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The Business Trip To Kalifornia


carinab

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As a former resident of the nut and fruit state, I had trepidation about my husband's business trip visit to Petaluma. I was certain that his new employer would try to strong arm him about moving there and the surroundings of the nearby wine country and bay area can be seductive. Much to my relief I received the following in an email this morning....

Northern California isn't what I expected... Well, except for the expensive restaurants, land and houses, and the 3.8 magnitude EARTH QUAKE that woke me from my sleep at 3:30am local time:

Ahhhhh!!!!

By the time I realized it wasn't a dream and it really was the hotel rumbling, it had stopped.

But other than that, there was a surprising amount of pasture land occupied soley by cows and trailer homes.

Cows and trailer homes we have here in Texas, without the high priced land and houses...and even though there is the threat of tornados, he much prefers them as a natural threat because at least you get some warning. The earthquake was very unsettling to him as it was the first time he'd ever experienced anything like it.

I had to laugh because the whole thing made me think of a cartoon that was published shortly after one of the quakes that took out I-5 bridges out by the Valencia. The picture was of a business office in complete panic with people scurrying in the background, file cabinets flying open, and so on. In the foreground was a man sitting calmly at his shaking desk holding his coffee cup aloft so as not to spill the contents. The caption read, "Can you spot the native Californian in this picture?"

:lol::lol::lol:

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Anyone who would want to move here would need to be either well compensated or insane.

Anyone who is here and does not want to leave is either well compensated or insane.

As for the earthquakes, your memory of the cartoon is pretty much spot on. In 39 years, I've only ever been woken up once.

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Anyone who would want to move here would need to be either well compensated or insane.

Anyone who is here and does not want to leave is either well compensated or insane.

As for the earthquakes, your memory of the cartoon is pretty much spot on. In 39 years, I've only ever been woken up once.

Actually, politics aside, California has a huge amount to offer most people. How many of you shoot and have your choice of multiple matches every weekend year round? Sure its expensive, but many choose to make choices that allow them to stay here. Earthquakes? Sure, but no hurricanes, tornados, or snow.

Warpspeed, why have you not moved out of the state yet ?

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Oddly enough, I heard about the Petaluma quake rumbling up there this morning on my way to work. I didn't feel a thing. The last one I felt was the 3.x quake centered in Berkeley. In all my nearly 40 years living here, it was only like the 2nd or 3rd quake I'd ever felt. For Loma Prieta (the 89 quake) I was 150 miles away from the epicenter and didn't feel a thing. I've never been awakened by a quake.

Vince

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Ifn' they ain't over 5.0 on that there Richter scale, we don't even count them as an earthquake out here ;-)

Did a show at a Palm Springs resort hotel a few years back with a cast and crew from New York. A little teensy 3.6 quake hit the area while we were in the middle of our morning rehearsal. Myself and the local follow spot ops and camera crew slept through it while all the easterners had to go change their shorts and were afraid to go back into the building ;-)

As far as loving, or hating this wonderful place goes, I love it still and hope everyone who doesn't leaves it ASAP. I also hope that folks who don't like it here don't move here either. I am happy with the level of non-believers that are here already and feel we don't need any more of them and could actually stand a lot fewer of them ;-)

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I know I'm a flake as far as my way of thinkin' goes :P

In the north state, we feel (and quite righteously) that the southern part (even counting the better climate) just doesn't quite satisfy the craziness requirement well enough to be considered as a totally "cool" place to be <_<

The folks up in the state of Jefferson (north of Redding) make my way of thinking seem pretty darned generous as far as the true state of California definition goes :ph34r:

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See, that's why I just didn't feel like I fit in there. I was born in Los Gatos but moved to San Diego when ten years old. I was developing a split personality from the liberal north and conservative south. I had to leave the state to gain my sanity.... :P:D:lol:

I know the weather is great and there are some things I miss but....

God Bless Texas!!!!

(Before you take offense, remember I live here now and the only thing Texans hate more than Californians is Yankees - but I do love Texas - really!).

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the only thing Texans hate more than Californians

Get ready for eight more in the great Warren clan exodus of 07.

:):D (insert a Big Howdy icon)

If you are as you appear in your posts...(to me.. as an independent free thinking self sufficient and self supporting firearm owning truly individual person) you will be welcomed here and live happily..

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I grew up in North Hollywood until I was 17 when my Dad moved us back to his home state of KY. Many times I planned on moving back but something always happened. I even entertain the thought now sometimes, especially in the winter, but when I get around to the gun laws and cost of property I am content here. I still go to California on vacations. Was just through there this last summer. Its a beautiful state and it will always have a place in my heart.

I was in the 71 Sylmar quake. We were about 5 miles from the center. I dont know how it didnt cause more damage. I was 10 years old and remember laying in bed and hearing the roar. First the sound. I thought is it a plane crashing? a train? Nuclear bomb? then the shaking started. I had sliding closet doors and they were slamming back and forth. My Dad tried to get out of bed to check on us and he was thrown back into bed. It seemed as if it would never end. The after shocks and tremors went on for months I remember thinking I would rather have a quake than one of those nasty tornadoes. Now I would rather have the warning we have most of the time with tornadoes.

I will be back though even if its just on vacation.

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I lived in Lompoc, CA, (about an hour north of Santa Barbara) about 15 years ago. Woke up one night, my furniture was rocking and the ground was rumbling. Found out the next day it was a Titan IV launch. Fast forward about 9 months. Woke up in a water bed with the bed rolling under me. Though? "%&@$! missile launches in the middle of the night!" The news reported the earthquake the next day.

Carina, the guy in your cartoon could have been from Japan. After awile, if the furniture isn't jumping to it's demise and walls aren't cracking, it just doesn't impress.

Liota

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Hi,

Californians aren't _nearly_ as earthquake complacent as you might think -- I was staying in Luguna Nigual (70 miles south of LA) in October 1999 when the Hector Mine / Joshua tree quake hit at 2:46am. Magnitude 7.1 and 69 miles away. The family we were staying with had an earthquake shelter at the foot of their stairs, but there was no way they would move from there to check on us. When my wife and I got there they looked and acted terrified.

The only good thing that came out of it was that my wife was afraid of the small earthquakes we get in New Zealand (magnitude 4 is rare), and now she mostly doesn't comment on them.

I have however realised that anyone who tells you to get outside (or anywhere else) has never been in a big one -- you can't move foward due to being too busy crashing into walls.

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In the 89 Loma Prieta shaker, I got up from my couch where I was trying to watch the World Series (Giants/A's) get underway and was thrown back down into it. I crawled on my belly to the door because I couldn't get up easily and sat wedged in the doorframe watching the telephone poles and wiring sway back and forth making a sound like a helicopter was just overhead. The shaking was exacerbated by us being on a fill area, but it's pretty freaky to be tossed off your feet like that!

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I was working in an SF hospital when Loma Prieta hit. There was a huge incinerator smoke stack about 8 stories high in service core of the building that we all used to joke about which way it'd fall come the Big One. The building starts shaking and every eye went to that stack outside the window. No dice. Rock solid. Then we went down to the ER for disaster management. We got one person walking in with a broken arm all evening.

It was worse in the East Bay with the highway collapses. One surgeon I know still has nightmares about what he had to do to extract a kid trapped in a car behind his deceased parents with the upper deck of the highway threatening to finish falling.

I have a healthy respect for Mother Nature.

Edited by kevin c
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Damn, Loma Prieta was almost 20 years ago! It still seems like yesteday. I had just stood up to leave my 3rd floor office in Palo Alto when it hit. It threw me into the door which promptly closed :o . I watched as the other sections of the research center waved back and forth and rolled up and down, stuff fell in my office while I laughed: How stupid, I just locked myself in for the big one! :wacko:

There were some amazing things that happened. If the A's and the Giants were not in the series with the game starting at the same time as the quake, there would of been 10 times the people killed on the Nimitz. We were without power for 5 days so we were without any visual coverage of the damage. When we got back on line it was just amazing to see the gang-bangers in Oakland working side by side with the emergency workers on the freeway. I am sure petty stuff happened but I do not recall hearing about any looting or other such foolishness. Say what you want about Ca, the people were extremely cool after this one.

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There was looting in SF in the downtown area. Near 6th and Market a lot of the street folks who hang in the area grouped up and started smashing windows and grabbing stuff from stores on Market street. The police had to push a crowd of up to a couple hundred looters/rioters off Market street and back down the side streets. My friend was stuck inside his building from a jammed front door and watched the whole thing from his roof on 6th street near Mission.

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There was looting in SF in the downtown area. Near 6th and Market a lot of the street folks who hang in the area grouped up and started smashing windows and grabbing stuff from stores on Market street. The police had to push a crowd of up to a couple hundred looters/rioters off Market street and back down the side streets. My friend was stuck inside his building from a jammed front door and watched the whole thing from his roof on 6th street near Mission.

Like I said, I was offline in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I had not heard of that. There were no problems that I knew of in our little town.

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