I'm In My 3rd Decade Of Computers & 2 Decades Since Loma Prieta Quake

How can it be 20 years since the last bad San Francisco earthquake? Known as the Loma Prieta quake, due to it being centered near Loma Prieta peak, the 6.9 quake struck on October 17, 1989.

I was in Bellevue at the time, in a computer store, buying a now antique Intel 286. The tv in the store was tuned to the 3rd game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.

Candlestick Park, I think it was Candlestick, started to shake. The ABC play by play guy, Al Michaels, said, "We're having an earth...." with the feed dying before he could say "quake."

I forget the name of it, Embaradero maybe, but a double decker overhead highway came crashing down during the Loma Prieta quake. I believe that is where most of the fatalities occurred.

Seattle's waterfront has a very similar overhead highway called the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The Viaduct was badly damaged during the last quake to strike Seattle. The Viaduct needs to come down before Seattle has another bad quake. It has been known that the Alaskan Way Viaduct was not sound ever since the San Francisco quake. Two decades later and the Viaduct still hovers above the Seattle waterfront.

Though it is still standing, the Alaskan Way Viaduct is now slated to come down. Several $billion are going to be spent building a tunnel under where the Viaduct now stands.

Somehow it seems like it should be difficult to build a tunnel right up against a waterfront. But, I know nothing about the engineering of such things. I remember when the bus/rail tunnel was built under downtown Seattle I thought it would end up being leaky and scary during a quake.

As usual, I was wrong. I believe I've read the Space Needle and the bus tunnel are the safest places to be in Seattle during a quake.

Anyway, 20 years since the Loma Prieta quake. 20 years since I bought a 286 computer. It didn't even have a color monitor. Amber. It replaced my Commodore 64 which had replaced a Vic 20. The 286 was followed by a 386, from Gateway, with my first color monitor attached to a PC. That was followed by a Pentium 90, also from Gateway. Ironically my computer history grows hazy the closer I get to the present. I know the Pentium 90 died before I moved to Texas and the computer that moved with me to Texas soon died. Or maybe it was replaced by the one I built with the help of Gar the Texan in, I think, 2002.

Til today I did not realize I have been playing with computers for over 2 decades. I remember way back when computers were suddenly the BIG THING. I was camping at San Clemente State Park in California when I heard on the radio that Computers were Time Magazine's Man of the Year. That was the final straw. I had to get a computer and learn what the fuss was about.

How bizarre to look back now and remember that that first computer was a Vic 20. Very primitive. Worked with a slowpoke dot matrix printer. I don't remember what the monitor was. I know the Commodore 64 had a color monitor. Maybe the Vic 20 plugged in to the TV.