Earthquake in San Jose

Captain's Log, Supplemental

Some of you might have heard about the 5.2 earthquake in San Jose last night. Just to let you know, we’re okay.

The house started shaking, and after 17 years in California, I know by now to run for a doorway. The shaking was over in a few seconds. No big deal. Not even a broken plate or glass. A couple CDs fell off my shelf, nothing else.

Even before the shaking completely stopped, I’m standing in the doorway to my office like a good Californian, and I see Captain Caffeine walk into the foyer!

“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be under a desk!”

“Uh ... I was keeping the cabinets from falling.” (Translation: he was holding the cabinets closed so the glasses wouldn’t rain on the kitchen floor, which in hindsight was thoughtful of him, but I’d rather have glass over the floor instead of a ceiling tile falling on his head!)

My friend Dineen lives closer to the epicenter, so I called to see how she was. Everything was fine at her house.

“In fact,” she said, “Shasta knew the earthquake was coming before it hit.” (Shasta is Dineen’s dog)

“What? Really?”

“Yeah, she ran under the table.”

By now, I am glaring at my own sorry excuse for a mutt, Snickers, who had not done ANYTHING before the earthquake hit. Weren’t all dogs supposed to be sensitive to this kind of thing? Hadn’t the animals gone berserk before Mount St. Helen and the big quake in ’89?

What had MY dog done? Nothing before the quake, but she ran barking into the front foyer as soon as the house started shaking, because obviously some giant was trying to get into the front door and steal her food or something like that.

Greeeeat protector, huh?

Anyway, we’re fine. The house is fine. And the dog is sleeping like she did something strenuous yesterday.