Our "Marketing Star"

April 2002 Carol's picture appeared in the "Los Angeles Family" magazine as a part of a marketing campaign for the Providence Health System in Los Angeles.

"Light Earthquake"

January 28, 2002 A light earthquake occurred at 9:53:28 PM (PST) on Monday. The magnitude 4.2 event occurred 10 km (6 miles) NNE (20 degrees) of Simi Valley, CA. The hypocentral depth is 13 km ( 8 miles). It felt like someone BIG hit the house and then it was over. Except of course for the after shocks.

Santa Ana Winds Feed Fires

October 13, 2001 I got beeped this afternoon letting me know that there was a fire on the hills behind our home. When I got home I was welcomed by a team of fire and police men and women just at the bottom of our street. They were calmly doing their job. At that point I did not realize the size of the job that was ahead of them. That fire burned for three days and burnt over 3,000 acres. Not one home though fell to the fire but a number of buildings were burnt at the Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch.

I can not tell you how much we admire the fire and police personnel in our area. Their courage and character are what make stores great and are seen as true heroes by the adults and children of our neighborhood. The following picture from the Los Angeles Times shows one in action just up the street from us.

Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival

April 1, 2001 We all went to the Melody Ranch motion picture studio today in Santa Clarita, CA. We had a blast! It was so much fun seeing the studio and and finding out what projects had occurred there.

Hector - Our First "Real" Earthquake

October 16, 1999 2:46AM was when we experienced our first real California earthquake.  We came to California a little over a year before leaving hurricanes behind in Florida.  Over this past year we felt earthquakes but they were so light, it was hard to distinguish them from a bad case of indigestion.  That ended on the morning when my wife woke we up letting me know we were having an earthquake.  I could hear our home moan.  As we walked down the hallway to our living room, it was like we were on an "E" ride at Disney.  The whole house moved back and forth.  Something fell from a shelf in the living room that broke some glass.  After about a minute, it stopped.  It was a very long minute.  A while later we had an aftershock that "moved" us again.  And then it was over... I thought.

Later in the day, I got on the Internet to get information about what happened.  What I found on the United States Geological Survey, Geologic Division site was unbelievable.  We were having after shocks all day long.  Three of them were even greater than 5.0 in magnitude. 

I thank the Lord for our safety and that of neighbors.