Some are tough. But what really counts is people who are willing to work together on common time and freak out on their own time.

Couple more things:
There really has been a lot of damage as far as insurance purposes go. First, we've closed the schools down for the week while they get inspected and some schools are not going to reopen for the remainder of the school year.

Pretty much all stores have reopened by now and I've talked to several store workers. Tons of stuff was swept up and returned and in the case of big box stores, when things like boxed up flat screen TVs fell over, they were basically considered junk. Because, though there's every likelihood they will be OK, there's the chance they are not and a customer will be unhappy and want to know if it could be earthquake damaged. It is not worth while to unbox, test and rebox, hence it goes back (or to the dump).

None of that means for one instant that we don't smile and celebrate that no one died or was even seriously injured. And no big fires and public services brought down. It is important to realize just HOW BAD it can be such as those from Paradise CA have experienced.

But on a human level, we're still here and now we're going back to work and hanging out at Starbucks and it's mainly the many many aftershocksthat remind us we even had a big ol' shaker just a week ago.