Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

How about that quake? I was making a call in my office when I heard and felt the rumbling. There's a huge old microwave in my office and I heard the glass plate inside it rattling. What could this be? I thought the boiler at my school was going to explode. It didn't help that before that I smelled something burning. That turned out to be the FACS (used to be Home Ec) teacher cleaning the ovens. I walked to a door frame. Isn't that something you should do? How should I know? I didn't grow up in Cali. Other teachers were in the hallway- Did you feel that? Was that an earthquake? Not even a minute later we got the call from our principal to gather our things and evacuate the building. We all walked out to the parking lot and many of us got on our cellphones. I reached the Wifey who assured me she and the offspring were OK. Ironically, people with Iphones and Blackberrys could not make a call. Really? I asked. My pay as you go Tracfone worked fine. A parent was getting out of her car and asked if we were having a fire drill. No, we evacuated because of the earthquake. She did not feel it on her way over. An administrative decision was made to dismiss the staff for the rest of the day. Great, I could get to the gym early. On my way over, something told me to call and check on a good friend of mine. He is retired and lives alone. I could not reach him on the phone and decided to swing by. Luckily, he was OK and just a little shook up like we all were. I'm glad he was alright.
Last year there was a minor quake that I mostly slept through. I vaguely remember a loud boom and thought it was a low flying jet. This was too real and I was wide awake for this one.
Glad we made it through this one and that we have neighbors to look out for and that look out for us. Stay steady, all.