Loma Prieta Earthquake — has it really been 30 years?

SUMMARY: Some things you never forget.

Backfill: First posted on Facebook Oct 17, 2019; edited here & added links.
I meant this to be short, but apparently I still have things to say about it.

30 years ago–seems like yesterday in some ways, the images of my life that day are so brilliant– Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing if they felt it (and people felt it as far away as San Diego, which is about 450 miles from epicenter)… except a weird thing is happening: Adults I know, some of whom have children, have no memories because they weren’t even alive! 30 years!

30 years ago in just about an hour from now, our part of the world shook into a different dimension, in which everything around us was affected, people died, buildings collapsed, fires erupted, power went out, people couldn’t get home for hours, phone lines were so swamped with people trying to call other people that you couldn’t even get a dial tone. Power was out on gas stations, too, for at least a couple of days, so finding a functional station was challenging, and those stations had long lines.

Part of the Oakland /Bay Bridge collapsed, closing THE main artery between the east bay and San Francisco for months, affecting traffic everywhere. Today, that bridge carries a quarter of a million cars daily. Probably less then, but not by a huge amount.

The Cypress Structure–a section of freeway not far from the Bay Bridge sporting one set of freeway lanes atop others–pancaked and caused most of the earthquake’s deaths. The famous As vs Giants World Series baseball game that was just starting you’ve probably heard about, as the stadium swayed and shook and the announcers excitedly reported on it. Power out there, too, and they weren’t sure whether the structure was sturdy, so they eventually evacuated everyone. (Not to mention that everyone wanted to get home to check on family and abode.)

Communication of any kind was nearly impossible: Power out (so many phones didn’t work unless the handset was wired to the phone that was wired to the wall), phone lines impassible… and remember: No cell phones! No World Wide Web! (Internet existed but only an elite few knew how to use it.)

Enough freeway bridges collapsed that, for months, if you were in traffic and near a bridge, you wouldn’t stop under it, so there were always huge gaps in front of people (read: EVERYONE) who didn’t want to get caught there. Months!

I posted more on the 20th anniversary about my experiences, with my photos; start there for more links and posts on my blog if you wish.

Following are other links for your viewing … pleasure?

KTVU/Fox News

Good three-minute video from 2016. Worth sharing again.

I should note, however, that the news coverage at the time all looked and sounded sensational like this. In fact, very few fires, very few buildings or bridges collapsed. Lots of small damage, but it’s the big stuff like this that kept playing over and over and made many of us think that SF was being destroyed all over again, that the Bay Bridge had completely collapsed, that there were fires everywhere, and worse. It was terrible, but not that much in most places.

NBC Bay Area video

A one-hour version, summary of events.

FULL EPISODE: Loma Prieta Earthquake, 30 Years Later (NBC Bay Area)

KGO TV video

One-hour video, watch it in pretty much real time as if you were actually there.

I just watched about 30 minutes of it. Talk about reliving the trauma!

While you’re watching, imagine the ground repeatedly rolling and shaking, and things in your house fallen over or broken (and maybe your house, too), oh, and no power, so you’re not really watching it in realtime: you’re hearing it on your battery-powered radio while sitting in your safe driveway to keep out of the rocking and rolling house.

10-17-1989 San Francisco Earthquake – First Minutes (KGO TV)

It’s interesting to see how far off they were with the epicenter (first guesses Hollister, which is miles away from the actual under Loma Prieta peak near Santa Cruz) and the estimate of the strength of the quake (first estimate from places that estimate these things: 6.5. Actually: 6.9).

According to this useful calculator: The difference between these two magnitudes is 0.4
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake is 2.511 times bigger than a magnitude 6.5 earthquake, but it is 3.981 times stronger (energy release).

Hollister (first guess epicenter), Forest of Nicene Marks (actual epicenter), Los Gatos (where I was working at the time of the quake), Campbell (where I lived, but close to the border of Los Gatos), and Watsonville, where some of the worst damage occurred because of soil structure and many old buildings. Santa Cruz also lost many old buildings, many of them in the heart of downtown, ripping their hearts apart, too.

Other stuff

Wikipedia article about the quake: 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
Wikimedia photos.

Final note

Looking back, now, I wish I had taken more photos of everything: The room I was in when the quake hit, the lines at the gas stations, the gaps where people wouldn’t stop under overpasses, me and mother-in-law and dogs sitting in the driveway with the radio; Sheba in a panic for days until the aftershocks abated… I drove around looking for *damage* but didn’t think about lifestyle images.

Let that be a lesson to me!

Courageous Kids day at Great America

SUMMARY: A learning photographic experience

Backfill: From Facebook, posted May 12ish.

For families with kids with cancer. On Mother’s Day. Courageous Kids sets up a whole special area of activities and music and celebrity visits and free food and free family portraits by pro photographers. I went along as an assistant photog and for the opportunity to learn more about posing groups of people so the group looks special. Learned a bunch; now I are a portrait photographist. (I wish I were that good…)

The photo organizer had 4 groups of photographers with 4 people in each group. Our group photographed 50 families. I’m exhausted. But really an excellent experience.

For personal shots (like these), rule was, no recognizable faces. I didn’t take many photos. Could’ve taken more, of just the clothing, for example, with permission. Quite a few families came wearing matching t-shirts such as “Sophie’s Supporters” or “Jose’s Team” or “Fuck Lukemia” (yes, really. I cheered).

Ever wonder what Great America stashes in its back parking lots? Well, here’s a delightful sampling.

Hats for volunteers! In pretty much my favorite color!

Oh Em Gee! My retirement home, right here! Favorite *favorite* colors!!!

Where I checked in.

The team captain pro (Annie) in our little group of 4four came prepared with a couple of ways to try to draw kids’ (and adults’) attention to the camera. I like this. She even came prepared with tape for sticking it. (The camera gear belonged to the other pro in our group, Iryna.) The background overflows with the colors of parts of the obstacle course and the birdhouse-building tables.

My swag, such as it is. (I turned in the nifty zippered badge holder at the end of the day, since I have no other need for it.)

One of the stations for kids was building and painting birdhouses. Beautiful colors!

Loved the rainbow one!

Labs — and not the dog type

SUMMARY: “Physics Photo Walk” at Lawrence Berkeley Labs

In May, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Labs) hosted a photo walk for interested photographers. (We had to apply, and we had to apply early enough to beat the crowd. See the Call for Photographers.) We received much information ahead of time about what we’d be seeing during the day so that we’d be prepared. Photo Walks have occurred at some major labs around the world in previous years (e.g., CERN), but this was the first year at Berkeley.

All the participating labs hold a competition to select their favorite photos from the photo walks (we would submit up to 5 of our own photos). See the Criteria for Approved Photographers. (Also see some previous years’ winners.)

I took two lenses for my DSLR: a 50mm 1.4 prime and an 18-300 telephoto. I hoped I’d be able to use the 50mm for some spiffy close-ups, but after the first of the half dozen labs that we visited, I realized that 50mm was too long for most of the shots I wanted, so it was the telephoto the rest of the day. I wanted to take my tripod, which I bought for being lightweight, but that morning, I hefted it, changed my mind, and left it at home.

That weekday morning, I drove to the nearest BART station (40 minutes) early in the morning, took BART to the downtown Berkeley station (about 30 minutes), caught the Lab shuttle (about 15 minutes) with my Lab shuttle pass, and arrived at the Labs cafeteria at 8:30, an hour early. I didn’t want to miss my deadline!

Twenty-six of us (27 including Mr. Fox) met there.

We were welcomed to the program, received our Photo Walk tags, heard the safety warnings, and set off in three smaller groups up and down hills and stairs and elevators, with no limitations at all about what they were looking for in photos. I had no idea how huge the site is, how many buildings there are, in how many different areas research occurs there, and how many hills there are!

Hills make for great views of UC Berkeley (Campanile in foreground),
the Oakland Bay Bridge, and San Francisco!

I loved every minute of it.

The hard part was deciding which images to submit for the contest. Here’s what I finally picked.

Gathering Footfalls
Sticky paper outside low-dust labs removes dust from shoes.

The Colors of Light
The ALS synchrotron generates x-ray and ultraviolet light that is a billion times brighter than the sun. The central tower inside the historic dome is painted a prism of colors.

Reaching for Safety
Sleeves for an isolation chamber, when abandoned by their users, seem cognizant that warning lights must be checked.

Streaming Magic
Arthur C. Clark said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Berkeley’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) captures, analyzes, and stores incredible quantities of data for advanced research.

Didn’t Follow The Rules
Situated in the ALS lab as a warning to all neglectful passers-by.

I have so many other photos of so many other interesting things, and someday I might actually get through them all.

And at the end of the day I wandered around a small part of the Cal campus and met my cousin Dawn for dinner. Altogether an amazing day.

Rainy Day

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday (yeah so it’s Thursday, what’s your point?)

If you’re dyin’ for words, here:

(Such a challenge–if I had leaned to the right about 18″, I could have gotten all the crap out of the view. However, I risked him moving when I simply very slowly leaned slightly backwards and lifted the camera off the desk (also which meant I stopped using the keyboard)–his ears immediately turned back to me, so I had to look away and make keyboard noises until his ears went forward again. Leaning slowly in the chair doesn’t make much noise, but enough that dogs hear it. Clicking this one shot caused him to leap up and come over to check out what’s going on. Now he’s curled up in bed in the other room instead. Another dream of a perfect shot crushed. And you can see that even as I lifted the camera to my eye, his ears are already starting to point back towards me.)

>> Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Made By Humans

SUMMARY: Was in San Francisco last weekend–

>> Visit Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge for this topic; lots of blogs. <<

Class for Zorro

SUMMARY: Foundations for Agility, mixed results

(The shadows–see what I did there?)

Three or four months ago, I signed up me and Zorro for a Foundations (of agility) class in Morgan Hill with instructors whom I know pretty well, but this is the first time I’ve taken classes from her/them.

First, let me say that the primary and backup instructors are wonderful. Their instructions are clear, their demo dogs are useful in demoing what they are trying to convey, they work their way through all of the basics in a careful, methodical, rational way so that in theory the handlers and dogs come away with the best possible foundation for becoming agility stars or at least fun companions.

I say theoretically because I’m a lazy, slovenly, excuse-ridden participant. More in a bit.

Second, let me say that the class is intended for (older) puppies. Zorro was 2 when we started, although I sure have seen a lot of puppy in him. Some of the students have never done agility or similar basic obedience training. Some students have trained and run multiple agility champions. So it’s a mixed class of people, but the instructors are careful to make sure that the *dog* gets the information that he needs, and to remind us that every dog is starting from scratch even if we think that we know what we’re doing.

Which is lovely for Zorro; just being there, in fact, is wonderful training for him as he learns to be around other dogs and to pay attention to me in an environment that’s interesting in every direction. We’ve seen a lot of improvement in him in these 3-ish months.

In short, it’s a great class and I feel privileged to be part of it.

Chip comes along for the ride and gets to get out for a while before class (if I’m early enough) and after class to practice some of the things that I practiced with Zorro in class. Apparently the field is plenty interesting.

However, for me, here are the things:

I really wanted a Saturday morning class because weeknight evenings can be frantic after work, with traffic and stress and all, and so much else goes on on weeknights. However, this class starts at 8:00 a.m., sharp, and it’s 30 minutes from here. Sooooo I’m getting up at 6:45 to the alarm, with barely enough time to dress myself, collect my stuff and my dogs, and be on my way.
BUT: I had grown to despise getting up early to the alarm for dog agility after 18 years of it, and now I find that I still resent it deeply despite a long break from agility. It was my choice to sign up, but, ugh, dragging myself out of bed, bleah. Affects me more perhaps because I’ve not been sleeping well. (That’s a different story.)

Also, if I’ve had a rough week physically and am particularly painful Friday night, I’m just not going to get up and go. Also, if I’ve had a very bad night and am awake until 4 in the morning, I’m just not going to get up and go. Also, well, hmm, surprise, there are other things that happen on Saturdays sometimes that I really want to do but can’t if I don’t get home until 10 a.m. So maybe Saturdays and/or 8 a.m. are not good for me personally.

I realize that I am WAY WAY WAY over the excitement of being out and about before most of the rest of humanity, on the road, in the early light–at least, for dog-related things. The other day, I did it (up at same time on Saturday, drive 30 minutes) for something new and different, and it felt so much better.
I had been neglecting my dogs’ trainings. Chip has been here over 2 years, Zorro over a year, and other than shaking hands and doing nose touches to my hand, they barely know more than when I brought them home. But it was tough to do much with them, because my damaged bodily parts start hurting so quickly. At least, I think that was my excuse. I dunno, I would get excited for a day or 2 and then back to, eh, whatever. SOOOOO I thought that going to class would be perfect for me. I’ve always been a bit competitive (duh) and I’ve liked being able to go to classes having done the homework and maybe more, over all these years.
BUT: Turns out that it hasn’t motivated me much at all, telling my that my reluctance is pretty deep (already knew, but just thought this would help). I think that some of it is how much I still miss my Merle Girls themselves and also all that they could do. Maybe something else in addition to the physical aspect, but dunno what. Dunno. Dunno. I come home from class feeling excited and energized, but within a few hours, it’s gone. I occasionally practice some things. Some things more than others. But very little of any of it, in truth. Zorro’s amazing improvements in class have more to do with what I said earlier, him just learning to be in that environment and how to pay attention to me.

I haven’t decided whether to drop the class. I feel in some ways that it’s my only chance to drag me out of my doggie doldrums and my training truancy. Still, now I’m starting to feel that I’m behind so many other people with their little tiny cute puppies who now already do more than both of my dogs put together.

Well, OK, maybe not that much or for everyone, but some people, you know who they are, the people who go home and do their homework and also have experience training their previous dogs.

Instead of going home and blogging. Reading facebook. Editing photos. Napping.

Mine are such smart, active boys, though, and deserve and need more intellectually and physically than I’m giving them. So I can feel badly about it and still not get up and do anything about it. Tsk. Humans. Yet I’m paying for a class that I’m attending barely more than half the time. (That wouldn’t have happened in the olden days, either.)

This isn’t even what I was going to blog about. So that will come in a separate post.

Well, OK, some improvement: A year ago I wouldn’t have been able to get this photo at the park at all. This time I barely got it; every time I moved away to set my camera, Chip sat up. And then start to move. And so then Luke would move. BUT I did get this, and they didn’t run off while I wasn’t holding their leashes here, and that’s an improvement.

It was the third of July and we survived

SUMMARY: Long, long day at agility trial, and a noisy night.

Friday morning I had awoken feeling beaten down beyond any rationale, head swollen (like, eyes being forced from skull), and thoroughly enheadached. Eventually crawled into work anyway, and it wasn’t until I was there that I put 2+2 together: That unreasonable exhaustion and the eyes being forced from their sockets feeling has been a precursor to a migraine. So I went home again and rested a lot. Apparently I was already *in* the migraine by then, because only some of the fatigue and headness lasted into Saturday.

Saturday I went to see The BFG with a friend, did a few things quietly around the house, and packed up for an agility trial! It has been a while since I’ve taken dogs to anything like this, although I have worked at a few competitions over the last several months. Of course we weren’t competing since these Boys know nuthin’ about no agility, but I signed up to work full time. Decided to take them with me to give them a chance to be around the hubbub and dogs and people of such events, and also to keep Chip with me for the evening when I expected there to be noise but I’d still be down in Prunedale. Which meant ensuring that I packed everything I’d need for me and them, and I haven’t done that in so long!

Then I tried to sleep with all the fireworks and poppers and bangs going off until the wee-est of wee hours of the morning (has been bad for a least a couple of weeks, worse that night after we got home). I tried mitigating the shocks and jabs of noise by keeping windows closed (even on a hot night) and running a loud fan in one window. It helped, but poor Chip– and poor me, some of them thar things loud enough to wake the dead. And I don’t mean Jerry Garcia. …Oh, wait, I guess I do mean him.

As a result, when my radio alarm went off, it barely registered as being not a dream, and when I finally opened my eyes, discovered it had been playing for half an hour! So much for a head start.

BUT I got stretched out and dressed and dogs pottied and still arrived at Prunedale in time to walk the dogs for additional potty-work before going to work.

I scribed all day, which gave me a chance to see familiar people and their new dogs, and unfamiliar people and their unfamiliar dogs. And in between, I got the dogs out for exercise and experience and practice paying attention to me and doing tricks (including sits and downs); Zorro was surprisingly excellent and Chip surprisingly not. The rest of the time, they rested in MUTT MVR off to one side of the field.

(You like how I’ve left on some of Tika’s and Boost’s last ribbons to make us look like official agility beasts? But, oops, I still haven’t replaced their emergency info with the new dogs’.)

And I wandered around snapping candids or semicandids or not candids at all. For some reason, people knew when I was “sneaking” around taking photos (click-click-click).

The sky remained overcast all day, although bright at times. And refreshingly cool after the heat of San Jose recently. OK, cold.

And in the evening, we had our Bay Team club meeting, complete with occasional puppies and, yay, pizza. It was still cold and getting colder. (You can tell because Dustin, although still in short sleeves, conceded to the chill and donned long pants.)

(Below, Lonny fetching himself more pizza and all of us keeping warm and pondering equipment purchases.)

Headed for home around 8:30 (and it was still light then! Love summer!), home maybe 9:30, went to bed.

So, last night, it was again hot here in San Jose, and “we” again ran a noisy fan, but I slept well despite the trouble staying in sleep because of the firestorm in my neighborhood (It’s only the 3rd, people, AND it’s illegal in this county! (Chip ran away on the 3rd 2 years ago)), but catnapped until Luke–excuse me, Zorro— woke me with desperation to go out at 1:30. I let him out briefly (Chip would have nothing to do with going out there with the noise), and then I went right back to sleep until…yep, Zorro…woke me around 7:30 desperate to go out, so I staggered downstairs, put the doggie door in, and went back to bed and right to sleep. The miracle is that (a) the dogs then let me sleep until 10…—unheard of! likely due to their level of stress (good or bad) over 14 hours of travel and being at the agility thing— …when my sister called.

(She said, oh, so you’re the second sister I’ve woken up this morning? Then I officially named her Linda Sisterwaker.)

Then I catnapped for another 2 hours. And (b) the dogs left me alone and dozed with me. Amazing.

If you’ve followed all that, you’re doing better than I am.

Not looking forward to tonight’s insane night of noise and flash-bangs and all that. Sigh. But we’ll survive again, with noisy fan and probably leaving the radio on until the wee-wee-hours again, and then glorious sleep.

Curves (WordPress Photo Challenge)

SUMMARY: Just a photo, just a cloud

I hardly ever do this. But there’s a WordPress Photo Challenge regularly, and a blogging friend participates regularly, and I love seeing her photos.

Just happened to have taken one this weekend that meets the Curve challenge.

Stopped at a garden-supply yard on our way back from Monterey, and my sister pointed out this delightful cloud front across the sky. So, of course, me see, me photo.

Here’s the challenge, with photos that others have posted.

Dog-photo envy

SUMMARY: One of the world’s best dog photographers.

If you want skill-envy or fast-lens envy or location envy, all of these things are yours with these beautiful dog photos and accompanying article:

Kaylee Greer – One of the best dog photographers in the world

(And really I didn’t post it for the envy factor. I posted it for the inspirational factor, because, wow, does she show something to strive for! Here’s one of the images.)

Taking the Christmas Photo

SUMMARY: A photo essay on the challenges of a selfie in a tight space with badly trained dogs (reaping my own rewards).

Goal: Our upper torsos with nothing but tree behind us.

First, scouting out the camera position (and a little bit of focus and light/flash checking).

Too high; need the bottom of the tree in the frame. And center it.	Centered but too far away and too much floor.

Centered, floor is better. Chip is helping [not].	Nope, from this position, I might have to edit out the white lampshade.

Move the camera to over here. Um. Not enough floor showing for us to fit in front of the tree.	Moving camera back some more looks OK.

I plan to sit on a stool with dogs next to me because it’s so hard for me to get down and up. No, not facing this way, as my feet would be out in front.	Try my feet off to the side–doh, the corner of the coffee table–and Darth– are in the photo. (Notice the remote control in my hand.)

Move the camera back to the left. Tighter fit, but Darth is now gone.	Photo check. –nah, I’ll be higher than the dogs. And not enough tree showing behind me. Giving up on the stool.
Now I put a bag full of tacos on a shelf directly behind the camera to draw the dogs’ attention. Oh, boy, does it. Thus begins the struggle where, in position on the floor, I can’t move easily but must keep the dogs away from the tacos and sitting next to me. Both at the same time. Both facing the camera. NOT lying down. Eventually they are securely grasped under my arms to keep them in position. FINALLY I can start clicking the remote. I try to reengage their interest in the tacos: “What’s that? Do you want it?” Ah HA!– merely doing a remote focus focuses their attention momentarily on the camera! A huge assist.

I choose the one that is most in focus and has all of us looking at the camera nicely. Some lighting adjustment and such, crop out everything I don’t want (including my knee with the knee brace), and there it is.