October 02, 2012
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Here's a response to one of these Cracked incidents... As for serious lightning strikes, I've had experience. Out in the Pine Barrens a guy got fried in his tent about a mile away from me. My avoidance technique? Send ten dollars with a self-addressed return envelope to... Wait, I owe this info out of common humanity. So here it is... Wait for it... Wait for it... When the lightning started cracking I spotted a bank with good run-off, hunched down and watched the fireworks. Did I mention I'm a giraffe?
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You haven't updated your profile yet though...
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*Hangs head, updates profile*
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Watched an old Bear Grylls episode yesterday with my kids (who adore Grylls) where he demonstrated how to get out of quicksand. Man, it's different to see it compared to reading a survival guide somewhere. tl;dr: this post needs videos.
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this post needs videos How to punch a shark Seems to work best on plush sharks.
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The worst earthquake in this area in decades (but still only a 6.5 - also a year before I moved here) had only two fatalities... two ladies who knew they were in a building that had not been Earthquake-Retrofitted (a requirement that arose after county lawmakers saw the devastating 1994 Northridge Quake... which I WAS 2.3 miles from the epicenter of) so they ran to the front of the building to be safe... and got buried under the crumbling front facade. If they'd stayed where they were, they'd have been safe. As for that Northridge quake... I was on a waterbed with my wife and dog when it happened... imagine an enclosed tsunami... the dog was the only one of us who could get out of bed before it stopped. The bedroom TV fell off the dresser and almost hit the dog. Otherwise, no damage (but I did get a little seasick). My father, living 3 miles FARTHER away and my boss, 10 MILES FATHER AWAY, both suffered significant damage to their homes. I never asked either if they had gotten into a doorway, because I didn't want to tell them I couldn't get out of bed.
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The first thing I did in our first big quake was leap out of bed and head for the doorway. Now we are adept at the Stop Cover Hold which is recommended in NZ (and presumably in CA as well) - duck under a table, protect your head and if you can hold on to the table legs. There was a big email campaign (and it even made it to the papers) after the second big quake to do the Triangle of Life - but don't. Hmm, now I'm wondering what awesome survival tips we Monkeys have. I can only speak to how to survive near-hypothermia at an Eagles concert.
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First, we get absentee ballots and vote early, just in case. Then... we hang from things that flex and springboard us to land on top of the rubble <:(!)
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Yeah, I've already voted, so I'll be spoken for unless the County Seat collapses. As I've mentioned before, I'm living in the Middle of Nowhere (more specifically, halfway between San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach), and there's not a ceiling crack in this 70+-year-old one-story structure so I can feel safe in jumping into bed and piling pillows on top of me rather than heading for the exit where there's a front porch with a less-substantial roof. I'm on flat ground, but there's a hill behind me with a couple mobile homes a couple hundred yards away and fifty feet up... if I went out front I'd be risking getting hit by a landsliding double-wide... Of course, the BIG deal, earthquake-wise, is the Nuclear Power Plant 6 miles due west of me that was built 30 years ago before they found all the faults in the region. Re-certifying in the next couple years will require Seismic Testing which includes doing some LOUD Sonar testing just off the coast... some say loud enough to kill off fish, including in one area where fishing is still a small industry. There will be public hearings at the end of the month... I expect the fishermen to be there with nets...
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I just performed in San Luis Obispo. Lovely area, though looking around, it just "feels" earthquake prone".