandy Warhols show tonight, or I'm going to lay in bed with the first three episodes of Decalogue followed by Babel, both of which arrived yesterday, and reflect on the nothingness of nothingness, as our beloved Jack used to say in Dharma Bums.