Posts tagged apocalypse
more signs apocalypse is upon us
Apr 3rd
Yesterday just gave me one more (ok. several more) sign the apocalypse is upon us.
- My balcony view is now impeded by a crane
- My mother was semi suicidal over the fact she had to move her top level 4×4 storage unit to a lower level 4×4 storage unit
- I wrote an easter post about chocolate eggs.
So. A couple months ago I wrote about the bluffs less than a mile away dropping off into the great blue sea. Well. The bluffs have officially left my complex. The 
edge of the parking lot now has attained an excellent cliff diving platform status to the Pacific. Oddly enough, the crane in the picture is working on the bluffs on the other side of my complex. Needless to say the note I receive on my front door explaining that is … well … a little complex. And a lot puzzling. But needless to say my 3rd floor view is dead center between the non crumbling bluffs the crane is working on and the crumbling bluffs which no one is working on. oh. And i have lost what used to be a pretty awesome view to a crane swinging outside my bedroom and balcony. My next update should be from the surf.
And then my mother calls. In a slight panic. Ok. Major panic. When she moved in and received an upper level 4 foot by 4 foot storage space she immediately requested a lower level storage space (easier to access for her). Now. That was maybe 5 months ago. And she knew she was going to get a lower one as soon as it became available. Well. It became available. And then my mother became semi suicidal with angst over how she was going to move everything into her new storage space (even though the maintenance guy said he would do it). Have you ever received a phone call where you had absolutely no idea what to say in response to what you hear? Well. I tried “ok.” (on a multiple choice that one may have been d. none of the above). Needless to say. She didn’t commit suicide. The storage unit stuff did get moved. And in hindsight I still couldn’t think of what the right thing to say was.
Oh. Although I did laugh very hard when trying to tell about being semi suicidal over a 4×4 storage unit. I think he laughed more at me then the story.
And then at the end of the day I wrote a post for easter about chocolate eggs. WTF. And I wasn’t even drinking.
Renovations from Mother Nature in Pacifica
Jan 27th
I recently contacted Mother Nature inquiring as to her costs for renovation. She has been doing some nice work right down the street from me. On Thursday night (apparently she works overtime) she made some changes to the view at the complex nearby. Unfortunately she forgot to warn the owners.
“It was this ‘pow-pow-pow,’ then ‘crash!’ and I dashed into the living room to have a look,” said a resident. “And what I saw was this.” She pointed out her back door to where a stub of what used to be her concrete patio stuck out sharply into the air.
A 60-foot chunk of soil, fencing and the patios of three apartments had plummeted into the churning ocean waves 85 feet below.
Thursday was the second time in two months that cliff erosion shuttered apartments in the series of complexes lining the fragile coastline that sits on Pacifica’s Esplanade. (uh, anyone reading this, I am on the “fragile coastline”… so…if the blog stops you know why)
And though city officials said they have no fear that the building affected Thursday will fall into the ocean, they are considering ordering the rest of the residents in the complex evacuated.
“It’s a pretty bad situation, very confusing for people,” said Doug Rider, Pacifica’s chief building inspector. “They can all sleep there tonight (Thursday), but we are assessing whether it would be wise to shut off the gas lines to protect them from breaking.”
Ok. Maybe it’s just me but
1. I am not sure I would be staying in a place where the patio just fell into the ocean and my living room has become the patio.
2. I am pleased they are allowing me to stay some place where they have disconnected the electricity and gas.
But. The residents should be reassured by confident officials who say “That building’s not going to fall, but we do have to take a good look at everything.”
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…my translation of this is “hey, we think it’s not going to fall into the ocean but it may.”
On a side note. My mother is relatively sure the Apocalypse is now upon us, and my sister hopes it has only targeted me.
Quasi Apocalyptic Follow-up: This whole piece of California near me falling into ocean thing
Dec 20th
So. This whole semi-apocalyptic event that happened near me is kind of fascinating. Today, in order to stop further erosion (and keeping the apartment building from dropping into the deep blue sea), they dug out huge boulders about a half mile down the road, plopped them into big boxes on the back of some trucks, drove the ¾ miles back down the road to the building in jeopardy, then proceeded to have a crane pick up the boxes of rocks (uh .. boulders) and swing them over the building, proceeding to drop them in a quasi-unscientific, inexact way to the bottom of the bluffs (to break up the flow of the waves before they pound into the bluff).
It is a little boys dream.
Big trucks. Lots of noise. Men shouting at each other. Big rocks. A huge crane. No little girls around bugging them.
The interesting thing to me (beyond the inexactness of it all) is the fact the owner of the property is going to continue renting out apartments once the work is done. Now. He may be able to charge more because the view is spectacular and significantly less impeded with the loss of the 30 feet of bluffs. But gotta tell ya. I am not quite sure what I would have to tell a prospective tenant to get them to feel comfortable they wouldn’t be going for an unplanned swim later this winter.
Anyway. They worked thru the night with huge klieg lights which I assume the surrounding zip code loved as they tried to go to sleep (you figure they could have at least used red and green lights for the holidays). They worked as long as low tide let the men with hard hats at the bottom of the bluffs stand there and direct the boulders falling out of the boxes (so. I wonder who got nominated to do that job and if they felt like the hard hat was gonna do the job with the falling 2 ton rock).
I am sure the Tonka trucks will gear up again today and little boys will celebrate throughout the area.
Oh. So far so good. I am not in the ocean yet.
Note: Check out Part 1 of this story if you haven’t yet.
A Quasi-Apocalypse: California is falling into the sea
Dec 19th
It’s not quite the apocalypse but a 30 foot chunk of California fell into the Pacific
(and it was REALLY close to where I live)
So. Here’s what happened within a good throw (ok, I would have to be able to throw like maybe Roger Clemens juiced up) away from where I live. Waves crashing into a piece of land caused a chunk of earth near an apartment complex to fall into the Pacific Ocean early Thursday morning. That apartment complex is now…oh…with only 10 feet of land (some people call it a bluff I call it a cliff) between it and the Pacific Ocean (yeah. that would be one of the big, really deep, and cold on this coast, oceans). Thank God my complex has a good maybe 50 feet between me and the ocean.
I only bring this whole thing up because…well…we are heading into the winter season and with some high winds and maybe some more of those good ole waves crashing into the bluffs…and…well…if one day you happen to see the posts on my site come to a crashing halt it may simply be that Tigger (my border collie) and I have gone for an unexpected swim.
Have to say. It certainly hasn’t been dull here since I moved to the San Andreas Fault…oops…I mean California.
