TOSSIN' AND TURNIN'

...splashin..
... and churnin...
.... blowin'...
.... and goin'....

how I love a good storm.

Highway To the Danger Zone

I was spoken to. Beckoned to the water as if by Sirens. The words...."high...surf...advisory" flashed on my Weather Channel Desktop, calling me to the sea with that mysterious force. The afternoon had turned gorgeous, at least in this piece of the world, at this moment. I had to take my lunch break at the water.

Driving out Table Bluff, dipping into then climbing out of Tsunami Hazard Zones would not normally be a concern but, after Saturday's 6.5 quake followed by news of the morning 7.0 in Haiti, I felt a bit squeamish. Funny how such things make us so aware of our mortality. As I reached the bottom of Hookton Road, at the far south end of the spit, I reconsidered the drive out to the end. It's only a couple miles out but I found myself calculating that I could get back to high ground in about three minutes if I ripped along at 60. Truthfully, the jagged potholes at the far end of the spit would probably rip the suspension from my low-lying car at that pace but, right or wrong, I decided I could save myself in a pinch.
To witness the larger waves - and size DOES matter - at the south spit, waves would have to come from the South and these were from the west. But what the surf lacked in heighth was offset by quantity. I walked the beach briefly, enjoying the pounding layers of surf, crashing on top of each other and the foam, tumbling happily up the sand. Nice fat juicy waves in the channel rose above the level of the jetty though they clung to the north side of the channel with few splashes to deter the fisherpeople on the side I walked.

No rocks. No big waves. But a winter lunch break spent on the beach with small waves is better than a lunch anywhere else.

She Was Shakin'....Earthquake 2010

Take heed when next you notice these signs in the window at BonBonnier, the Works and Old Town Coffee and Chocolates although these bricks were in the alley from the building next door.

Yesterday's 6.5 quake was the worst I've been through, and still, once my hands had stopped shaking, I realized we fared pretty well. I headed out on my morning walk and aimed for Old Town to inspect the damage I heard about. I was not the only one. The big guys were on duty.Crumbled bricks and boarded windows were apparent. Contents of some stores were tossed about.Looking through the glass, I saw books had tumbled from their shelves in Eureka Books, and spools of yarn and ribbon had jumped from their racks at the Fabric Shop.In some of the local second-hand stores, it was apparently that items had been lost but, truthfully, I suspect the decor had not been changed much.

There will be cleanup today, stores around town will be sweeping up glass, mopping up alcohol and taking inventory of their losses but, we're all still alive. No buildings collapsed. I did hear there were injuries when ceiling tiles fell at the mall. I'm SO glad I wasn't at Costco...aren't you.
The Eureka Fire house has been yellow-tagged, for structural damage, I was told. Homeless firefighters?!

But I realized that the most damage was done to those that stood hard, fast and unyeilding. That which was more open to the movement, like the hanging lights in the Old Town lighting store and the nautilus shells in stained glass hanging in Shorelines gallery survived.

As for my house, she was shakin', but her pier-and-post construction has allowed her to sway through many an earthquake in her more than a century of existence. I was just building a fire when the house started moving...things were crashing off the mantle. Pictures jumped from the walls. My regret is that I was so busy covering my eyes that I didn't SEE what was happening. I didn't see the walls moving. Maybe that's better. My inventory showed a bathroom that looked a bit like it threw up....cabinet doors open and items laying in the sinks....my neti pot was truly the only lost item a tragic loss I will have to replace .
I got through to Mark, who was at the shop with the girls. Motorcycles swayed and danced and made for a frantic run for the door for all of them but, gratefully, no major damage to bikes or family.

Pictures are rehung. Broken glass swept.We lost no windows. We lost only tchochkes ..the jar can be replaced, the shells survived. When the shaking stopped, he only things left on the mantle were my dad's clock and Sid's ashes...my big ol' cat that we lost this year. Truthfully, those were the only really important things that were there anyway.

There are Places I Remember ...

New Years Day at the Breakers, the sheer volume of water contained by the waves coming up the channel was amazing.

Breathe deep the salt air.....

The ocean warms the soul, even on the cloudiest of days.