Cabo San Lucas.....First Day 2010

They stand facing us, three in a row, like birds waiting for us to offer them a crumb. We're reclining on our hotel's cushioned lounge chairs, facing the surf. They seem to honor an invisible barrier, about 20 yards away, but then we notice the red flags keeping them from our private beach territory.
The one with the open case of silver jewelry tries to make eye contact with me, but I close my eyes, trying to look exhausted or preoccupied. The man selling scarves and colorful wraps opens them one at a time. He flutters one about in the wind to show off the rainbow colors, before folding it carefully, and then brings out another one in an animal print should that be more to my taste.
Another vendor, with five or six hats stacked on his head, and with another twenty or so forming a column balanced in his arms, reminds me of a story I used to read to my kids, "Caps For Sale, Fifty Cents A Cap".
Since we had had an upsetting experience at the Cabo airport today,with salesmen attacking us like piranhas, I come up with the suggestion that when we do venture out on to the beach we each wear our hat, discouraging at least one salesperson from approaching us.
Upon further contemplation from beneath our lowered lids, we observe that many folks head directly for the beach clad only in bathing suits, and are rarely approached by people selling their wares. At first we think they're brave, and then realize they're probably not approached since they don't have any place to carry cash...... Maybe tomorrow.

Earthquake!

A few days ago, the subject came up in our home about how prepared we would be if there was a devastating earthquake. There are four of us who live here in a neighborhood directly across the bay from the Golden Gate Bridge. We're on the Hayward Fault.
I was here at home when the '89 quake happened that flattened freeways and injured the Bay Bridge. That day I was sitting in the back yard, cleaning my fish pond. Suddenly I heard a roar, and the rocks under me shook. I looked up to see the length of the house seem to kind of lean up the hill and then I swear it straightened back up. Car alarms in the neighborhood were blaring away and as I looked down the hill to the street, all the telephone wires were bouncing up and down between the poles. We sustained a few cracks in the plaster, but the only things that fell off shelves were a Batman doll my son had displayed in his room and a tube of mascara that I had standing on a shelf. Everyone was safe.
Our home is almost at the top of a hill that is made of bedrock. I think that this stone is so hard it is difficult to break down. We found that out a few years ago when we made a raised bed for gardening. It was necessary to altar our plans since we couldn't dig down any further because of the bedrock.

So here we were. A meeting was called by our son to make sure we were all on the same page should an earthquake happen. I used to be more prepared than I am now. The canned food I had collected at one point had gotten so old that some Dinty Moore Stew had exploded in the cupboard of my laundry room, dripping down the cupboard, staining it so badly it had to be repainted. At another point I had 2 new Rubbermaid garbage cans stocked with water I had saved in former apple juice containers, and a few first aid supplies and cans of tuna. The bottles of water were given to a friend who was going to a peace rally in San Francisco to weigh down his tent on a windy day, and the garbage cans were commandeered for the use they were originally intended for during a wedding reception in our yard.
The one good idea I had to offer in our new preparedness plan was that I would get a new plastic garbage can and stock it with some supplies, a little food, and a first aid kit. We go through diet tonic water a lot around here, so when those big bottles are emptied, I'll clean them and fill them with water to use for washing things.
We made plans about how we would contact each other in case of a disaster, and we each made lists of things we would contribute to the effort. The next day, I bought an extra box of bandaids, and a little lighter and some matches.

Who would have thought that we'd have a 4.0 earthquake with an epicenter in El Cerrito the next day? At about 5:33 a.m., we were jolted awake by something that felt like a giant was outside our house and picked it up and shook it from side to side to see if it rattled, and then set it back down. Doug and I both jumped up out of bed, said, "Earthquake!", and then decided that since it stopped so quickly, to jump back into bed and hold each other, waiting for the other shoe to fall. They say there was another jolt, but I didn't feel it, even though I swear I didn't go back to sleep. Everyone else went back to bed as fast as we did, and in the morning we found a few things shifted on shelves, (you could tell because they had shifted off their dust mark). Little knickknacks fell off of a display in the bathroom onto the toilet seat. Miraculously, the lid was down! One picture frame fell of the mantle and a couple of candlesticks. Not much damage at all.

So now I really had the incentive to stock up my garbage can and first aid kit today. I hit Walmart, and bought lots more. I purchased a couple of propane cylinders for our camping stove, candles, matches, first aid necessities, TP, a few snacks, some vitamin waters, and even some dental floss (evidently it's very strong and can have multiple uses in an emergency). To the folks standing in line behind me, it probably looked like I was furnishing a new apartment. The bin will be stored outside in a corner of the yard, not in the garage, so if the house isn't as secure as we think it is, all our supplies won't get crushed in the rubble of the upstairs bedroom. They say that you should also pack some of your medicine you can't do without and an extra pair of glasses or contact lenses. That's next on my list.
I really don't think we're going to even need these things, since our house is so secure. We'll probably be able to eat the food we have. I'm not going to open the canned beans and tuna fish until we'll emptied out the refrigerator. We'll just be able to sleep better,  giving us some peace of mind just to know that we've tried to beat the odds.
Oh, better pack a Bible.