What would you like to write about?
Had most of the day in meetings today – first with the “research committee” of Te Korowai then followed by a full committee meeting.
It was a great day, both expressing my own views, and listening to the views of others.
I got that people didn’t agree with me, and I still felt included and appreciated for having the views I have.
Quite an interesting experience that – quite profound – fully self expressed, appreciated as such, yet not yet generating the desired level of agreement.
[followed by]
Just in case it makes international news – we just had a fairly large earthquake here in Kaikoura – a 6.3 – shook the house quite a bit, shook me around in my chair, and all is well – nothing broken or hurt as far as we are concerned.
Been an interesting day!!!
[followed by]
Yeah – biggest thus far.
A very high probability that we will get to experience something over 8 sometime over the next 20 years.
That could get interesting – try and climb under a table and stay clear of pianos for a couple of minutes, and hope the house stays on the hillside, and doesn’t slide down the the bottom of the hill. But in an 8 the wave amplitude will be a hundred times what it was yesterday, and I didn’t want to stand up yesterday. Likely to be one of those experiences that makes one aware of just how small and insignificant and vulnerable we really are 😉
[followed by]
I know exactly why we humans live in such high risk zones – the grandeur.
The only way to get high mountains is with tectonic uplift (otherwise rain and ice eat mountains away over time). Tectonic uplift requires earthquakes.
If you want to live near young or growing mountains, then you must accept earthquakes.
Ailsa is a mountain girl, she wants to live near mountains. I want to live near her. So here we are.
I’m very aware of engineering stability, and the likely failure modes of different parts of the house under different scenarios, and where the highest survival probabilities are in different modes of shaking. And yeah – cover and air gaps are important. And ours is basically a single story structure (1.5), and relatively light upper structure, so survival probabilities are quite high, even if the whole house decides to slide down the hill.
Yep – writing at its best is a sharing of information and wisdom in many dimensions.
Ted Howard NZ's Blog 