It was a good one.
I am writing about earthquakes now.
As they go, the one we had yesterday, @ 10:44, 12/07/2023, was a good one. I don’t know what it registered, but I can tell you that
It was a good one.
There I was, sitting at my “desk”, in our bedroom, minding my own business, checking the amount of our electricity bill, ($43 USD), when, quite suddenly, and ferociously, the seismic alarm on both my iPad, and my iPhone went off, sending me into about 2 minutes of horrible, almost debilitating nausea.
The alarm doesn’t make me nauseous, but the movement of the condo, the round, and round, and round, and round, and round of it does.
It’s a fairly subtle movement, just a slight, but continuous movement of everything around you; just enough to make you think you’ve had way too much to drink. But you know that you haven’t had anything to drink; it’s just 10:30 in the morning.
I hope you never experience an earthquake, but to do so in our city, in our condo, in our apartment, well, you couldn’t be in a better place.
The whole building, as I indicated, moves minutely, but for me, it makes me immobile. I cannot move once it starts. It is the same movement my brain makes during a dizzy spell; with the earthquake, however, it doesn’t help to close my eyes, or change the position of my head. During an earthquake nothing helps.
I must tell you that I get fairly pumped when we live through another quake. It’s something that, years ago, before architects bettered the specifications of buildings, such as the one in which we live, people didn’t survive. The horrendous earthquake here, in 1985, killed more than 30,000 people. An uncle of Ivan’s was killed while working in downtown Mexico City.
That was where the real damage, and deaths occurred; downtown. It is the most unstable part of the city. It was built, originally, on a lake that was, over centuries, dried, but there was no bedrock to stabilize any future foundations.
In our area of the city, a southern colonia, similar to a suburb, the quakes are not only felt, and endured, but, importantly, survived. And I mean survived without incident. We have no cracked ceilings, no broken pottery, windows, or the like. No deaths.
When the alarm goes off, depending on the time of day, or night, we all go outside, those of us that can. We stand around for a few minutes just to make sure there’s no horrendous aftershock, then return to our lives, as if nothing happened.
I can tell you, from 4 years of experience, that they have happened, they do happen, and, for as long as we live in this particular condominium, we will continue to survive them.
Thank God.
Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.