Observations

[Judy Harder]

" They will do it Every time!" Ha Ha

[larryJ]

Things that one sees here in SoCal that you probably don't see in Elk County........some good, some bad.

Many women out walking carry an umbrella, not because there is a chance of rain, but shade from the sun.

Many young mothers are out jogging to regain their figure and exercise at the same time while giving the baby some fresh air.

High speed chases........where the police chase someone who refuses to pull over.  This activity lasts until the police use a spike strip successfully or use the pit maneuver to make the car spin out or the suspect's car runs out of gas. 

In-n-Out Hamburgers........without question the best hamburger west of the Mississippi.  (no offense)  This place sells only hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and French fries.  Nothing else.  They once ran a commercial in which a young man went back East to college.  After a few days he called home to Mom and wanted to come home because he was unhappy.  Mom tried to soothe him by telling him he would make friends and everything would be okay, but she wasn't listening to him.  Finally, he asked to speak to Dad and told him there were no In-n-Outs.  Dad said he would come and get him right away!

I noticed last night on my trip to In-n-Out that a store on a corner next to an auto parts shop which used to be a tire shop is now a 7-11 convenience store which would be the fourth one within a mile walking distance from my house.  (Can't get enough of them, I guess.)

They probably don't have drive-by shootings in Elk County which is a good thing.  I think they have slowed down in Los Angeles County because I don't hear much about them.

(Oops!  My presence is requested elsewhere so that is it for now.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Continuing......

On the weekends, almost every park or school ground is covered with kids of all ages playing soccer or baseball.  (I had two games this morning to attend at the field.)

Almost all cities and towns have vertical banners hanging from the street light poles with a person's name and rank and branch of service denoting that individual is from that town.

Do-nut shops are as prevalent as the 7-11s.

(and pizza places)

According to the website listed elsewhere there are more than 2,000 people in Elk County.  In our city of Covina the last population figures I heard was in the neighborhood of 40,000 plus. 

More......

Larryj

[larryJ]

Continuing.......

In looking at the Internet, the 2000 census shows 3261 people in Elk County with an area of 650 square miles.  This means there are approximately 5 people per square mile.

The city of Covina, Ca., has 47,796 people in an area of 7 square miles.  This means there are approximately 6828 people per square mile. 

WOW!

However, this town has no rural area except for some set aside as nature areas, but only a few.

more later....

Larryj

[larryJ]

And.........

On any day you will see some sort of aircraft flying over many times a day.  This can be anything from a private plane to news and police helicopters as well as an occasional jet aircraft.  20 miles to the east of my house is Ontario International Airport.  Planes generally take off to the west, but begin their turns before getting this far east.  However, sometimes their flight pattern will change bringing them here.  They are generally up high so they are not noticed too often.  In the evenings after dark when I am on the patio looking east I can see the landing lights of the commercial airlines coming into Los Angeles International.  Again they are still rather high.  It looks like a faraway string of stars, but slowly moving.

However.......

Today was an exception of sorts.  Earlier, we noticed the sound of a jet flying over which doesn't happen much.  There are small jets that pass over from time to time, but this one seemed to be noisier and lower.  A few minutes later, the jet sound came again prompting us to comment to each other that something must be going on.  A third pass made me go outside and look.  I could hear the noise, but I couldn't see the plane.  It had passed over me and was going East.  As I stood outside I followed the sound as it seemed to turn to the North and head West.  I watched for a minute or so and then saw what was making the noise.

To the east of us, there is a speedway formerly known as the Ontario Speedway built for NASCAR type races.  It folded many years ago and was taken over by different organizations and now currently called the Auto Club Speedway.  As I watched for the plane that was making the noise,  I spotted five jets in formation flying toward me and then on to the East.  Five of them!  No wonder it was so loud.

I said to myself, "Hey, self, that looks like the Blue Angels!"

They made a few more passes, enough for my wife to go out and see them.  I came back in and looked them up on the Internet and sure enough, they were doing a flyover performance for the crowd at the speedway.  It was pretty neat, albeit loud.

After being suspended from flying for a while, the Blue Angels are back!

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

That is super cool!

[larryJ]

And then there is earthquakes............kinda like the one we had last night.  Actually, exactly like the one we had last night.  This was also the night my wife chose to have all three granddaughters spend the night so you can imagine that scene.  We assured them that it was nothing and that they were okay.  None of them are old enough to have experienced one before so it was a new experience and we tried to make sure it was not a scary one. 

This subject has been discussed on the Forum before, but I will refresh your memory.  Earthquakes are not predictable.  They hit sometimes with a major jolt or maybe just a rolling motion like being in a boat.  The difference here is that if you feel a jolt it is probably close by.  If there is no jolt just a rolling motion the epicenter is farther away.  Last night's 5.1 (downgraded from the initial 5.3 magnitude) was a jolt followed by the rolling motion.  The thing is you feel the jolt and then the rolling starts and tends to build and that is when you start to worry about how big it is going to be.  It is possible that as the rolling motion starts to subside there will be another jolt.  That didn't happen last night.  This one was centered in the La Habra-Brea-Diamond Bar area about ten miles to the south of us.  The depth was estimated at 4-5 miles.  Remember that I told you the shallower the quake, the more damage.  While this one was not shallow it wasn't deep either.  However, other than jangled nerves there has been slight damage.  Things fall of walls and shelves, pictures on the wall are crooked, but there have been no reports of major damage and no one was killed as of this morning's news.  We are okay and the kids have forgotten about it by this morning.  They all slept well.

We have not had a big one in a lot of years and now maybe we won't have another for a bunch of more years.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Whoa! That's really scary. I think you said you all ignore most anything at 4 or less. That was a five! Just the idea of the ground shaking under me, or worse yet opening up, can give me nightmares. Glad you are all OK.

[larryJ]

Diane, again, it depends of the closeness and the depth which affects you.  If it is a 4 such as the aftershock yesterday afternoon, yes, we definitely felt it as it was close to us.  If there is a 4 fifty miles away we probably would not feel it.  And repeating, the deeper it is the less the ground moves.  I think "ignore" is not the word to use here.  If there is one some distance away and you hear about it rather than feel it, you become aware that one has happened and there could be another bigger one coming soon.  So it is not something that is to be ignored, we just may not feel it or react to it.  The thing about earthquakes is that there is no warning, although Cal Tech says they have one that warned them about 4 seconds before this one hit.  Whoopee!  Four seconds!  It would take me four seconds to get up off the couch.  Anyway, once one starts, you try for under a table or a doorway, but again by the time I could do this it would probably be over.  If it is larger, say in the 7, 8, or even 9 range, it would probably be too late.  They teach the school kids to get under their desks or to duck and cover with their arms over their heads.  Earthquake drills are a part of life in our school systems.  At the fire stations, the fire trucks are rolled out onto the driveway in order to keep them from being trapped inside and to provide faster accessibility for emergencies.  Once the epicenter is established the news helicopters are up and flying to that area and they look for emergency response equipment and follow them to wherever there is a problem.  Fortunately they don't happen often.

Larryj

[Wilma]

I hear that we were shook last night about 2:00 a.m.  The quake was actually in Oklahoma but was felt up here.  I didn't feel it.  I was sound asleep.