Untimely quakes shake us awake in the earthquake capital of the
world
Residents of San Benito County are fond of saying,
”
Ooh, it’s earthquake weather today.
”
This either means: A. It’s kind of muggy with high cirrus
clouds; B. It’s not muggy and there are no clouds; or C. People
just make stuff up because they remember that we haven’t had an
earthquake in a while.
Untimely quakes shake us awake in the earthquake capital of the world
Residents of San Benito County are fond of saying, “Ooh, it’s earthquake weather today.” This either means: A. It’s kind of muggy with high cirrus clouds; B. It’s not muggy and there are no clouds; or C. People just make stuff up because they remember that we haven’t had an earthquake in a while.
The United States Geological Survey says “there is no connection between weather and earthquakes,” and I believe it. I also believe there IS a connection between me being in a deep sleep and the occurrence of earthquakes.
Our most recent good-sized temblor occurred at 2:47 a.m. on Sept. 6. At a magnitude of 3.9, it was one of those shakers that felt like a sonic boom – at least that’s how I remembered it when it rattled me awake.
As soon as it hit, I sat up, thought about jumping over my wife and running to my youngest son’s room, guessing that he would be frightened by the quake.
Then after I got my wits about me, I announced – in my role as the male leader of the house – “It’s OK” as my wife was startled awake. I felt like the man of the house, telling everyone that everything would be fine in this time of danger. Part of the reason for doing that was to convince myself that everything was going to be OK.
Truth is, I laid back down with my heart pounding through my chest as I tried to fall back asleep. I couldn’t, of course, so I checked on my son, who said “What was that?” in a daze and immediately fell back asleep when I said, “It was an earthquake, but it’s over now.”
Why couldn’t the quake have happened at 2:47 p.m. when I would have been at work … and awake? My heart might have pounded just as hard after a daytime temblor, but the fear factor of the middle-of-the-night, wake-you-from-a-deep-sleep quake makes a relatively minor quake like that feel like the beginning of the end of the world.
Quakes are probably the worst way to wake up, because one never knows if this is going to be the “Big One.” Two of the more irritating ways to be rustled awake occurred in my neighborhood this week.
First, it was my neighbor’s rooster – yes, rooster – that decided to herald the start of the new day way before the new day actually started. The sun was not peeking over the horizon at 5:24, or whatever time it was. But Foghorn Leghorn thought we should all wake up a little early on Monday, because didn’t we have to get ready for work or school?
I appreciate the thought, but he needs to realize that he lives in a suburban back yard, not in some coop on Santa Ana Valley Road. If I lived in the country, I’d expect to be awakened by the sound of clucking and crowing.
Then on Wednesday morning – garbage day in my neighborhood – the guy who recycles our recyclables by raiding the blue bins we put out for the Hollister Disposal trucks decided that to avoid stares from residents, he would push his clanging cart full of cans down the middle of the street at 4:30 a.m. He was out so early that he got crowed at by my neighbor’s rooster for waking it up.
I want my sleep – at least until my alarm goes off at 6:45 a.m. The rooster and the recycling guy don’t care about me and Mother Nature apparently doesn’t either. I hope she schedules the next big quake for when the rooster and I are awake.
Adam Breen writes a blog at http://the breenblog.blogspot.com and teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School. He is a reporter for The Pinnacle and former editor of the Free Lance.
