SHAKE RATTLE & ROLL

After getting up from the couch, I noticed that I had left my glass of iced tea from last night on top of the bar. It was right on the edge and I thought, how odd, I never leave my glass on the edge like this. I must have been in the middle of something and just totally forgot about it.

At that point, I felt a rolling sensation and knew that an earthquake was on its way. When you live in Southern Cali, earthquakes are a part of life and although they can cause devastating destruction, most of the time, they're so small, they don't really damage anything.

However, after that initial sensation, I heard a loud rumbling and as I looked across the bottom floor of the house, I noticed the walls sway. It wasn't just a slight sway, but the largest sway I've ever seen. I thought the house might come down, but surprisingly, the house stayed up and nothing happened except the sound of glass falling and crashing.

It turned out to be a Sam Adams pint glass that was on top of the refrigerator. I'd always thought that I should take that glass down and store it in the cupboard, but like many of those small details in life, I'd just never gotten around to it.

Easily the strongest earthquake I'd ever felt, the Chino Hills earthquake turned out to be more growl than bite. Although the local Ralphs closed down for a bit to clean things up, there was no major damage or injuries reported and life just went on afterwards.

My aunt and uncle from Jersey were in town and of course, their daughter was worried about them, but after telling her everything was ok, she said, "well, at least they're going out with a bang."