Lost in the Andes

In the city, Alberto, a local real estate agent was already up drinking coffee on his patio and preparing for a busy day.  Suddenly all the birds Alberto had been listening to were silenced in unison as if the orchestra conductor had brought his wand down at the end of a music piece.  Then the earth began to resonate in answer to the conductors call for the for the drum section.  Next  it was the chatter of the cup and saucer on the table and as Alberto’s hand reached to prevent the crescendo of  china on ceramic tile.  Then there was silence.  Just silence.

Meanwhile on the outskirts of the city, the first rays of sun were shining thru my east facing French doors as I wrestled with consciousness at daybreak.  Soon enough I would heed the gardens call for water but for now I was enjoying that stolen time like years past when I would hit the snooze button for an extra 10 minutes of sleep.  Then in a single instant I was awake listening to a giant fingernail scratching across a huge chalkboard in slow motion.  It’s an earthquake my wife said, having been jolted awake beside me.  Being an expert in such things I said “No it’s just a tree limb that fell and rubbed along the plaster exterior.”  Of course their was no wind and the sound lasted much longer than a tree falling but one of the advantages of having your mind made up is you don’t have to concern yourself with the facts.  Besides everyone knows a tree limb can shake the whole house foundation.

One half our later and well rested I rose for a cup of coffee and a day of wrestling with a fallen tree.  Except there was no fallen tree.  If a tree doesn’t fall in the forest and someone hears it, does that mean that it did fall?  It sure can be hard to open a closed mind sometimes because I still didn’t get it.  Later that week after numerous persons kept talking about the “temblor” it dawned on me why there was no fallen tree…it was an earthquake.  And so after verifying on the internet that indeed there had been a 4.6 magnitude earthquake at 7:10 in the morning I reveled in my ingenuity for having solved the mystery. 

In 1861 Mendoza was leveled by a 7.2 earthquake with the loss of 10 thousand lives.  Now all buildings and houses are built with steel reinforced concrete beams over all doors and windows.