Rocks and Wildflowers and Earthquakes

I  found several times in recent weeks I was so tired I didn't take my pain meds or Tylenol PM. I slept fine. I hope to have more days like that!  However, I'm not willing to experience much pain. When it starts it can be harder to control if I wait.  Then I end up with little sleep and/or poor sleep and lots of pain. I do get severe pain, so I cannot stop my pain meds.  I also think I sensed I was starting to go through withdrawal after a couple of days.  So I need to take at least a pill a day, because I probably will always have pain.  And I don't care for withdrawal.

On Tuesday there was a 4.9 or 4.8 (depending on who you read) earthquake 3 Miles from Wasco which is about 23 miles from Bakersfield. I was lying down reading with both of my cats with me.  I didn't feel it as much as I heard it. It was as if there was a pipe underground below the street and a truck hit the street at a particular point making the pipe make a loud thump from being hit and then vibrating. I didn't realize it was an earthquake but my cats did. They took off running like they could escape it.  I felt confused. But the local news station said it was an earthquake. So far no damage reported.

The article here was published by KERO channel 23 news from Scripps. Fascinating- it was very deep under the ground. 

In-depth analysis of Tuesday's earthquake

While Kern County had little to no damage as a result of Tuesday's 4.8 magnitude earthquake, a Caltech seismologist says that the earthquake stood out.

"This event was particulary deep," said Dr. Jen Andrews, a staff seismologist for Caltech's Seismological Lab.

"It was down around 22 kilometers which, statistically for our area, is quite deep."

22 kilometers is a little over 13 and a half miles. Andrews says that many of the California earthquakes peak at around 9 miles deep, depending on where the occur.

Earlier this month, 23ABC reported that USC released a study showing a correlation between oil fraching and a string of earthquakes that occurred in Kern County in 2005.

Andrews says that while Caltech doesn't necessarily track oil field operations, Tuesday's quake probably had nothing to do with fracking.

"These earthquakes were way deeper than any operations that would be occurring."

Instead, Andrews says that plate tectonics are most likely the reason for the earthquake.

Andrews explained that a strike slip fault occurred between the Pacific and North American plates.

"One side of the fault moves sideways relative to the other. This was a right lateral motion, which means if you stood on one side of the fault and you looked at the other side, you would see it moving to the right."

This right lateral motion is similar to what happens along the San Andreas Fault. So is this Tuesday's earthquake a sign that bigger quakes are on the horizon?

According to Andrews, no.

"At this point, there's no reason to believe that it is anything other than the normal earthquakes that we have here in Southern California because of our plate boundaries."

Scripps Only Content 2016 ©

My friend Mike has been working on my family tree. I am learning things I never knew. I was told My middle name was after a great aunt per my grandmother Fannie's request. She wanted my first and middle name to be her sister's name (though I didn't know sit was her sister until now), but my mother who was not raised Jewish wanted to Americanize it and make it shorter. So my great aunt's name was Simi Chaya Weinstein.  My middle name is Simmi. Simi Chaya died in the Holocaust. Painful to see that. No birthdate listed. My grandmother Fannie had two sisters , Rose and And I find out now Simi Chaya.  She also had three brothers.  I'm also getting sibling names of my grandfather Julius on my father's side. No other info yet.  My brother Ben responded. He did not find her name listed at the Holocaust Museum on line.  I will be spending a day with my friend Barbara at the main library in Los Angeles with a group looking at ancestry and she believes there may be information which will help me in my search. This will be helpful.   She said I could look up on line the sort of information I am looking for which I could print out or write down in preparation for this trip.  Mike has been searching the other side of my family too.  It is I just knew very little on the Jewish side of my family.  Mike gave me a site to explore http://www.jewish.org which I'm glad to get.  I think my friend Barbara had also shared this with me.  I haven't looked at it, but will soon.  He also suggested http://www.hebrewsurnames.com for Jewish genealogy in Argentina where some of my family went.  I will have to let Simy, my second cousin know about that.

So I have been continuing to read The Bible. I was very struck by the violence directed by God in The Old Testament. In The New Testament, the message is more about love and God leaves it to the people here to deal with the living.  I have been reading this on my Kindle and it measures by percent read. So The Old Testament is 68 percent of The Bible. The other thing I am struck by is seeing where different sects came from. I see how one sect is  pushing  toward End of Times, and I see deliberate moves now, current times to bring it about by denying climate change. I see the control of women, or actually little recognition of them. When they count people, they count men and leave out women and children.  I have read Matthew, Mark and Luke in The New Testament.  Those people who are antisemitic need to remember that all the main people in The Bible are Jewish.  Jesus Christ, their Messiah was a Jew. He pushed for helping people in need- the poor, disabled, strangers, orphans and widows, spreading love not hate. This is where all the Christian religions were derived.  

I will read something very light when I finish this.  I am not a fast reader, I just have more time. Of course I'm doing this instead of other things. 

My drawing class with Carol Bradshaw will be starting soon. We will start with drawing rocks. So, i went up the Kern Canyon to take pictures of rocks and ended up getting pictures including wild flowers, the streams and the mountains.  Beautiful poppies.  The orange on the side of the mountain is a field of poppies.  I have quite a few rocks, both on the mountainside and in the river, which is down.  Interesting.  I also went to Hart Park and the water in the river there was much higher.  But I wanted to get rocks so I needed to go up the canyon which is about 1/2 hour drive from my home.

Barbara came over and we watched a movie On Demand - Spotlight which was excellent.  It felt like how news investigators would have worked on the story of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church.   Barbara had some tests done and found she needs to be stricter about what she eats to avoid symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Because of all the changes she made, she became independent and not limited because her her disease. She thought she probably got away to some extent from her healthy eating which lead to her feeling poorly again.  So she is getting back on the wagon.  She will be strictly vegan and avoid processed food. She was much better than me in doing this. So I know she she can do this.  She made a bean soup with spinach for dinner and picked up a vegan sandwich from Subway.  Then we each had fruit and combined for a fruit salad for dessert.  Delicious!  Both of us were satisfied.

Well that is it for the week.  I slept a lot, but was able to get a couple of things in.  I hope your week went well and that this next week is goes well too.                     Rachel