October 30th at 8:04 pm we felt an earthquake. It was Dexter's first earthquake and by far the strongest (5.6 vs 5.4) we have felt the entire time we have lived in San Francisco. We were sitting in the living room. Dex was laying beside me on the couch and I was talking to Mr. Cobra. It started with a kind of rolling motion, but wasn't too bad, so I just leaned over Dexter. Then it got a little worse and it rumbled a bit like very distant thunder and Mike grabbed Dexter and we all headed to the doorway. It was a long one too. It felt like it lasted 20-30 seconds. Our neighbor across the hall was in his doorway too. Squee barked. He's never done that before. The heater was clanking and the chandelier jingled, but I don't recall anything else. Nothing fell and Dexter didn't have any idea what was going on.
It was a little scary. This was the first one we've been through with a baby. I can't imagine what a quake the size of Loma Prieta in 1989 would be like at 6.9. It made me think more about being prepared if a big one comes. We definitely need to get some water stored and maybe some candles, but otherwise we're ok to last a few days. As long as we can get to our pantry that has all of our camping gear, food, emergency supplies, then we're good to go. Funny, my parents were terrified that an earthquake was gonna happen while they were here. It's like tornados in Kansas. Sometimes it happens and it's okay and sometimes it happens and it's devastating. You never know which and you never know when. (Well at least with a tornado you have a few minutes warning)
