I lived in California for a very long time and left the west coast in 1984. I went through the 1971 quake in Sherman Oaks when my children were young. The day before the quake I'd laid out my own tarot card spread and Key 16, THE TOWER, came up in the home with the Ace of Cups beside it, which often means the period of one day. I briefly wondered if we were going to have a shake-up in the home the next day, and we certainly did! The earthquake started shaking everything early the very next morning. We had a 40 foot swimming pool in the backyard. My son Mark was 9 at the time and he thought there had been a tidal wave when the water hit his bedroom wall. That earthquake shook 4 feet of water out of our 40 feet pool.
When I moved to the East coast I thought I had escaped the prospect of experiencing more serious earthquakes. That's why it was a complete surprise when the 5.8 quake hit VIRGINIA last week. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening when my building started swaying back and forth and shaking (I'm on the 11th floor in a condo highrise) and everything started rattling and rolling around. A few of my celebrity photos fell off the wall and some of the frames and glass broke. My computer monitor started shaking, so I was holding onto the monitor so that it wouldn't fall onto the floor and break. I wasn't thinking about myself. After all, whatever would I do without my computer monitor??? Neither of us broke, fortunately. But if that had been a 6.8 or higher quake I think the whole building would have come down with all of us in it!
Then there was news of HURRICANE IRENE going who knew where. So by Saturday the winds of the hurricane were blowing dirt all over my balcony patio. I had to bring in the furniture. And then, the washer and dryer died at the same time and the new dryer blew a circuit breaker out. And now I find out that I need a new circuit board for my condo. Plus, there's a plumbing problem at the same time with a leaking faucet under the sink. When disaster strikes it seems to come in numbers. The plumber and electrician will be back on Tuesday after the holiday is over. Talk about it being LABOR DAY. Gratefully, the hurricane did not do the damage to my building that it did in many other cities and states up and down the Atlantic seaboard with all the wind and enormous amounts of rain.
More on Key 16 later!!!
