Earthquake Shakes California

When I was growing up in the Salinas Valley of California, I can remember several earthquakes rattling me awake from a sound sleep. You can hear them coming! It's a weird sound, like a freight train coming through your bedroom.

Today, there was a pretty strong quake, registering in at 6.0, centered near in Parkfield, California. This town is known as California's Earthquake Capital.

For several years, I lived in Hollister, California, where I thought, by the number of quakes we experienced daily, we were the earthquake capital. Needless to say, both towns are on the infamous San Andreas Fault.
In October, 1989, I was driving about 40 to 45 miles per hour, on a highway overpass over CA Hwy 101, when I felt as though I had four flat tires! It was just after 5pm. I remember looking at the car to the right of me, going as fast as I was, and she looking back at me. Neither of us understood what was going on at that particular moment. It wasn't until I looked about a mile ahead of us and noticed the traffic lights were out. As I got closer to the intersection, I noticed store front windows wavering with the aftershocks.

This quake measured somewhere around 7.2 on the Richter scale and was centered near Watsonville, California, just 20 miles from my home. Our power was out for three days. The aftershocks just kept on coming.
With all the hurricane activity Florida has been experiencing in recent weeks, I would take an earthquake over a hurricane, anytime. The destruction of these hurricanes has been horrifying. I'm not so sure the home I'm in now would withstand a strong earthquake, I'm sure a hurricane would be devastating. Idaho just does not have the building codes California has.

Note to self: Doorways!

Saturday Six - Episode 24

1. Who is the last person you took a photograph of? The last person(s) I took pictures of were of my son and father. In August, they built some really nice shelves in my garage. It happened to be my father's 70th birthday, and he was here working away with my son. I remember running back in the house to phone my mom. I couldn't believe I had forgotten his birthday! And did I mention to you, it was his 70th birthday! We, my mom and I, decided on a home cooked meal, his favorite, and a nice evening visit over dessert.

2. What decade do you hold the most dear and why? I have two decades I hold dear... The 70's are dear to me. Friends, high school, driving, music, dating, concerts, love found, marriage. The memories are the greatest. The 80's are closest to my heart. Both my children were born in the 80's. My daughter in 1981, and my son in 1989. I love being a mom.

3. Take the quiz: What mystical creature are you? You're a mermaid. The stereotypical mermaid had a long, fish-like tail that blended with the human torso at the hips and almost white skin with red hair or some off color like green or blue. They were the most fantastic singers and the siren type of mermaids would lure sailors with their lovely lullaby into dangerous rocks. They were mostly harmless and peacefull and they were content to simply sit on the beach combing their hair or in the water playing with friends. Theynever wore clothes and were always women. They were sweet and a little deciteful at times.

4. What is your favorite alcoholic beverage? 1800 Margaritas, with salt, on the rocks.

5. What do you normally wear to bed? A knee length nightie.

6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #24 from Cherie: What movie character do you most identify with? "Grace" from Grace Under Fire. A comedy t.v. show about single mom with kids and the challenges of trying to make the best for her family, having fun along the way. My day to day life is much like Grace's. It's always something!

Closet Journaler

Okay... I've been journaling now, in the closet - privately, for a couple of months. I've been peeking around at others' journals, getting totally addicted to reading the life and times of these other journalers. I love to write, though I don't think I'm very good at it. In time, if I stick with this, I think this too will improve.

A bit about me...
I'm the mother of a rock star! My daughter has been in music since she was just three years old. In the beginning, piano lessons were 15 minutes long, twice a week, 45 miles away from home. That may seem like an aweful long way to drive for a 15 minute lesson, but honestly, it was worth every moment! She's now 23 years old, a self-taught guitar player for a pretty popular heavy metal band.

I also have a son. Last Christmas, my son got a drum set from Santa. Lessons are once a week, and now all his spare time is spent tapping and pounding rhythms on everything in site. I don't know where this will lead, but I know it keeps him busy and out of trouble. My son is 15 and a sophomore in high school. He attends a Charter High School for the Medical Arts.

Yes, I believe music is very important for children. I wish our public schools would offer more music in their curriculum, at the earliest ages. Kids' minds are like little sponges, absorbing all that surrounds them. Music should be as natural as breathing. Of course, this is just my opinion.

I'm also crazy over Yorkies! I have three beautiful Yorkshire Terriers! Harley, Lucy and Molly. I have had dogs throughout my life, always big dogs. I'll never go back! These little guys are the greatest. They have a heart of gold and would do anything to please me, not to mention, they are just the cutest little dogs! Okay, I warned you, I'm crazy about these little guys. Harley's a daddy again. This last litter was born September 8th. Four males and a female. We get pick of the litter and will get a little male. We're trying to come up with a name for the little guy. In another entry I'll have to tell you how we came up with Harley's name.

We also have three cats... Wigs, Goose, and Sketch. We think Goose may have found another home as he comes home just a couple days a week. Someone else in the neighborhood must be feeding him. He looks great when he's home. He's a huge Siamese, ten years old or better. Wigs is always home and is my son's cat. Wigs is a Mainecoon and probably small for her breed but a pretty big cat anyway. We've had her for seven years. And then there's Sketch. The Yorkies love her! She's also a Siamese. If you like Siamese, she is absolutely gorgeous.

Some things I love to do...
Photography has been one of my passions, all my life. I've been asked by many to take pictures for their special occasions. I've created alot of memory keepers for so many people. I love it. My son and I have been working on our garage - it's been a mess, boxes and things stacked four feet high throughout. While working on going through these boxes we came across several boxes of photographs I had forgotten I'd taken. Huge boxes! I used to be so good at putting photos in albums as soon as I got them. In the past ten years, I haven't put one picture in an album. They've all gone to a box, stored in the garage! This is something I want to start working on. Get all these photos organized and safely mounted in albums and scrapbooks. Whew! That sounds like a big project!

Another passion of mine is traveling. I love to go places and see the sights. I haven't been able to travel in years. Between work and lack of work and then finding work again, it's just been impossible. I did, however, take a OTR ride in July with my guy. My vacation, his job. We left Boise, drove to Los Angeles, then back through Boise to western Washington, and on to Seattle and back to Boise. It was a short trip, but fun. It got me away from my desk job I've been at for more than two years without a break. And, yes, we took all three dogs! My most favorite and unforgettable trip was trucking across America in just over three weeks, in 1999. I'll have to tell more about this ride in another entry.

My guy... I love him dearly. He and I met online more than seven years ago. He's smart and witty, he loves kids and fun. He's been on the road, long haul trucking, for most of our relationship. I kid around saying, it's good to see him when he comes home, and it's good to see him go when he leaves. But honestly, I miss him terribly, I hate being without him. Cell phones have made it much easier to be apart. With our service, calls to eachother are free, so we can talk from here to Los Angeles, to Seattle and back without a charge! Most every route he takes, we have service, so we're really never more than a phone call away.

Well, this is me and I've rambled on long enough for this first public visit. There's more to tell so come back soon. Let me know what you think.