Mar 5th - Breakfast at IKEA & Our First EARTHQUAKE!!!

This morning we were awakened as the bed shook. Our first California earthquake. At 5:33 AM there was a 4.0 earthquake centered a few miles from us. For us it was similar to one of the old vibrating beds at motels, except that it lasted less than 10 seconds. There were actually two earthquakes. The first was a 2.9 magnitude and then 7 seconds later the 4.0 earthquake occurred. There were a couple of lesser aftershocks later, but we slept through them.

When we got up we went to IKEA for a free breakfast. It is only about a 10 minute drive from Drew's. The last time we were there we noticed that they served free breakfasts on Monday mornings. It was a decent breakfast, even the coffee was included for free. We bought the "Swedish pancakes" because we were curious about them. Our breakfast cost us less than $2.

The counter we sat at while eating was against large exterior windows. It was clear today and we could look across the bay and see San Francisco. Our view was to far north to see the high rises.

Actually our breakfast cost us around $18. We wandered around the store for nearly two hours after finishing breakfast. We ended up buying some glasses, a knife sharpener and some cup cakes papers.

In the afternoon I went to the Zoning Office, at the Oakland City Hall, to get some information on the building permit for the place next door. A developer owns it. Based on my experience working with developers (Praise the Lord I didn't have to work with them a lot) they are real low lifes who will do anything for a buck, sort of like politicians. The guy who owns the property seems to fit the mold. He told me and then Drew, at different times, that the fence between the properties was on his property and needed to be moved over a foot onto Drews to be on the property line. It is a long, convoluted story. Bottom line is that it appears that the fence is actually on the property line except for the first 20' out near the street. There is a jog in the fence at that point. The first 20' is actually about a foot onto Drew's property, and if it gets moved it needs to be moved toward the developers property. The people at the Zoning Office were very helpful.

The night news is on now. A bunch of college students marched in Sacramento today and then took part  in a sit-in at the capitol. The are complaining because tuition is to high. I doubt that many of them are actually intelligent enough to be in college. They all seem to think the only answer is to raise taxes on "rich". Not one of them appears to have the intelligence to wonder why colleges spend 4-10 times more per graduate, in inflation adjusted dollars. than they did 40 years ago. The cops had to drag all of them out of building at closing time. Numerous extra officers had to be called in, at taxpayers expense, to handle the situation. To bad our politically correct court system will give them, at most, a slap on the wrist. If the courts would hit them with some significant fines, enough to at least pay the cost for the police, courts, extra clean-up, etc they would probably stop. Today far to many people are so covetous that they think it is governments job to force someone else to support them.