K8, be glad Ireland’s stationary! Be glad the finger of God doesn’t single you out for destruction via a tornado. I’d take a bit of the North Atlantic wind and weather I know and sorta trust not to kill me, over the increasingly extreme weather we’re getting in the US. Not only the sky wants us gone, but the ground does too. And have i told you about the black widow spiders? Or the tarantula they found at my daughters’ kindergarten? The fauna are none too pleased with us either.

Vincent, I don’t know what the squares are but around Ventura there are a lot of nodding donkeys – these small-scale oil-wells that run day and night. The area’s got enough oil for smallholders to make a living and, now that we’re at $111 a barrel, some of these pumps are being pressed into commission again for the first time in decades. They must look weird from above. We’re up the road about 10 miles, in Ojai.

I love twittering birds, I find it a soothing sound, they never keep me awake, they’re more likely to send me into a deep sleep. And hang on, Florida has an “a” at the end as well…

BTW, I answered your piracy question.

Cheers.

Sam, you’re on your toes to keep the girls safe.
Don’t wreck yourself with worry.

Kim, you’re right. I should fashion some sort of Tweetometer so when tweeting falls below a certain level in the garden, sirens and klaxons and twirly lights go off all over the neighbourhood.

Rand, how spooky you should bring that up given the past few days. I read though that this was a trembler unassociated with the New Madrid line as they first thought, but with another older line. Am I remembering that right?

Alli Teratesalot, cheers for the “g” but really I’m more concerned about the balance of r deficit. Rs are where the smart money goes these days – safer than gold.

Pat, we’re inland about 10 miles and uphill, so it would take a mighty wave indeed before we got our feet wet. Ventura and Santa Barbara and all the wee coastal towns in between are very very vulnerable though. Fdotunately, given California’s rumbly nature off-shore and on, things are pretty well monitored and there are big emergency sirens all along the coast. The hope is that loss of life would be minimal but damage to buildings and property could be huge. I’m more afraid of a quake onshore – of being in a car and the road breaching or a bridge falling on us -despite their being built to withstand earthquakes.

Jali, lets concentrate on the pausal part of that!

jen, after a brief flurry of unmitigated panic, I’m learning to cope with the threat of it the same way Californians always have. Oddly enough, given all the neurotic Hollywood types around, there is a buoying stoicism here about natural disasters that I admire. It’s a part of life and the only thing we can do is be prepared. Earthquakes can be a great leveller, if you’ll pardon the pun – we’re all in it together, we’re none of us entirely safe, and when the time comes everyone will help each other out. I admire that attitude.

Kara, your’s is the reasonable, stoic attitude to it all I’m trying to emulate.

Sea Dreams, the thing about the MIdwest is that earthquakes there, though less frequent, could cause much more damage because the houses aren’t built to earthquake code like all structures in California must be by law. The 1925 quake in Santa Barbara levelled 60 city blocks of adobe construction but now we have a better idea about constructing buildings with a bit of “give” (unsettling as that sounds to me anyway)

Kara, I was thinking of drinking my way through the earthquake too when it comes. Only watered down gin for the girls and cat though, naturally. That way there’s more for me.

Eolai, California is certainly a well-cracked state and I’m not just on about the people. Having a good crack is commonly misunderstood to be a Celtic term but really it refers back to the great hootenanies of lore that took place in the enormous surface ruptures left by devastating quakes. How’d that wind-pissing go then?

Savannah, some day I’m going to get to your part of the world. Someday I am.

Honey, that cheered me right up this morning, cheers!

I woke early one morning
The Earth lay cool and still
When suddenly a tiny bird
Perched on my window sill
He sang a song so lovely
So carefree and so gay
That slowly all my troubles
Began to slip away
He sang of far off places
Of laughter and of fun
It seemed his very trilling
Brought up the morning sun
I stirred beneath the covers
Crept slowly out of bed
Then gently shut the window
And crushed his fucking head!
I’m not a morning person.