The meaning of life is 4.2

John Muir once said that he was very fond of earthquakes because he liked to see people acting in earnest, and during an earthquake, everyone is very much in earnest…

The shake that awakened us this morning at 4:42 a.m. was a 4.2 quake. Clearly the meaning of life is an event that makes everyone feel very earnest. The epicenter seems to have been a little south of the intersection of hwys 24 and 13.

Fortunately, no harm was done. The more tenuous piles of books fell over and a couple of god-statues tipped off a shelf (including Poseidon Earthshaker). The window of the donut shop down at the corner of College and Ashby broke.

The theory is that a lot of small quakes release the pressure so that there’s no need for a large one. Since the Hayward fault parallels our street about a block away, I’m all in favor of that. You go ahead and stretch, Mother Earth, and then go back to sleep.