There was an earthquake north of the Bay Area last night; 4.4 or something like that on the scale. I felt it. I’m midway up a twenty-nine story building. The building was constructed in the mid 1960s and it basically made of giant concrete columns.

The whole thing swayed and wiggled like it was made of styrofoam. That was sort of frightening.

In order to live here, I have to believe that the building is strong enough to surive a major earthquake. Or that if it was not built strong enough in the 1960s, that sometime since then the building code people would have required the owners to do whatever would be necesarry to make it safe. Right? I have to believe that on a rational, intellectual level.

But when the place starts to sway I wonder if the columns will crack and the thing will start to fall down in a big tangled pile of concrete and glass and metal and asbestos (I am pretty sure there is asbestos lurking behind the walls and under the paint on the ceilings — see aforementioned reference to construction date). Doomsday.

The other day the fire alarm went off early in the morning. I didn’t smell any smoke but I started to get dressed; I figured if the alarm was going for more than a few minutes I’d head to the stairwell and run down. The time the alarm went off in the afternoon and I did smell smoke, I bolted down the stairs. That time it was just some popcorn that someone had left on the stove before they left. How would we know? What should I take with me if I really thought my home was going to be destroyed?

I work in a sixteen story building right along the bay. They must have dug the foundations all the way to bedrock when it was built in the mid 1970s, right?

So yeah… I pretty much just believe all of these place are safe because there’s not much else I can do about it.