Dec. 28th, 2004

Have y’all been watching the news?  That BIG earthquake and tsunami in south Asia?  Oh my god!

When I first heard of it yesterday, there were 3000 dead.  Now the figure is 44,000.  That’s the population of some Oregon counties.  Gone.  Wow.  It is looking like the worst disaster in world history- ever.

Oregon has an extensive tsunami warning system so the loss of life would be considerably lower here.  Geologically, we have a history of masive quakes of the same type and intensity as the Sumatra quake.  Every 350 years or so one of the plates just off the coast slips and we are about due for another one.  9 or above on the Richter scale.  My 8th floor apartment would get wasted.  Or I’ll surf the wreckage as it collapses…either way, I figure I’ll get killed.

I’ve been through several earthquakes myself.  I grew up in southern California and there were a couple big ones when I was a kid – in ’71 there was a big one that got me 6 weeks off from school while the buildings were repaired.  I was living in Kobe in ’95 when there was an even bigger and much more destructive earthquake. 7.2 on the Richter scale, and each whole number increase in the scale is 1000 times stronger.  So I feel like I have some conception of what it’s like there in Asia- the aftermath of disaster.

And I am so fucking glad I’m not there.

Interesting times I’m living through indeed.

The story of New Year’s Eve ’03 was presented 4/10/04 so if any of my Favorites would like to know more of what I wrote of in the last entry, see my chapter The Mask of Confession, 4/10/04.

My bike needs new cables.  They “freeze” in their covers with corosion after periods of disuse- plus it was colder than it looked yesterday and I wimped out on riding the bike anyway…

The boss called me yesterday afternoon and we traded days off.  I got a surprise morning off today so I got to sleep at night(!) last night, and slept wonderfully well.  I’ll be working tonight/wed. morning, my usual day off, so it alters the last week of 2004 enough to make it “special”.  New Years Eve day I’ll be seeing Mercuria and Monacita, two fellow OD writers.  I’ll be working New Years Day- the paper comes out every day- so I will be beginning 2005 solidly employed.  Not getting rich, but getting by is good too.

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