Red Squares
 Today,
a 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled the central
coast of California, wreaking havoc on the towns of
Paso Robles, Cambria and Templeton—my parents'
neck of the woods. Luckily, they had spent the
weekend in San Diego, celebrating the Christmas
holiday with me and the rest of my family. But not
so luckily, their home suffered quite a bit of
damage. Upon returning north this afternoon, my
father determined that the house was more or less
structurally sound. However, he reported that it
was otherwise a disaster area. There was so much
broken glass everywhere that they couldn't let the
dogs in the house. They had a hard time opening the
pantry door because of all of the foodstuffs that
had been knocked from the shelves. My mother
estimated that nearly half of all her fine
glassware and china had been destroyed. All told,
my father said that about 20 percent of the various
possessions throughout the entire house had been
damaged.
On the news, I saw images of collapsed buildings
around the town square where I had been only a few
weeks ago, and where I had planned to visit this
weekend. Historic buildings in the historic town of
Paso Robles fell into ruin. In nearby San Luis
Obispo, visitors to a winery were injured by
falling wine barrels. Just a few days later, those
barrels could have rolled over my friends and I as
we went wine tasting.
But my parents only lost things. Only my weekend
plans were ruined. Two women lost their lives; a
young man's life plans were ruined, as his young
fiancée was one of those two women. My
thoughts are with my parents as they clean up the
wreckage. But my thoughts are also with those who
lost more, much more, when red squares erupted on
the Central Coast.
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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