"I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE UNDER MY FEET..." Carole King

Oh San Diego, everyone wants to live here.  There is good reason for that.  We are "America's Finest City", we have the best weather, beautiful beaches, mountains for skiing, a variety of ethnic cuisine, best parks, museums, and the best zoo.  We are in close proximity to Disneyland and Hollywood without having to live in Los Angeles.  We  have some very fine wineries and you no longer have to drive to Las Vegas to go to a casino.  You can plan picnics, outdoor weddings, or any outdoor activity and know that 99% of time you are going to have a sunny day.  (99% may be a bit high, just making a point).

So how then do we keep everyone from moving here?  Our dirty little secret is:  EARTHQUAKE, FIRE, MUDSLIDES.  Yesterday was Easter and at 3:40 pm PST we were watching tv and getting ready to go to the movies.  Just as I was putting my laptop away the house started rumbling.  I looked at my husband, who was on the phone with his mother in Oklahoma, and mouthed "earthquake".  We sat for a moment waiting for it to pass as it normally does after a few seconds, but it kept building in intensity. We then decided not to stay in the house and went back out on the back patio where the quake turned into a rock and rolling type movement.  It seemed to go on and on and it was actually difficult to walk.  We found out later that it indeed lasted approximately 45 seconds.  It was 7.2 in strength which is .2 larger than the Haitian quake.  It was centered in Mexico near our border.  The aftershocks have continued throughout the night and at times were quite intense.  They say that we can expect another 6 pointer sometime in the next six months. 

We were lucky, no damage to the house other than some crooked pictures, but after just putting the house back together when a burst pipe destroyed virtually the front part of our home, I can tell you I was very scared. 

We have managed to sidestep the fires, (even when our own canyon was burning), mudslides when the hill we live on was washing away and now the earthquake.  We feel very fortunate to be able to live in San Diego but there is a price to pay once in awhile.  These are the times we hear  from our friends and family on the east coast who say "how could you live in a place with earthquakes".  To be fair, they probably call because my husband is notorious for making calls to people in the middle of winter when we are drinking margaritas in December on our patio in eighty degree weather, and he knows they are having "the snow storm of the century".

So now that you know that if something seems to good to be true...but knowing that we may have to battle the occasional earthquake, fire or mudslide, there is only one thing to say, and Dorothy said it best - "There is no place like San Diego" err I mean "home".