there’s been an earthquake: the train will continue in a few minutes

I was one stop from getting off BART yesterday, underground, between the Ashby and Berkeley stops when the train suddenly lurched to a halt. After a minute the conductor got on the PA and said, “the train is stopped because there was an earthquake.” Not the most reassuring thing to hear. But, since she used the past-tense, and I wasn’t dead, I figured it was probably safe to go back to reading my book. It turned out that the earthquake was actually 200 miles or so away, and they just stopped the trains as a precaution. Still an interesting experience.

On my way from Soda to a friend’s house in Berkeley, we passed by first a fire truck, then a person lying in the street on a stretcher being tended to by several paramedics, then a woman sobbing, then a car with a smashed windshield. It was surreal, because we were there before a crowd had gathered, so just right in the middle of our conversation, these things just surfaced my perception. Kind of messes with you.

I’m off school today, trying to cover more ground on my various projects and helping Leslie with a few errands she’s getting done while not teaching school. And I’ve just begun drinking beer.

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