Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

April 18, 2006

Dear Everyone:

Greetings upon this, the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Shake’n’Bake, also known as the only Fire to register 8.1 on the Richter Scale, not that they had the Richter Scale in 1906.  One hundred years, and a little over 12 hours ago, the ground shook and the City fell down.

You may not have been aware of this anniversary, but the local news media have been flogging it for weeks.  And this morning, in keeping with tradition, they dragged really old people out of bed at the crack of dawn to meet at Lotta’s Fountain.

Actually, it was the fire that did the most damage.  Our great-aunt Margaret, who was a teenager living in Antioch in 1906 (I think she was around 18) told me once that the western sky glowed for three nights after the quake.  I even entered her reminiscence at a website set up for people to enter their own SF Quake Stories.

Today, most people remember the Loma Prieta Quake of 1989.  The one that (temporarily) stopped the World Series.  I personally kind of slept through that one.  I was on my vanpool, riding home, dozing because it was the end of the day and I was tired (and it wasn’t my week to drive); and we were inside a tunnel.

It’s the S-wave that does most of the damage.  It’s called the S-wave because it’s the Secondary wave and because it’s the Surface wave, the one that spreads out like the ripples on the surface of the proverbial pond when you throw in the proverbial pebble.  And the S-wave traveled right over the top of the tunnel we were in.

We didn’t realize anything had happened until we came out of the tunnel and saw all the cars stopped by the side of the highway.  Many people who were driving thought they’d blown a tire.  We still weren’t sure what had happened until we got to our drop-off location and the husband of one of our riders told us we’d had a pretty big quake.

It took me an hour to drive home because the traffic lights were out and that turned all the intersections into four-way stops.  Then it took more hours to get a clear phone line so I could call up to Oregon and let the folks know I was OK.

In other news…

My furry, little houseguests are still around.  This is because “Jeannie” called from New York  last Saturday to announce that she was staying with “Alice” for another week.  So I called our hairdresser to inform her that I would be keeping my appointment next weekend, but that “Jeannie” would be making her own arrangements.  And I went looking for the “special” cat food that they eat.  Turns out the “special” cat food comes from a place in Concord, so they’ll settle for the “good stuff”.

They’re getting used to my schedule.  When “Jeannie” comes home, they’ll be quite accustomed to waking up at 4:30 each morning.

As for why this week’s Letter is a tad early, I have a busy day tomorrow.  I’ll be conducting training in the morning; then I have an international conference call from 5:00 to 6:00, running right into our bi-monthly Homeowners Association Board Meeting beginning at 6:00.  And by Thursday, I’ll be too tired to be coherent.

Besides, how many times do you get to start a Letter with “Greetings upon this, the 100th anniversary of…”?

Love, as always,

 

Pete

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