A lot of you are asking about the quake

A lot of my regulars have expressed concern about the aftermath of the 6.0 earthquake in American Canyon, Napa Valley, Northern California. It is about  34 miles north of my home in Orinda. The quake woke my wife up; I slept through it. My heart goes out to the people whose homes and businesses were damaged.  Most earthquake damage patterns are pretty localized, and this one was no exception. It has been my observation that most natural disasters look worse in the media (social and mainstream) than they do on the ground in the area, and that the size of the area affected is exaggerated. The typhoon last year in the Philliphines struck a large city near my brother, but he was fine. We've had wildfires 20 miles away, but except for the smoke, we've been unaffected. Many's the time I've called friends in areas suffering from what appeared, at a distance, to be a weather disaster, a riot, or a crash, only to find (thankfully) that the are OK and unaffected.

I'm no fool. Anyone who doesn't see "The Big One" in California's future IS a fool. It isn't a question of whether, only of when this area will suffer a major earthquake. Now, geologic time being what it is, we could be talking about 1,000 years. Or we could be talking about tomorrow. If it is a 7.0 quake on one of the major faults, and it lasts 30 seconds or a minute, feel free to worry. But don't call my cellphone; none of those will work. You can try my landline, but not many of those will be working either. I'll try to find a ham radio operator and get word out.