On Tuesday mornings, I have been meeting one of my neighbors for coffee and a walk. The coffee is picked up from Peet’s and we have been hiking around various streets and neighborhoods here in the Berkeley Hills. The variety of houses is just amazing. Many of the streets are winding and, as you might have guessed from the name – it can be pretty hilly. Not as in up and down but as in UP or DOWN.
When you get to the other side of Marin from where we live, it gets interesting from a geological perspective. I will insert some pictures of Indian Rock (huge rock formation) probably next week since I don’t have any good ones from today. But back to the terrain. There are a lot of huge chucks of rock. As in protruding from the ground in front of people’s houses taking out a large chunk of their front garden. Large enough to obstruct the view from main floor windows.
I don’t think today that the city would even permit to build in this area, but the first half of the last century, I don’t think any one was quite as fussy.
The residents of one house have a sense of humor. What do you do when you have a huge outcropping in your front yard?
why, you place a statue of a golden bear. Not a small one nor light weight being solid metal and bolted on.
My immediate thought (now that I know you weren’t threatened by a real one) was to remember the reports that the Loma Prieta quake 1/4 mile from my aunt-in-law’s house struck with the force of gravity.
Which was probably some reporter getting the science all wrong, but still. It threw DH’s aunt’s 700 lb wood stove across the room and the piano took out the wallboard.
That thing is most assuredly hollow, at least. Just watch out for that shake, rattle, and roll for me, willya?
I just mentally counted – that particular bear is well on the other side of Marin from me. So I think I am protected by at least two blocks down and 5-6 north of me.
OTOH – if there is a quake strong enough to move that bear, I have a feeling that I will know it…