Earthquakes and Sidewalks

I experienced my first earthquakes over the last couple weeks, one in the 4's two weeks ago at 6:30 AM, the second a 5.1 last friday evening. This may seem strange, as most people I know are scared of earthquakes, but I found them to be delightful. It's easy to say when I had no damage and everything turned up fine, of course. The quakes could be much worse, and are worse in a lot of other places. (I'm lookin' at you, Japan.)

For me, I am not the sort to get scared at natural phenomena like that. I have a healthy amount of fear-respect for the destruction and toll they may wreak, especially tsunamis, which is more to do with my fear of drowning - because the physical phenomena of a tsunami fascinates me to no small extent.

I think it's the fact that really, there is nothing to be done about them. You can have your warning systems and prepare with survival kits and crouch in doorways or head to high ground, but that's treating the symptoms, as it were. There's not much to be done to stop the natural "disaster" itself. (I also hesitate to call them natural disasters, which is such a loaded term to me. They are disasters because we call them such, but in reality they are just things that happen in a world with plate tectonics -- worlds with water and atmosphere. It is tragic when people die but that is also the most normal thing in the world.

So, I think it's also that I am one of those people with horrible survival instincts that I am not scared of earthquakes, even the idea of "the big one." (This is also blame for how hard it is to startle me -- I have a really bad fight or flight mechanism. I just stand there thinking "yeah, sure, whatever." I would be dead right quick if I lived in the past.) If "the big one" hits Los Angeles, and it will, there's nothing I can do to stop it. I could move, but hell, I just got here. This is where I want to start the rest of my life. And really, everywhere has it's downsides. Floods, fires, tornadoes, bugs, vermin, drought, the list goes on and on. For me, there's no point being scared I want to just roll with it as it comes.

Which brings me to sidewalks in Los Angeles. I understand hardly anyone in this town walks anywhere, because, I don't know, they have dainty feet here or something, but seriously. These sidewalks are bad. Half the time they're closed for some building reconstruction with no where in sight to cross over, and the other half of the time they've been raised into frozen tsunamis by tree roots. I don't really mind. It makes a stroll to a coffee shop (the nearest one to me being about a mile away, in any given direction) feel a bit like a hike, aside from the cars and creepy old man stares and the fact that no cars here understand how NOT to stop IN THE CROSSWALK. People like to complain about cyclists on streets getting in cars ways, not following traffic laws...you know, some cyclists are like that, but if a single driver here followed every traffic law I'd die of surprise.

And, you know, considering how poorly people drive, nicely kept sidewalks would be much appreciated. Get on that, LA, for one of about a dozen people who walks around here.

(But poorly kept sidewalks are still a step ahead of my hometown, which had a total of no sidewalks whatsoever.)