Did you feel the earthquake?

Towards the end of my last class Sunday afternoon at HyLite School, I felt the table shaking. I wondered who was doing it, but then carried on with the class. Having a new trainer sit in on my class as well, my mind was on putting up a good show and so I was annoyed the distraction. After class, one of the other teachers at school asked if we felt the earthquake. I said no and thought another earthquake missed for the third time in my life.* But the trainer with me said he felt it, and feeling dumb, I recalled the table shaking.

But was an earthquake the cause of the shaking?

Then there were two close calls on my scooter ride home. First, I proceeded to make a turn left as the left turn light had turned green. But a taxi ignoring the signal made a right turn and cut off a bike in front of me that was also making a left turn. The cut-off bike fishtailed in front of me and I couldn't stop fast enough and so lightly tapped him from behind. There was no damage so the scooter driver quickly went on his way. Once the taxi had made its right turn, I made my left. And as just as I was about to complete my left turn into the bicycle lane, I saw another scooter coming directly at me full speed. This scooter was going against the flow of traffic and the lights. I and the other rider had to slow down very quickly and the other driver fishtailed while doing so. Most Chinese don't believe in an afterlife; but the way they proceed in traffic, you would think that maybe they do.

I watched two old movies on DVD this weekend. I watched the Wizard of Oz. The movie was a great technical achievement. And I loved the scenes with the dancing munchkins and the goose-stepping midgets. I showed the movie again for my son Tony's benefit and it kept his attention for a while. And at one point, he was dancing. Tonight, I watched Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It is the movie that introduced the song White Christmas to the world. It also featured a black-faced Bing Crosby singing a song about Abraham freeing the slaves - certainly something that would never be filmed today.


*I can recall two times when I lived in British Columbia that I missed the experience of an earthquake while others around me did not. The first time, I was working in the back of restaurant, and others came from the front exclaiming "did you feel the earthquake?" I said I didn't. The second time, I was working for DHL. I was at a shopping plaza in Abbotsford. I dropped off a package at a doctor's office. I got into a vehicle and drove across the plaza and made another delivery. As I walked into the office, the receptionist was freaking because she had felt an earthquake, about 4 magnitude. I saw the lights shaking. But because, I was in the vehicle at the time of quake, I felt nothing.