ROCK AND ROLL IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

At 11:42 AM Tues morning (July 29, 2008) the house really rocked with what felt like 2 jolts, a first good one immediately followed by an even bigger one (the news reported it as just one so I guess I interpreted the rocking and rolling as 2 separate quakes) and one smaller one 10 minutes later. Epicenter up by Diamond Bar and east of Yorba Linda, about 15 miles from our house. My neighbor had hard-scape workers in Brea who said they almost got knocked off their feet. Anaheim Hills had some slight damage with stuff falling off of shelves. Chino had more. (5.4 magnitude and 3.8 after-shock) There were 30 or more in the 3. range in the next couple of hours, but I never felt any of those. As a general rule, when the aftershocks become littler and littler, things are dying down, and you don't have to worry about the first one being a pre-cursor to "the big one" that we have been assured is coming.

Many people on the news were saying they were scared the first one was just the beginning so they were really looking for a safer place. When the reporters quizzed people where they thought that safer place might be, many said "outside" (the very worst place because of debris falling off of buildings and electric wires, etc) or under a door jam. (The safest place is under your biggest, heaviest table or desk so if stuff comes down, you are sheltered. In the quake in '87, I was sleeping in Chris' bottom bunk bed because I had been painting our bedroom while Bill was gone, and it was the very best place in the world to be because that bunk is the strongest piece of furniture ever made and really comfortable if you have to wait for rescuers.) Maybe there should be a new law for earthquake land- sleep in a bottom bunk.

Tues I was sitting at my computer in the family room and Kahlua's picture fell off the shelf by the tv, but it landed on nice soft rugs, etc. so didn't break. We haven't spotted any other damage, but this house really moved. There have got to be more cracks in the ceilings and walls than we had before. I have been in bigger quakes, but evidently we were a whole lot closer to this one so it was the most quake I had ever felt. (The news reported that many other people who had been through the Whittier quake in '87 too said this one was the biggest they had ever experienced too even though it wasn't.)

I wasn't afraid even though I knew what was happening immediately as I am a weirdo who loves earthquakes. (Of course, I haven't been killed by one yet.) The most fun was the one in '52 when I was in a twin bed positioned next to a window with a venetian blind just above my tummy. The house and venetian blind and I rolled and rolled with a sensation just like riding a horse. It was great.

Chris, our son, uses the metrolink to get from our house to his work in El Segundo and it was shut down for a while, but it was open for him to get home, but the trains were just moving slowly as they searched for any damage to the tracks. (He drives to the Santa Ana train station to take a train to Norwalk, a shuttle to the metrolink, metrolink to close to LAX.)

OPIE AND GRANDMA MEET AGAIN

I had hoped that Opie would keep in touch when he was out on his own. I taught him how to climb up and down his “tree” to get back and forth to the cat food shelf outside of the bathroom window, thinking that he’d always be able to find food and perhaps stick his head in every now and again if he needed anything, but because he ran away, thinking that he was going to be stuck in his box forever, he didn’t trust me anymore and didn’t climb to the shelf again.
(I know that he eats from a bowl placed on the patio, as the sky cam has revealed.)
Well, knowing about the open bathroom window finally paid off with a brief reunion.
He was chased by a ‘possum his same size from the back porch (I think he may have tried to eat from the dog food dish on the porch that some other 'possum thought was his own private bowl) into the dining room and through the kitchen and into the living room past me (sitting on the couch) to the far side of the room where a fight started. (I have seen enough ‘possums fighting each other over the cat food bowls to know that scene.) I jumped up and yelled, “Boys! Boys!” (it's the males that fight) and scared the aggressor back out of the room, heading for the kitchen, but Opie also took off running and headed down the hall to the bathroom with the aggressor seeing him and taking off after him again. I trailed behind, with all three of us circling around the small hall until Opie hid behind a box in front of Chris’ closed bedroom door. Bill opened the door to his office to see what in the world was going on and Blackie, the cat, came running toward the excitement as she never wants to miss a good fight. I waved Bill back and stepped slightly back into the office to give the aggressor a chance to circle back down the hall past Blackie where I saw him hit the kitchen and make a left into the dining room where I hoped he’d go back out into the porch again.
Opie saw his chance and hit for the bathroom to crawl up the heavy-duty extension cord (that I use when I mow with my electric mower) that always dangles down from the window between a towel table and the sink counter. He was frantically grabbing for the sink counter with its myriad of items strewn on it and I was able to move a bowl full of god-knows-what so he could get a better grasp and pull himself up onto the towel table that is in front of the window. While he rested a moment, I put my fist up to his nose to let him smell me as I always used to do (I wouldn’t put my open hand in front of because he liked to bite fingers) and I kept saying, “It’s grandma” as I always did. He wasn’t afraid of me and didn’t hiss or cringe as a strange ‘possum would so that’s why I know it was Opie, but he wasn’t going to let me catch him again either so he got his breath and jumped out the window and onto the shelf and was gone. (Another clue that it was Opie- if it wasn't Opie that was on the floor, how did that 'possum know that there was an open window up there that the cats always used to go in and out and that Opie used to peek in?)
So we had our first encounter for a brief moment. When he was faced with danger, he had rushed into the house for safety. He had used the shelf that I hoped he would. He just used it to get out, not in.
We saw him (via the sky cam) a couple of hours later eating his midnight supper on the patio with his new little friends scampering about. (Actually, I think one finally scared him off, the little rapscallion.)

OPIE HAS FOOD COMPETITION

There are little dubbers raiding Opie's food bowl. I have no idea how many as they all look alike. They are running back and forth thru the chain link fence. (I think they are living in the back porch.) My baby Opie is really looking big now.

OPIE'S FIRST SKY CAM PICTURE 7-7-08

The first picture was taken a couple of nights after the sky cam was installed. I was trying to get a shot of him washing his face. He moved down with his head just out of the shot and washed his face for about 3 minutes. I was so frustrated, but I will keep trying.

Bill took this second picture the first night with the SkyCam. The first time I watched Opie eat, he had come from the opposite direction and I could see more of his face. I even got to watch him wash his face. (The cute thing is to watch him take a whole bath. He cleans his ears and body with his back feet. Remember, the feet also have opposable "thumbs".)

Opie is not inside the fence. The fence is used to keep the dog and the bigger 'possums out of the bedroom. Evidently, Opie was small enough to get through some of the bigger spaces by the gate. I don't think he can do that now, and he ran away only 10 days ago.

To see all of the Opie posts, you may have to click on "Previous Posts" selections or on the Archives. To this date, there are 7 others, starting with 'Possum Orphan.

HAPPY OPIE, BUT SAD CONNIE

Opie gained his independence a week before the 4th of July.
I was bringing him in each night to keep him safe in his box. I also needed to note his pee/poop schedule so I would be aware if there was a problem with his nutrition. (He had gotten sick from eating too much meat and fruit and had developed a very serious problem that caused his bones to start to weaken -like rickets- and we had gotten advice from an opossum rehabilitator on what a better diet would be.) He had finally gotten well and strong again and was finally getting big enough and smart enough to scoot his blankets together and reach up and grab the top of the box and get out. He had done it once and had gone around the back of the house and up his “tree” and into his little “cave”. (See http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2008/06/opie-getting-independent.html ) But the next night, he was hard for me to catch and I had a real tussle getting him into the box. I probably scared him (besides making him mad). Anyway, he got out again that night and now won’t let me see him. I put food out for him each night and hope that he is the one getting it, but I have no way of knowing if he is staying healthy and strong. Bill is going to put a spy cam on his food dish and we will hope to see him eating.
We were going to take pictures of him climbing his “tree” and sleeping in his “cave”, but it got too dark that night so we were going to do it the next day, and, of course, that was the night he left so he was gone by morning and we lost our opportunity. He won’t go anywhere near that area now.
My goal was to train him to be independent, but I was hoping that he would not be afraid to come to the bathroom window shelf to get cat food and any help that he might need. I am devastated that he is now afraid of me.
I put off posting this on the blog, hoping that I’d have better news as soon as he calmed down, but I don’t think that will happen soon- or maybe at all. We can only hope that he will stay strong and healthy and be able to enjoy his freedom.

**** Bill put up a mini-cam this afternoon, pointing at Opie's dishes in the back yard. He arranged a small window on his computer that he could watch while doing other computer tasks. At 10:20 PM, he saw Opie come strolling over to his water dish, checking for food dishes. I ran to mix him some Esbilac (puppy mother's milk substitute) with dry cat food stirred into it. I put it out at 10:30 and ran to my computer to watch my view of his dishes. First, Rouge came and looked over the food, but didn't find anything that she liked, and then at 10:40, Opie came and ate some of the Esbilac. He washed his little face and then ate some more. It's like watching a black and white movie. I can't believe that the picture is so clear because it's really dark out there. I now know that he's getting the food and that he's staying close- he came from the direction where his "tree" and "cave" are, but he's probably hiding behind all of the plastic bins that are on the ground in that area.
See his first skycam picture in http://crazyoldcatlady.blogspot.com/2008/07/opies-first-sky-cam-picture-7-7-08.html