Are you Experienced?

At some point my life became a Quentin Tarantino movie because I'm the only person I know who experienced an attempted murder, a 6.0 earthquake and a direct hit from a tornado in five years time.  After that I'm not afraid of anything, what else can be done to toughen me up?  This is it. I'm sure there are other people out there who experienced things like this but I don't know them and it really doesn't matter.    

It was July the 4th, 2019 and I was sitting on the sofa watching television when I heard this strange rumbling in the distance.  I got up and went to the front door to look outside at what sounded like a column of Sherman tanks rolling up the street.  When I reached the front door the entire house began to sway side to side as the floor rolled.  I opened the door and it felt like the house was coming down so I ran outside into the yard, it literally became save yourself time with no thought for anything else except escape.  

I began yelling for the kids to run outside with me as their mother was directing them to stay in.  

Finally they came outside with me and by then it was all over.  The house remained intact, the pool looked like an angry ocean, and there were some cracks in the sidewalk.  A 6.4 -7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Ridgecrest, California, approximately 100 miles to the east of Bakersfield.  It was the heaviest quake I ever felt in my life and I'd been through 4-5 heavy temblors. 

It was like a sign of impending doom and it scared the hell out of me, but I never said much.     

Fortunately no one was killed and there was a minimal amount of property damage compared to other quakes of the same magnitude. This is due to the fact Ridgecrest is in the desert right next to NAWS China Lake.  Translated that means you've got two kinds of people out there, meth heads and rocket scientists.  I've dealt with both groups, they're all weird people.  This is the area where a lot of UFO stuff happens, I've got photos.    

A couple of years down the road the lovely Mrs. and I divorce and without going into further details I got on I-40 east one day and burned rubber.  There were a lot of circumstances which caused my untimely departure, but it was primarily in the interest of self preservation I determined it was best to fall back and regroup.  You can read about it in the papers someday.  

So I retreated, first to Tehachapi and that wasn't far enough so I stopped off in Kingman, Winslow, Amarillo, Memphis and finally Nashville.  Not exactly Nashville but that's as close as you're gonna get to me, because I'm back home living in peace and safety.  I wanted to leave California 25 years ago, but it's all water under the bridge now.  I live on a farm in the country surrounded by family and they all own guns.  

The house I rent from a family member is not the original structure first built on this site in the late 1790s to early 1800's.  The old house was a log cabin type structure they sold and moved to a private museum around 1979.   It was a real little house on the prairie at one time, with a hand dug well several yards to the rear which is still in existence and full of fresh water.  The well goes to an underground spring connected to a network of caves and underground waterways.  The reason I know this is due to the presence of Otters who will occasionally emerge from the well and dart back inside and swim away.  Live it up guys I don't drink water from that well.  I should set a trail camera up and see who turns up.         

At some point they built a barn which was converted into the house that I occupy.  The little house is cool even though I haven't done much to improve it.  It's got a grey gardens vibe going on.  Its fine.  As long as they're happy I'm happy, meaning the owners of the property.  If they aren't they'll let me know.  

I'm also aware of a Tony B. hiding out on uncle Pats farm vibe going on. Even though it's been over two years I still keep my head on a swivel and for good reason, I'm from Bakersfield for fucks sake, those people never give up.  It's not like the rest of Calipornia, it's another country or something.

Talk about taking it to the mattresses, in the house 9 months with nothing but a bed, a tv and dresser until I went back to retrieve my belongings.  I lived the kind of life some other writers only read about in on the road.  It's not that big of a deal to live with nothing because in spite of it all I had inner peace.  If you have inner peace you don't need anything else.  I'm still a maniac don't get me wrong, but a more peaceful maniac.  A kinder gentler maniac, a thousand points of light maniac, from chaos to a new order, transcending time and space to shed the surly bonds of this world and kiss the sky or something. Do you need me on a cross to be satisfied?  It'd drive anybody mad, the woman and her crapass friends were relentless and they should be jailed.  Not to mention my sister married an axe murderer.  I'm squared away considering the circumstances and those folks are not.    

 I arrived home with my stuff in an overloaded van, unload the whole thing solo, got a new job, a new car so forth and so on.  It wasn't a new car but it was a nice little car for the price and all I needed it for was to drive back and forth to work.  May 8th, 2024, I had been on the job three days and got up to go to work one evening during tornado season and there was a storm brewing.  I was actually mocking the storm because I thought what can a weather system do?  I'd seen it all by then.     

Between watching television news coverage of the situation I was running outside to shoot video.  I wanted to capture the thunder and lightning, that's all.  

I returned indoors, went upstairs to resume watching television and it was at that exact moment the weather lady said if you live in my area you need to go to shelter now.  Then the lights flickered not once but twice, and as I stood up they flickered again to darkness.  My dog Ashleigh was a recent arrival and she was right by my side as we went downstairs to the lowest point in the house and away from the windows.  Into the bathtub I went and she was on the floor.  

Around this time it sounded like a freight train coming up the road, sort of a low rumble that developed into roaring wind.  It went pitch black and I heard things being destroyed in the distance coming closer.  Then there was a huge crash, bang, boom with the sound of metal tearing, trees snapping and debris thudding to the ground all over.  As the tornado passed the natural light returned enough to step out of the bath tub.  It was evening in the spring so there was enough daylight left to step outside and find out what happened.    

My car was totaled, the chimney blew off the house crashed through the carport and all over my car with only liability insurance. Had the wind blown it the other direction it would have fallen in on the house and right where were hiding.  I had been reciting the lords prayer the entire time. 

Most of the walnut and oak trees around my house were gone, the entire roof to the pump house was gone over into the woods quite a distance in its entirety and was unsalvageable.  The roof must have weighed over 500 pounds, the pump house is a tiny block building with a proper electric underground water well pump that brings water to the house.  Needless to say I didn't make it to work that night and my poor little car took a couple of days to get back on the road in spite of its haggard appearance.  

It was totaled but I still drove it a year until I got sick of it and went to buy another work car.  I finally sold it to my cousin just to get it out of here.  It's a bummer and I can't control it but nobody was killed or injured and that's what matters.  The NOAA folks ruled it an EF-0 which isn't a serious tornado but it was enough to cause the property owners insurance to pay for the needed repairs.  His property damage was more severe and expensive than mine because he owns the whole place and his house took a hit as well. 

What can you do?  You clean up the debris and move forward.  It was at this point I realized, God hates me, that's kind of the deal.  He might not hate me but he's really disappointed.  I should do better or something.  I thought I was.  This is fine.  I still thank God several times a day for all his blessings past and present.   In spite of all my flaws and shortcomings God had his hand on me the entire time or I would have never survived, I'm still grateful and I never lost hope because I am nothing without him.