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The Earthquake

Where was I? I was in the shower.

My story: I was in the shower. The tub started shaking and my first thought was that somebody ran into the building and the bathtub was going to fall through the floor, "I was going down!"

My next thought was that the shaking was from a heavy truck going past my apartment. Realizing that it was neither the slowest, nor the longest truck on earth; I concluded that I was in the middle of an earthquake.

In a meeting with Rev. Troy Perry, he shared his experience about earthquakes and pointed out the importance of preventing foot injuries by putting on a pair of shoes. Since that meeting, I have always kept a pair of old hiking boots at my bedside - just for an earthquake.

Once I realized I was in an earthquake, I turned off the water, ran to the bedroom and put on my shoes. Then I placed myself firmly in the doorway to my living room and watch my chandler dance around for the next several minutes; standing there, dripping, shaking, wearing nothing but my shoes!

I lived in a 100 year old mansion that has been converted to apartments. When I moved here, State Farm canceled my earthquake insurance. Until then, I have carried earthquake insurance for about 16 years. Talk about bad timing.

As the earth shook I was more entertained by the chandler dancing around, than anything else. I was well in the middle of my building and far away from potential harm caused by breaking glass. As time went on, my entertainment turned towards annoyance. This was my third earthquake in less then four years. I have experienced five earthquakes, that I can remember, four in the Seattle Tacoma area and one in Denver, CO. I had a bunch of work to do and standing around while my building shook was not part of the days plans.

If I have to describe my experience, I would say it was like standing on a vibrating chair. The floor was vibrating as opposed to shaking, but the walls were not moving. The only thing moving in my apartment was the chandler. The only things that fell to the floor were about a dozen VCR tapes that were on my dresser; and my ET statuette dove from my atop my monitor to the safety offered under my computer desk. During the earthquake there was a lot of racket. There were not any creaking noises or glass breaking, it was more like walking past a construction site.

Once the earth stopped moving, along with my residence, and my dancing chandler gave it a rest; the realization set in that I maybe out of compliance with the local obscenity laws; it was time to put on some clothes.

After getting dressed, I checked on my neighbors, who were wondering which one of the couple had installed the vibro-bed. I walked around the outside and inside of my building looking for any oblivious structural damage, broken pipes, gas leaks, etc. Even though I am not an expert in such things, everything looked okay.

As I looked southeast from the top floor of my building, I could see a brown dust cloud in the horizon. I did not see any fires, smoke or visible damage to the nearby buildings.

Other than some rattled nerves, I sustained no damage. The tapes and ET statue were all fine. With the previous exceptions, all my possessions were on the shelves where I left them prior to the earthquake. Basically, everything in my little world was okay.